Some say that whenever one makes a choice there is another world that coexists where one chooses differently. When one follows this confusing thread, far in the reaches of the void that separates these worlds, one can find a world very different from the one they know. A world which is inhabited with different people, world that is defined by a different history created by countless choices differing from any other world like it. This is a story of such a world!

A young girl was standing on a cardboard box with some trash in it, one not unlike many more that could’ve been found across Konohagakure, especially in the spring season when people were tidying up and throwing out the trash that they had as leftovers from winter. The substance and contents of said box mattered little to the twelve year old girl, only its location in the central district of the village. The actions she performed on said box were quite unlike what any common villagers had seen before causing crowds that couldn’t have been called as small to gather around the child and observe her peculiar behavior.

Konohagakure was a ninja village through and through, people that lived in it may have lived under the illusion that it was no militaristic establishment however they weren’t quite right. The village made its due from ninja performing missions for both its villagers and the village itself, most of the time ninja faced off against other ninja and no place, that benefits from violence and conflict can be called non-militaristic. As many rights these villagers enjoyed, as believable as this illusion of peace was – they lived in the village of hired muscle that did not shy away from killing. Perhaps that was why this girl proved to be so interesting to the audience.

The girl with a slightly tanned skin and dark hair, tied behind her back with a forehead protector with the Leaf’s mark carved into it, wearing a casual flowery black dress similar to what normal girls of her age wore and sandals was performing tricks for the audience’s amusement. Her performance consisted of tricks both simple and utilizing ninjutsu, something that not that many people have seen before. Ninjutsu was made to be a tool of murder and stealth, a tool of accomplishing the task at hand and this child was using it for amusement of the audience, making harmless but highly visually appealing sparks, using her natural affinity for sleight of hand as a kunoichi to quickly hide and reveal objects. The public ate the little girl up…


The girl opened her eyes in the morning as Sun felt its need to blast all of its luminescence into her closed eyes slightly earlier than the young genin would’ve loved it to. She scratched her tired eyes and sat up looking around the bright room, her somewhat annoyed and tired eyes slipped back to the piece of cloth illustrating one of her favorite books that was hanging on her window, acting as a cover, as a mean to protect her from the light. The girl’s hand reached up and tore it off with a quick pull, “Thanks, I’ll remember this, Shikio-kun…” she thought sarcastically thanking the character who was depicted on the cloth. The illustration was one of his iconic battles with the Kirigakure ninja which was currently hard to believe when in reality he failed his duty to protect a young girl from sunlight in the morning. Life was truly unlike fiction…

“Mana, when will you get down!? You don’t want to be late for your “One-Time-Thank-You-Tour”, do you?” father’s voice echoed from below. The man was a chuunin of Konohagakure and had quite the powerful voice, he was more of the intellectual type so he had that certain shade of confidence and strength to his voice without making it sound too husky and dark. He had the perfect voice for a teacher but he used it to berate the opponents that fell into the traps of “Konoha’s Great Trapster”, as he was known, instead. The only reason why Mana knew all of this was because sometimes father’s friends gathered and they kept telling the girl all of the stories, always sounding so proud of all the violence, always making her doubt just how much of content of those stories was true. Surely Hibiki-san couldn’t jump fifteen meters in the air to catch the scroll they were supposed to retrieve, right?

Mana jumped out of the bed and slipped into a white shirt, buttoning it lazily and making the bed. This day was actually a special one and that meant something having in mind the fact that she just graduated from the Ninja Academy three days ago. Today was not supposed to be the day of her life as a ninja however, this was more of a day for magic! The girl had a strange little hobby for a kunoichi, she performed magic tricks on a cardboard box full of trash for everyone to see. It was a strange thing to do for those who did not understand the deep hidden meaning of Mana’s behavior.

This girl with messy dark hair that was all over the place and skin that was several shades short of making everyone think she was from Kumogakure was actually a very peaceful and kind soul, she despised the notion that ninjutsu was an art for killing. To Nakotsumi Mana all life was sacred and magical, ninjutsu was a part of life so it was just a special kind of magic, magic that was meant to protect the source of all magic – life. Because Mana believed that ninjutsu was magic which was meant to protect the stronger magic she had to express that belief, she had to show everyone that ninjutsu was not meant for killing but rather it could be given any number of meanings depending on the person that used it.

The hunched and sleepy figure slothfully stumbled down the stairs from her room into the kitchen where mother had already made her some pancakes, Mana’s mother worked in a café further into the village center called “Nakotsumi Café”, she knew all sorts of weird dishes and beverages. She knew how to make that weird “coffee” drink, a lot of villagers came to her home for a visit just to try it, for some reason mother wanted Mana to keep away from it, maybe it was some sort of alcohol or something? The girl slumped down on the chair and started stuffing her lovely little cheeks with the breakfast. A kitchen knife flew and dug right into the column of pancakes that were stacked in the center of the table.
“I hope you’re not going to thank Mr. Hanada like that, you do realize he sponsored your act, right?” mother spoke, the woman was a kind one but had a rather feisty character, she was also the only one in the family with the darker skin making Mana somehow wonder if she wasn’t the one whom the little ninja-magician inherited it from. “I’m going to dress up and do my hair later, mom, I want to spend as little time in that uniform as possible.” The girl replied after swallowing the breakfast, by now the knife flinging did not bother her one bit. “Excuse me?!” mother yelled out with a smile in a funny tone “We made that uniform together, you know? Put it together from scraps of cloth”. The family shared a laugh.

“Hanada is a crook though.” father spoke, he had his chuunin vest on, most likely he was supposed to run off into an assignment pretty soon. “Yeah, somehow doesn’t feel too great knowing that my daughter’s act took off because of a person with such a reputation…” mother scratched her forehead as she was still working the pan with the reinforcements to the pile that was currently on the table. “Well, he may be a slimy bastard but I guess he’s an admirer of art… Let’s just hope it’s his artistic side that is interested in Mana and not the one I’d be glad to pound.” father concluded the topic and finished his tea. “Well, I’m off, tell me how it went.” he said his farewells and dashed off as Mana and mother waved him away.

One day, not too long ago, Mana was doing her casual thing, working on those little magic tricks she did and a man in a fancy attire approached her and after the little show was over offered to sponsor the first year of her performances in a village hall in the northern district of the village just in case if she was willing to take it further. The hall was mostly used by actors who kept playing the same stories over and over again: “Adventures of Shikio”, “Stories from the Great Shinobi Wars”, “Tales of a Gutsy Ninja” which, to be entirely honest, to Mana looked pretty much like a hentai-story from little she had seen.

Naturally the young magician felt much obliged to return Hanada the favor in some way, she decided to give him a show for free, show him what he was financing, luckily enough his son’s birthday was just around the corner so he felt very happy about all of that. Children did comprise the vast majority of Mana’s audience anyways, they also were quite firm supporters of her craft which in terms made the mature villagers look at her with the “she’s not hurting anyone anyways” stares and smile as they passed by the cardboard box that Mana performed on. That was the plan for today, later she’d have to train for a little bit because father told her that soon she should receive a letter about the meeting of her team. That was just the way things went in the village – genin worked in teams, not that the girl wasn’t excited about meeting them.

After the breakfast the young magician rushed to get a shower and to dress up, the magician uniform did look weird but it was fun in a way – she looked like a little monkey in it and it was tight, not a thing Mana would’ve loved to be caught in a fight wearing but she looked like a fancy lady-man in it which amused her somewhat. The young kunoichi was one of those girls that didn’t mind looking cute, obviously she was instructed about the practical attires in the Academy but during her days off she didn’t mind looking silly just for the sake of it. Her attitude towards outfits matched one towards ninjutsu, if one wanted they could’ve just had some fun with it and not cared about the consequences. Father also looked pretty happy about the uniform, he also gifted the girl with a seal in her round top hat that could’ve been used to seal things into it and unseal them, sadly enough Mana wasn’t skilled enough to use it yet but father said it’s a gift for the future anyways.

After slipping on her magician’s uniform and fitting it with all the card decks and tools she used for simple hide and reveal tricks like spring devices that could’ve been loaded with light objects and then just shoot them out when flicked for a visual effect, the girl admired herself in the mirror for a couple of seconds before giving herself a playful smile and dashing down the stairs and rushing off after waving her mother goodbye. With a slow and confident step Mana was heading off into the large western district of the village which was all just large mansions and big houses that made the small home of Nakotsumi family blush like a schoolgirl being complimented.

Feeling a bit nervous the magician pressed a button which in term made a light flicker making some hired security gather up near the entrance to check her. These men weren’t ninja, they were all mercenaries however a lot of the mercenaries started as ninja before mucking something up or they lived outside the village walls and grew up in an adapt of perish kind of environment making them just as strong as a ninja and much more crafty. Picking a fight with them wouldn’t be good in any way and annoying them would be a poor demonstration of Mana’s manners. The men stared the weird looking kid down and let her through with a smile. They also were kind enough to lead the magician into the mansion and handed her over to Hanada Katsuo himself. The man was a tycoon who built his fortune on combination of “business” and “lucky breaks of right people disappearing at the right time”, being in his presence wasn’t pleasant to the girl in any way but he was her sponsor and she couldn’t help it but accept his small donations just for as long as her shows take off.

The man was a tall and well-built gentleman, he wore a rather fancy attire comprising of a white silk shirt and a vest, his overflowing golden hair and gentle facial features combined with what looked like eyeliner and make up made him look a little too feminine for Mana’s comfort but his strange looks wasn’t the most uncomfortable thing about this man. Being an advocate of justice and peace, and a kunoichi of Konoha, the girl suspected she’d have to take this man down when he becomes too ambitious and makes a mistake but for now she was wise to stay on his right side. “I’m quite glad that you decided to accept my offer to bring your art to the stage instead of… Cardboard boxes… I understand that you may be too young to understand this, Mana-chan, but… Art is a business and your art is so exotic and strange, its meaning is so yet unseen that an artist like me cannot stay neutral in its presence. My son Koji is right there, he and his friends cannot wait to witness what you do. I must compliment your attire, it’s rather classical, as you might see if you look around, I am a man that sees the value in the classical…”

The man made a gesture for Mana to look around and witness the countless statues and art that was everywhere in his home. Somehow this just made the girl feel less comfortable as she felt like she was not unlike this poor busted up statue of a naked lady. Petrified and put on display, her arms broken so she cannot resist because her art somewhat depends on her benefactor…

“No way! Guys, it’s Konoha’s Sorceress!!!” the teenager on the expensive looking armchair yelled out and jumped up pointing at Mana as she and Katsuo entered the room. “Konoha’s Sorceress?” Mana looked at Katsuo, he shrugged and smiled like a litterer would smile being caught red-handed. “I thought of it, has a certain ring to it, all good artists have stage-names, you know… Use it at your discretion, or don’t if you don’t like it.” he laughed out before turning around, wishing Mana good luck and leaving. Mana looked over the kids and teenagers that were staring at her expecting to see a miracle. When she was performing on a cardboard box without a care in the world it felt so different, now she was… Almost stage-frightened. “Okay, you might want to move now!” Mana ordered herself when the pause became a bit too uncomfortably long as the girl extended her arms.

“Alright, who wants to see a magic trick?” Mana smiled through her newly discovered stage-fright she was starting to get used to just for her audience to cheer on. People in a militaristic ninja village rarely got to have some fun, art was supposed to change all of that and Mana’s art was quite unlike anything anyone may have seen. Maybe that was why she was starting to pick up some popularity around the village…

The “stage” magic that Mana performed was unique, it, obviously enough, wasn’t actual magic but it was the closest it got to the real thing. How did one define what is magical? Was it something that could not be explained? Life had many mysteries, probably less was known of it than unknown and people seemed to be strangely more attracted to learning of how to take it away than to understand what it actually was. With that in mind one wouldn’t have to twist their mind around too much to empathize with Mana’s peaceful point of view.

What the young kunoichi did when she performed was a combination of both simple practical magic but she most of all preferred ninjutsu. After all the point of her magic was to show ninjutsu as something other than a tool to claim lives or to ruin them. Instead of cutting people to pieces or burning them alive, Mana preferred that her techniques looked impressive to provide a certain spark of joy for her audience. The girl took great pride in the preparation work she did before each performance, she always grinded her magic to perfection.

For that simple reason the audience of teens and children just couple of years shy from being qualified as teens looked like they were colored impressed. The very first thing that Mana did was weave a single handseal and force a small and harmless current of wind chakra out of her sleeve, then flick the device around her wrist hidden behind her sleeve that shot out the deck of cards she had hidden. The combination was an impressive display of cards twisting around in a horizontal and round twister. With swift movements of hands Mana caught each and every card and started shuffling the deck.

“So does anyone want to volunteer? I promise not to turn you into things or hypnotize you or anything.” Mana smiled when a kid jumped up and ran up to her, his face didn’t look like it belonged to a fan, he looked eager to make a fool out of Mana and to bust her act. Reading faces to some extent was something that was taught in the Academy, for a ninja it was essential to identify the dangerous faces from the harmless ones in a large crowd sometimes, sensei probably had no idea that Mana would use it for magic shows…

“Thank you, now if you could please pick a card we can finally see some magic.” the young ninja magician smiled as she quickly shuffled through the deck gesturing with her chin for the teen who looked like he was just slightly older than her to pick a card. With a rather rude and powerful movement the teen drew a card out of the bunch and the raven haired magician grinned with a half of her mouth – he played right into it. “I think someone has the King of Hearts.” Mana declared as the kid showed it to the audience.

This wasn’t the sort of trick to represent Mana’s arsenal of stage magic, this was just a warm up trick that used a very intricate and psychological tricks rather than sleight of hand. The trick was to remember the card she caught that she wanted the audience member to draw, to know exactly where it was in the deck, and to flick it open to him several times during shuffling. The teen’s mind perceived that card as special and subconsciously chose it most of the time, had he not chosen the card Mana had several backup plans how to develop the trick further but for now this part had to end.

“That’s pretty cheap, show us more tricks like that flying cards bit!” the volunteer decided to heckle for some reason. Mana didn’t really want to overexert herself with chakra usage, she usually did three to four ninjutsu or genjutsu tricks per show and those were the only things she knew. All of her ninjutsu or genjutsu techniques were harmless techniques made for magic shows and all of them were made by Mana herself. Truth be told if she did not possess precise enough chakra control to train genjutsu and the ability to invent her own impressive visually but ultimately harmless techniques she’d have not passed the Academy test.

One thing that was odd about Mana was her refusal to use jutsu that were not invented by her. As an artist she felt very uneasy about ripping off other artists which proved to be difficult in the Academy because it was all centered around learning the generic Academy techniques. By no means were they any easier to learn than Mana’s own techniques, most of them had tricks and practical uses to them unlike the jutsu that Mana used but that was not the obstacle that prevented Mana from using them – it was her hesitance to use the techniques she didn’t invent.

“Shut the hell up, Shinjiro, I’m enjoying the show.” Koji, the son of Mana’s sponsor, replied. The magician was glad to hear that for the time being at least Hanada’s son was entertained. Still, artist’s honor demanded her to step her game up and entertain everyone. “Well, I suppose I could show you a more appealing trick, I always appreciate a demanding audience, keeps me on the top of my game.” Mana smiled gently as she quickly weaved some handseals looking right in the eyes of her volunteer. Suddenly the boy crouched down and started acting like he was a monkey, letting off strange yelling sounds, jumping around on all fours and butting his head into the furniture.

The kids that were circled around couldn’t keep it in, they couldn’t have been any happier than they were at that moment, in a way this was also part a psychological trick combined with some harmless genjutsu. The genjutsu technique in question was one of Mana’s favorite – “Polymorphy Jutsu”, however if it was used on a different audience member it may have annoyed the kids, the exchange of dialogue between Koji and his friend who was now looking in the cupboard for bananas suggested that this Shinjiro kid was the pretentious kind and everyone wanted to see him being taught a lesson.

Without letting the genjutsu eat up too much of her chakra as her reserves were already almost half empty Mana let go of the audience member who instantly started yelling at her, “You promised you won’t hypnotize me!”, Mana made an innocent face and slapped her own cheek, “I did? Oh my, I guess you’d have been wise not to trust a magician. Artists these days do all sorts of things for a cheap laugh…” Mana finished that part of the show and was getting ready to move it to the main part when she realized that her show was all going to blow up in her face.


A loud bang came from behind the magician and loud yelling broke into the room, multiple loud voices started coming in and out of the house, they started spreading to every room and probably even every floor, there must’ve been a party for adults going on as loud shrieks of women came in from the floor above – Hanada Estate was under attack. Before the kids and their entertainer recovered from shock the door that lead to their room burst open and four mercenaries rushed in, seeing how they were all wearing the clothes that Hanada’s guards were wearing. The kids had all calmed down but something was wrong – they rushed up to Shinjiro, who was now back to normal, and Mana and put their hands behind the kids backs and commanded them to kneel down on the floor.

“Wh…What in the world is going on?! Junjo, what are you doing? What’s going on?!” Koji started freaking out as the men he thought were supposed to protect him were now tying up his hands and feet. “Just keep your mouth shut, kid, this doesn’t concern you, it’s between us and your backstabbing father.” one of the muscle-heads replied. The guards offered no more words, they just picked the kids up and started taking them upstairs to a room that reminded Mana of an attic. The kind of an attic rich people have, mind you, but an attic filled with art and expensive furniture was still an attic.

The mercenaries put the kids down and left one of the mercs to watch the kids while the others left the room without even bothering to lock it. After all, the people there were just kids, what could they do against a grown and trained mercenary? This wasn’t a good situation to be in, Mana never thought this day would require combat expertise so she left her ninja tools at home, all she had with her was this quite uncomfortable uniform and all the practical magic tools like fake flowers, decks of cards and the sort. Mana never was any good in the Academy with the physical arts anyways, she lacked any notable skill in weaponry combat, her aim was one of the worst in the class and her taijutsu skills placed her in the one of the lower quarters of the class.

Koji yelled out at the mercenary, “You betrayed my dad! He should’ve never hired a shit-head like you, you mercenaries are just backstabbing snakes!” The man calmly approached Koji and kneeled up so that his blocky head could reach the boy’s level. This was good! Koji was getting the mercenary to keep his eyes away from the kids and focusing on him, he probably didn’t know that Mana was a ninja but this was still better than nothing for a start. The best option would’ve been to just play the scared little girl and let the events go as they did, Mana was under no mission, no orders, no assignment. To sit still while people got hurt was not her style, however.

Mana had the gift of ninjutsu in her, the gift that most people lacked, her magic of life was more powerful than that of everyone else in this house and that gave her the responsibility to use that magic to protect everyone! Even if that meant placing her own life on the line, even if that meant getting hurt and risking this by entering a combat situation clearly unprepared. At least the girl had decency to wear sandals and not those shoes that mom suggested, they looked nice but no fighting ever could be done in them.

“The real snake is your slimy daddy, brat. Do you even know why we’re doing this? Haven’t you ever wondered why so often mercenaries attack the mansion? Well once we did, we didn’t submit one for the Konohagakure Police Force and questioned him ourselves, turns out they worked for your father, just like us. When time to pay up came your father just gave them up for Police Force and paid those dirtbags to stick some crimes up on their files. We decided to teach your daddy a lesson before he screws us over like he did every other mercs he hired.”

So that was it? Finally Hanada’s own greed was catching up to him, on any other day Mana would’ve loved to see his own slimy affairs explode in Hanada Katsuo’s face but… These men meant business, they probably wanted to hurt or kill the man, that’s what mercenaries do, they have little restraint, if any. They follow their own sick and twisted code of honor and if they feel like their payment is threatened they will most likely not stop at just quitting the job, they’ll feel as if they have to pay Katsuo back and that Mana and her own moral code could not allow.

There was an easy way to escape these restraints, this was a simple rope knot so the basic Academy Rope Escape Jutsu would’ve sufficed but that really was not Mana. She never used a technique that she didn’t invent in public, only by herself and only on special occasions, her getting through Academy with this silly rule was a story all of itself, story for another time. “Sir, I don’t know if you know me but I’m a magician, I have bunch of pointy tools on me and the way you put me down made one dig into my side and it really hurts, maybe you could flip me over?” Mana asked attracting the guard’s attention. Before that she used her natural sleight of hand to escape the binds on her arms, being a stage magician offered some more skill in escaping binds as one did that for fun every Tuesday.

The brute approached Mana and bent over to flip her on the other side, “Whatever you say, Konoha’s Sorceress…” the man grunted out using that ridiculous stage name with the most condescending tone imaginable. Swiftly as the man’s arms went under her side to push her the girl shot her elbow straight into the man’s eye and jumped up driving her palm into the man’s face. Mana had a pretty puny punch, just barely strong enough to make her graduate the Academy but the man staggered back and hit the wall making all sorts of statues and ancient clocks fall on his head and knock him out.

The magician proceeded to untie her legs and then went over to Koji’s binds, then everyone else’s. Everyone looked at her funny, they were impressed up to an extent but also they realized they’ve underestimated Mana, that was what they all did, that was why she succeeded when she did. She may not have been the most amazing prodigy or had the most impressive bloodline or come from some ancient clan of ninja but everyone always looked down on her. It was a good decision to leave her headband at home, otherwise these mercenaries would’ve made sure to keep her better contained…

Mana’s eyes slipped up on Koji and saw him lifting a heavy head of some statue above the head of the mercenary, she silently let out an alert for him to stop. “I know you’re angry, I know you feel betrayed but don’t kill them. I saved you, you owe me, if you just look the other way and escape the mansion I’ll consider the debt paid.” Koji looked at her with a berating and enraged look, he probably couldn’t believe it – a ninja that refused to let the enemy die? This must’ve been the dumbest thing the teen had ever heard but Mana considered all life sacred and would have never let anyone die. That was her ninja way.

“Whatever… Go save my dad, I’ll go get some REAL ninja here.” Koji grunted out and gestured for the other teens to follow him as he followed Mana who slowly opened the attic door and looked down. Of course she’ll try her best to save Hanada, she may not have liked the guy at all, the genin may have just a little bit been on the side of the mercenaries but… This wasn’t the way, hurting people and possibly killing them for something they haven’t even done yet. The magician took off the blazer that was obstructing her movements and waved for the kids to move, if they were silent enough they’ll pass right through.

There was some amount of activity, sounds of pounding, painful grunts and women crying, excessive cursing, those were all over the house. The kunoichi wasn’t sure exactly how many mercenaries did Katsuo hire for protection, still, it would’ve been best to not directly fight any of them. Mana’s legs felt tired from all the time they’ve been tied together so the exhaustion made her sit down on the stairs, this was a bad plan, she couldn’t take these men on, not alone. She may have been a kunoichi of Konoha but her arsenal of techniques was just lightshows and useless visual illusions, even more some of her chakra was spent in that magic show previously.

Loud shout of pain, coming without a doubt from Hanada came Mana’s way forcing the girl to jump up. Even if she’s taken out, even if these men beat her, every second she fights them saves Hanada some suffering, she was given the control of ninjutsu and chakra manipulation by fate for a reason, if she just whined over how unfair the world was on the stairs she wouldn’t deserve this gift she was given and if she died fighting these men that meant that she didn’t prove herself worthy of those gifts and wasted them. Mana was burning with fire that made her wish to prove that wasn’t true. A fire that burnt away all the fear, all the stress and all the shock and forced her to go save a life!

“Wait, you shouldn’t be here…” a voice came at Mana’s side as a mercenary was standing on the lower side of the steps, this one looked slimmer, he most likely slacked off his training hours. The mercenary didn’t speak loud enough for the others in the shut room to hear, it took yelling of a man in pain for it to be heard all the way here. Through sheer instinct the kunoichi’s hand reached for whatever she could find, flicking the switch that shot her cards out of the device and making the man flinch in surprise of bunch of cards being shot in his face, as he recovered Mana’s kick had already reached his face, he was stunned and the magician couldn’t stop for a second because that would mean she lost – she had the advantage and the kunoichi couldn’t waste it! One punch after the other from her palm came at the man’s chest and his face before the magician found a hard object – a vase on the table to knock him out with.

She could already hear a commotion and loud yells in the room at the western part of the building, the doors opening and some men confused by all the noise leaving – it had finally begun. It was time for Mana to prove her worth, to prove that the man that signed her Academy graduation papers was right to put the trust of the village on her. The magician glanced behind her only to witness the kids leave through the front door, she quickly jumped to hide behind one of those ancient couches getting ready for her first actual fight.

“Shit, the kids escaped!” one mercenary yelled out as several of them filled the room and started looking around. It was only a manner of time before the kids reach a ninja, a “real” ninja not a newbie disgrace like Mana… She may not have been willing to kill but she was ready to put her life on the line to protect a man she would’ve liked to slap with a wet cloth on a spare day. Life as a ninja was strange…

There were three mercenaries roaming the one of many living rooms of the mansion. This was a problematic situation as the two were back to back and were scanning the area quite thoroughly while heading towards the door. Right as the magician felt like she was getting the basic idea of the situation one of the men separated and went through the door on the northern side of the room – completely in the opposite direction to both the exit where the kids went and the room where Hanada was held in. What could he have been up to? What exactly could’ve been the big plan of these men?

There were so many unknowns in this situation, Mana didn’t know the degree of preparation that these men had, the very fact that they decided to pull something like this inside one of the most powerful ninja villages of the world was mind blowing by itself. They most likely planned to teach Hanada a lesson leaving him dead or heavily injured, rob his home leaving the man without as much as a ryo in his pocket and just disappear in the Fire Country forests, maybe move to another Country to live their days as newly made men.

Even with all the newfound heroism the genin felt quite hesitant to face off against the mercenaries, even one of them proved to be tough enough to barely be hurt by her blows, she needed to utilize heavy objects and play dirty if she was to take them down, fighting against even one of them was a gamble and those guys were as close to each other as husband and wife. If Mana as far as peeked to attack one of them from behind trying to utilize her element of surprise the other one would spot her near instantly.

“What was that sound? Is that Zanmaru? Holy shit, what happened, did ninja already find us out?” one of the mercenaries shouted out finally spotting his knocked out ally for the day. Mercenaries had no sense of loyalty, they weren’t friends, they were just in it for the money and one wouldn’t have been wrong to assume that these men had no sadness to spare for what happened to their friend. Growing up and learning to survive outside the village walls makes one only look out for themselves, adapt and survive, bonds to these men were a weakness, the only occasion for them to work together is when they need to satisfy their hunting instinct by hunting for money in a pack.

“No, no way, Bakku said that unless we make it publically known that shit is going down here no ninja will notice, no one should’ve noticed anything until we set this thing on fire, this has to be one of the kids… Still, how the hell…” the other one still tried to wrap his head around just how some kids managed to knock out a skilled mercenary. “Kids are scared little buggers, they probably ran off the first chance they got after taking out Zan, damn that guy, I’m almost tempted to draw something on his face right now…” the first mercenary replied crouching down to his downed fellow.

Mana slowly creeped around the couch, letting herself remain unseen as she observed the scene, the slim and puny hand of the girl reached up to remove a bust of the owner of the house that was located on the table. It was about time that the self-adoration of Hanada Katsuo finally served a noble purpose… Mana was careful to remain unseen as she tossed the stone head at one of the mercenaries, sadly her horrible aim let itself be known, instead of hitting the man in the head the stone hit him in the upper back making a painful wound but probably not a very effective one. The man cursed and fell on the floor, scratching the aching area and cursing profanities the likes of which the young magician had never heard before.

“You little brat!” the friend of the injured merc shouted out while charging at Mana, this was bad, situation like this called for the genin to use some more chakra because there was no way to get out of this unscathed otherwise. Luckily enough the girl’s hands were quick enough to weave some seals before the brute got too close, she managed to make the seals, the man pulled out a knife. The blade of the damned thing was amazing, possibly large enough to cut entire limbs off with just a swipe, certainly very unlike the light and shallow cutting kunai that ninja used.

Mana struggled to get eye contact with the bandit, she needed that to set off her technique, the man jumped forward thrusting with the knife as if it was a longsword. Honestly he couldn’t be blamed for such a lackluster knife-fighting style, his range was still superior to that of the unarmed girl, he was quite enraged and willing to kill. The man’s knife impaled the young magician and the brute kept running with the powerless body of the girl for a while slamming her lifeless body to the wall. He lost control as he started punching her and laughing to himself.

That was the version of events that the man saw, luckily enough the genin managed to get eye contact with him in time and move to the side, had the man retained all of his awareness he may have tried to swipe sideways but now he just kept running forward believing to have impaled his enemy. “Hey, what the hell are you doing, she’s right behind you, you idiot!” the still incapacitated mercenary yelled out to his friend, to be honest, the two were quite justified in not seeing genjutsu coming – it was a rare craft for someone to wield and even rarer to be inside a genin’s arsenal.

Genjutsu were complicated techniques, they took a lot of chakra and they took the magician her entire, yet at the moment quite short, lifetime to make. Coming up with ideas was difficult enough, researching textbooks about human brain to know the centers which needed to be affected by chakra only added to it. They may have been a surprise weapon, they may have been effective techniques but… A single genjutsu technique drained almost half of the usable chakra that Mana had at that moment, the girl was already breathing heavily and her movements started feeling slower and sloppy, it felt like she just ran several laps in seconds. Single technique giving her just mere moments strained her body so much.

The kunoichi didn’t wait too long for the merc to recover from the illusion, he may have seen what he saw and heard what he heard but he must’ve heard his buddy’s reaction, Mana’s foot was quick enough to target the back of the man’s knee forcing him on the knees and her arms quickly slammed the man’s head into the wall he was so kind to get close to. She tried her best but she wasn’t sure if she knocked the man out – she may have been trained for almost five years to be efficient in combat and stealth but she still was just a teenage girl. Despite the fears of the magician the man looked like he was out cold, Mana looked at the downed mercenary, he struggled to move but it didn’t look like he could – maybe she hit a sensitive spot in his back. The genin almost instantly started to feel bad, she didn’t want to injure these men so much, what if she incapacitated the man for life?

Loud yells of Hanada from the other room signaled to the girl that this was no time at all to wonder about those things. She had to get in there and save Hanada even if she was quite tempted to hit him with something for what he brought on his family. His child, his wife, the friends of his family could’ve been killed because he was too greedy to pay some mercenaries that always took things too seriously. The girl’s chest inflated as she drew a deep breath – she was still afraid and tired but she had to move, she had to go in there, what if the men inside the room had heard what happened here and became desperate to finish their job quickly? Mana had no luxury of time, ironic when luxury was all that surrounded her at that moment…

Slowly, still with shaking hands the kid opened the door and finally got to see the situation in the room. Good news were that Hanada, while messed up and tied to a chair, was alive and in a pretty good condition, there was also just one man inside the room which meant that Mana had to only get lucky one more time, that wasn’t too much to ask for, right? The bad part was that the man who had his foot up on Hanada’s chest as he kicked the chair down and held a knife up in the air was one of the biggest and coolest looking guys that Mana had ever seen. He had short and greasy dark hair that were messy enough to make his gas mask covered face look scary. The man wore a similar vest to that of a Konohagakure ninja but if Mana’s memory from the Academy days served it was that of a Kumogakure ninja but no band suggested that this man looted it off of one or bought it from the black market.

“Well, girl, you have newfound respect from my side, taking on big boys like us requires balls. Now just be a good girl and bugger off.” the man spoke to Mana without bothering to even look at her, he kept his gasmask googles focused on Hanada’s beaten face and kept a firm grip on that knife, ready to plunge it wherever it needed to go to cause the man pain. Once more the girl breathed in and out, not being considered worthy to be even looked at by one’s enemy felt degrading. “I’m about to risk my life to save a man who I shall strangle myself later. Well done, you…” she spoke to herself under her own nose as she took one more step forward.

Almost instantly, the very same moment her foot was set down forward the gigantic leader of the mercenary pack threw the knife at her, he wasn’t fast enough for Mana not to lean to the side but he followed up his throw with a rush at her, the girl had no other option but to jump over some furniture and roll sideways, she wanted to counterattack but the momentum that the man forced her to build up with a double attack didn’t give her that option. The only thing left for Mana to do was to stand back up as the man pulled his knife out of the wall. The blade went in deep, maybe all the way through the wooden wall but the tip looked bent somewhat. That gave Mana an idea about how to bring this goliath down.

“I suppose letting me punch Hanada-san is out of the…” the genin opened her mouth again as the man turned sideways and tossed the knife again, that was what she wanted this time. With full knowledge of the man’s follow up attack and the bent tip of the knife, the girl didn’t follow up the same course of action, she leapt sideways with a small hop and watched as the knife didn’t cut into the wall, but instead bounced off of the small stone surface of the western wall of the room. This time it was Mana’s own hand that caught the knife and swung it at the lower side of the man’s leg as he passed by her, ducking to dodge his punch that would’ve probably killed her outright.

A powerful resistance of the man’s muscular leg suggested that Mana’s attack was successful, some blood shot out as a deep gash opened on the man’s leg however he didn’t even flinch, instead the back of his hand slapped Mana back, the girl was too surprised by lack of reaction from the man’s side to duck, plus the size of the man’s palm was just too big to dodge in such short span of time. The genin’s body was flung backwards by the force, she actually hit a couch and flipped over with it, it somewhat softened the impact, had the kunoichi hit a wall she may have been out and probably would’ve never woken up. Mana’s head lifted up spontaneously to observe the man’s follow up attack.

Instead of rushing at her or trying to toss the knife again he was looking at the crumbling blade of the tool – the force of impact from before as it hit the wall caused the knife a lot of shock and the follow up cut must’ve added up to it, also, who knew what kind of battles the weapon had already been through. The man’s refusal to gloat or speak sort of scared the magician, he tossed the knife aside and instead decided to walk up to the girl and to just punch her out himself. He didn’t take too much time, he obviously was not enjoying this and wanted it over with. Had Mana seen the man’s eyes any better her impression would’ve been strengthened – it was obvious that he had seen many battles and murdering his enemies was a routine to him before he started working as a bodyguard.

The man approached Mana but then stopped in shock – he didn’t notice the katana in the girl’s hand before he already was too close. It was a weapon which was on Hanada’s wall and was forced down by all the ruckus, the genin just happened to find it on accident. The fact that he was so close to being killed forced the mercenary leader to freeze – this was supposed to be it, Mana could’ve just made a strong cutting motion holding the handle and forced the sheathe off, it was just matter of time from there… But that was not Mana’s way. The girl did not remove the sheathe, she just swung the whole thing targeting the injured leg of the mercenary, as the tough oaken sheathe with cold steel inside collided with the man’s bone it wasn’t even close to being a fair match.

The merc yelled out loud as he fell on one knee, Mana quickly jumped up and started hitting him in his mask from both left and right, not stopping because stopping meant dying and letting Hanada die. The hits really let the boss of the mercs feel it, his mask tore, his googles almost exploded from the pressure and for the first time the magician got to see the man’s eyes. Suddenly the worst happened – the sheathe broke revealing the steel inside and Mana hesitated to swing it, just for a mere moment, just long enough for her to turn the blade and to try to continue her onslaught of attacks with the blunt side but… It was all that the mercenary needed, he thrust his palm forward into Mana’s chest pushing her into the wooden wall. The girl grunted out from the pain of hitting the wall as all air she had up to that moment, the little that was from all the exhaustion and swinging the sheathe blindly, went out forcing her to gasp for air, to try and catch any of it just to not let herself pass out because that meant Hanada’s death.

The man picked up the sword, it didn’t look like he had the same amount of hesitation to kill that Mana had, he started to approach her. This was it, Mana’s hand to hand was pathetic, not even enough to outmatch a simple blockhead guy with more muscles than brain. Why didn’t he talk? Why didn’t he gloat? Why didn’t he laugh from her? Did her life not matter to him?! Mana suddenly got furious, her life mattered, she was the only thing right now protecting Hanada so she mattered, she couldn’t let herself die! Quickly the girl made two more handseals and shot her hands forward yelling as she felt the last of her usable chakra leave her hands in the shape of harmless sparks.

“Magical Spark Jutsu” may have been harmless but it was useful because it was visually impressive and the amount of spark in kept bombarding the enemy with was enough for them to be stunned for a brief moment, the man’s arms were occupied with holding the sword so he couldn’t shield his eyes using his hands for a moment, before he started covering them with his arms, lowering the blade and moving back, his eyes that were now exposed as his googles were broken by Mana’s ruthless bashing before. The mercenary was giving in to the pressure, no that wasn’t it, he figured out the weakness of Mana’s jutsu, it had a very short range and the sparks got weaker as they hit him further, the barrage was less intense and it didn’t feel nearly as unpleasant. What he didn’t take into consideration was the couch that he stepped into and fumbled backwards, trying his best not to fall down but stumbling further and further into the room in the process.

Mana’s hands weighed down – she just had barely enough chakra not to pass out but… Her enemy found himself in quite the conundrum – he fumbled back and hit the impressive deer horn that was hung on the wall, probably one hunted by Hanada Katsuo himself. The place where the man was bleeding from, however, made Mana lift her palm through the pain and to grunt out. “Please don’t move, if you do you’ll open the wound and bleed out almost instantly, shoulder is a dangerous place to be impaled in…” Mana huffed out and she was right – the man was only bleeding a little bit right now but he could’ve hit a pretty sensitive spot, had he moved around too much he risked dying in mere seconds from bleeding out if he hit an artery.

The mercenary roared out with voice powerful enough to make Mana pout. She felt a slight relief however as the roar ended abruptly it forced fear to return as she looked at what made the man stop being enraged, she saw his eyes strangely excited… As if he was… Smiling under that mask… Suddenly Mana realized – she missed one mercenary, back when three of them walked out, one of them left through the northern door, he must’ve wandered back having found nothing. However as she realized that it was already too late. The girl heard loud whistling noise in the air, similar to steel cutting through air itself…

A loud crumbling noise of shifting rock and breaking wood came her way instead of pain of being stabbed – confused Mana looked back only to see the mercenary completely pinned down by pillars of rock that closed him by tightly shooting up crushing through the wooden tiles of the floor. “Nice work here, kid, but you missed one.” a friendly voice reached Mana’s ear as she saw a man in a jounin west with a bandana and geeky looking glasses grinning at her as he held a thumb up. “A young man bumped into me and said that a weakling ninja needed help, I suppose you did alright but you were a bit sloppy – you forgot to knock out that guy back there, you forgot this guy behind you… Other than that… Good job” he laughed.

A short while later ninja were swarming the area taking the beaten mercenaries out for questioning in the Konohagakure Police Force HQ. Mana decided that her job here was done, she went upstairs to pick her blazer up and as she went back to the first floor the geeky jounin stopped her. “You’re a genin, right?” he asked and after Mana nodded he grinned “I hope you get assigned to my squad, nice work here.” he finished, the magician thanked him for the praise, this guy happened to be different from all the other jounin she met – he was strangely kind and unaffected by difficult ninja life.

On her way out the Hanada Estate door Mana heard Hanada’s voice directed at her, “So, Mana-chan, the show is Friday, don’t forget…” he said only for the girl to turn around a bow slightly, she had a slightly swollen eye from the powerful slap she got before so she must’ve looked funny, “Right… Friday!” she replied as if nothing had happened here today, explaining her swollen eye to her parents will be a doozy…

The week after the event at Hanada Estate was different from the kind of life Mana was used to, despite that it was still relatively peaceful. Parents were quite nervous and worried about the girl’s injury, her eye and the entire right side of her face was pretty swollen and looked funny for a couple of days after. Ninja had unnaturally amazing recovery rates compared to ordinary villagers, chakra manipulation required complete mastery of one’s body which also unlocked new levels of body recovery speed, still, it hurt and Mana was ashamed to look just like she was punched in the face, ironically enough that was pretty much what happened...

Despite that unpleasant experience things went quite smoothly, she got a little closer with her parents, father told Mana the story of his own first mission to oversee a construction being finished and having to protect the object from vandals that kept trying to spray paint on it to leave their mark on the world. One couldn’t really blame people like them, both young and old wanted to be remembered, to feel like their life mattered and in the world where life is thrown away casually such feelings were only multiplied hundredfold.

According to father, one day the construction workers were working on the upper floor and his team had to oversee the work being completed, unfortunately no one noticed the nest of hornets swarming up in the trashed rotten wood that was used for the construction so within seconds the entire floor was flooding with angered hornets. The man claimed to have been stung so many times that he fell down through the unfinished floor right to the first floor and as he tried to stop his fall he cut his arm on a steel beam leaving a giant gash on his arm. He must’ve told the truth because father actually showed Mana the scar.

The point of that story was lost to the young genin, however. Of course there were many thoughts that Mana had about the story, perhaps father wanted that she didn’t feel bad about having been marked in her first real combat encounter, maybe he just wanted her to know that his first job was even worse, maybe he wanted her to know that even the most trivial and simple assignments could go wrong and cause injuries worse than actual fighting scars? Either way, when the time for Mana’s big performance on stage came her face looked pretty much alright, just a slight black mark on her cheek that could’ve been wiped out by make-up. The young magician wanted to look her best for the occasion after all!

Mana’s Friday show went great, the hall wasn’t really full or anything, out of several hundred seats in the great hall about forty were filled and for a first show the manager was impressed. Of course the girl had some prior experience and some people knew her already from the time she performed on cardboard boxes that must’ve been the reason why she attracted some people – they were just people that occasionally checked her out when her shows were free. A part of the girl felt bad for charging money for the shows, her shows started as an idea, idea that ninjutsu was not a tool of death, it was not something that defined a person but rather was defined by the person that used it.

When the young one brought this question up to the manager of the hall he just shrugged, “Don’t worry, kid, money ain’t the problem here. Your prices are half the price of the plays people watch here, I wasn’t sure how to promote your stuff because no one did crazy things like that. That probably was why so few people checked you out the first time – they didn’t know what the hell they were getting into, now that voices will spread people will start to come.” The manager was named Hiro, he was a nice short and elderly fellow, his eyes were always squinted and his hair was already grey, his face was filled with wrinkles and he always wore that weird flowery orange shirt. He couldn’t have been older than late forties, maybe it was what the stress of managing all of Konoha’s artistic and entertainment environment did to people.

Just to feel better Mana asked Mr. Hiro if she could let in people for free some time, the man just waved his hand and laughed. “You’re the boss of your own shows, I just own the hall you’re renting so as long as the rent is paid, do whatever you want. I’m telling you though, you’re gonna be big when people get used to this, don’t waste the chance by giving people free stuff.” Apparently Mr. Hiro had a nasty reputation about him with the common folk, not like they hated him or anything but he had the rep of being quite the old skinflint and made money from everything he had the chance to. It wasn’t the bad kind of rep, more like something people always made fun of and pointed fingers at, but then waved their hands and left the hall with a “Classic Hiro…” in their lips.

Having moderate success with her magic shows made Mana more excited about her ninja life, she started to train more, exercise both her physical state and meditate to improve her mental state and to better understand her body. The magician was a prodigy at meditation, ever since her mind managed to defeat her own sickness from back when Mana was even younger. From what the girl had heard her mother say, mother was not from Konoha originally, so when she settled down with dad and when Mana was born the two were crushed when they found out their baby had a rare mental disorder.

As a young child the Nakotsumi kid had the disorder that prevented her from understanding facts and relating them to a process. She could see the stars in the sky but she could never understand how they worked even if she was directly told that, the kid just couldn’t relate the explanation with the actual process being explained. It was a disorder that made people into outcasts and they lived short lives as they had few friends and failure to understand basic everyday science made them extremely prone to unfortunate accidents. The parents did their best to help Mana, they weren’t too rich or anything so they could only talk to the kid and try to make it easier for her but nothing really worked.

One day the two spat out whatever they were drinking when they heard the girl playing with toys and other children outside, they ran out to ask Mana how was that possible because usually those plagued by the disorder could not play with toys and imitate real life scenarios because they simply lacked understanding how they worked which made it difficult and the girl just told them that she knew how things worked – magic made everything work. As the girl then spoke with her peers she was told of ninja, people that risked their life to protect lives of everyone and someone everyone admired. To the four year old Mana these ninja were champions of magic, enforcers of magical will. Mana herself wanted to be a ninja but her mental disorder made it impossible.

Despite their best attempts to talk Mana out of the idea to be a ninja her parents still enrolled her into the Academy when she was six, they figured that eventually their daughter would quit when she found her dream life to be unattainable. They were right – Mana absolutely bombed every test and failed at everything, her sensei in the Academy however took a liking for her, he wondered if this was Mana’s lack of skill or her disorder that prevented her from succeeding and he taught the kid how to meditate, focus on one’s own mind and work things out when they became too confusing. That was the breakthrough the kid needed, just couple of years later Mana managed to completely overcome her mental disorder and for the first time managed to think like an ordinary kid, she still kept clinging to her ideals of all life being magical but she did finally realize that magic didn’t exist, she made it up to explain things she didn’t understand.

Still, magic made everything so beautiful, so perfect, considering all life magical made the kid appreciate it more, knowing how it worked sort of made Mana feel empty and feel like life was pointless. So just out of respect for her old ways the girl still upheld her beliefs of magic being sacred, chakra being magical in nature and that those with exceptional gift to manipulate chakra were champions of magic with the duty to protect those that could not. After all of that, the young Mana managed to graduate Academy with average grades, the test she took was weird due to her refusing to use any Academy techniques because they “weren’t hers”. That story was for another day as the magician kept pushing those memories away.

Finally after a short while meditating and training every day the moment that the girl waited for came – the Nakotsumi household received a letter which informed Mana that her team was assembled and that all the newly made genin were to be sorted out into teams the next day. The letter had in it the time and place where the girl needed to come, it didn’t really tell her about who exactly were in her team. Not that the girl would’ve known those people if she was told that, she wasn’t too popular in the Academy because most kids considered her “weird” and since she rarely got a perfect grade she wasn’t one of those “cool kids” that aced everything from calculation classes to physical exercises.

Sleeping was hard for the young lady, she kept recalling the events at Hanada Estate as that was her only experience with actual ninja life. Will all missions be crazy like that? She would have died in there if that Jounin didn’t bail her out, what if in the actual battlefield there’ll be no one to watch her back, what if she’ll hesitate to hurt an enemy again and she’ll get killed? Now that she herself was a ninja, now that she had some experience over the whole thing the magician understood her father’s work a lot better, he left to missions all the time and Mana for some reason was rarely worried. Somehow she just always assumed that he’d be back in one place, she took his return for granted. It was decided, tomorrow she’ll smother the life out of her old man, stop taking people she loved for granted, and there was nothing he could have done to help it.


The next morning, after scaring the hell out of her father by hugging him for an extended period of time and having breakfast Mana ran off to the Academy, the sorting process was supposed to take place in the large classroom that could contain all of the students inside. It needed not to be said that the girl was excited and worried at the same time, there was a certain shade of unknown about how things will go, what her teammates will be like and what her sensei will be like and how will she handle life as a ninja. By now the kunoichi had at the very least accepted that she’ll be made fun of for her beliefs and desire to never take a life. That was not a great mindset for a ninja to have after all, even when she told that her Academy sensei he just laughed it off and told her that a lot of kids babble about that but they always “grow out of such nonsense”, according to “real ninja” lives had to be taken, the justifications of their casual murder were quite different, sometimes they killed out of fear, fear that their enemies would hurt their loved ones, sometimes it was just rage, to some it just felt good to show off all of their power and crush their enemies…

The classroom was full when Mana came in and no one really noticed or said anything about her entering and finding a seat in the right side of the classroom, further away from the window. Some kids near to where Mana sat down congratulated her on her shows taking off and told her that they will never miss a single magic show, that made the girl feel a bit better, after all she finally was acknowledged for something she did, her magic and using ninjutsu just for entertainment no longer looked “weird” to some, there were people that actually enjoyed that sort of thing.

One by one each team was picked off, a Jounin entered the classroom and read names off a sheet of paper to pick up their students and upon being called out the kids just stood up and ran towards their sensei, running off to bond and train with their team. After an entire hour of sitting around listening to names of other people and seeing their joy of finally being real ninja, Mana found that she was left sitting with two other boys in the classroom with no one coming in to read their names. What did all of that mean? Did that mean that nobody wanted her and those two other genin? Was she back in the Academy now? The girl’s little heart started jumping despite her desperate attempts to calm down.

“Don’t worry, that bastard is just late…” Mana heard beside her as the boy who said it – one of the two that were left together with Mana in the classroom, placed his hand on her shoulder. His voice was strange, it was already starting to get more mature and strong but it was also pretty soft, most likely because the boy deliberately tried to restrain it and soften it to sound nicer. “I mean we already got our photos taken, graduated the Academy and got all the paperwork done, Hokage would be pissed if he had to do all that paperwork again to write us back into the Academy list…” the boy just smiled with a thumb up. His strange nice and polite behavior made Mana smile a little herself.

The kid was a rather tall individual with crazy white hair, he wore glasses and a rather formal-looking for a ninja attire, the other one sitting in the middle row was the complete opposite – small and slim in build, had black hair and wore some weird earing. “You better be right, future rival, otherwise I’ll be pretty pissed for wasting my time sitting here doing nothing… I’ve got manga to read back home.” the short boy grunted out, his voice was much more husky. “Future rival?” the tall white headed one asked curiously as he didn’t leave Mana’s side. “Yeah, that’s how teams work in all the manga, the guys are always rivals with each other, whether they want it or not…” the boy replied as he relaxed and kicked back pulling out a small magazine out of his book filled with black and white pictures as his eyes started wandering around.

“Huh… He’s a weirdo… Anyways, I’m Shimo, maybe you wanna go somewhere after this meeting is over with?” the boy asked as he leaned curiously by Mana’s side making her feel a bit uncomfortable. The slim one cracked a grin, “I see, so you’re the pervert type, I mean you gotta be the generic manga pervert because you’d have to be one to be in such a rush…” Shimo then dashed up to him and started angrily but without trying to hurt the boy just lightly rub his knuckle into the otaku’s head. “What was that?! You’re calling ME weird!?” this reaction made Mana genuinely amused as she covered her mouth and laughed out a bit. Maybe these two will be fun after all…

Suddenly the door burst open directing everyone’s eyes at it, everyone expected the sensei to finally come pick them up. To everyone’s surprise and much confusion it wasn’t a Jounin that entered but the Fourth Hokage. The man’s white Hokage cloak and the hat that he always wore behind his back hanging around, reminding everyone of his status could not be confused, just like his shoulder length grey hair, it was a very unique color because the man was probably just in his mid-thirties and his head already looked grey. As the man burst into the room he started huffing heavily making everyone even more confused.

“Sorry, guys, your sensei is a real jerk, I just met him hanging out and doing nothing which made me suspicious so I forced him to come pick you guys up, just wanted you to not leave without meeting up with him, jeez that guy… Sorry again, I hope he’ll make it up to you… Though knowing him… Probably not…” the man scratched the side of his hairy head and laughed uncomfortably, he then just turned around and left as if nothing had ever happened. The three genin were pretty confused when they didn’t know anything of the team’s status, they were confused even more when they saw the Fourth, now when they realized that the Hokage just dropped by to tell them to keep waiting it all seemed even weirder.

Mana kept looking at the door, expecting it to open any moment, at some moment she even got over the small brawl and then making up of her teammates as the two were now just slobbering over a dirty manga, apparently dirty manga had something that appealed to both perverts and otaku so their interests finally came to one. These two now seemed pretty tight, the magician wondered if she will ever find something to talk about with those two, she didn’t read manga that much or went on dates. She wasn’t really an unattractive girl, just a little young and her slightly darker skin tone and wild curly dark hair required an observer of much more exotic tastes. Plus she always was a bit weird…

Just as Mana kept wondering if she’ll be getting along with these two goofballs the door burst open and a man in an unzipped jounin vest and black cloak, similar to one Hokage wore just without the village insignia entered. He had shoulder length brownish hair that had some shades of red in them, his eyes were pretty rough looking as they didn’t suggest the man being too nice of a guy. He just opened his eyes forcing Shimo to jump up and the otaku boy to drop his manga on the ground. Mana had to say she was pretty intimidated by the man’s look alone too.

“You guys, come with me…” was all he said as he turned around and started walking into the corridor in quite a pace, without even slowing down to wait for the kids to make it down the classroom and out the door. This was one fellow that didn’t fool around!

The three kids rushed out of the classroom, doing their best so that they didn’t fall behind their sensei. Having his behavior in mind, how he decided to not even show up to pick them up until Hokage himself forced him to, he wasn’t likely to be the nice kind of guy that waits for his team. Something about his intimidating stature and squinting eyes just freaked Mana out and from the looks of her teammates – she wasn’t the only one utterly scared of the man. He just had that certain kind of feeling coming off of him.

Even following him from behind, looking at his flowing dark cape and messy hair from behind him, being too far to even see him in much detail instilled fear, something made the magician wish to stay at such range and not get any closer. Out of nowhere the man stopped and turned sideways at them, his angry and freaky stare made the three almost stop in their tracks. One could’ve only speculated what this incredible energy coming out of the man was, strangely enough Mana was the most bold and came up to speaking distance the first, the boys followed her shortly.

After the team finally gathered in close enough range to each other to be associated with the others the man simply turned around again without any words and started walking, this time a little bit slower. “T…This aura…” Mana wondered looking at the man’s back, strangely enough the magician hadn’t noticed a symbol of some sort on the back of sensei’s cloak. It looked like it meant something, perhaps sort of reminded Mana of a hieroglyph of some sort but it wasn’t any language she could identify. The girl was a self-made prodigy at history as she loved to read historic books and legends as a child and continued to do so throughout her life.

“You’ve got to be kidding me… This is… Uzumaki Tanshu, one of the Konohagakure Sannin…” Shimo, the lady-loving teammate uttered, he obviously attempted to only let the other two teammates know but something told Mana that their sensei must’ve heard it as well. If he was at all the ninja his incredible presence implied him to be, he would’ve been aware of everything going on in the same room as he was, the fact that Shimo could identify the man however was quite interesting. Mana didn’t know about the most famous and the strongest ninja in the village, she wasn’t one that engaged in gossip or dreamed over their pictures in the textbooks, she only could identify some by their key features.

The man then pushed the Academy door and left into the yard, the three quickly rushed after him and left through the door before it closed. After sitting so long in a closed room, waiting for their sensei to come pick them up, Mana appreciated a breath of fresh air and some sunlight. The man then started moving at an incredible pace, as if he wanted to get somewhere in the village but he only moved around the Academy building, then jumped and his feet stuck onto the wall of the Academy building. Shimo jumped quickly to follow him, Mana and the otaku boy who was yet to introduce himself remained on the ground. The boy sighed and jumped onto the wall as well, scaling it as quickly as he could and trying not to fall too far behind.

This situation annoyed Mana because she didn’t want to use the ordinary Tree Climbing Jutsu that the Academy taught the students. It was a basic technique that also served as a tool to train one’s chakra control, it was useful but Mana was not the one to invent it and that was enough of an obstacle to make the girl wonder how she’d scale the wall. The girl ran to the side a little bit further and found a backdoor entrance, she instead decided to use the stairs up to the exit to a balcony. After leaving to the balcony the magician observed her team stopping at an upper balcony as she quickly made some handseals and jumped straight at the wall, then kicking off of it to gain some altitude as a small gust of wind propelled her higher.

The jutsu was a simple invention of Mana’s, the girl called it the “Mystical Wings Technique” despite the fact that it didn’t actually serve the same purpose. It didn’t allow the magician to fly, it just made a single powerful wind current below her and propelled her upwards for just a moment, it barely only made those directly below the current flinch so the only uses there were for such a technique were to get small boosts of altitude or breaking one’s fall quickly. Mana managed to grab the ledge with her arms as she pulled herself up and got into the same balcony that her sensei stopped to wait for his team.

The man’s eyes looked like the man really hated Mana, not in a deep and personal way, she just annoyed him by wasting his time and he obviously didn’t care that much about her to begin with. The man only grunted out a simple but effective “You’re slow” as the only scolding that the girl ever needed. The otaku boy was also annoyed, “Ugh, I guess you’ll be the weak and useless member of the team, every team in manga has one, our enemies will have to take you out fast to establish that threat is serious…” he started his tirade before being interrupted by Shimo’s “You’re amazing, Mana-chan, I remember that technique from your show!” the boy yelled out.

It was quite clear that the only reason why Shimo even liked Mana’s performance was because she was a girl, the technique wasn’t really that impressive visually or efficient. She wasn’t sure which reaction hurt more: the genuine annoyance of her sensei, the deep rooting dislike of all female beings that otaku had and their trait to see everything as one cliché or the other or being praised just because of something that had nothing to do with anything. Now that it was out of the way the previously identified Konoha Sannin spoke up, “I’d like the three of you to tell me something about your personalities, don’t get any ideas, I don’t care too much so don’t go too deep into it. It’s just that I’m unlike my idiot colleagues, I understand that personalities and goals matter because they let me understand how you use your combat abilities.”

He then took out a small file out of his coat’s pocket and flipped it through, “You three were put in team to balance out the grades, the teams were built to have one great student, one with horrible grades and an average one, the Hokage wanted to make all teams balanced and have an equal beginning.” Despite Mana’s genuine hope that the man won’t go too deep into their grades his sharp and long finger shot forward at Shimo, then proceeded to point at her other teammate and then at Mana. “You, white haired boy, your grades were really good, you were the fourth top student in the entire year, you, weasel-looking guy, yours were second worst from everyone that graduated… You, girl, contrary to what your magic shows make people believe your grades didn’t stand out in either direction, you’re average in every way.”

Being average offended Mana the most, she could’ve handled being called the worst because for some reason being worst was still special, being average wasn’t anything, it was just sort of there. “Since in the Ninja World leaders always get all the responsibility and all the fame, the one with the good grades will start.” the man spoke again, his tone was rough and it didn’t look like he was asking them to do something, he was pretty much ordering it. Every moment of his presence radiated that impossibly thick and cold air, only him being there made all three of the kids feel uneasy.

Shimo sat onto the edge of the balcony and began after fixing his glasses. “My name is Yuki Shimo, my parents moved out of Kirigakure several years ago with their business and moved to Konohagakure. They had to do it because the Mizukage was getting crazy according to them and started ordering having his own villagers murdered…” the boy’s head slightly went down, it was a topic that summoned a reaction in him despite the fact that his family avoided the cruelty which was interesting. “I don’t really care about the Mizukage or Kirigakure, honestly, I don’t really remember it and Konoha is my real home, it’s just that I want to make sure that scum that order their own comrades to die would never come to power in Konoha and I’ll fight such a person if I have to!”

After a brief moment of silence the boy sighed and looked at Mana to continue. Him being a descendant of a rich family that had some sort of business inside Konoha would’ve explained his interesting attire, his clan was also quite a rare one and the magician only barely remembered it from being taught about them in the Academy. It was interesting how being both rich, successful and being an heir of a rare ninja clan did not make this youth arrogant and prone to bragging about his life. He was very different to Mana in terms of his origins but he was not so different from her in terms of personality.

Mana got a strand of hair out of her face and moved it past her ear, her hair was curly and rather wild so the girl usually wore a hat, this day was the kind when she really wanted to wear one. “I am Nakotsumi Mana, some people know me as “Konoha’s Sorceress” from all the posters in the northern districts and the magic show that I started recently. It’s not ACTUAL magic, I just use ninjutsu that I learn for different purposes because I believe that lives of every person in this world are magical and sacred and that ninjutsu is a tool to preserve it, not to take it.”

Sensei sighed, he obviously disagreed with that but so far he didn’t let the girl know that, or at least didn’t tell her anything because his face pretty much spoiled it all. It was impressive how much Mana managed to piss him off because usually whatever thoughts he had remained secret as his face was quite strict and static, now his emotions were incredibly clear. Why did he hate her ideals? Will it be a problem? Maybe he was the kind of person who killed a lot and ninjutsu was his tool to accomplish that? The man could’ve felt offended by existence of a youngling like Mana.

It was then that the otaku boy spoke up, still reading his manga and not bothering to put his eyes up. “My name is… Nara Sugemi…” the boy spoke in pauses as his eyes were still running through the letters and pictures of his magazine and his brain was struggling with multi-tasking. “I don’t really know why I became a ninja, I like manga about ninja and I love action, to read about it at least… I want to be able to do cool things like Rock Lee from that manga one day, if I can be as cool as the guys I read about, if I can inspire my own epic manga, that is all I need!” the boy spoke as he flipped the page and finished his introduction at the same time.

Sensei took a deep breath and massaged his tired eyes. “I’d imagine you yelling “Sensei” all the time would be annoying so I’ll introduce myself at least, as rich-boy here got right earlier, I am Uzumaki Tanshu – one of Konohagakure Sannin. You have no business or interest knowing my personality, I am more than capable to handle myself and watch over you guys for as long as we’ll be working together. Now that I got to know the mental part, I’ll need to see your actual abilities, follow me to the Training Grounds, I’ll give my final impressions about you guys after the test. Just know that I am allowed to send the lot of you back to the Academy until we complete our first mission so don’t mess it up!” the man exclaimed after leaping off of the building and starting to slowly walk towards the Training Grounds.

At least this time the kids knew the destination so they didn’t have to keep following their sensei’s back. Also, now sensei’s weird shade of red in his brown hair made sense – Uzumaki were known for their amazing vitality and flowing red hair. The kids rushed up to and descended the stairs, using the more conventional means to gain access to the village streets leading up to the Training Grounds. As they finally accessed the streets Mana asked her teammates something, “Say, guys, sensei seems to be really proud of his rank but I’ve never heard of a rank of “Sannin”, isn’t “Jounin” the highest rank in the village?”

Shimo looked quite happy about his chance to talk to Mana and to show off his brain a bit more, “Yes and no. “Sannin” isn’t an official rank, not really, it is a rank that is passed through word, officially Jounin is still the highest rank but if one becomes so much more powerful than a Jounin, so much so that they surpass any common classifications of ninja they are declared a “Sannin” by the respective Kage. Each village has three of them, they are easily the most powerful ninja in the village, being a Sannin also grants you a certain amount of diplomatic freedom, for example a Jounin being in another village is weird and suspicious but Sannin commonly travel around and they are usually respected everywhere for their power and achievements. Also only the Great Villages are allowed to have Sannin, so there are twelve in total around the world, Sand Village used to have them too but they lack high ranking ninja to select theirs so they haven’t had one for ages…”

Sugemi closed his manga and put it into his small backpack, “Maybe if I become a Sannin by killing sensei one day they’ll make a manga about me…” he wondered out loud scratching his chin as if he was actually considering it. “That’s not how it works, Sugemi, there is no single right way of becoming a Sannin, in a way it is similar as it is with Kage – there needs to be a vacant spot and you need to be way above everyone else in terms of skill and achievements. Sannin have been beaten and killed before but that didn’t really make people rise in ranks, in fact, if rumors are true, Tanshu-sensei once beat a Sannin in his teen years, he didn’t even have a ninja rank, stories say that he may have been a nukenin at some point…”

Finally all the talking had to cease as the three reached the astonishingly beautiful patch of nature surrounded by a fence with a sign “Training Grounds” with a number on them. Teams used “Training Grounds No 3” all the time so that was where the three went, the other grounds had different purposes, No 1 was made for sparring, No 2 was for physical training as it had a lot of dummies to punch, No 3 to 5 were for teams, No 6 to 8 were for ninjutsu training as they were pretty much battlefields, they were always decimated and blown up by one technique or another and had to be fixed all the time. Someone took the time to rebuild the rock formations and plant the trees, a lot of Doton users and Senju must’ve been occupied with keeping those grounds in check. Mana had never visited No 8 to 12, but there were twelve grounds in total.

Sensei was already waiting for the three. His hands went through a couple of handseals and an identical copy appeared out of the lake nearby. The man looked at his clone and grinned with half of his mouth, “This is a clone of mine, he is many times inferior to the original, I’d say my own physical abilities are twice as great as this clone’s and this clone has ten times less chakra than me, if the three of you are able to kill it – I’ll promise you guys that I won’t send you back, if you mess up, I’ll make no such promises. If you annoy me, if one day I’ll feel like you guys aren’t worth the hassle, I’ll just send the three of you back, it could happen at any time so you better win. Don’t worry, I’ll just be standing here.”

As the man signaled the three to begin all three of them did the same thing, dashed towards the nearest bush throwing a barrage of shuriken at the clone, Mana was too busy rushing for a safe hiding spot to see how the clone did with such an overwhelming barrage of shuriken, loud and deafening clanking of steel suggested that he deflected all of them somehow using a weapon of his own. As the darkness of the thick trees planted one by the other surrounded Mana she carefully peeked at the clone – the weapon he used was a katana in its arm, sensei must’ve been a masterful swordsman so it may not have been too hard for him to deal with these shuriken.

Mana started weighing down her options, her ninjutsu was nothing too impressive, mostly they were relatively harmless techniques that looked pretty so that they could be used for her magic shows. She also did not like that she had no contact or mean to communicate with her teammates, there was no way to coordinate their assault, they may have hidden from the clone but they also hid from each other. Both other boys had very effective clans to set up a diversion: Nara had amazing abilities using their shadows and from what the girl could remember they had awesome displacement abilities, Yuki used the Ice Style just like their name suggested. The young kunoichi realized that her best option was to wait for a diversion and then try to follow it up. Maybe eventually the three will get the feel of the abilities of each other and start to work together well!

Either way, when their opponent was a man who was rumored to have beaten a Sannin in his teenage years, likely being just a bit older than Mana was now, nothing could’ve been taken for certain…

Mana just kept waiting for Sugemi to make the first move, after all, wasn’t his clan so famous for their ability to make complicated plans and being so incredible at enemy displacement and battlefield control? At least such traits were typically given to Nara as the kunoichi could remember a lot about them being told in the Academy. Shimo must’ve been waiting for Sugemi’s move as well as the boy remained still in hiding and did not take any action, most likely thinking similarly to Mana. Despite that, Sugemi not only didn’t make any moves but he also remained outside everyone’s vision.

That was not what both Mana and Shimo did, the smart boy managed to leave a slightly frosted leaf which alerted the most perceptive ninja to his location, the frosted white leaf could not have been seen from the degree of vision where the clone was situated in however Mana could see it. The magician also left a clue about her location by removing a poster that was on a tree near the bush, also visible only from the side but not from upfront, where sensei’s clone was. This was a rather drastic mean of telling teammate of her location as it could’ve been picked up by the enemy too, Mana could’ve just as easily left a carving on the tree bark but she wasn’t as fast, by the time she got to the location the clone had already dealt with the projectiles so she had to improvise.

The clue that Sugemi left either did not exist or couldn’t be picked up by Mana, whether he forgot to leave one deciding to act solo or made it indistinguishable was equally as bad. Now the two that did have general understanding of each other’s locations had no idea where Sugemi was or what he was going to do. To make matters worse, sensei’s clone started moving rather fast to the thick area full of trees making it only a matter of time when one of the three would have been sighted. The clone was rushing but not in a way that made the impression of it being reckless or using too much effort. Just in case Mana’s grip on a kunai she held tightened as she got tenser in order to better perceive the clone’s movements.

Much to the surprise of the magician, lurking a moderate distance further from the clone’s left side, and most likely, to Shimo’s as well, Sugemi decided to rush at sensei’s clone by jumping out at him after the clone got close. The girl was surprised at how fast the clone moved and how close it got to Sugemi’s actual location, almost as if it could accurately sense where Sugemi was. It wasn’t like the clone showed much effort at telling the exact location, it just started heading at the specific direction and probably pressured the boy into attacking as it got too close.

Right as Sugemi leapt at the clone with a kunai in his arm and swung it to leave a wide gash, aiming at its chest the clone swiftly moved out of harm’s way. He wasted no moves as he positioned himself right behind the boy, quickly grabbing the boy’s wrist with one arm and his head with the other and then lifting his arm in the air applying pressure while slamming the boy’s head to the ground. “Your movements were so loud that I got an audible clue as to where you hid yourself, where your teammates tried to move fast but also silently, you just ran rustling every patch of grass and breaking all the twigs around, you didn’t leave any clues for your team to your location either despite having most time to do so since you didn’t bother about being silent.”

Tanshu-sensei’s voice was angry and annoyed, it wasn’t that Sugemi’s mistake was such a simple one, Mana herself was never a prodigy in stealthy movement and was just as stealthy as anyone else in her class were. It didn’t look like Shimo was any more of a stealthy fellow as his clue was currently quite visible from the clone’s current location so he was likely to be the clone’s second target. Sugemi yelled out in pain as he made a handseal, “Shadow Tendril Technique!” he yelled out as an appendage shot out from under his jacket and went after the clone, this was not a Nara technique that Mana had ever seen before – that shadow didn’t come out from the shadow on the ground but it came from inside his jacket. This was quite a revelation how inventive true masters of clan techniques become compared to common knowledge about them.

Sugemi’s attack was quite effective too, it would’ve forced the clone to let go of the boy buying him time or doing some amount of damage if it hit. Unluckily for him, sensei did not let go of his arm, his clone just leapt sideways doing a flip to the side to avoid the tendril. Sugemi shouted out wildly – clone’s movement must’ve done something with his arm, it could’ve dislocated a shoulder or messed it up pretty bad but the boy was definitely out. This clone was brutal, it barely pulled any punches and it fought to incapacitate, there wasn’t a lesson to be learnt, no hidden point of the training – the clone was just out of their blood.

Mana couldn’t stand around, she threw the kunai at the clone without waiting to see what he’d do with the injured boy, the genin rushed recklessly at the clone trying to get to her enemy faster than the kunai that she threw, obviously unsuccessfully but she didn’t want to waste time. After getting to the man the girl observed him deflect her kunai with the side of his palm - she probably threw it incorrectly due to stress and concern over her teammate’s well-being.

Mana didn’t even attempt to fight the clone up close, back at Hanada estate she struggled to keep up with casual mercenaries that were swarming the woods outside the village walls, there was no way she’d keep up with the clone. The genin simply jumped onto his raised arm and using his wrist as a platform leapt over the man throwing an explosive kunai into his back, one advantage of fighting a clone was that she didn’t have to worry over the clone’s life. The clone caught the kunai, why? Didn’t he see the tag on it? Either way, Mana made the handseal and tried to set it off.

Nothing happened… How? Why? Mana could set off tags easily, it was one of few common techniques that she used, it wasn’t an actual jutsu to Mana, but just a way to use her tools so even to her twisted wish to only use techniques she herself invented it was fair game. The clone looked annoyed, maybe it did something? What sort of a trick could he have pulled? How could he just negate Mana’s technique like that? Even worse, the girl felt that her chakra was reduced, she clearly set it off properly but nothing happened. This clone apparently was strong enough to use techniques, but this was not like any technique that Mana had seen.

At least the magician bought her comrade some time to escape – even with his injured arm, Sugemi was nowhere to be seen. Tanshu grunted out, “Well well, I didn’t really want to use it like that. That’s right, your gut is telling you the truth, I negated your technique. All those stories of me beating a Sannin in my teen years are true and this is how I did it – a seal of my own invention that negates ninjutsu techniques and special abilities by interrupting the user’s chakra flow, it’s sort of a mixture of genjutsu and ninjutsu. You weren’t supposed to see it as I don’t usually honor kids like you by showing it.”

Now it made sense, a lot of things did, the Sannin that Tanshu must’ve faced as a teenager must’ve relied heavily on some sort of ability, sensei must’ve just used his seal and negated it bringing the two ninja to equal ground by forcing them both to fight physically, Tanshu was just a superior kenjutsu or taijutsu user… Still, Mana was just like that Sannin in his past, she relied incredibly on her techniques, genjutsu and ninjutsu. Now like this her only hope of beating the clone was destroyed. Tanshu-sensei’s clone stretched out and pulled out his katana again…

“Truth be told, I expected this, YOU of all people ruining your team’s chances to victory…” the man spoke up as he took a fighting stance. Mana was too intimidated to take a defensive stance or prepare a weapon to try and fight back – this was over, even if he only used the technique out of instinct for that one moment… The fact that such a technique existed at all made the girl lose all her wish to fight, still, she didn’t understand what the man meant so she looked at him with a confused and scared look, the way that a child who doesn’t know any better looks at their parents when they do something stupid and make fools of themselves in public.

“I attacked that idiot-otaku on purpose, don’t you get it yet?” Tanshu smiled as he jumped forward thrusting the handle of his katana hitting Mana in the solar plexus, the girl coughed up and collapsed, the clone was so incredibly fast! And the real sensei claimed that this was only a fraction of his true physical abilities, so that was how Uzumaki Tanshu fought, he negated any special abilities of his enemies and kept the fight purely physical and built his body to be the best physical body of any ninja automatically granting him victory over any kind of opponent.

Even worse – Mana understood now, she understood what he meant and she wanted to yell it out, to alert Shimo but she couldn’t because the attack left her without an ounce of oxygen and she struggled to catch a breath just to keep conscious on the ground. Tanshu attacked Sugemi first because he knew of Mana’s ideals – to protect all life, he knew that if he hurt Sugemi rough enough she’d jump out at him and he also knew somehow of Shimo’s obsession with girls, maybe he observed the kids before Hokage showed up, maybe he read it from Shimo’s Academy reports. Now he had all three kids, all of them attacked him and all he had to do was take them out.

“YOU BASTARD LEAVE MANA-CHAN ALONE!!!” the voice of comrade that anyone would normally be pleased to hear came from the woods as a barrage of shuriken flew Tanshu, the man’s katana swung in a circle to deflect all of them, then the barrage intensified, “Multi-Shuriken Technique!” Shimo yelled out as the shuriken he quickly emptied his pouch by throwing shuriken at incredible rates, still, Tanshu deflected them near effortlessly. A loud “Heh” came from the boy as he made another handseal. “Glaciation Technique!” he yelled out as a small puddle which Tanshu’s leg was in instantly froze leaving his shoe entombed in it.

“Multi-Kunai Technique!” Shimo yelled as he emptied his kunai as well, Mana knew he planned to mix in some explosive ones too and set them off when deflected because it only made sense. Shimo was the smartest kid out of the three, he knew that if shuriken barrage made little difference to Tanshu, so would’ve kunai, even with this small entrapment he devised using his Yuki technique. Either way, the kunai didn’t set off, sensei’s clone must’ve used that chakra disrupting seal again. It was still unclear how it worked but it completely blew into both Mana’s and Shimo’s faces.

Within a fraction of a moment sensei’s clone jumped right up to Shimo’s face, forcing his leg out of the shoe that was frozen in the small puddle, and thrust at his throat using the side of his palm. The boy fell down on the ground struggling with breath, sensei then quickly turned and threw his katana at a tree, a loud thud was heard and Sugemi’s shout of pain came moments later. The boy tried to use the wire to climb up the tree using just one arm that he had working, sensei used the katana to cut that wire and made Sugemi fall down and injure himself even more. The clone stood by the tree and relaxed, locking his arms around his chest as the real sensei walked up to the beaten kids. Out of all people he stood by Mana, he was right, it was all her fault.

“People like you are not suitable to be ninja, ninjutsu is an art to kill, jutsu are tools of death. Using your techniques for laughs and entertainment is pathetic. Going easy on your enemies because you’re afraid to kill them is even more pathetic.” the man spoke in a condescending tone looking at Mana as she struggled to get back at her feet from above. The magician picked herself up and looked sensei in the eyes, with just a short distance separating them. “I don’t care, ninjutsu is a gift that I am given, it is up to me how I use it…” she moaned out through pain. The real sensei punched her in the stomach with his palm making the kid fall down again.

“You should be glad that you’re hearing this from me, I am saving your life by making you quit, most fools hear it from their opponent’s blades as they go through their hearts or even worse – hearts of their comrades. Right now, there is nothing stopping me from killing your friends and it would all be YOUR fault because they lost because of YOUR inability to act calm and rationally.” the man spoke as the clone picked up Shimo’s weightless body and placed a kunai to his throat. “People like you are a danger to themselves and their friends, a danger to loyal and skilled ninja that are an asset of the village, out of all ninja, I hate ninja like you the most. Luckily enough I have the means to stop you from becoming a ninja before you make a mistake like this in the field…”

After letting this be known Tanshu started walking back to the field of grass, most likely intending to head to the village. If the three of them lost, that meant that he had the right to return all three of them to the Academy at any point, meaning even right now if he felt like it! “To be fair, I never intended to stick with you guys, you’re always a pain in my side, you’d always be. I’ll save your lives by returning you back the moment I have the right to, just like I planned to all along.” their sensei said as a final farewell before Mana finally managed to pick herself up on her feet again.

“Stoooop! I’m up! We didn’t lose yet!” she shouted out, “Sure maybe this is my fault, maybe you modeled this fight after focusing on me as the weak link… But if I can get stronger… I can stop this from happening, I can protect my teammates and my enemies, defeat my enemies without killing them, no matter the means…” another painful impulse forced the girl down on her back, she couldn’t open her eyes because they were full of tears. She could feel a sharp kick in her side, then another, sensei wasn’t really trying to hurt her, he was trying to make it so painful that Mana would shut up. Still, he had strong morals and upheld the rules that he made, he didn’t just declare their loss and leave, he wanted to actually win, make his opponents acknowledge it. That in itself was admirable.

“That’s what every stupid brat thinks, that they’re some legendary hero who can make every enemy into their friend, that the world is about holding hands and singing songs but the truth is – world is about killing your enemy before they get the chance to hurt someone you care about, before they burn your village down and kill the people inside. That’s my ninja way, the ONLY ninja way. World out there is kill or be killed, until you don’t accept that I won’t accept you as my student.” the man stopped kicking and turned around again, Mana coughed up some blood and started slowly rising again. This wasn’t a fight, this was sensei trying to test how hard Mana stood by her beliefs, she wasn’t going to stop, she’d rather die!

“I know the enemy wants to kill me, all the time…” sensei kicked her back down again, “But I don’t care… I’ll fight them but won’t kill them…” Mana grunted out through pain as the man kept kicking, he wasn’t using his real strength, the clone stroke much harder than this before. “Wait, you’re fighting Mana-chan, not the clone! That means we won! You said you wouldn’t interfere!!!” Shimo yelled out of the top of his lungs, somehow managing to stand up while this little chat took place. Tanshu slapped his forehead with his palm, “Shit… You got me… Damn, this girl is kinda smart, how much of this did you plan ahead?” the man asked as Shimo smiled and jumped up and down couple of times “I bet Mana-chan was planning it all along, since the “Life is magical” speech!” he added.

Mana stood up and fixed her clothes that were now all dirty and messed up, “I planned none of this, I really meant what I said about life, every word of it and it just sort of happened…” the girl could feel pain all over her back and chest. Tanshu turned around and shouted out in pure misery, “Shit, I’m stuck with you losers… Now I’ll have to torture you guys until you quit yourselves, you just made it worse for yourselves…” the man said as he started heading for the village again. A loud laugh came from somewhere in the bushes, where Sugemi was down for the count.

Mana could barely remember how she got home, the three all helped each other and all three of them needed a checkup, luckily enough Mana’s father was a ninja and knew how to do some basic field treatment. “So Tanshu-san is your sensei?” he asked later that evening as he was patching daughter’s injuries, her whole body was covered with blunt traumas and bruises. “Yeah, you know him?” Mana asked as her father rarely used honorifics especially the respectful ones. “Worked with him couple of times… He’s a piece of work but he always gets his team home, at the very least your mother and I will always know you’ll be back alive.” the man laughed. The magician just sighed, still, she was quite excited about her team – stronger pressure from her superior only means she’ll grow up to be that much stronger!

A couple of days had passed since the brutal test that the team went through. The time between then and now was not spent in vain, Mana strained herself, while still recovering, to somehow become both a stronger ninja and a better stage magician. The girl kept both training her physical shape, doing so by jogging in the mornings, beating on the dummies in the training grounds, and mental and spiritual side by meditating. To a ninja one's mind and spirit was just as important as muscles. Chakra was just as important and chakra manipulation depended heavily on mastery over emotions, sometimes when Mana was under stress she wasted loads of chakra on techniques that were seemingly simple.

Over time the girl discovered a new trait about herself, more specifically, about the body of a ninja. Whenever a body used chakra it had a tiny fraction of it stuck in the system, normally that wouldn't be worth noticing but apparently body gained certain memory of techniques one used and automatically adjusted one's chakra levels. What this meant was that after one's chakra control improved significantly they had loads of chakra left over in their system being wasted. What the girl imagined was that with enough of a push she could force that chakra out, it would be stressful for her body as it wasn't used to larger than usual amounts of chakra but in time it could be tricked by making it believe that the amount of chakra was natural, achieving higher chakra level as a result.

One day the kunoichi tried this, she sat down and concentrated hard, allowed her mind to slip away into a meditational stage of complete awareness of her own body. That was how the genin managed to overcome her mental condition as a child – by meditating and reaching a stage of complete awareness of her own condition. With a slight nudge and communication with one's own body, a lot of problems could be fixed, obviously the girl's mastery of this sort of meditation was not yet great enough to overcome poisons and diseases, but perhaps one day even such amazing feats would be possible through meditation alone!

The only reason why Mana trained so incredibly hard was because she felt she had the responsibility to do so. She wished to preserve all life, even that of her enemies, because of that she was weaker than her peers, the girl understood that. For that reason she had a disadvantage, to catch up to her peers she had to train harder, to become so much stronger that her kindness doesn't hold her back. To become so strong that next time someone tries to hurt her friends by exploiting that – she'd be able to surprise them. It may have been viewed as a disadvantage in combat but to Mana it was a necessary one, she'll always love life and wish to preserve it, try to avoid violence and fighting when possible.

All that training did not go to waste, the kunoichi could feel that she's gotten stronger, not by a significant margin but if she kept up the pace, one day she'll get there! She may never reach a level of Tanshu-sensei, but she didn't want to, Mana didn't want to be the strongest or the best ninja ever. All that she wanted to do was to preserve life so that maybe one day people around her no longer laughed from this ideal but joined in on it, to do everything so that when Mana died she'd have left a better world than she found, one where people's lives did not go to waste, one where a life meant something.

Over the several days of training Mana learned another thing – Mr. Hiro, the owner of the stage she was renting for her magic shows, was right – once the word of her shows started spreading more and more people started coming, suddenly empty seats no longer poked Mana's eyes so hard and the little money that she charged for entrance started to make more than she needed to pay the rent, the bonus she'd be getting as a ninja would add to it even more… The downside was that for the first time in her life Mana was getting short on time, her life as a ninja and her life as a stage magician did not clash directly just yet, but eventually they might.

Finally after long several days a letter came, it was from the Hokage Administration and it described the four as "Team Oak" and told them to come to the Administration building for a briefing for their mission. This was exciting but also a bit scary, on one hand Mana would get to see Shimo and Sugemi again, on the other the mission might get crazy and all of them may get hurt again. Recovering from those bruises and traumas even with advanced ninja recovery rate wasn't fun. Also, due to her recent success in magic shows people started to recognize her on the streets more. Usually villagers sort of knew each other and a weird girl like Mana was bound to stand out, since lives were lost so often in this world people kept tight bonds with each other, especially if their friend was a ninja because killing another ninja was not only normal but also an honor. This was only one of the things that Mana desired would change over her lifetime…

When the day of briefing came the girl got an unexpected knock on the door, neither father nor mother were home: father was out on a mission and mother was working early in the café. Father used to tell stories to Mana when she was younger about how her mother was from a tribe of wandering ninja that had a knack for entertainment but also making money. Maybe that's why mother was so successful in her small business, maybe some of those genes helped the girl out with her own shows too, maybe it was all her legacy. No! Mana didn't want to only be good because some part of her is a descendant of some weird group of travelers that made money, Mana wanted to earn money and love of the villagers using her own charm and skills. But what really was that? How could she know what was actually her and what's her legacy from that bedtime story group? It was possible that the tribe was made up, father never told Mana much more about it anyways…

Behind the door stood Shimo, he looked alright and pretty happy, had a wide grin on his face and after fixing his glasses he asked Mana for the pleasure to walk her to the Administration building. To some girls such behavior would look weird, it'd raise suspicion that the boy might be into them but Mana saw Shimo for over five years in the Academy, he was like this to most girls all the time. He may have been super weird now, but that was only because he only had one girl around to be weird with. Mana took her jacket with her and rushed out with her teammate to the location. It wouldn't have been decent to be late for their mission briefing even if their sensei would be the one to do the talking.

"I hope you don't feel too bad about that training?" Shimo asked on the way, he was strangely talkative today. "I think sensei was just mean and said what he said because he didn't like you, but I was just as much to blame for our butts being kicked as you were, you may have cared about Sugemi's life but I was too concerned over yours, my love for the ladies is just as bad as your wish to save lives…" it was strange how more excited and even possibly stronger Shimo looked, it was just like several days ago Mana and her teammates were children but now they didn't really look like children. In a world where children were hired to kill other children that got in the way of the mission, they looked like warriors if anything, Mana probably couldn't look like a killer even if she put on a creepy festival mask and wielded a scythe…

"Thanks for the concern but… I'd never blame something for what I did and say. I walked by the path I set for myself as a ninja, I just wish that I would be just the same no matter how rough things got." Mana replied smiling back at her teammate. At that moment she could see it, getting close to these guys, just like her father casually meets his old friends from his old days as a ninja as well as new ones. Drinking and talking about old days… It all seemed like it was going to happen one day and they didn't even start working yet. It was strange thinking of how things would end before they even begun.

Shimo was surprised by how many people recognized Mana, there were even a couple of children that stopped by and spoke to her, cheered her on and asked when the next show would be. "That's really awesome" he said, "but don't you think this will get in the way, I mean if everyone around the village knows your face? Won't it make working as a ninja harder?" Mana thought for a moment, Shimo raised a valid point, ninja were supposed to be stealthy and hidden, having her face known around the place would make it hard to work in Konoha, if her fame ever spread beyond the village it'd be really hard to work outside the village too. People wouldn't take her seriously and think that she's less of a ninja just because she's a little star of the entertainment world…

Before the girl got her chance to answer however the Administration building came into view, Shimo didn't look as interested in getting his answer as he wanted to get inside and he rushed at the building. It didn't need any saying that he had to open the door for Mana and then several more ladies that came after her and hold it for every lady passing through. While it was kind of cute, the two could have been late so the magician gently took Shimo by his elbow and dragged him to the fourth floor where the Hokage's office was. Sugemi was nowhere to be seen but Tanshu-sensei was waiting on a small seat near the office.

"Good, you got here, where's the otaku-guy?" he asked, it was quite likely that he'll never learn their names, but then he nodded at the kunoichi and pointed at her with his chin, "You OK, Mana? You're Tsukumo's kid, aren't you?" after the magician nodded the man scratched his forehead, "Too bad, your father has to be the best Chuunin I know, I thought he deserved a less stubborn and stupid brat." Shimo laughed out, "You must really secretly like her, you just called Mana-chan by her name!" It didn't look like sensei was too pleased by this observation, or to be honest, any observation Shimo had made, as it was because of his observation that he got stuck with them to begin with but the fact that he called the genin by her name suggested that he may have cared enough to memorize their names, he just rarely used them.

Finally Sugemi came, just several minutes late but in no rush whatsoever, still reading his manga but it really was no surprise at this point. His arm was probably stuck in a book holding position as he slept… "Well, time for our grinding chores before we are trusted by the village to do actual missions, can't wait for one of them to go wrong or secretly be a ruse so that we can show the village how cool we are…" Sugemi spoke in a dull tone with a dreamy smile over his manga, he didn't even look at his teammates. Truth be told, he looked pretty good for a guy that had his arm messed up just several days ago. Even for a ninja healing a broken or dislocated bone in several days was quite impressive.

Tanshu grunted something out and entered first, leaving the door open for the rest to come through. Shimo didn't disappoint and gestured that Mana walked in first as he held the door. Had the magician not seen this behavior for years in the Academy it would've been getting annoying at this point. Just as expected – Sugemi didn't even look at the Hokage, he just kept eating up his manga with his eyes. For a moment it seemed like Hokage was confused by it but then he just let go of it, children that are taught to kill silently in their early years often end up a little weird and to be honest this whole team was a team of weirdos…

"I hope you guys aren't expecting to save the world just yet… These will be your jobs for today." Hokage said as he pushed a bunch of files forward on the table. He looked at Tanshu-sensei with a confusing stare as if encouraging him to pick them up but the man instead just walked up to them and read them, he looked annoyed but then again – he always did. "You won't be taking the files with you?" Hokage asked when sensei replied rudely, "I've got better things to do than carry a bunch of papers with chores in them, it's because I owe you that I got into this mess, Howoku." It was really rude to address Hokage by his name, without even a single honorific, his assistant looked really shocked and almost dropped his own share of files and his glasses. Hokage laughed out and let them go, Shimo did pick up the files just in case.

Inside the files were a bunch of chores: gardening, cleaning dishes at Ichiraku Ramen, doing some tax and finance paper work for some shop, sorting out tools and weapons in the weapon shop, filing all the confiscated illegal objects in Police Force building. Sugemi didn't seem too happy about it, he had every reason to, for a boy who put so much love into his manga he even bothered to read the files and didn't see anything to his fancy, "What the hell?! At this rate I'll never have a manga written about me!" he yelled out, "What's the point of those useless missions! No one remembers or cares about people that clean dishes!" he shouted out in a questioning tone at sensei, expecting without a doubt a nugget of wisdom from his superior. Tanshu shrugged.

"No point at all…" Shimo and Mana couldn't hold a laugh inside of them, these jobs really didn't annoy the girl at all, she was used to small errands like this to make her childish money as a kid while she was in the Academy, this was just the same except these will go to her dossier as a ninja. While it didn't help her own dream of making her appreciation of life and love around the world, it was however certainly a useful bunch of errands, helping people was something that the magician was always willing to do. "Come on, Shimo, let's go home! This is stupid!" Sugemi grunted out throwing one of the files on the ground, only for the white haired Yuki boy to pick it up. "Nah, we need to get through those to become real ninja." Shimo answered placing the file in between two others.

"Out of all people I expected the richboy and the starlet to wish to do those jobs the least… This could be pretty interesting." Sensei grinned. He was sort of right, one would think that the son to a rare and powerful clan, an heir to two separate businesses in the village and a girl that was a rising star in village entertainment would be the first ones to complain about washing the damned dishes. At least sensei found his own sick way of enjoying this, if he was happy he was less likely to get into clash of ideals with Mana. Sugemi kicked a can and yelled out, still a bit embarrassed of his words. "All right, new plan! I'll be so good at washing those dishes that they'll make a dish-washing manga about me, then I can realize my nindo first and laugh from you all from the top! Let's go you two, you won't get in the way of my dish-washing manga!" Sugemi yelled out looking back at Mana and Shimo as the two nodded and followed him.

"Wait… You guys can't be serious… Excited over some errands…" Tanshu-sensei laughed out and fastened the pace as Ichiraku Ramen was just by the corner. The owner looked really excited, the place was a famous fast food place in the village and it got a lot of greasy dishes accumulating and the owner's daughter couldn't really handle them alone. Everyone knew that Ichiraku Ramen commonly hired young ninja to do their dishes but this time it was bad – apparently the ninja that were supposed to do these dishes were sent back to Academy so now even more dishes piled up. After seeing the endless columns Sugemi moaned out, "Wow, with that amount of dishes you'd think they'd bump up the rank of the mission! How is this D-Rank?!" Shimo mockingly smiled "What's the matter? I thought you'll have a manga written about your mad dish washing skills, won't work if I wash more! I guess I'll be the one getting manga!"

"Shut up, you womanizing-bastard! Don't you dare take from my pile, mine is this one and that one and that one, all plates on the ground are MINE!" Sugemi yelled out grabbing every plate and swiping it with unseen devotion. Mana had to hand it to Shimo – he really was a genius and he wasn't even the Nara on the team. Tanshu relaxed by the wall and smiled, one wouldn't have believed that he was annoyed at this very moment at all – "Well well, I guess you losers will be pretty fun after all…" he spoke silently.

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!

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!

After a short stroll lasting about a good half an hour Team Oak finally reached the fenced off training grounds with the unfortunate name of "Forest of Death". As far as first impressions were concerned to Mana the name may not have been too far off - the whole place looked like this thick and dark clump with trees growing so large and thick that inside the area there must've been little to no sunlight. There were strange sounds and smells coming off of the place, the whole grounds were surrounded by a large fence with warning signs and Mana could already see guards standing around and protecting the area.

Seeing the Forest of Death made the little magician draw a comparison between the environment found inside and the world outside the village. From what was seen so far Forest of Death was a place where the weak got no sunlight and therefore died, in addition, seeing how only the tallest and the largest got any sunlight at all it forced the trees to either grow in strength and size or perish, just like in the ninja world. The animals inside must've functioned similarly, living in survival of the fittest kind of environment. Out of everything that could've been found inside that iron cage, Mana was afraid of exposure to that sort of life the most.

"Don't worry, Mana-chan, I'll watch your back, just don't move far from me!" Shimo spoke up in a fake heroic tone, the one you heard coming from over glorified patriotic figures in historic plays. Mana's right eye twitched, she wasn't a violent girl but sometimes she just wanted to let her fists loose. She knew that outbursts of this strange gentleman behavior were common to Shimo but she still couldn't help but get annoyed every time he did it. Still, he couldn't really have been blamed - Mana's worry over the kind of harsh rules she'd see inside must've translated to him as overall fear of entry.

As Tanshu-sensei went on to speak with the guard and introduce them to the Hokage order to grant them entry, Mana thought to herself, the conclusion that she's drawn was that she wasn't afraid of entering - quite the opposite. She was excited, excited about getting to show off once in a while, excited about the chance to protect the animals from the rules of nature they lived by. After all, if she can protect a small-scale version of the world as she imagined it, wouldn't that make protecting the actual world much easier? Depending on how this would go Mana would see how she'd fare on the outside world the way she was and that excited her. Even if she failed, knowledge of failure and why it happened to her was better than no knowledge at all.

The guard of the place looked a bit strange, she wore pretty thick glasses, a baggy hat and that strange cloak that covered half of her shoulders. Observing Mana's interest in the guard Shimo once again butted in, "I think that's the protection from insect swarms or something... I guess being so close to the forest in the evenings got to be cruel - mosquitoes are probably everywhere." "Or the weaker species, insects are light and travel in packs, if they get pushed out of their habitat a fence won't stop them from leaving the Forest in search of a new spot to live in, if that happens it would suck to be in their way..." Mana replied. That did help her get to a new question - did the animals ever escape? From all the stories everyone told about this place it seemed weird that just a thick and tall fence was enough to keep them all in...

"Well, I've got entry permission. Let's just hope we don't have to stay overnight, the lady said that mosquitoes are horrible this time of year, specially round those parts." Tanshu-sensei spoke as he came back and showed them a small stamp of approved entry. The four of them all gathered around tightly and entered through the open gate. Almost the instant that the gate closed behind them total darkness enveloped everything. "Dang it, can't read anything like this..." Sugemi said, pulling out a flashlight from his backpack and turning it on in order to read the manga.

Shimo apparently got a peek into the boy's bag, "What the hell, Sugemi!? That bag is filled with manga? You brought a flashlight?! Did you bring water? Clothes? Something to make fire with?!" The Nara kept reading his magazine completely ignoring his friend, responding with ignorance and completely nonchalantly. "Nah, I figured you guys would take care of it, I just brought bunch of manga and a flashlight... I was really smart to take a flashlight, didn't really know I'd need it but I had a feeling, I guess I'm just smart up here..." Sugemi replied tapping his head several times. Mana's puny knuckle smacked him in the head, "The hell you are!" she grunted out.

Tanshu interrupted their small fight, "No, the flashlight is actually great, we can keep track of the map at all times like this." The man slid the old and torn up map onto the upper corner of Sugemi's manga and asked the boy to keep them updated, just in case he showed them where the entrance is and where they are now, right by it. Then Tanshu explained where the archive was supposed to be. "You can read your stupid manga, just keep us updated once in a while." Tanshu instructed, this behavior was strange, Mana would have never taken Tanshu-sensei as the compromising type of person. Why was her ideal the only one he couldn't compromise with?

Sugemi nodded and pointed at the direction they had to go, the three started walking that direction. The forest was incredibly hot, all those trees provided constant shade but somehow they also kept the little warm air it got inside circulating. Within the same hour they entered Mana could already smell their sweat breaking through, the problem was that Mana's nose wasn't really that sharp which meant that the animals definitely could smell it. Be it wolves, snakes, bears or whatever lived here - the four were an open menu for them and with a guide that was interested in his manga more than the marked animal migration and mating zones and river passes they could've been in trouble.

It was incredibly strange that no animals attacked them, as the squad kept walking on there was not a single animal in sight, even more - they actively tried to hide from the squad. Why was this place even called Forest of Death anyways? Once Mana looked straight up and saw a gigantic boa slithering the hell away from the four, one the size easily letting him break the bones of all four of them, the girl finally got the clue. "It's you, Tanshu-sensei, isn't it? We felt that strange killing intent first time we met you but up to now we've been around you for so long that we barely notice it. These animals however are scared of their lives and that's why no one attacks us..."

The man grinned slightly, Shimo looked really amazed, "Wow, how could one get this kind of feeling to their chakra?! I want animals and people to be crapping their pants just out of mere sight of me too, then no one will be oppressing anyone while I'm around!" the boy shot a knuckle into the sky. That was right, Shimo's objective was to become strong, strong enough so that no one oppressed people, like the Mizukage oppressed his family when he was a child, while he was around, he wanted to prevent stories like that of his family where entire families had to flee in fear of their life. In a way his objective was very much like Mana's except his objective actually had a possibility of being achieved...

"There's no way to get it, you just have to be cool, that's it..." Tanshu replied with a cocky look. "I'll let you in on a secret that'll help you get there - you actually have to visualize yourself killing the person that you're looking at, that'll give you the killer's eyes. People think that they only see what they see, but never met a man that doesn't know when I'm not itching to murder him when I am. It'll protect a lot more lives like this than stupid "care for your enemy" attitude." Tanshu also found an opportunity to bite Mana too. From Shimo's weird faces whole way since then, Mana just took that he was actually practicing the killer's stare...

Finally the four reached a pretty wide river, Sugemi barely even noticed it so he just started walking straight into it as Tanshu's strong arm gripped him by his collar and dragged his lazy butt back. The man without saying a word pulled a bag of unprepared meat using his sword and put it into water, removing it within a second only to reveal it being covered with leeches that quickly fell off. "This meat has no blood circulation but those leeches still grab onto it, at this point it's surprising how they haven't leeched off each other. Getting in there is to actively commit suicide, you'd get drained of blood in minutes." Now Mana realized father's advice of keeping out of water.

It took the squad quite some time to find a small pass, the pass in question also was several wooden boards tossed over the river, making the heart of the girl jump in her chest with every step. Tanshu-sensei of course just had to taunt them by jumping over the river. He did it with such ease that to Mana it seemed apparent that he could've simply jumped over several times carrying them on his back with just as little problem. He must've really enjoyed the fear in genin's faces as they crossed the slow streaming river begging whatever forces above that the puny boards don't break.

"We've reached the area." Sugemi unexpectedly declared after walking for just little bit more from the river. The exact location of the archive was not marked which meant that they had to explore the whole area and to find the entrance to the archive, apparently it was supposed to be a small pyramid around two or three meters tall, made from old mossy stone and strange hieroglyphs all over it. Tanshu-sensei scratched his head and had a pretty strange look on his face, "I think it'd be better if we split up, if each of us went to check one quarter of the area we'd find the place faster, I really don't plan of sharing my blood with mosquitoes at night, we'll have to finish our mission before sunset which means we got couple of hours at best."

Mana couldn't believe it, what kind of plan was that? Splitting up in a place like this? That's basically same as suicide! Sensei then made a handseal and made three clones. "These will follow you wherever you go, they'll scare the animals away so you can stop acting like scaredy-cats now." Despite the fact that Tanshu made all of those clones, the idea still seemed incredibly stupid and it appeared like sensei wanted to get them killed. Shimo looked just as displeased, Sugemi was the only one who apparently didn't care but that was most likely because he didn't understand a word sensei said over his manga. The fact that he was slobbering indicated it must've been something dirty.

"No. We can do it." Mana unexpectedly turned around on her thoughts, Shimo looked at her strange, the magician went on to explain. "We've got nothing to lose - if we find the place we find it faster than we'd do moving together, if we don't and get attacked - we'll be out of our comfort zone and have to push our abilities to survive, the thing is that it's the point of those simple missions. We need to be ready for this sort of thing. We need to be strong in order to fulfil our dreams: I need to be able to protect sensei's clone and myself if I can ever hope to protect the whole world and change it for the better, Shimo needs to be at least strong enough to fend off from some animals to see to it that the weak aren't oppressed, Sugemi, what better way is there for your manga to be written than if you tell the tale of a huge scuffle with a gigantic animal in the Forest of Death?"

Shimo grinned with full teeth and raised his fist in the air, "I get it, survival drill!" Sugemi put his manga back to his backpack and nodded. "I'm never gonna stop trying to make my chance at a manga! That is my ninja way!" Shimo turned around and looked at the western part of the forest, "Only now did I realize how dumb my goal is." he said, "If Mana-chan is there to protect the weak, of course they won't be oppressed by the strong... Then again, how can I know for sure that the people won't be oppressed by the strong, unless I'm the strong one handing out justice? From this day on, I declare my dream to be to become Hokage. I won't trust this position to anyone else but myself! Becoming Hokage is the prime way to ensure that the Kage don't oppress the people!" he declared and dashed forward into the western part of the forest after giving his team a huge confident smile with a wink.

Mana giggled, she was glad to see her teammates so inspired. She herself also headed to the one of the two directions left to cover. She wanted this - a chance to show her growth, to prove to sensei that she wasn't just a silly kid, talking about her dreams while having no strength to back it up. Deep inside the magician also knew that her teammates were the same, sure, hearing Shimo deciding to become Hokage was cheesy, every kid in the Academy had that very same dream, Sugemi's quest of getting his own manga was really silly, he kept mentioning characters from manga which Mana didn't even know existed, at least she never found them in the manga shops she checked just out of curiosity. Still, those were her teammates' silly dreams and she was going to stand with them every step of the way!

"You gotta teach me how to do that, make them do things you want them to do..." Tanshu-sensei's clone spoke from behind Mana, having followed her and kept up to her elevated pace. It was quite impressive how even his clones, after splitting sensei's chakra in several parts had that same vibe of absolute death behind them. That told a lot about sensei's strength. Mana grinned back, "It's called motivating people, all you have to do is tell them you believe in them, it helps when you actually believe in their dreams." Tanshu's clone laughed, "I do believe. I believe that Shimo might become Hokage one day, after all I was told that Fourth was just the same kind of snotty brat in the Academy, I believe Sugemi can have his own manga, if he had any actual brain in that Nara head of his he'd write one himself... What I don't believe is your dream, you're going to die or you're going to change."

This personal problem with Mana's dream confused her, why was sensei so obsessed with people that wanted to prevent death and that wanted to make people value life? Why was giving life worth some sort of heresy that needed to be changed with such rage and distrust? Maybe sensei just had someone in his life, someone who was like Mana and died before they could realize their dream. "Say... Tanshu-sensei... Why are you so angry at me? Did you have someone in your life that thought like me? Is it perso..." Mana turned back only to see that sensei was no longer there. "nal..." she finished the word as she realized how screwed she was.

Why would sensei leave her? A loud yell echoed through the forest, it didn't worry Mana because it was an intelligible "Oy" coming from the west - Shimo's location and the sound matched his voice. Sensei must've ordered his clones to abandon them, did he want them to die?! Just as Mana wondered what she was to do she heard a loud rustle, suddenly the ground itself started to bump with the smaller pebbles being thrown up just an inch and the leaves getting picked up. It was a fast and continuous burst of tremors - like a machine-gun. After just a mere moment the nearest young birch broke in half revealing a gigantic centipede behind it, it had to be at least three times Mana's size.

Somewhere west, a loud roar caught Shimo by surprise, the boy pulled a kunai out of his pouch and readied himself for a battle - the future Hokage couldn't be stopped here after all! Luckily the kunai was placed in the boy's hand just in time as a tiger far too large to be your ordinary tiger jumped out. The animal had to be the biggest species of tiger to survive in this environment and soon the big cat would test its mettle against a young ninja of Konohagakure.

To the east of Shimo's location, Sugemi kept frantically turning his flashlight around examining the floor for remnants of stone floor. His quest was cut short by a large tail wrapping around his waist and pulling him up into the tree. The Nara couldn't really tell what it was but that thing was crushing his chest and he had to escape in order to survive. Yes! This animal was just big enough to grant him enough glory for his own personal manga! This was the fight Sugemi wanted. As the large mouth of a boa appeared out of the cover of the leaves it didn't see a scared boy, it saw a genin itching for a fight with a creature that was as large as possible.

Sensei wanted to test them, they wouldn't deserve the rank of a ninja if they let their mission end here! Team Oak got ready to face their challenges!

The boa tried to bite Sugemi, it was really strong and without a doubt could've crushed the body of not only a young ninja but also a strong and adult one. Luckily enough this was the kind of constrictor that applied force over time, if the snake had crushed the boy outright it would've spent more energy than he'd have gained eating that boy, surviving in such an environment was all about economy, granted, different kind of economy but pretty important one nonetheless. Being well versed in this economy the snake continued to slowly suffocate the boy instead of instantly killing him.

The boa must've also been quite hungry because it targeted Sugemi with a bite, it wasn't likely that this sort of snake would be poisonous but it wanted to draw blood so that the boy lost energy and stopped resisting faster. It was out of sheer luck that Sugemi had one of his hands free, opposing that, it was talent that had him know the art of single hand handseals. With just few quick motions, predicting the bite, Sugemi managed to pull off his "Shadow Tendrils" technique that tied around the boa's mouth with multiple tendrils while several more pushed its head into the tree.

The shock of having one's head slammed into the tree forced the snake's grip to loosen for just a second, that second however was quite enough for Sugemi to slip out of the snake's grasp. The boy quickly leapt down to the ground level using multiple branches as halfway points down. Sugemi pulled out a kunai and started carefully observing the branches above, it was quite likely that the snake had superior speed and would draw blood or capture him again but he was ready for that, the boy was already calculating his own response to an attack faster than he could see.

To the west of where Sugemi was fighting the snake, Shimo and the great tiger were circling around each other. The beast being lead by instinct and hunger instead of logic made the first leap which Shimo dodged and weaved a handseal. The powerful claws of the great cat left a scratch on Shimo's shoulder and a smaller one on his back, it didn't interrupt Shimo's jutsu however as the muddy sludge where the tiger landed turned into ice making the cat slip around powerless. Shimo leapt back and tossed a couple of kunai, he didn't really want to kill the tiger since he was so majestic and great, the boy figured that a couple of injuries would force it to flee.

As the few knives dug into the tiger's back the beast roared in pain, as it was still unable to deal with the ice it just rolled to the side several times until it got to the solid ground, the dirt and rocks on the surface he was rolling on left some more dirty and bloody marks on the tiger's large and powerful body. Unfortunately it never intended to back up. It stood right where it was, it must've been really hungry and this hunt was do or die for it. The beast had already decided to either die or follow this boy until the end of the Earth and Shimo was just to blame for falling in its sight.

Further on, Mana tossed a couple of knives at the giant centipede, trying to see just how tough its armor was and she was unpleasantly surprised - the projectiles easily bounced off of the centipede's armor and fell down on the ground. The insect started rushing at her, it was surprising how fast it was, its mandibles moved to the side, no doubt it wanted to crush Mana's body at the waist and finish her quick. The girl jumped up and weaved some handseals sending her slightly up in the air using her "Mystical Wings" technique, she landed straight on the insect's forehead and made another combination of handseals trying to send a genjutsu at the centipede's way.

If Mana was to protect her enemy by beating them without killing them she had to start with this centipede. In a path of a hero there was no next time so the girl was genuinely ready to die before killing this thing. That was Mana's way, her conviction. Sadly it appeared that a giant centipede lacked the brain centers needed to be affected by Mana's "Scary Trick Jutsu", the genjutsu in question showed the opponent a different version of events, one where Mana died, allowing the girl a quick counterattack or escape. The centipede simply cocked its head backwards hitting the magician with its horn and sending her back off its head, tumbling back on its body, then on the ground.

Mana recovered just in time to avoid an endless barrage of the centipede's feet. He didn't have a hundred of them like the common myth along children went, still, they were tough enough to leave holes in the ground and were coated with the same material that the centipede's tough skull was, had they hit her they'd have impaled her like a blade which wasn't Mana's plan at all. Despite impending death and having to fight for her life, this mission still beat washing dishes and filing... The magician rolled below the centipede to avoid the endless barrage of feet trying to crush her.

Sugemi meanwhile was getting knocked around by the constrictor, the snake decided to play with its prey and bash it around with its head, trying to knock the boy out instead of both instantly crushing it or trying to constrict him. Sugemi was quite decent at taijutsu, something most of Nara peers of his age lacked. After coughing up some blood after being tossed around the Nara pulled out an explosive note and decided to use a trick that he taught himself, used when confronting a stronger but brutish foe. As the snake's giant forehead closed in on Nara he trust his palm with an explosive note forward, relaxing the arm right at the end and letting the snake's head to transfer its force into his palm and spin him around instead of having his tense palm collide with the superior strike. There was no contest of force, just a complete transfer as the force snake gave the Nara threw him to the side helping him dodge.

Before he even got up, the Nara made a simple handseal detonating the seal. As the smoke cleared the damage became apparent, it wasn't as extensive as the boy had wanted - the snake was just a little smoky and completely dazed and confused, but very much intact. The Nara didn't want to strain his chakra reserves anymore but he had to. Just one last attack, one strong do or die. The Nara made the handseals, building up chakra inside of his body with no visual indication to it. Luckily his opponent was just going to take anything he'd throw head on, the attack wasn't something that was easy to land after all...

Shimo was barely tracking the tiger's leaps, he was using two kunai but he didn't have time to inflict any damage. He had a certain degree of bukijutsu mastery and that helped him to perfectly block every leap and paw strike that the tiger threw, sadly he couldn't counter because his hands were completely full trying to defend himself from any further injuries. There was still much that Shimo could've learned in terms of move economy, he still spent too much breath in his moves, too many unnecessary movements and that showed as he spent all of his effort just to keep himself alive.

As good as the boy was, the tiger still found many gaps in the boy's defenses, Shimo was covered with scratches and very shallow teeth marks where the tiger's bites just almost caught the boy. Any of his teammates in his place would've died but Shimo was relentlessly blocking every attack - his kunai knives were covered with scratches, the tiger was strong enough to leave scratches on steel with repeated slashes. Being so overwhelmed was really not where Shimo wanted to be, it was time that he stopped feeling sorry for this tiger. As much as the boy respected Mana's ideals (and wanted to show off to her just to be on her good side), Tanshu-sensei was right - the enemy won't feel sorry for you, you had to finish them off.

Shimo roared loudly as he allowed the tiger's claws to leave more marks but instead he dug his knives in the side of tiger's head. The spot where the tiger was aiming was non-lethal, Shimo's stabs would've been if only... If only the kunai had more reach, more powerful penetration! Now they were stuck in the muscle and barely reached the tiger's blood vessels needed to be cut. Shimo leapt in the air and performed a dropkick aiming at the kunai, the tiger roared and was sent back, not by force but by pain. Still... The beast was bleeding but it was standing. The desired blood vessels were injured but the knives were blocking the blood, they needed to be pulled out. There was no way with his injuries that Shimo could come up with that amount of strength, it would've needed a superhuman to pull those out of the tiger's steel tough muscle tissue. This was it - time to go all out and take this beast down. Shimo weaved a couple of handseals and shot his arms forward as cold icy wind blew at the tiger's direction...

The centipede was doing its best trying to get Mana out from under it - it was turning around frantically trying to leave her exposed and its fears were well justified. Its bottom spot was the soft one, Mana could already make it out that the bottom part of the centipede was unprotected and if she stabbed it with an explosive kunai she'd leave a gigantic hole in the insect's body for its primitive organs to fall out. That wasn't Mana's style. She'll find another way! With all of her puny strength the girl shot an elbow into the centipede's bottom part, it wriggled around. Strange, in the plays when heroes fought giant instects they always made the insects shriek in pain, roar or make a sound, there was none of that.

Mana quickly dived out from under the insect, threw some explosive notes in the air and made a handseal. "Friendly Gust Jutsu!" she yelled as a gust of wind drove all of the explosive notes at the insect. She activated the tags causing a chain reaction of explosions, each of which left powerful dents in the insect's body, it seemed like an explosion was the only concussive force strong enough to leave a dent in that shell. The centipede's armor cracked in many spots, there was some sort of gooey and disgusting liquid coming out of them. The centipede was wriggling around, still refusing to make a sound, it fell down on one side and wriggled around, writhed on the ground as more gooey liquid shot out. Mana was careful not to touch that, not only did she find that thing to be completely icky, but it also could've been acidic, she's read that some larger insects had acidic blood in them and acid burns were deep down in her list of things she needed in her life.

The girl sat by a tree and breathed in and out. This fight was something, she could've used sensei's help but she was a bit proud of herself. The centipede came back to life again and jumped around, trying desperately to stand up. Mana stood up and looked back at it, a true warrior would've killed it... She was told so many times that she was a disgrace and not true warrior, not a true ninja. Perhaps since she was not given the honor of being called a real ninja, she had no obligation to act like one. The magician simply walked away leaving the creature struggling to contain its own leaking goo.

Sugemi leapt forward, a hardly visible black chakra aura appeared around his body, stemming from his shadow. The technique was supposed to be a transfer of force from his Shadow Tendril technique into his body, focusing it all into a taijutsu attack, it was a bit telegraphed and couldn't be pulled out of nowhere but it pretty much doubled his striking power, it was almost like punching someone and using Shadow Tendril to hit them at the same time. The boy shouted out in pain as the strain on his body from using a large amount of chakra came to him. The Nara thrust his fist forward as it dug deep into the snake's face, stronger even than an explosive tag because the force was concentrated to one point instead of being spread in a shockwave.

The first blow was a rising strike, after the snake's head shot up in the air and started falling down, Sugemi was worried that he may not have delivered enough of a punch, he re-sparked his chakra using the same technique again, when used in combination his technique didn't cost twice that amount of chakra, since his body was still recovering from using it once it came off easier, there were still leftovers from the chakra he used before. Sugemi's fist shot forward, enhanced by his Shadow Tendril Technique. "FOR MY OWN MANGA! SHADOW FIST JUTSU!" he shouted as his last remnant of chakra blew into the snake's sensitive nostril sending it back crashing into the tree. For effect the Nara would've loved the tree to go down but nothing of the sort happened. The snake didn't rise up, the boy rushed back - he failed to find any remnants of the archive and sensei was no longer here, there was no point to hang around here any longer, especially now that his chakra reserves were almost empty.

In Shimo's front the wind circulated and formed a smaller and smaller vortex. The boy struggled to finish building up the technique but his success was moderate - the technique was really difficult as he had to use his clan's signature Ice Release but also manipulate the shape of the vortex. It didn't really work - the technique just tightened into a beam-like vortex that fired right at the tiger. Normally, the way that Shimo's brother did the technique it was supposed to completely freeze the opponent but Shimo's imperfect version only dug multiple large ice shards and either froze them onto their skin or straight out violently drove them into the enemy as knives. "Ice Wolf Technique!" Shimo roared wildly as the vortex left the tiger into an injured and whining shell of the majestic beast it once was.

It probably would've still gotten in a fighting shape. As Shimo's hands lowered he looked at the tiger, he felt really sorry about what he did to such an amazing animal... The boy walked up to it as the tiger looked at him with sorry eyes. Shimo pulled out a kunai and looked back into the tree branches, he wondered if sensei's clone was watching. "You seeing this?! We're no longer kids! We're ninja!" he yelled out and walked away. The animal should've known by the time it recovers that this was one fight that wasn't worth it. The boy just hoped that Mana or the others found the archive because his region appeared to be empty.

Mana was looking around, she had very few chances to properly explore the place since she was too interested in sensei's obsession with hating her ideals and fighting that centipede. It didn't appear like the archive was there, she figured that turning around was her best choice. It was then that she saw it - another centipede's head staring at her from the bush, no way, she had no time nor the means to fight it. She still had some chakra as her extended resources came in handy but she didn't have a technique hitting hard enough. The girl's hands quickly went through handseals forming a mass of crackling lightning above an area in front of her as the centipede tried to crush her like its predecessor lightning rods shot out of the mass and went through the centipede shocking it giving Mana enough time to bolt.

This was bad - Mana's "Magic Skewer Jutsu" was mostly harmless as it only shocked the person causing pain and left them briefly stunned in place out of sheer surprise and pain but she did literally no damage. Even more, she was running the opposite direction to where her team was, the centipede was blocking her off and forcing her to run deeper into the forest. If she kept running she'd get lost, that's even if she's lucky enough to escape this thing! Mana kept running, she heard rumbling sounds, those same almost automated thuds hitting the ground, they were getting closer and closer, that thing was about to hit her, the magician kept running forward, she had to close her eyes and clutch herself to force herself to keep running. She was almost ready for those mandibles to catch her at any moment. Except...

Her sandals met a tough ground, suddenly she heard a deafening thud and some crashing rocks, sand and dust fell on the girl's messy hair as she stroke over it several times to move it aside. Mana's curious eyes turned back only to see the centipede having his its head into an entrance of some sort - she was standing right in the archive she wanted to find! The bug was too into its chase to notice the small building that the girl ended up in and it seemed to have only one entrance which also served as an exit, the only path left not blocked with stone and centipede head was to go deeper into the underground archive. Mana sighed. At least she'll finish her mission by packing the scrolls... She's in an ancient library with all the time in the world, she was fortunate enough to love reading at least...

Mana sighed, she was sitting on the stairs leading down to the main hall of the archives. Normally she should've went on down, taken all the scrolls and looked for a way out but she already knew there couldn't have been one. The whole place was simplistic with its architecture and the only entrance, also the only exit, was currently blocked and while she had some more explosive notes left from her last battle, those that she kept in another pouch, those could've actually taken the whole place down on her.

Currently the genin was wondering if sensei was going to help her out, after all, his clone did follow her and most likely had seen the battle. It also could've seen her moving away and then being attacked by another centipede and then entering this archive by accident. Her theory was supported by the fact that "Shadow Clone Jutsu" split ones chakra in parts, it would've been a foolishness to let the clones disappear after making them for show - there had to be another meaning to them. Tanshu-sensei must've been ready to help them out in a pinch but not before he was absolutely sure of their incoming demise. That was just the kind of man Tanshu-sensei was.

Sadly it appeared that no one was coming to rescue her. That didn't make Mana sad, it made her furious that she was about to do all the work for herself, it was a good kind of anger however. The kind of anger when mother and father don't do their own dishes and Mana has to do all of them, on one side it's annoying but on the other hand all the dishes get done anyways. The girl stood up and looked at the gigantic head blocking her exit one last time before heading downstairs into the main hall of the archive.

The stairs were pretty long, they were straight and lead anyone heading straight down, the stairs were just few degrees off of being horizontal so it took some time before they helped the explorer descend to the archive level. The whole place was just how one would imagine an ancient archive or a tomb to look, the stones were mossy and old, many bricks were loose and several fell out from behind Mana's feet when she stepped on the step. The girl was happy that the place was relatively dark, that way she had no chance of seeing the kind of insects that must've loved it here. Being not unlike other girls of her age Mana was not too fond of insects, especially ones that lived in tombs and caves, for now, it was better if they remained unseen.

Why didn't they come for her? Did something happen? What if Shimo and Sugemi got attacked too? What if one of them got hurt? Mana was a little worried about her friends even she was clearly the one in a tighter spot - this place could've been closed out from any air supplies, there was little to eat or drink except the stuff that the magician had with her. No. Mana won't rely on her team to come and bail her out, she'll go and complete her mission and if needed she'll try and blow a hole out somewhere and leave when she gets really desperate and the risk of everything falling on her head is well worth it.

Mana entered the great hall of the archive after a long and boring walk. It looked so forgotten but also so fantastic, it resembled much more of a library but whereas libraries were filled with books, this place was filled with all sorts of colorful scrolls. Some of them had insignia on them, some of the signs looked like animals or drawings or symbols, some of them looked like hieroglyphs or letters of some ancient language. Mana removed all food and water from her backpack and started loading all of the scrolls but then she thought - how does she know which scrolls to load? Normally the four of them would've had enough space to carry all the scrolls, they each had tubes that had incredible amount of space in them and each tube could carry around fifty scrolls, problem was with Mana being here alone with no hope of being saved - she'll need to be picky and pick the most worthy scrolls being moved. Obviously they can return here at any time later with Mana knowing the location but for now she'll have to at least peek into the content of the scrolls.

She had all the time in the world, last she saw the Sun was setting which meant that night was approaching. Nights in the Forest of Death were incredibly dangerous, all ninja, even higher ranking ones were advised to leave the Forest at night, because whatever creatures may have attacked them during the day, at night they were ready to feed, there were more of them and they were more dangerous. Also night wasn't ideal for most people to defend themselves in. It was well within reason that Tanshu-sensei wanted to leave before night comes, now with lower chakra reserves the Jounin will call for the team moving out, leaving Mana behind - that was the most logical solution and sensei wasn't against leaving people behind.

Imagining herself tired and hungry, low on chakra and bit bruised in a forest filled with thing wanting to kill her wasn't fun in the slightest, it may have been a smart idea to sit tight and carefully select the scrolls she'd move over the night, then move in the morning. She could spare one sleepless night... "I always wanted to have a sleepover..." the girl thought to herself ironically since she didn't have too many friends to have a sleepover with. Moving in the morning would've been way better, she may not have had Sugemi's map but finding her way in the morning beat wandering at night without competition. And so as the decision was made the young kunoichi started checking the scrolls one after the other to choose the ones she could seal and ones better left behind for a later pickup. The place could have went down during Mana's escape, if that happened the scrolls she left behind would've been lost so she had to do her best at choosing the most valuable ones. If she succeeded the mission would still be completed, after all the objective did state "as many as possible"...

There was a problem that the kunoichi didn't understand what was written in some of the scrolls, she automatically left some of the ones containing legends behind, she considered actual historic sources more important. It was quite difficult telling history from the legend, often the girl had to sit down and read everything in that scroll to better understand what was written in it. Luckily enough Mana was pretty good with history that was taught in the Academy, she also did some extra reading so placing some of those into history wasn't that hard. Some of those that the magician chose were actually legends, but those she recognized as really important as they were considered lost in time but influential to historic figures and ideas. Mana was the best person that could've possibly wandered into this archive as she was most likely the best out of her squad in history department, of course she didn't know Tanshu's degree of mastery over history but something told her that something as useless practically as history wouldn't have been much to sensei's fancy.

Then an idea came to Mana's mind - her father's top hat... If she wore her magician's uniform she could've used her father's seal to seal some more scrolls. Sadly she chose a more practical attire and while the combat situation proved that to be the right decision, now she sort of wanted to have chosen her fancy attire just so she could have saved some more scrolls. Some of the scrolls had some sort of jutsu formula inside them, they only needed one to have the scroll unsealed and making the handseals with the scroll providing a one-time use of the jutsu. Most of them were high ranking techniques, Mana wouldn't have had any chakra for them anyways even with her larger than usual reserves. "Shadow Clone Jutsu..." Mana ran through one of the scrolls, it described the process of the technique and its different variations, sadly, if the girl used even the most simple version she'd die of exhaustion shortly afterwards...

This was the most painful realization - knowing that not everything could be saved, that Mana wasn't perfect, that somewhere along the road she made the wrong choices and now she had to leave bunch of scrolls to rot here and risk having them permanently lost in time. Maybe... Maybe Tanshu-sensei wanted her here? Wanted her to know how real missions work, that she can't possibly be almighty enough to save everyone, that sometimes people have to be left behind? Except of course, the realization would be made through scrolls...

"NO!" Mana almost broke out with emotions, being closed in a relatively dark space with only her own artificial light stick she took from home to illuminate her surroundings did horrors to one's condition. "I have to... I have to save everything..." Mana grabbed her face to keep herself from crying. She had to do it, she had to at least try to do it perfectly... The magician weaved the handseal and uttered... "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" just as the scroll described. Concentrating an equal part of chakra and splitting it off of her own, making just one clone shouldn't kill her but it'll be close! With a loud poof of smoke a clone appeared, suddenly Mana felt an impulse of pain in her chest as the clone puffed into smoke again, just like it once appeared. The magician fell on the ground, she felt blood pressure around her eyes as her vision blurred and her chest was pounding trying to contain the strain from exploding her chest into a pool of blood. Mana fell on the ground, she tried to reach for the scroll extending her arm towards it, a sad and sorry "No..." came out of her before the girl passed out.

Somewhere farther away, the boys had returned to the rendezvous point and met up with Tanshu-sensei. Shimo was really angry, "What the hell, sensei!? You left us alone! We could've died!" Sugemi grinned "What's wrong? Future Hokage had trouble with some forest animals?" teasing Shimo. Tanshu looked into the leaf layer covering the sky, "It's bad, it's getting late, we got to move back, maybe we'll make it to the exit before nightfall..." Shimo and Sugemi looked around, "Where's Mana-chan? Maybe she got attacked too, maybe she's hurt?" Shimo got worried and looked at the direction where Mana headed off to when they separated. "Nope, she won her fight, she did better than the two of you did, she's actually in the archive right now which is the best place for her to be in, with a little luck she'll seal some of the scrolls and find us in the morning, we are NOT wandering this place looking for her at night." Tanshu decided and pointed at a direction that headed back to where they entered.

"Heroes from manga don't leave their friends behind." Sugemi said as he turned around and started moving towards Mana's direction. A burst of chakra came from Tanshu's direction, suddenly the air became chilling cold, both boys froze in place in fear from the sheer strength and killing intent coming off of the man. "We are heading that way." he said pointing at the entrance once more as the two boys turned around without questions and headed to where Tanshu pointed, "Yes, Sir." Sugemi added. Spirit of manga faded in the cold grip of Tanshu's killing intent.

"Man... This sucks... What if Mana-chan is hurt?" Shimo slightly peeked back at the direction he imagined the girl would be in. "It would be the most gentleman thing to do to help her out..." he added, Sugemi kept rushing through the trees, moving at a speed completely different from one they moved to the location in. Even when the boys were low on chakra sensei's orders didn't let them let up, both of them were sweating heavily and barely keeping up with their sensei and huffing heavily. It seemed that all that Tanshu was worried about was getting out of the forest until the night comes, in the forest it looked like every moment of day was night, that was one of the most scary things about this place - night just crept up on you and all sorts of creatures started hunting on you at night...

"Nah, didn't you hear what sensei said? Mana is in the archive, it's a bit weird that she went in alone but if she was in danger Tanshu-sensei would do something, the Golden Oak of Konoha the Forth Hokage would never be friends with a person who is actually a dick, right? Tanshu-sensei didn't leave us alone, from how certain he was of Mana's location and condition it seemed like he tracked us the whole way, it is possible that his clone is still watching her... Let's just wait till morning, then we can go look for her, if we die now you won't become Hokage and I won't have a manga written of my adventures, even more, Mana will be pissed at us for dying while looking for her. We'll also blow her dream away, have you forgotten? Mana's dream is to protect everyone, always."

Shimo just shut up and kept moving where sensei led the way. It took three times less the time they took to get to the river pass to get back to the entrance. The last kilometer was full of clouds of insects buzzing and trying to feast on the blood of the ninja that were foolish enough to stay in the place for so long. In addition there were strange sounds all over the place, sounds like roaring and whining, sounds of natural fight for survival going on all around them, it was clear that had Tanshu-sensei and his insane killing aura had been around to repel wild animals the boys would've long since been food. It took them their best techniques to defend against a single animal each, more than half of their chakra reserves just to fight a single hungry and desperate animal. One could not begin to imagine fighting multiple or entire packs of animals. There was howling, roaring, trees tumbling down all around the place.

Also, Tanshu's chakra, and his aura, was greatly weakened. Even with his full reserve there must've been animals brave enough to challenge even him, now when he made multiple shadow clones and kept up such inhuman pace of running for so long leading the way his chakra reserves could've been as low as being halved, if that was true that meant even more danger for the kids and himself. It didn't took a genius to realize that sensei's call was actually the right one, Shimo just hoped deep inside that if Mana is alright in there somewhere she also understands the situation and doesn't hold it against them. She was amazing enough to win against the animals of the forest and find the archive, she was smart enough to stay inside and wait overnight. She'll be OK... She must be!

The three ninja approached the exit and Tanshu banged on the gate hard. It took several minutes but finally the gate was open, there were multiple guards watching it so that no beast escaped the area. "You guys were pushing it, several more minutes and I'd have kept the door shut." the lady that let them in initially said, "Weren't there four of you? Did something happen?" she asked signaling the men to wait, "Do you need an extraction squad to go in there?" she added. Tanshu shook his head, "I've got the best man possible watching my student - myself, we'll go back in in the morning, I hope you guys have nothing against us setting up camp here till the morning?" the lady laughed, "How can I refuse you and that crazy feeling you got..." the team started putting up their tents. No one spoke too much, Sugemi and Shimo were working on the map, planning where they'd go so that they waste no time, theorizing where exactly the archive was. After a couple of hours they went to bed, sleep was integral for recovering at least some of their chakra overnight...

Next morning came almost lightning fast, the boys barely had any time to sleep. Tanshu rudely woke them up by knocking on their tents and with extreme force clashing two kunai against one another. The sound of steel clashing forced the boys awake, none of them complained, all of them felt responsible for what happened but more so about extracting their teammate they had to leave behind overnight in one of the most dangerous places in Fire Country. Sugemi whispered "If Mana is OK, I think we're good for the Chuunin exams. I mean, I heard they have a round in here, after missions like this we're ready for everything." Shimo didn't reply, this wasn't time for goofing around or small talk. The three stretched out, wasting no time and bolting forward with all the speed they as ninja could come up with right as the gate opened. Back into the Forest of Death, hoping only that the place didn't live up to its name. Tanshu-sensei looked adamant and relatively calm, the boys were quite surprised how much so.

No one doubted if he wanted to pull Mana out of this at all, both boys understood that sensei held himself responsible for their well-being, he just showed it in unique ways. "Sensei..." Shimo tried to calm him down, "It's not your fault, I know that you just tried to test us, to put us in life-threatening situation to make us grow stronger and learn, you're just that sort of a teacher." Tanshu-sensei looked back at Shimo with a rude and cold look, "Why would I be to blame? Everything is under control, as much of an idiot your teammate was, she lucked out and ended up in the best place for her to be. If she's as smart as she's shown herself to be up to now she'll have finished sealing her share of the scrolls before going to sleep last night and will be waiting for us."

Sensei was moving insanely fast - he knew exactly where the archive was because his clone followed Mana who found it yesterday. It was just as if they were racing with imaginary embodiment of death itself. "Please be OK, Mana-chan." Shimo thought to himself as the three kept moving forward.

Small rays of light sparingly entered Mana's field of vision as her eyes slightly opened, the light from the lightstick she borrowed from her father was still barely emanating, the girl wondered just how long she could've been passed out for. This was reckless and irresponsible of her to do - to try and use such an advanced and seemingly impossible technique. Shadow Clone jutsu was classified as a B rank technique, however very few B rank shinobi used it, it simply required too much chakra. For her, a lousy genin with average skills at best to try it... She was an idiot.

Mana stroke her hair and rubbed her aching forehead, her head was pulsing with pain and she could feel exhaustion all over her body. This wasn't good, she didn't know exactly what time it could've been outside, she didn't know exactly how long she'd been passed out for. The kunoichi tried to guess, looking at how traumatized her body was, the fact that she woke up at all suggested that she just approached the limit of usable chakra, she didn't yet cross it. The genin didn't feel like her chakra had increased at all which meant that less than ten hours had passed, usually some of her chakra recovered overnight, she couldn't have been passed out for more than a couple of hours, four at the most.

The magician's hand unwillingly was raised to her mouth to contain her yawn - she was tired, her biological clock must've told her to go to sleep. No. It could've meant a great many things, maybe she's running low on air to breathe and her body was becoming desperate, Mana opened her backpack and cracked another lightstick, she had twelve of those because she assumed she'd be in total darkness in this forest the entire time, one should've worked for three to four hours, the fact that her old one was just now going dim helped the girl time her brief passing out a bit better.

As far as she could remember when she passed out it was the beginning of the night. Nights in the Forest of Death were nasty, she was probably too deep to hear any battles of animals fighting each other from down there. Mana sighed and continued her quest to read over scrolls to better evaluate them. This one looked weird, it was covered with very dull greyish shade of green, the kind of paint used was strange and had an even stranger smell to it - it must've been ancient because the paint used was natural and had a peculiar dung smell to it. Such time placement of the scroll would've proved enough for the magician to automatically consider the scroll worth saving but the girl had other ideas.

She had all the time in the world, she went through almost half of the scrolls of this place in just three to four hours. As the girl munched on a rice cake she took out of the backpack she thought - why doesn't she read anything more accurately, educate herself? After all, the scrolls were meant for the museum so they didn't have any classified information, she could have saved a couple of ryo she'd have spent for the museum ticket if she read some of those right now. She always was into history and lore and legends, maybe this was the time to enjoy this occasion and make it into an actual hobby of hers. When else will she have the time to read up? Back home she had her ninja missions, her magic shows to prepare for, she had training and tinkering with dad so that he had something to distract him from the pain. History and cooking were the two hobbies that Mana had abandoned since she started studying really hard in the Academy.

The genin finished her rice cake and cleaned her hands, she took the ancient scroll she was about to put into the sealing tube and opened it up. The smell of old paper and ink spread throughout the archive, it was amazing how this scroll avoided being munched on by rats or ruined by insects. The story inside the scroll was written very weirdly, it was written in a language that Mana could understand but it used strange endings to words that at times needed to be dropped. It took a little practice to read the story fluently but it was indeed rewarding, after peeking inside the scroll Mana realized that this scroll was from times more ancient than she initially thought - before even formation of ninja villages. With a little practice of reading the strange historic text the girl began to read.

"Back before the times when all Great Tribes united themselves under the Wood Clan's rule, before the formation of the Konohagakure or in fact any other inferior village, there were two Great Clans competing with each other. The historian would like to correct himself, there were great many clans competing but all of them were weaklings and insignificant specks of dust compared to the mighty Senju and the Garuru clans, even the highly praised Uchiha clan did not come into prominence until after Garuru clan was wiped out by the Great Vengeful One's wrath, the Uchiha clan struggled with survival as they were located deep inside Garuru lands, with every step they took the Garuru constantly attacked and raided any settlements that the Uchiha tried to make, keeping the Raven Haired Ones as wandering tribesmen with no place to call home. Had the Garuru not existed, it indeed would have been the Uchiha that would've competed with the unchallenged might of the Wood Users.

As it is known, the times were hard, the ninja preferred to wander the endless forests and wilderness as settling down meant that one was open to their rivals to invade, the clans were constantly on the move, training and honing their skill as skill literally meant survival. Strength was and is everything and the historian would like to remind that strength is still essential even at this time of Great Settlements. It is in such hardship that amazing strength was bred, strength as that of Great Princess Satsuhimasa and her beloved Omaru. Their love was as great as their power as no blade could rival the strength of Great Princess' Spruce Wood Release and Omaru's Black Wood Release.

It is a very well-known fact which the historian would like to hammer home, Princess Satsuhimasa was the most beautiful maiden of all that have been, are and indeed will be. Her beauty made every man lose their cool and, in fact, many clans were tempted to even breed with the Fairest Princess, even if she was not of their blood, just because her beauty and strength was so superior to everything else in comparison that her children were supposed to be children of Gods themselves. Many fools lost their lives trying to prove themselves to the Mighty but Gorgeous Satsuhimasa, many more got lost and died as the Great Princess of the Spruce left her signature Spruce Mokuton that spread illusions of such strength that even men that realized they were being Princess' playthings could not dispel the illusions because they lacked the power to break them, doomed eternally to wander the dreams given to them by the Princess they were instead.

Only one man was powerful enough to avoid being trapped in inescapable illusions of the Amazing Princess. The man was smart for he knew perfectly that if the White Spruce Princess would have wished, that if he fell for her illusions for just a moment he'd be standing there dazed until his demise. He'd have been dead, he knew that she was well aware of his venture and perhaps smitten by his own looks in a moment of weakness or his amazing power that rivaled that of Black Senju Omaru himself. It could've been that the heir of the Garuru clan - Maramo was that powerful as to avoid being charmed by the endless spruce forests, perhaps the Princess was merciful on him herself, and so the heir of the Pitiful Wolves ended up right at Senju tribe's doorstep and in the night kidnapped the Mighty Princess.

Perhaps this historian is foolish to call that kidnapping for the Princess could have hung the Despicable Maramo's guts all over her forest dyeing her spruces blood red had she wanted, it must've been truly a moment of charmed weakness as the Princess did not oppose Maramo's attempts who kidnapped her from Omaru. He brought her to his home - the Garuru caves where the two lived for a while surrounded by the Savage Garuru clansmen. The Gorgeous Sovereign of the Trees decided to build a superior home for the savages and made a gigantic spruce tree that split their cave and formed a fort of wood and stone, a real place that the Garuru could call home. Many rival weakling clans tried to set it ablaze, destroy it with any pitiful means they knew but Satsuhimasa's spruce was inflammable and immune to any sort of known destruction. She truly was the greatest.

It is argued whether Princess was charmed or forced, some say she never loved her cousin Omaru at all and truly loved the Garuru Spawn Maramo those "scholars" this historian would like to put on a pike. The fact was that the Princess lived seemingly happy with the Savage Garuru and helped them grow stronger and wiser, making them for the first time able to truly compete with the Almighty Senju. Their foolish luck however was not infinite as the Just Omaru finally caught up to the Garuru clan and slaughtered every single one of the Great Pathetic Savages Inferior to The Mighty Senju in Every Way Imaginable. The true desires of Satsuhimasa remain unknown for the Princess was under a vow to never harm her own people, for that reason she aided no side in this war, it is unknown which side the Princess considered her people (but this historian is pretty sure it's the Best Ever Senju, for sure!).

What followed next must've been another act of brief madness, as the Mighty and Beautiful Satsuhimasa appeared to be stricken with grief and declared that Senju were no longer her people. Seeing as her sons from living with the Garuru were spared, she ordered her sons to wipe the Earth clean of the tyrannical Senju. Her sons with the aid of her Mightiest mother killed every Senju present in the war, only those weak and sickly left behind survived Satsuhimasa's wrath. The Princess cut off Omaru's head and heads of each of his generals herself, defeating all of them together herself and buried them into the ground, crushing them herself, she then ordered her son to burn this ground until nothing can grow there for a million centuries. It was on that day that the wasteland later to become Lightning Country appeared from the forest that covered the entire land. It seemed as if Earth itself began to cry as around that land it started to snow eternally, this historian is sure that it is snowing even now around the wasteland this transpired in.

The Powerful but Merciful Princess returned to the Senju and gave them a choice - live under her Merciful and Loving wing as her children or to meet the fate of their warriors, Senju demonstrated their eternal wisdom by joining the Princess and becoming her children. Princess continued to make more children by killing any warriors that came to conquer the "weakened" Senju and making them her children as well, it was then that the mighty White Spruce Princess of the World became a Queen. Satsuhimasa began building an actual settlement in a place she found warm and welcoming, murdering any clans that tried to raze that "village" she was building or forcing them to join her as her children. Even the Uchiha and their mightiest Yosuke proved to be no match to the mighty Satsuhimasa and decided to retreat from the Spruce Queen's land and settle in the rocky wasteland on the graves of the old Senju and Garuru."

Mana closed the scroll as that was where it ended. It was apparently describing events transpiring in the pre-village period. It was quite clear that the historian describing the events was a Senju or at least wrote under their command or rule and he did appear a bit biased towards them. The girl couldn't help but admire some of the Princess Satsuhimasa's work and feats, some of the things she did were really cruel though. She must've been a lot like Mana at some point. There was a lot that the kunoichi could take from this historic woman but... If Mana's ideals belonged to Satsuhimasa the girl would've failed - Satsuhimasa dealt with her enemies with cruelty and had her own kind of justice. And yet she was the person that history praised as an icon of strength, beauty and justice. Princess lived in immeasurably more cruel times than Mana did but if she had to resort to such means to achieve peace that meant that Mana really was as foolish as Tanshu made her out to be, her real fate really was to fail... Either by dying while trying to keep peace or by killing someone and forsaking her ideals.

It was clear that this wasn't the end of the story, the story described the end of the Great Wandering Period and the beginning of the Settlement period, the events described could've transpired as much as five hundred if not more years ago, it spoke of clans like the Uchiha who were incredibly rare these days, if they lost the war against Satsuhimasa it'd explain why, and Garuru that were long since dead. The Garuru clan was a clan of wandering warriors that lived by their fists and swords and built their small camps from what they looted and plundered. Had they existed today they'd have been Mana's prime opponents purely due to their ways as compared to her nindo. The magician desperately tried to find the scroll that spoke of later events, she needed to know about Satsuhimasa more, the young one had to know how the Princess lived her later life, if she achieved true eternal peace and if she changed at all after finding the village. The First Hokage was not Satsuhimasa so the magician was very interested to know why and why she was forgotten and no one ever taught about the woman in the Academy.

It took a while to find the right scroll, one that had similar smell and look to it, this one was purple, purple was a regal color. Maybe the scroll was written by the orders of a person in charge. Maybe it was only accessible to noble and rich people, from what the kunoichi knew of history that was and to some extent is the case, only ninja, samurai or Daimyo themselves cared enough to educate themselves of history, ordinary people just tried to get by and cared much more of the world there and then. Mana wondered if the scrolls were maybe fictional, containing a legend or a myth that explained how things came to be but the period described was too recent for it to be a myth. It had to be either true, or at least the version that the officials wanted everyone to know and there was no way to know any other versions form where Mana was stuck in at the moment.

The girl finished sealing the scrolls, keeping that specific scroll on the top of the tube, putting many more inside of her clothes, taking off her jacket and forming an improvised bag to put a lot more scrolls into it. She saved as many as twice the amount one person could save. There were no false hopes - if someone tried to move that centipede near the entrance the chances were that the archive would collapse on itself, it was fragile to begin with and it was a miracle that it didn't collapse when the damned thing headbutted the place to begin with. This was as good as she could save, she'll have to finish reading the story on her way home. The girl's strained and tired eyes were shooting off tears as she yawned and tossed her jacket-bag over her shoulder. She still had to figure out how to get out herself. The rice cakes she ate in the morning over the story were her last. Mana would rather get squished by a rock than eat a giant cockroach or a rat, especially since she had very limited ways of preparing them, she had no way of making a fire so she'd be eating them raw. Even the idea of that almost made the girl puke, in addition to that water was running low after just one night too.

Mana ascended the stairs, she fell down and bumped the knee a couple of times, the scrolls were really heavy and she was really tired from collapsing last night and not getting proper sleep. The kunoichi approached the giant centipede head that was blocking the exit, when she was reading the story an idea kept squirming around her head but the girl was very hesitant to try it, knowing what it was, no one could blame her. Mana took one of the few remaining note tags from her pocket and stuck it on the center of the crack in the centipede's head shell, then another, then the third. This was going to be disgusting... After getting clear and asking whatever supernatural force was watching over her that this whole place didn't go down on her, the girl made a handseal and heard a myriad of sounds: a crack of the armored shell, sound of crumbling rocks and the sound she wanted to hear the most - centipede goo falling on the floor.

Mana raced upstairs with all the additional scrolls on her shoulder, falling once again only to stand up, the whole place was slowly coming down, not the hall but just the entrance and the staircase, so far only few rocks fell down but after it loosened the magician suspected the rest to follow! Without stopping to even question what she was doing the girl leapt inside the hole in the centipede's head. Warm and icky centipede goo greeted her trying to get inside every orifice she had. Mana literally almost swam forward, the goo was too thick to swim in but when she kicked around she could still move forward. The magician tried to dig her way to the right, the centipede fell to the side after bumping so right was where she knew there was a weak spot, with a swift slash with her kunai the spot opened.

Almost instantly the shot of insect guts and goo shot out throwing Mana out through the side on the grass, the girl coughed up and then threw up - this was the worst idea she had ever had. Mana wiped her eyes and peeked over the jacket-bag, her jacket was ruined forever but she was lucky that the goo wasn't acidic as she had suspected before, while her jacket was indeed ruined the scrolls were just barely wet and could've still been saved to be of reading condition. It was only then when Mana noticed three surprised faces staring at her, even Tanshu-sensei who was usually quite composed now couldn't contain his surprise.

"Mana-chan... That... Was... Awesome!" Shimo yelled out overcoming his surprise. Mana stroke her hair removing more goo off of it, "You're not the one stuck with centipede goo all over you with no water source around that isn't filled with life threatening amount of leeches." Mana replied spitting some of the goo out and blowing some out of her nose.

After catching up with the situation, both briefing her team about what happened and getting briefed by what they were doing it was time to think of what to do further. There were still a lot of scrolls inside the archive, Mana barely moved half of them out and while the mission was completed in theory it would've been nice to salvage everything. Tanshu kneeled on the ground and placed his hand on it, his eyes closed and he concentrated hard. Moments later his eyes shot open and he stood up, "The archive room is blocked off, the whole corridor is covered with stone blocks, if we tried to dig our way into the archive itself we'd risk to cave it in as well, our mission here is done, extracting those other scrolls requires ninja that specialize in salvaging. It might even prove to be a B rank mission... It's above our paygrade, let's go home."

"That was impressive, sensei, how did you do it?" Shimo inquired, Tanshu started slowly moving towards the entrance and at the same time the exit from the forest, "It's an Earth Release technique, I'm sure the specifics would bore you, it's useful when your enemy is hiding underground or looking for bunkers or something." The man's answer was short and swift to cut the chat down as an axe. Mana was really uncomfortable with moving covered with gooey slime and centipede innards, Sugemi giggled into his fist, "Don't worry, you can wash in the training grounds after we leave the forest, getting into the leech infested waters isn't worth it."

It didn't take much time for the team to seal the scrolls Mana salvaged into their own sealing tubes. The magician unsealed some of the tubes she had because she sealed above the recommended limit and didn't want for them to suffer any damage, she also gave her team the gooey scrolls she salvaged from the archive, the three cleaned them up a bit using cloth and their own clothes and then sealed them with the others. It was almost miraculous how well the scrolls took a dip into centipede goo. Finally it was time to move out with their first C-Rank mission being completed. It definitely felt like a real mission, thanks to Tanshu-sensei who decided to test them in the middle of the mission...

Obviously he meant well, a mission such as this one could've been failed, it was just a simple C-Rank mission so he wasn't too wrong to use it as another training drill. It still would've been nice for him to ask for their opinion or warn the three before just leaving them alone in the wild to fight off various creatures that lived here, that was the part of the Chuunin exam, there was a fair chance that they would've failed having just finished Academy weeks ago. The trip back to the entrance was going way faster than the first trip from the entrance to the archive, no one stopped to rest, everyone just kept moving. They must've felt bad for Mana and wanted her to get a chance to wash the goo off as fast as possible.

Mana looked at Tanshu-sensei and caught up to him, doing so was not easy as sensei's speed was incredible. "Sensei... I found a scroll in there, I'd like to finish reading it before I seal it, is that OK?" Tanshu grunted, "Fine, as long as you don't fall behind too much, do whatever you want." It was quite obvious that he didn't care. The girl slowed down a little to remove the scroll she kept under her clothes, as close to her skin as she could because she wanted to save it the goo treatment most of all. It was another scroll, one containing another story of Princess Satsuhimasa, one that let Mana know just how the whole thing went and what kind of life the Princess led later on. The scroll did not follow up on the first one, it took place many years later, right after the village was built so it could've been close to fifty if not a full century later. The magician opened the scroll, reading it was troublesome because she still had to watch out for obstacles with her quick pace, it took a bit longer to read than the other one but at least this time she had a bit more light...

"After the Gigantic Battle against the Moon Clan, the planet itself was injured, eternal rains and meteor showers were constant, it rained acid itself and the sky was black. Princess Satsuhimasa was injured, furthermore, it pained her heart that a simple proposal from King of the Moon devolved to a battle that put the fate of the entire world at risk. Great sickness plagued her heart, seeing the results of her battle, the countless deaths of her people and pain in the hearts of her children poisoned her every day as the Princess' condition deteriorated rapidly. Something had to be done, even the strongest medical ninja, even those tutored by Satsuhimasa herself could not cure her sadness and sickness as it appeared one was the reason of the other. And so the child of Yosuke Uchiha and Satsuhimasa - Satsumaru decided to leave the village and cure his mother's condition.

There were many difficulties in the path of the young one, namely his own youth and inexperience, while Son of the Spruce Queen was one of the most powerful people in the world, truly worth his title of "Demigod of Ninja" he acquired by simply being born, he was silly and naĂŻve. The poor boy did not understand his mother's condition, he did not understand that it was not caused by her injuries fighting the Moon People but instead by the destruction and death of her own children. And so the child left to find "Samsara" - the mystical force of rebirth that could aid his mother and bring her back to life. Knowing little of the true problem that ailed his mother, knowing even less of the fact that "Samsara" was just a tale his mother told him before bed. The boy believed that "Samsara" must've existed and that it was the only thing to help his mother.

The cause of the cataclysms that slowly destroyed the planet was of course the destruction of the Moon People's home. This historian would like to remind the reader that in order to overcome the overwhelming force of the Moon People, Merciful Satsuhimasa had to use her indestructible Spruce Wood Release to shatter the Moon itself to small bits, it appeared that it was the Moon itself that was showering the Earth causing destruction to the world, even more, even in her deathbed Satsuhimasa had gathered many foes, even the Uchiha that fought beside her that governed the Lightning Country, even the Sabaku clan that governed the Wind Country and all the others that fought beside the Merciful one to repel the invasion of the Moon People now craved her death. They took the ailment of the Great One as a chance to finally get rid of one that had beaten every single one of them before as well as with her overwhelming power had achieved World Peace threatening with destruction of the ones that broke it.

Wandering the inhospitable lands of the world Satsumaru survived the meteor showers, the magma gazers and even the poisonous air as he was indeed his mother's son of incredible vitality. Once his journeys brought him to the Lightning Country he overheard the plot to kill his mother and was forced to return back home to Konohagakure without "Samsara", the stress and grief over his mother's illness caused a new power to awaken inside of the boy, one of his father's Crimson Eyes. As much as the boy tried to use this power to save his mother's life, they were only good for destruction, the complete opposite of what his Senju inheritance was.

Enraged by everyone turning on his mother Satsumaru and his father moved the Sick Princess outside the village, wandering the Fire Country trying to figure out just what "Samsara" exactly was. On their way the family wandered into the Fire Temple where the monks resided, the monks were a peaceful kind however they refused to let the family in, claiming instead that it was Satsuhimasa herself who was to blame for this. The monks revealed to the family an ancient pact made by the ancestors of not only all ninja, but all people in general. Pact that was supposed to establish peace between the Sky Clan and the Earth Clan - the descendants of the First People and fathers of all other clans. A whole new place to call home - the Moon was created by the last descendant of the First People. The Sky Clan was given Moon to rule and live on as they please, the Earth Clan was left on Earth and as assurance that the pact was not broken a law was established inside of a seal - ones could not exist without the others, without Earth the Moon would've been flung to oblivion inside Eternal Darkness killing every single one of the Sky Clan, if the Moon was destroyed the World would've been thrown off balance by eliminating seals placed inside the Moon, unsealing the terrifying power of the First People which would eventually kill all Earth Clan people as well.

That revelation was what the family needed, Satsuhimasa rose from her deathbed and raised her hands at the sky. Blood shot out from her eyes - bloody tears of grief of what she had done, blood shot out of her nose - payment for the poisonous air she caused everyone to breathe, blood shot out of her mouth - punishment for the words she spoke when she made the Spruce that split the sky. As the Princess shouted in pain - giant roots reached up to one another and put the shattered Moon together. It seemed that Princess endless lifeforce flowed through the wood of her Spruce creating a new Moon, held together by her grief, by her penance and love. As this final action was over, the hearts of the monks softened - they let the family in. Little too late, sadly, as right after the jutsu ended Satsuhimasa fell down dead in an expression of endless bliss and love - she fixed the mistake her rage and violence caused and saved everyone.

Satsumaru was overcome with rage and grief, the boy fell on his knees yelling in pain as the tension and blood pumping through his steel-hard veins burst not unlike that of his mother's before. However his blood was different, not blood of penance and death but blood of justice and rebirth - Samsara itself flowed through the boy's eyes as by extending his hand over his mother a hellish spawn appeared behind her, a Gate of Samsara itself, opening his mouth and releasing her soul which he had claimed and returning the woman to life. Not only that, as another pact of peace, the son returned to life every Moon Clan who died in the war against the Shinobi Alliance, sadly he could not bring back the people of Earth that died in the war. It was a testament of the Moon Clan respecting and fearing the power of Spruce Queen and her son that they did not invade again up to this day, respecting the terms of Satsumaru's Peace and having been reminded of the meaning behind the pact that the First People made.

Despite a happy ending, Konohagakure did not see it that way, while the people praised Satsuhimasa for her accomplishment in fixing faults her own violence had caused, many people died in the cataclysms that followed the Sky-Land War after Satsuhimasa destroyed the Moon. People also did not understand why the Son of the Queen raised the Moon People back from the dead and not their own. She was not even considered for the title of the First Shadow of the Fire - the First Hokage, also people were angry and afraid that a colossal Spruce Tree still connected Earth and Moon as they were afraid that the Moon Clan will invade again using it as a bridge between worlds. Having been recently revived by the Samsara that flowed through her son's eyes, Satsuhimasa was far too weak to fix the tree so her husband Yosuke decided to seal the tree of pure chakra that connected Moon and Earth into an animal - a protector of this world, inheritor of their will. Sadly the power of the World Spruce was too great for one animal, creating the monstrous Ten Tails as the chakra of the Worlds' tree overtook the beast and shifted it into the twisted form of the Ten Tails, it was said to be so horrible that common people that saw the beast in the distance went blind and that its existence itself was causing the planet as much harm as the cataclysms from breaking the will of the First People caused before.

Yosuke then split the Ten Tails into nine beasts, something that proved to be just as wrong as the beasts started rampaging over the ninja villages. It took the combined might of all three: resurrected Satsuhimasa, Yosuke Uchiha and Satsumaru to defeat all nine and seal them into people they deemed powerful enough to restrain the powers of the beasts but also righteous enough to resist their tempting influence as the beasts wished every moment to break loose and rampage. It is unknown why the Tailed Beasts are so violent, maybe they are sad that they no longer connect Moon and Earth, being confined to only one and long the other, maybe Yosuke's seal instilled inside of them some of the disgusting Uchiha malice. This historian cannot tell, but this is the nature upon which the beasts and their carriers, the Jinchuuriki came to be. Satsuhimasa and her family left the village after seeing the villagers treat the Jinchuuriki, the bridges that connect Earth and Moon, the will of their son Satsumaru of the Samsara, with fear, disrespect and spite, as if they embodied the destruction which the Moon Clan brought upon this world, as if they caused the cataclysms that claimed millions of lives, as if they embodied the rampages and destruction caused by the Juubi and the Tailed Beasts. It is unknown what happened to the Spruce Queen and her family, where they went or what they did, soon enough history forgot them which was why this scroll was written, so that their story is never forgotten."

And so the story ended, the last and final scroll of the Satsuhimasa and her family. There were so many new things which Mana did not understand: the eyes of Uchiha clan, the mysterious Samsara, the Tailed Beasts and the Jinchuuriki that carried them inside of them. The team finally arrived near the exit from the Forest of Death and as the gates opened letting the team through Mana handed the scroll silently to Tanshu. The man gently pushed it against the open tube as the chakra consumed and sealed it inside just like the other scrolls. "Oh, thank God you are OK!" the woman guard rejoiced seeing Mana, the woman then looked at the goo which the girl was soaking with and pinched her nose.

As the girl rushed to the training grounds it was revealed that they were all occupied making it impossible for Mana to bathe in there. Tanshu grunted and took a towel out of his backpack surprising all of the team. "You had a towel? All this time?!" Shimo yelled out, "I didn't want it messed up by the goo if Mana could bathe after leaving the Forest, I took it because I was certain that Sugemi would jump in the water and get leeched out in which case I'd need to carry him around but also he'd need a towel..." the man shrugged. Sugemi looked almost offended for a moment but then looking at his teammates he realized that Tanshu's prediction wasn't that far off.

With all being said, Mana took the towel and wiped as much goo as she could, Tanshu-sensei refused to have the towel back. It was understandable. "Consider it a gift, if you can wash it afterwards that is..." the man grunted. After the problem of Mana's condition was dealt with the team headed towards the village gate, the guards smiled looking at Mana still smelly and looking pretty funny, the girl had to note that usually people came to talk to her because of her fame as a magician, speak to her or cheer on her, now they clearly wanted to but then reconsidered halfway and turned around. The girl just sighed, it couldn't be helped really having her smell and funny look in mind, one couldn't just wash swimming in centipede guts away. Knowing her mother she'll be laughed at whole week...

"I'm going to give the debriefing to the Hokage, you guys can run off home, it was a pretty crazy couple of days." Tanshu spoke as Shimo and Sugemi said their "See you tomorrows" and ran off. As Mana turned around to head home she felt Tanshu's hand on her shoulder. "Your will to stand by your nindo is strong. I'll give you a chance and cut you some slack, I've told you many times that you'll fail, I'll just leave it up to you to realize it yourself one day, hopefully not before your untimely death, you're a good kid." The man spoke after turning around and heading home, after a couple of steps the man raised two fingers into the sky "You see what you three are doing? Making me soft here... Whatever." He said as the man slowly walked away and disappeared into the crowd. Mana's shocked face quickly changed into a smile that kept growing wider and wider and wider and then burst into a soft and gentle laughter before the girl also turned around and ran off home.

The very first moment she entered home she heard her parents rushing to welcome her before her mother got to see her. The woman's cheeks inflated as she tried to contain laughter, Mana's mood quickly turned sour, "Centipede goo?" her father asked while smiling, Mana nodded feeling a bit confused, Mana's mother finally couldn't help it and burst into a fit of laughter, just after finally regaining control of herself the woman added, "Like father, like daughter..." implying that father also had something similar happen to him. That was a story for another time however as Mana had to hurry up to finally get a bath. That was the most refreshing and pleasing baths the girl has ever had. After she washed the smell of the forest away and changed clothes the magician rushed to the living room and dropped onto the couch,

"So what was that with father and centipede goo?!"

The first week after the mission was completely free of missions, not even the usual D-rank chore-missions were anywhere to be heard of. It seemed as if like the Hokage gave the team some time to recover from the mission and to train a little bit. Given the mission debriefing it wasn't too tough to see why, all three of the genin had some minor scratches and injuries from fighting off animals that were meant to test genin worth becoming chƫnin, obviously those guys fought the animals off in greater quantities but Team Oak lacked the battlefield experience that their examined counterparts had.

One morning Mana received a letter, one that she simply assumed that her teammates also got at about the same time as she did. It was from Tanshu-sensei and it instructed that they met up that very same day, it was strange that the meeting time was so late, luckily the magician had her magic show last night so entertaining time won't clash with her training. She did promise father to finish working on that spiked coffin device that day, that'd have had to wait until at least later that evening. It was alright, father wasn't the type of man that went to bed early. Mana had been doing plenty of her own training as well, she kept meditating and trying to improve her chakra levels, she kept trying to improve her physical condition and become more agile as well.

One thing that the genin tried to achieve with her training was to become more nimble and to improve her reaction time. Being able to be in complete control of the attacks of her enemies and to be able to dodge them since she served the role of a glass cannon in her team. She was supposed to be the main secret weapon using genjutsu and ninjutsu of not one but two elemental natures which was rare among genin, that being said, it wasn't like her ninjutsu was particularly powerful either... There were so many things to improve and Tanshu-sensei was going to notice all of them in the evening. He most likely was going to ask Hokage for another C-rank mission which was why he wanted to meet up and train the team a bit more.

The last mission to find the hidden ancient archive helped Mana to remind herself of her passion for history and lore. The magician started reading out in the Konohagakure Library every week, finding time between training and magic shows was not easy but once in a while an occasion revealed itself and Mana could enjoy a couple of hours reading about history. There were a lot of interesting things to be discovered, names and the abilities of all the past Hokage, tales of mystical ancient items that were hidden all around the world, stories of legendary ninja and their mythical deeds and achievements. Mana was too shy to even dream of ever being described in books and scrolls similar to those she read...

The magician spent the entire first half of the day training, focusing her chakra control and meditating, also working out. She knew it was hopeless having her goal to impress sensei in mind, Tanshu was a strict teacher, despite how much she would train he'd still find things of hers to exploit and scold her for, even if he did promise to give her a shot with her nindo and stopped trying to change it so actively. Her performance in the last mission must've convinced the man that she was every bit an equal of her two teammates, even Shimo who received astounding grades and recommendations in the Academy despite looking or acting nothing like the typical perfect grader. Shimo wasn't arrogant or even that awkward socially, quite the opposite he was pretty energetic and headstrong, it took a headstrong person to declare that he'd become Hokage one day.

Sugemi also proved to be different than the first impressions would make one believe, he was goofy and kept messing around with his manga, talking some strange nonsensical things about everything being manga clichés and even referencing manga that Mana was sure didn't even exist. But when he stopped loafing around he was a pretty strong and kind fellow with a big dream, in a way his dream could be described as a wish of being acknowledged, the desire to be noted as important, to prove one's existence and earn respect. This was a noble dream, one Mana was ready to support, in a world where people's lives were considered expendable.

As the evening approached, Mana head out to the Academy, sensei asked the team to meet by the entrance to the Academy which was an odd spot to ask for a meeting. Maybe he wanted to do some more bonding exercises? Ask some questions or something? Maybe he got fond of the three brats and decided to tell them something about his past? Who was Mana kidding, that'd never happen, Tanshu was secretly a good-willed person but he never showed that side of him because that side was irrelevant to him, all he wanted himself and everyone else to see was the ninja, the undefeatable warrior that could take lives faster and more efficiently than everybody around him. That was who he was, Tanshu, or as father at times called him "Red Dog Tanshu", Mana wasn't sure where that nickname came from, must've been something from when her father worked with the man...

People spotted her from over the other side of the path and walked up to greet her, must've been because of her attire, having once found herself without her hat which had her father's seal in it, Mana tried to incorporate it into even her combat attire. She didn't have to try too hard, just modify the materials of her magician's uniform to make it a bit less stretchy and more comfortable, she was in luck that mother was such a good sewing teacher. That way she could have one super uncomfortable but fancy looking version and one more simple and less impressive albeit much more stretchy. It was obvious that she was overdressing but Mana was that kind of person, it was important for her to look good as often as she could because she was an artist and had to uphold an image of an artist, it was really shameful for her to run around covered with centipede goo for that very reason. Even the final result was not as good of an attire as an actually comfortable combat attire would've been, that was irrelevant, in terms of physical combat Mana was already barely keeping up with her peers, if fighting ever got up close she'd go down even with the most comfortable clothes in the known universe if she barely had enough skills to keep up with genin level taijutsu. At least next time she'll need to seal something into her hat or keep some item safe she'll have the solution on her head. Father's seal cost a lot of chakra to use but it was better than having nothing at all.

Tanshu sensei was waiting alone, it proved pretty weird to Mana as she was late over all the people that came up to talk to her and ask when the next show was going to be. She really had to reserve some more time, stage magic was an unusual thing in Konoha and the Shinobi World, there were more and more people that got charmed by how silly and unusual using ninjutsu for stage magic and cheap tricks was. Mana was growing in popularity, she was probably the first ninja in the world whose face was known, the young kunoichi was also the first that didn't kill. Most people just took it as something proving the girl's lack of skill or her childish naivete. No one yet saw it as evolution of what being ninja truly meant, that was something Mana had to change in people, to prove her own point.

"Good evening, where is everybody? Am I THAT late that everyone went home already?" Mana asked trying to alleviate her terrible sense of time with an even more terrible joke, Tanshu sighed and shook his head. "Nope, I gave each of you different times because I wanted to work with each of you individually. I'll be leaving pretty soon and you guys will have a C-Rank mission on your hands without my supervision, it'll be a chance to truly prove yourselves and if you do I'll recommend you guys for Chuunin exams, you'll have your butts kicked but it'll be a good experience, losing always teaches a lot of things." Mana smiled, "Have you ever lost, sensei?" Tanshu pouted almost like a child but then looked up into the sky, as if remembering good times of his past, "Yeah, once, it was the thing that taught me the most in my life and I've been through some crazy things." he answered and then stood up from the stairs he'd been sitting on. "Let's move to the training grounds then..." he said calmly.

Walking through the village with Tanshu-sensei was weird, true, significantly less now that he didn't act like he would've liked to strangle her with her own guts but still, pretty weird. He was a very chill and anti-social kind of person, he constantly looked angry and disappointed in everything, always bored by everything that surrounded him and had that unimpressed look on his face so it was hard to talk to him about anything. Mana was a kind girl so she would still always try... "So... Is it OK if I asked where you'll be leaving? Is it some high ranking mission?" she asked with some amount of fear behind her voice, she expected Tanshu to rudely beat her down vocally saying it was none of her business or something like that but he sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Five Kage Summit. It's about that Kirigakure situation, about all those ninja of ours that disappeared around Kirigakure borders and the ambush of the squad your father was in near our own borders. Howoku rushed the process and called everyone early - he'll ask the Five Kage Council to remove the Mizukage and change him with a successor."

Mana stayed silent for a while, she expected the Summit to come in six months, just like the rumors said but it seemed like the Hokage was in a mood to get his justice done faster. Hokage Howoku was well known throughout the world, he was just a middle aged man but he managed to gain trust of the entire village and even the entire Konohagakure council, he was young for a leader and had new and revolutionary ideas of peace and lived under the ideal that the Ninja Countries could live in harmony and maintain peace. He was not entirely a pacifist, he was quite energetic and in a hurry to punish any wrongdoings of any missing ninja or other ninja villages. Once he himself left to pursue a missing ninja that killed a genin just outside the village borders, it was said that the Fourth killed the missing ninja himself. He had many titles but one that Mana liked the most was the White Star of Konoha. She didn't know what it meant but names like that had different meanings to everyone that heard it. To Mana it meant just what it sounded like - a star in the sky, an obelisk of light to look up to and a powerful source of light and justice that incinerates any evil.

After Mana and Tanshu arrived to the training ground the man took a couple of steps back and placed his hand on the handle of his katana, a sword that Mana had not yet even seen sensei draw despite having it most of the time with him. "Attack me, know that I will defend myself and punish foolishness." Sensei said, Mana was not sure what it meant. If he was going to leave soon then why was he so desperate to train her? Was he going to train her overnight? Why would he choose such a light training routine, it was the sort of training one would choose if they had plenty of time. Mana's hands went through handseals, her familiarity with handseals over the magic shows where she used ninjutsu allowed the speed of her hands to transcend any genin and rival even that of ninja from higher ranks, Mana's sleight of hand was an advantage when things came down to handseal speed. The girl opened her eyes and looked right at sensei's eyes... He wasn't there.

Suddenly sharp pain pulsed all through Mana's body as she saw sensei standing right in front of her with his fist having already punched her in the gut. The magician fell down. "That wasn't bad, you knew of my superior physical and every other kind of strength, knowing of my superior skill you chose the path that granted you advantage if it connected - genjutsu. Genjutsu is the perfect tool to use if you're unlucky enough to fight a superior opponent. You knew that I had the mean to interrupt your genjutsu with my signature seal however you trained your speed and had a mean of surprising me with the speed at which you performed the technique, that also was pretty impressive. I'd like you to train the speed of your hands even further, you've got a talent for it..."

As the girl tried desperately to pick herself up Tanshu jumped couple of dashes backward. "However... Your genjutsu is flawed, all of your techniques were made by you, that is both good and bad. You will always surprise your opponent with jutsu you yourself invented unless they fight you for the second time. The problem is that it's clear you invented these techniques as a child reading a genjutsu textbook, they are all pretty much the same: make handseals, achieve eye contact, fool your opponent with a visual illusion. That is just a scratch of the surface of what genjutsu can do, you've got a knack for it which is a reason enough even I can be jealous of you for. Genjutsu can play with sense of balance, smell, hearing, it can do wonders with the body of your opponent, branch out, stop sleeping on the same techniques you invented as a child and make up some new ones!"

Mana picked herself up, her hat was on the ground and her wild hair were all over the place, she charged forward with a punch, "Useless..." Tanshu replied catching it with the least amount of effort a ninja would ever have to use, "What are you going to do with that? You suck at weapons and taijutsu, stop using it!" sensei yelled out as he noticed Mana's hand in the weapon's pouch and punched her in the cheek drawing blood. The girl turned back with a smile. Obviously if Tanshu meant it with the punch she'd be knocked out dead but he didn't and now he was hers! "How?!" Tanshu jumped back, Mana's illusion was broken but her sensei had to use his seal which was his signature ability, one he liked bragging about never having to use.

Mana pulled out her arm from the pouch, still stuck in the same handseal position. "You... Learned to do handseals with one hand by seeing Sugemi do it?" Tanshu looked impressed. "Only the seals I saw him do, I had to read up on the others... They're a bit different from the casual handseals" Mana replied by wiping blood from her lip, sensei's punch forced her teeth right into her cheek making blood run pretty wild from her mouth. Her head also felt dizzy. Tanshu laughed out, "Now I see why they call you Konoha's Sorceress, you're just as crafty on the Field as you are on the stage, pulling illusions out of illusions, you made an impression of attacking me physically forcing me to lower my guard, forcing me to underestimate you and then you placed your hand into the pouch and made the handseals inside of it, I looked you right in the eyes because I never expected an illusion, if you were fighting anyone without my ability you would've had them..."

After finishing those words Tanshu-sensei stood normally, moving himself out of his fighting stance and removing his hand from the handle of his blade. "The purpose of this training was to give you three assignments, things to work on while I'm gone and also something that would define your fighting styles, I think I like your decision to utilize the skillset of a stage magician, to use cheap tricks and play with your opponent's mind as a tool in setting your illusions off, however I'd recommend you work on things I told you to work on. I'm afraid genjutsu is an area you are entirely alone in, I know very little about the subject and there are even fewer masters of the Field in this village, you may ask around however... Well, see you after I'm back, Mana." Tanshu spoke and then disappeared in a poof leaving only a large cloud of smoke. The genin sighed, her head was dizzy and she was still bleeding a bit from her cheek but it felt great - for the first time someone acknowledged her skill as a ninja. That never happened...

Ever since she started training in ninjutsu she was always underestimated because she wasn't from some fancy clan, told she was a loser because of her silly and naĂŻve nindo, made fun of and told to quit the path of a ninja before it was too late. Even after she graduated people always only noted her skills as a magician on the stage, they always viewed Mana as a magician first and those that knew she was also a ninja saw it as some sort of publicity stuff, almost like a celebrity entering a ring to fight a big time champion of taijutsu who was paid off to fight like a wimp. All those words affected Mana, they were painful blows but none of them kept her down, they only made her work harder because she was that kind of an idiot. And it all lead up to this moment - a man called by some the most powerful shinobi in the world recognized that she had talent, that she was on the right path. Even if she didn't even land a blow, even if she couldn't have been further away from it - Mana was happy!

The girl couldn't help but run back home with a smile and tears of joy in her face. Acknowledgment would only make her work even harder!

Sometimes, when a very special event is transpiring before one's eyes, one often knows that things won't be the same as they were anymore. Such was the feeling when the village saw the Fourth Hokage surrounded by four of his most trusted and most powerful ninja in the village head out. Surely something revolutionary was going to happen, a historic flip-the-table moment which would change everything, allies and enemies will be made and a clash was unavoidable now. Some people fooled themselves thinking that this was going to be just another Five Kage Summit but one should've known better.

To Mana it was almost apparent that something bad will happen, there will be no peaceful resolution to this, otherwise why would Hokage choose to take four of the most amazing ninja with him? He only took two of the Sannin though, the third Sannin was away on another mission. From the rumors that were going around it seemed like she was in Kirigakure which put her life in extreme danger. If something awful transpires at the Kage Summit she will suddenly find herself to be the most wanted dead person around. Maybe it was for that reason that Hokage took so many not only strong but wise people, trying to solve any possible conflicts through intimidation of power and inevitable destruction if someone decides to become an enemy of Konohagakure.

Seeing Hokage and his four guards leave through the village gate made that sad and depressing atmosphere, the feeling of uncertainty was everywhere, the eternal and immovable peace that the Fourth had achieved was now trembling like a wobbly leg of a kitchen table. Just one wrong rude move will send all of the food crumbling down on the floor, reverting the families sitting around it to savages that either eat off of the floor or go to bed hungry. That was not even the worst part, the worst part was that everyone accepted it, just sighed and went back home, such wide accepting of the fact that conflict and war was almost inevitable was what made Mana's heart hurt the most.

These couple of days from her training with Tanshu-sensei and the day when she received the letter to come pick up a mission Mana did her best to buff up the amount of magic shows she did. The people of Konohagakure could've used some entertainment to turn their minds away from war. Some could've said that Mana was an awful girl for making double the amounts of shows, after all people were shaken by the events and very unsure of their futures. All she had to do was show off and she'd have swayed them to her side, that was true, she saw a lot of new faces coming at her shows, far more matured people and far less children. Slowly she would become Konohagakure's mainstream source of entertainment, perhaps that was her calling, not being a ninja?

After all, Mana was not part of a clan, not some super amazing genius ninja that had mad skills and always made perfect choices, she often failed and struggled immensely in her ninja work, working out her physical shape felt like literally killing herself. Still, she was thinking a lot on what Tanshu-sensei told her – she had an entirely different mindset from a common ninja. Her unique ideals combined with her background and experience of being a stage magician – prodigy at creating illusions and playing with audience's mind made her a very different kind of ninja. All those shows could've just been viewed as Mana's own kind of training, she was sharpening her mind and making new ways to deceive her opponent in the battlefield, after all, having no set of fancy eyes, no special unbeatable techniques made her have to rely on her skill in deceit and lies. Was that the skillset of a true hero? Probably not… Just one more thing to make the girl feel like she's failing her dream, as small as insignificant as such thoughts were.

Finally the magician got another letter instructing that she had to come to the Konohagakure Administration with her team and that they would be getting a mission assigned. No Hokage, no sensei. Somehow it felt like they were just playing ninja at this point and with no figures of authority in the village it seemed like nothing was right anymore, everything just invited more and more questions. Nights of peaceful and long refreshing sleep were few and getting even fewer, training was the thing that often helped exhausting both Mana's body and her spirit. Still, often the girl found herself waking up and wandering around the house, looking at the dark night sky and thinking what's ahead. Things like war and changing the world were not something a twelve year old girl should worry herself about but it was too late. She entered the ranks of people considered murderers and tools, thinking of anything less than that would've been a mistake.

Mana was surprised to see her teammates the next morning, she met them by the entrance to the Konohagakure Administration. Shimo wore a small blade behind his back, Sugemi wore a different attire choosing to wear more flexible and fitting for taijutsu attire, both of the boys also allowed their hair to grow messier longer which signaled that they may have been training pretty intensely since graduating. Did Mana fall behind after devoting most of her time to shows? Was she ever on their level to begin with? Just how well did they do in their training? Maybe the two actually gave sensei trouble and Mana just got special treatment from him because she was just a puny kid with pink cotton candy on her mind? No. Tanshu-sensei was not the kind of person to smile and say that everything was alright when it wasn't, that was one of the reasons why he was a person whom Mana respected a lot. If she would've been a useless link of the team he'd have told her that.

Shimo looked confident, he smiled with a full teeth smile and ran up to Mana first. "Hey, Mana-chan, don't really see what sensei told you during the training. I suppose you won't tell me how you did either?" Sugemi grunted, Mana was genuinely surprised he was not consumed by his manga and acted so smug, almost like Tanshu-sensei. "It's her attire, Shimo, she tried to dress more comfortably for missions but it seems like now she doesn't care about it anymore, whatever sensei told Mana, it helped her gain confidence and realize her role in the team. Then again, judging from the number of shows she had this week I'd say she is planning to quit being a ninja…" Mana walked past the two without saying a word. She just slowly turned back with a slight smile and looked at them rushing them to come with her. The boys picked themselves up and entered the building with her.

Differently from before, the missions were being handed out in four separate offices by one of Hokage's assistants. Assistants were mostly lower ranking ninja anyways that excelled in office duties, they were not the first choice to protect the Hokage but they were more than competent to fulfil his duties of administration work during his absence. In fact, there were less people around the offices which suggested that the four of them were doing way better than Hokage was doing alone with their aid. One of the assistants invited the four into his office and handed the file forward, he waited for a moment as there was no leader to come pick the file up, sensei was gone…

Mana looked around with a bored look as her two teammates kept stepping forward slightly but after seeing the other trying to take a step stopped and backed down from taking the leadership. "Oh for God's sake!" she laughed out and stepped forward to take the file. There was tension between the two boys for some reason, it was quite natural, this was the first time they had the chance to butt heads, they had to choose a leader and that made the wonder about who was stronger, more competent to take temporary command. They both trained incredibly hard, they each were the strongest people in the world in their own minds right now because that was often the case after training. Training required challenge to follow just so one had a clear image of where they were on the feeding chain.

"What's the mission?" Shimo asked curiously leaning over Mana's shoulder as she opened the file after leaving the office. It was a relatively simple C-Rank job for a team of genin but the administration had to hand them one – their team was incomplete. While normally sensei did nothing anyways but his presence was the greatest asset the three could have, just the thought that at any time he could be turned at for help or an advice was the best thing ever. Now he was away and they had to handle it for themselves. It would've been better if Shimo and Sugemi didn't act so weird with each other and didn't want to show off each other's fruits of training and just what sensei told them.

The mission was to scare off or beat up some thugs that were bullying people around the entertainment hall where Mana hosted magic shows. Apparently the group of bandits targeted villagers that came to see shows and plays and they were quite bold. Such boldness inside one of the most powerful ninja villages could only be described as stupidity and the three genin would've easily handled a couple of untrained bandits, even if they weren't at the moment the most functional team ever. Shimo and Sugemi barely even spoke, not only to each other but also with Mana, the girl had plenty of possible ideas what could've caused this but… She had to know!

"Okay, what the hell is this? Why aren't we talking?" she asked, this wasn't the usual soft and kind tone she used, Mana was really quite annoyed by this situation as the two boys were her friends, probably some of her only relevant friends at the moment as she had no other friends just fans of her shows. Sugemi pouted and turned away, Shimo looked annoyed but at least he spoke up, "We're just… A bit tense that's all." Mana kept looking him in the eyes, almost forcing him to continue. The fact that he spoke up at all signaled to her that Shimo was at least willing to talk about what was going on, was it something sensei told them? Was it something they told each other while waiting for Mana? Was it something she did?

"Well… You did most of the work last time, we were just there, sure we got to fight some animals but you saved all of the scrolls. Tanshu-sensei told both of us that, that we fought pretty good but fighting isn't what it's all about and that you were right in that mission to put the objective first. That doesn't bother us but… Both me and Sugemi trained hard because we don't want to fall behind, we want to be strong and able to complete the mission by ourselves too if it came to us." Mana shook her head, she still couldn't understand what the hell this was about, "So what? It's my fault that I happened to stumble into the archive and got stuck in there because that stupid bug had the whole place fall down on him?" Shimo looked away, "So are you really quitting being a ninja like Sugemi said?" Mana almost yelled out "No! Sugemi is an otaku, he keeps talking about manga characters or events that probably don't even exist and he thinks everything around him is just a manga story waiting to be written. He's my friend but he's the last person I'd trust to make deductions like that." Sugemi's voice broke out "I'm… Right here… Guys."

At least talking about it for a little helped the boys ease up a bit and they started talking to each other again. It must've been nothing else but a strong sense of responsibility, they had mistaken Mana's luck for skill and wanted to keep ahead, truth was that luck was a skill which couldn't be matched. It wasn't even good luck to be honest, how can one possibly call getting chased by a hungry centipede and getting stuck in an ancient unstable library and then having to escape its fall by digging through centipede guts good luck? It wasn't skill, it wasn't luck, it just happened… At least the magician knew that the boys trained hard, she still felt guilty for taking sensei's word for granted and working on her mindset the most instead of training her body or trying to learn new techniques.

"We can wait here" Mana said "Usually there's this group of actors doing historic plays until about midday." Sugemi and Shimo nodded, "It's good to have someone who knows the place and what's going on here." Shimo said. "We can wait in the alleyway and take those guys down quick and pretty after they show themselves. If it's just a small group we can handle them, I trained my taijutsu so I can do it alone, they'll make a manga about it and call it "World's Most Handsome Crimefighter and the other guys"" the Nara exclaimed as he rushed to the alleyway. Despite hating conflict in general Mana had to admit – she was quite curious to see how much stronger her friends had gotten. She only worked on her chakra and only kept up her physical condition, most work went into her magic shows and mastering sleight of hand.

This was going too easy, just as people started to leave the three noticed a group of four following a pair of young men. Shimo and Sugemi took double time to get into positions – they wanted to show off and take those guys out in one swoop which pissed the magician off. Safety of the villagers was all that mattered! Mana shouted "Get away!" and charged forward. One of the bandits didn't have enough time to react and the girl simply leapt past him leaving a slash in his chest using her kunai, the man fell down on the floor yelling in pain and shock of it. Mana tried her best to take on all three of the bandits but the best option would've been to be defensive – that was not an option, she had to get in between the victims and the bandits so she leapt forward and while dodging two blows and kicking one of the bandits aside leapt forward placing her kunai up to the other's throat. She turned her eyes away instructing the victims to leave. That was her mistake.

As her attention returned Mana felt a sharp blow in her cheek and her light body got thrown back, just barely the magician held her balance. "Just great, another bruise…" she thought as suddenly the bandit's face got twisted in pain. Shimo was on the ground right behind him – he flashed behind his back so fast! The bandit fell down on the floor, the two others tried to run but Sugemi's body landed right on top of one and hit the other. The body of one of the bandits made a lot of scary cracking sounds and the man yelled out quite loud. He must've been in pain. Shimo approached the magician and looked at the bruise on her cheek and her cut lip. "You OK?" he asked gently as she turned around and kneeled by the injured bandit.

"You two… I can't believe it! Can you stop doing this bullshit and focus for one moment?! While you were aligning yourselves for a "cool strike" these people could've been injured! I don't care which one of you is stronger, you can play Rock-Paper-Scissors to settle it for all I care… These are actual people at stake!" she kept complaining while she improvised a tourniquet for the man's open fractured leg. Sugemi's attack looked cool but he was way too rough. Their objective was to intimidate the thugs if possible, while they did not back off after Mana's warning that was no excuse to cause that sort of injury just to look cool. "You mean like Kakashi and Guy from that manga?" Sugemi smiled arrogantly, he still thought that he was right and proud of his awesome jump.

"None of those are a) real people, b) fictional characters, at this point I'm sure you're making up names!" Shimo yelled out, he knew manga better than Mana so he could at least argue with him about those things, none of that mattered to the magician. She breathed out lightly as she managed to somehow control the man's bleeding, at least until medical ninja would show up. Mana stood up and looked at the villagers that were still waiting around the corner just to see how it'd play out. "Could you please find some ninja patrolling and see to it that these men get help? We have a mission debriefing to do." she tried to ask softly. "Wait… You're Konoha's Sorceress right? Are you working with ninja now?" one of them asked, "I am a ninja. I am both a ninja and I do magic shows." Mana replied. "No offense, but you're not that good, you should ask your friends to teach you how to fight…" the other one butt in.

Mana got annoyed and backed off, she sat by the wall and gently stroke her forehead with her fingers, trying to calm down. This day was annoying her immensely with her friends acting like bunch of brats that wanted only to look cool and didn't care about people and the people she was supposed to be helping valued their violence over her worries over their safety. "Whatever, I'm off…" Mana thought standing up and heading towards the Administration building when Sugemi stopped her. "Hey… Ummm… I was thinking. These men… They had to work for someone right? Like… A big bad crime guy right? Like in all the manga all criminals work for bad people that have bunch of art and cats and stroke the cats while looking at art. How about we beat that guy up and take him in too?" the boy came open with his idea making the magician suddenly prefer silent treatment over his ideas getting vocalized.

Mana was absolutely stumped after hearing Sugemi's suggestion. Was he actually suggesting going above and beyond their mission and taking down some bigshot crime lord that may not even exist? How would they go on and do it, by trashing through the village and then attacking the man they pinned down as being guilty? That's how ninja became nukenin. The magician wanted nothing to do with that, Mana started walking away at a faster pace but she heard Sugemi coming after her. "And how would you begin your "investigation", where would you start?" Mana asked trying to make Sugemi bug off, she spent some time with the two boys and she knew a lot about them. Sugemi often had grand ideas but always got hesitant when people started asking about how he'd go on with realizing them.

"Well… We could interrogate the guy with the broken leg." The boy scratched the back of his head, the fact that he didn't back down after Mana asked him about him realizing his idea was bad – he really believed in what he said. Shimo crept up to Mana and placed his hand on her shoulder, gently stopping her. His face looked kind and soft – he really wanted to get Mana along with the ride but how on Earth did he and Sugemi manage to agree on an idea? "I think it's a good idea, Mana-chan." Shimo said slowly and quietly, as if he felt that what he was saying was stupid.

"Think about it, a shinobi is supposed to be the person that goes underneath the underneath, that's what they tried to bash into our heads in the Academy, right? Well isn't this going underneath our mission? Isn't this actually making a difference? Sugemi wants to get a manga written about him, well if he does heroic things like this he'll have it, I want to become Hokage and the first step is to go beyond my mission objective and make a difference. I know you want to become a hero – to protect the people around you and change the world… Well after we did what we did just now nothing changed – tomorrow there'll be other bandits taking money from the same people. If we took down the whole thing it'd be much more of a protection, don't you think? You'd protect the people that come to see your shows, you OWE them this much, Mana-chan."

Sugemi butt in, he saw Mana's eyes change, he saw hesitation and he decided to exploit it. "We need this, guys, I want to become strong, that's the only way to become strong. Taking down crime rings is what higher ranking ninja do: chuunin and even jounin… I want to see how well I rank against that. I know that Shimo wants that too but you Mana… I know you're different, you don't care about measuring your strength but the thing is that… You want to protect everyone, right? Well there's a war about to break out, we're just kids, there's no way they'll let ordinary kids on the battlefield which means you'll be unable to even try and fulfil your goal. You need to hurry up, you need big feats like this to get your promotion in time, if they see how cool we are, maybe the Administration will finally stop looking at us as if we're children, maybe we'll be given a shot at the Chuunin Exams even this year, think about it…"

Mana stopped and clenched her fists. She knew that she wanted to do that, she didn't care about authority, she couldn't have cared less if she'd be branded a nukenin or given some sort of dishonorable mention on her bio. She didn't care if she got hurt or even died, all she wanted to do was to change the world, to make life valuable and not some dirty cloth to be tossed around freely. Ideally she would've liked to do something like this by herself, this was her dream, her nindo and Sugemi with Shimo had nothing to do with it. They didn't need to get into trouble for this or get hurt in a battle. Mana sighed, "Fine, but if I see as much as a wink to torture that guy I'll make you two think you're worms and wriggle in the dirt for an hour. We'll do this peacefully, no torture, if we find out that there's something big in play we try and solve it nicely and only take them down hard if they resist. And for God's sake let's not blow anything up, we'll get in trouble for this as it is…" Mana gave in.

Shimo raised his palm to his head and saluted her, "Yes, ma'am!" he yelled out before winking at her. Sugemi shrugged, "You took the file, I suppose me and Shimo would keep stepping on each other's toes if we were allowed to take charge so… Lead on…" Truth be told the magician didn't really know that much about criminal investigations, her first idea would've been to question the guy that Sugemi hurt too. Thing was that she knew perfectly how it'd go: Mana was a twelve year old girl who was known around the village as a stage magician – it doesn't get any less intimidating than that, the guy would say something rude to her, Shimo and Sugemi would only get annoyed and resort to torture ignoring what she said. They were eager to prove themselves now and Mana wouldn't have been able to stop them, she had to play them differently, try and avoid any sort of opportunity for them to want to show off.

Sadly that meant that she would have to approach and ask for a favor of a man she really didn't want to see in her life any more than was necessary. She already was indebted to the man, he paid the rent for her shoes until the end of the year. He was pretty much the most influential "thief within law" in Konohagakure, Mana was absolutely sure that if he was not behind this scheme he at the very least knew the name, address and shoe size of the man who was. He was the end of every conspiracy theory in the village, nothing transpired here where he wouldn't have had something to gain from it. Truth be told, Mana wasn't really sure how this would work out…

She lead the way to the Hanada Estate, walking this path made her feel quite nostalgic for the days when she started out even if they weren't that long ago. What happened in that mansion was her personal cold shower baptism into the ninja world. How would Hanada even look at her? Would he feel indebted that she saved his life, his and his family's or would he just let it down as her paying the debt for him sponsoring her magic shows? If she will be indebted to the man just what sort of price will he name? Mana would've rather died than dishonored herself and become his mercenary, then again, the man had a talent at making things look different than they were. He'd make her feel like anything but his own personal toy, he'd word it quite differently and make it look like she was actually protecting him or something…

When the kids approached the gate the two guards looked at them with condescending looks, one of them gestured for them to turn around and go away, "I think you kids are lost." he said. It was sheer luck that the second guy was one that Mana knew quite well. "Hey… You're… Sorceress-chan!" the man said, he was one of the mercenaries that betrayed Hanada before, it seemed like he was allowed to work for the man after all was over. "Hello, I see you were allowed to stay… Good to see." The girl twisted her heel at the ground with her eyes shyly looking down, she was quite embarrassed to be talking to the man she beat up, he probably didn't like her too much…

"Yep, I'm pretty glad you beat me up, if you hadn't we'd have hurt Hanada-san and I'd still be a mercenary doing whatever people pay me for, killing, stealing and bringing shame to myself but now… I acted nice for a while and they let me go, Hanada-san even forgave me, he pays me less than the other guys but I get along, I'm even starting a family, c'mon let them in. Sorceress-chan is welcome in Hanada-san's home any time. Forgive him, he started working last week…" the mercenary laughed out, Mana didn't quite get his fond behavior but she was a bit happy that he ended up alright after the pretty nasty battle that happened here. "Well, I don't know… He was pretty rude… Not letting Mana in…" Sugemi pouted making an aristocratic and smug face, Mana couldn't help but chuckle before gesturing that it was alright.

The mercenary left his colleague standing watching the gate while he lead Mana and the others to the mansion. He asked them to wait in the waiting room while he went to tell Hanada that he was here. Shimo looked surprised, "You know Hanada Katsuo, Mana-chan? That's… Something…" he looked like he just exposed the girl for being a criminal herself, Sugemi looked impressed by entirely different things, "You had missions before we were a team?! How come?" Mana shrugged, "It wasn't a mission, Hanada is paying for my rent because he likes my magic shows and I wanted to thank him with a show, things just happened pretty fast and I had to fight his mercs… Well… Word "fight" is a bit wrong in this context, more like "lucked out consecutively"…"

Before Mana could explain Hanada Katsuo walked out in a fancy and without a doubt expensive pearl color suit and even more expensive hairdo for his knee long blonde hair. The man looked like an actor and his emotions really did seem acted, "Mana-chan, I'm so glad to see you! I only wonder what made you and… Your friends come here? Is there a problem with our business proposition, do you wish to discuss my sponsorship or something? Oh, this boy, you're Shimo, right? Your father and I had business when you were younger…" Mana was glad that Shimo didn't reply, it was quite clear from Shimo's eyes that he was not fond of the man as he must've clearly known Hanada's reputation.

"Hanada-san, I am very thankful for your sponsorship and I intend to allow you to finish your part of the deal, I was just wondering if you could help us out with something, seeing how I well…" Hanada smiled, Mana knew that he instantly realized what was her deal was. "Saved my life, there is no shame in admitting that, quite the honor honestly… Anyways, I suppose you need a consultation of some sort? What area, art, perhaps?" Hanada spoke, the magician stood there silent. How was she supposed to tell him that she wanted his criminal experience? She was just so bad at that sort of conversations! Shimo spoke up, Mana wanted to smother the guts out of him for saving her honor, "No, Hanada-san, BUSSINESS, we believe that we are after some of your competitors so it would be beneficial of you to help us by letting us know just who exactly is controlling the… Public relations… In the area around Hiro's hall."

Hanada turned around and stroke his chin, he understood what Shimo meant, Mana was surprised that he knew the "thief within law" jargon to be honest. Maybe his father was like Katsuo? No, that couldn't have been the case, it was much more likely that Shimo's father interacted with the likes of Hanada Katsuo often so both the father and the son knew their manners of speech, "public relations" must've meant whatever those bandits were doing. Hanada turned around and sighed, "My, my… What a conundrum I have here… I usually don't discuss business with children but I suppose in Mana-chan's case I can make an exception… I suppose you are here with official Konohagakure administration business? A mission?" Sugemi shook his head, "Let's call it "private investigation"." Hanada looked really pleased with that revelation, Mana didn't really know why the Nara chose to come into the clear with that information though.

"Ahhh… Well then… I suppose "private investigations" have the advantage of not restricting one's actions, I should point more young "private investigators" towards my competitors, that way I'd have less problems. Well then… This is business and I'm afraid, Mana-chan, this isn't how this kind of business is done. You see what you are asking of me is to snitch a man like me, that could potentially expose me as an honorless businessman if this conversation ever went public. This kind of risk requires a proper deal, quid pro quo… You understand?" Mana instantly started regretting this conversation but she had no choice, she couldn't let Sugemi and Shimo torture a man, she was ready to at least hear Hanada out, there could've been no harm in that, right?

"I don't think I have much to offer, Hanada-san, if there is a particular thing you want, I'm afraid you'll have to make it clear, this is the first and the last talk of this nature we will have." Mana tried to be brave but her voice was shaking a bit, she knew the kind of deals that Hanada usually made. Shimo looked annoyed, his gentleman side was offended by how uncomfortable this conversation made Mana feel, he must've realized that she never wanted this and must've started to put together her reasons for choosing this deal over interrogation. He was one of the smartest ninja of his generation after all. "Wait, Katsuo-san, are you sure you're being reasonable here? Mana-chan saved your life, yours and that of your family from what I've heard, surely that amounts to some sort of leniency towards business?"

Hanada fixed his tie, "Yes, Mana-chan saved lives of me and my family, she also helped capture and put most of those responsible for threatening it to Konoha Strict Correctional Facility. That is what amounts to you even being let into my home and for me having this conversation with bunch of children that have no official reason to be here or talk to me about business at all, truth be told, it takes a bit more than saving my life to be shown this much sympathy, boy. As of what I would suggest you give, Mana-chan, is your magic. Give me the ownership of Konoha's Sorceress as a brand, allow me to manage your shows and get the same amount of profit that I get now until you decide you no longer want to do this. That is my deal, information for Konoha's Sorceress, I'll give in someone else's business and get a business in return, only seems fair…"

Mana almost started trembling, her mind screamed into her ear that she couldn't do this! She knew quite well of Hanada's interest in buying up most of Konohagakure's entertainment industry as well as art. He knew the power of entertainment, he knew how much people were into plays, music and things like Mana's magic shows but she also has heard stories of what that sort of life was like. She'd basically be his minion, perform whenever Hanada tells her, wherever he tells her and charge however much he asks her to, he'd be in complete creative control of her shows. If he tells her that her father's tools and her escape tricks are not profitable he'd be in the right to order her to remove that. What he was asking for didn't sound like much to anyone else but to Mana it was surrendering half of her life. Suddenly she had to weigh what she was fighting for, was the information worth it?

Hanada smiled, he felt Mana's weakness and decided to exploit it, "Well, I suppose if you add ten percent extra of all that you earn I can send my own men to take them out, I can see from your cheek that you have still things to learn in terms of dealing with that kind of men and it is in my best interests as your sponsor to see to it that my little magician girl looks the best she can, you take pride in that don't you? You're the esthetic kind of artist after all…" Hanada's speech was cut short, Shimo's short blade was pointed right at his face. "If you ever talk to Mana like that again I will attack you! Attack you like I should've when you asked my father to convince mother to sell her gallery to you!" Hanada shrugged "I am well within my bounds to speak to Mana-chan however I want, I am her sponsor after all, I own Konoha's Sorceress for one more yea…" Hanada stopped in his tracks and started shaking, trembling not unlike Mana has been before. Mana didn't notice her hand weaving the handseal in rage, she didn't notice casting that genjutsu as anger blinded her and she released it that same instant.

"I'm sorry, Hanada-san… But you do not own me, I am quite capable of paying my rent right now without your help, if you feel like cutting this deal off I'll understand. To tell you my answer – I will never be a bird you can lock in a cage and show your guests, that's not what Konoha's Sorceress stands for, if I sold that symbol to you I'd be forced to stop doing magic altogether and I won't sell my magic to you." Hanada stood right back up and fixed his suit from the mess that he made trying to shake off the genjutsu that he saw. "Hmm… I wonder, Mana-chan, I wonder if you can pay your rent with the state that your father is in… I'm not sure if disabled people make the same wage if anything at…" Sugemi's punch aimed at the gut silenced the man.

"I don't like you, I didn't like you to begin with but at this point you're useless to us which means you're standing in the way of me getting my manga done, furthermore, you're pissing off my friends which means they won't be at their best when time to work for what makes up my manga comes." Sugemi turned around and left, Mana and Shimo followed – this was major! Hanada was an incredibly dangerous man, how could this go wrong so fast!? Mana placed him in a genjutsu and Sugemi punched him! He had people disappear for less, after the man straightened out he smiled, he managed to deliver his final words before the three left the room. "I am sad that we couldn't come to a deal. Perhaps another time…" his polite end to the conversation made Mana even less certain of what future had. Now with the master of entire criminal world of Konoha after the three it would this mission only got more difficult instead of this talk helping them find the man responsible for robbing people.

A tall man in shades and a dark long coat walked up to Hanada as the man observed the kids leaving. This visit was not a pleasant one for the man, his displeasure with it and anger should've been postponed until after no one saw him however. The magician kid made him money, supporting and sponsoring her as well as some other acts in the village opened doors to Katsuo, he could speak to any partners in Kirigakure and Kumogakure or any other village and reference his sponsored acts as a symbol of his influence and success expecting to be taken more seriously as a result. Him having the Sorceress under his wing would help both promoting the kid worldwide and using her fame to find more partners and spread his influence where her fame makes its steps.

"These kids are looking for Ooguchi's crew right? They'll wonder around through a lot of alleyways, probably until late time at night, that's a dangerous time for kids to be out at…" the tall man fixed his shades as he leaned over his boss' shoulder to affirm that was what boss had in mind. Hanada lowered his head, "No, these guys are just kids, I don't like holding grudges against kids, they'll have to grow a bit older until they learn that actions have consequences but this will not go forgotten… I'd like for Ooguchi to receive a "tip" from a "kind willed colleague" about them, make sure the girl lives and is able to perform, don't let them harm her face and hands. She may not pay me herself but her name alone is bringing me increasing amounts of benefit. Soon she may actually be worth keeping around paying for with no obligations from her part."

The man in shades nodded and disappeared. He was a professional and his efficiency was needed, it was not known what exactly the plans of the children were, if they had any tips. Boss' orders required of him to tip Ooguchi faster than he would know of the kids himself which was not that easy. More so, Ooguchi was an idiot, he was the first man to send his men out to the open to take out his competitors so Hanada-san didn't predict a long and prosperous future for him. The idiot was already making deals with some people from Kirigakure. Everyone knew Kirigakure was bad business, if they didn't kill you themselves they were still the enemy of the village so any ties with that village was punished with utmost severity by the Fourth's administration. Regardless of the difficulty of the orders or stupidity of the recipient, the man in shades will complete his assignment…

Mana sighed, "Sorry guys, I thought that we could've figured something out without torture and interrogation…" Shimo tried to smile but it was clear that his mood was spoiled by the encounter with a man he was not fond of. "You don't need to apologize, just… Don't go to that man for help again, Mana-san, don't give him the satisfaction of having you in debt to him." It wasn't that hard to understand Shimo's hatred towards Hanada – the man was everything that Shimo hated after all: rich, powerful and influential and acquired his wealth by oppressing those weaker than him. Perhaps Hanada most clearly illustrated the kind of man that the Mizukage that Shimo's family fled from was like…

"Seriously? Torture? Did you really think that we couldn't keep our cools? Hotheaded people are always secondary characters and comic relief and I must be the protagonist of my manga!" Sugemi exclaimed raising his fist in the air with certain dedication and strength to his words and the tone upon which they were spoken. Shimo sighed, "Oh well, I guess we should apologize to you, Mana-chan… Our stupid tenseness and rivalry made you plan around us and forced you to go to that man, I guess we should've been better than that." After apologizing for something he probably had no reason to apologize for, the young Yuki raised a fist and gave it for Sugemi to bump, the Nara raised his and the two bumped their fists. "We can stop being rivals if you agree to be the supporting protagonist in my manga, I guess…" Sugemi smiled. "Eh, good enough…" Shimo replied to that. For once this day started looking like less of a trainwreck.

"So… What now? We have absolutely no leads on the mystery crime man." Sugemi scratched the back of his head, "Maybe we should find that guy in Konohagakure hospital and ask him who is in charge?" the Nara boy raised a good point. By choosing one source of information over the other they lost the one they did not choose. It was most likely that the man Sugemi injured was already in hospital by now and his fracture was being looked at. Mana honestly had no idea about what to do, Hanada's behavior however seemed to lean towards there being some sort of "business" partner behind it so now she herself had a direct passion to solve this. "Do not turn around…" the three heard a voice behind them, it was a silent but clear voice, almost instantly cold air filled their lungs. It was a similar killing intent to Tanshu-sensei's but it felt so very different, Tanshu's was more searing hot burning all the air from one's lungs making one struggle to breathe, so hot it was cold… This one felt cold and damp, just this man being around them made one feel like drowning.

"I noticed that you are interested in the man behind the muggings near the Hiro's hall, correct? I see you three are ninja so the information I can provide would be in good hands. This isn't just common mugging, it's much worse, it's a racketeering scheme – people pay additional "safety tax" to these men in order to walk around that area. The man behind this is known to his partners only as "Ooguchi". You will find him in the southern district of the village where the warehouses are, there will be a small district of homes, rotten and ruined pissholes. Ooguchi owns them all and that is where you'll find him. I'd suggest moving fast, something interesting will be going on there today…" And just like that the cold atmosphere around this mystery informant disappeared as if it was never even there. The three genin simultaneously turned around but there was nothing there.

"Well… That was convenient…" Sugemi mumbled out, he looked so innocent and so unsuspecting of how dirty all of this sounded. Shimo looked completely different – he looked angry, this kind of thing like the trick that this Ooguchi has been pulling pissed him off. That was why he was blind about how suspicious it all was. Mana's head sunk down, this was so weird and… She didn't like it. At all. But she had no proof and couldn't even begin to solve this knot of people and who stood where in all this. Hanada wanted this Ooguchi safe but was willing to sell him out, this Ooguchi guy was some sort of fool that was trying to establish a racketeering scheme in a ninja village using the opportunity that the village is occupied with larger problems, a short sighted idea at best… Who was this mysterious informant, what side was he on? Why did he gave them this information instead of taking action himself? He did feel like an incredibly strong fellow, maybe not on Tanshu's level but his strength could have been felt by three inexperienced ninja, not just strength, his killing intent itself. That man was trouble, must've been!

"I don't know guys, this man… This information is just too suspicious." Mana voiced her concern, she didn't like how her voice sounded weak and unsure but to be honest it mirrored how she felt about all of this. They got into something they shouldn't have. "Yeah, I hear you. But what other options do we have? I guess we could just report this to the Administration…" Shimo hesitated himself for a moment. "Wait, you don't think on bailing out right? I mean, my manga is on the balance! This is just huge enough to make the first chapter!" Sugemi got pretty enraged by the hesitance of the two. Mana turned her eyes to the side, she didn't want this, any of this but… "We have to go…" she spoke without even believing the fact she said it and genuinely felt like it.

"If we don't go and report this, it's fine. But people will get hurt in the meantime. Tomorrow and the day after, all the way until they are taken down people will suffer and be threatened by this Ooguchi's men. If there's any chance of stopping that I'm willing to risk my life, plus, the informant did say that there's something going on there today. If it's useful to Ooguchi it is trouble for everyone else, we must at the very least stop that." the magician explained trying to voice her feelings clearly, as a hero that she wanted to be she had to go and would go even if Shimo and Sugemi didn't. She owed it to the people of the village that lacked the power to manipulate chakra, that had their magic of life treated as dirt by those men every day, to people that loved her magic shows and believed in ninjutsu being more than a tool of murder!

"Well what kind of gentleman would let Mana-chan go there alone, or with an idiot like Sugemi at that…" Shimo sighed and stroke his neck, it was clear that he didn't like it, it must've been his logical side that finally overcame his first reaction of rage. His rage worked differently from any other form of rage the girl has ever seen, he was angry so he wanted Ooguchi to be stopped but he wanted it to be done right – his rage justified reporting it to the authorities and leaving it up to them. Mana's feelings were different, she had to put a stop to it because she had a responsibility to act, she couldn't trust other ninja to not kill anyone. If the administration sends out stronger ninja they will without a doubt make a bloodbath out of scumbags that dared to pull this on Konohagakure soil…

"YES! Let's go!" Sugemi yelled out, "Wait what did you just say!?" his slower brain finally got the clue of Shimo's previous words. Mana sometimes couldn't understand how Sugemi's mind worked, he lived in a world where only his manga mattered, he never weighed pros and cons of anything, he just did whatever could grant him the fame to have his manga written about him and that was so incredibly weird. He never looked deeper, never analyzed anything just asked the question if it helped his cause. Being the kind of person to tolerate and consider any points of view Mana started to empathize a little with that sort of mindset. Perhaps if she adopted a little more of it she'd be more efficient in saving people, less concerned of the fallout and more reckless, less analyzing what something meant and only caring about if it helped her cause of changing the world, of proving that ninjutsu was something that each wielder defined and not something that defined its wielder.

The three rushed off into the distance observing the day reaching its peak, if they were lucky they'd arrive at early evening hours. That would be beneficial in scoping the area and at least trying to spot the trap if there was one. Just like expected the three arrived at about the beginning of the later hours of the day, the Sun was just about starting to set Mana crouched down and hid behind a wall, behind that wall was a large complex of multiple homes built of scrap and what almost looked like cardboard, almost like the entire homes were built from what these men found in the scrapyard. "Ewww… What kind of crime lord is this Ooguchi guy? I bet he doesn't even own a cat! Can we beat up that Hanada guy again instead? He makes for a much better villain!"

Shimo shushed the boy down and Mana angrily whispered back, "When your manga is being written just ask the editor to change some things up, you already made enough trouble with Hanada-san as it is… We're punishing only the guy that's to blame for all this mess." Shimo nodded, "I've got a plan, wait here…" he said and bolted off, Mana couldn't believe this, obviously she couldn't object since she wasn't officially the team's leader but she sort of expected being allowed to lead this little "private investigation", everyone acting for themselves was a dangerous thing to do in this kind of assignment. Shimo returned shortly with a guy that had ice around his mouth and arms and had blood on his forehead. The boy dragged the man up to the fence and rest him towards the fence.

"Talk, where's Ooguchi, what's going on here?" Shimo spoke after making a handseal and letting the ice dissolve into a small puddle. Mana had to hand it to the boy, it was a simplistic technique but it was an efficient one, Shimo's clan was truly spectacular and she wished to see some more of his Ice Release. "Forget it, brats, I ain't talking!" the man mumbled out, Mana's nightmare scenario was playing out in front of her, Shimo kicked the man but he only laughed, "That all you got?" Shimo moved to the side and looked at Sugemi, "You kick him, you're stronger, make sure it hurts!" The man laughed and reached for his rags, he lifted them up and showed a wound to the three kids.

"Forget it, brats, look at these burns. I'm used to pain, there's nothing your kiddy minds can do to me that I ain't seen before. Got this in a fire when Ooguchi-sama's previous boss kidnapped this murderous bitch kunoichi, she blew the whole warehouse district and gave most of us a beating of our lives and we got burns from that fire. What can the three of you do to that? I was tortured by a Yoruma once…" the man laughed out spitting some blood out of his mouth. Shimo looked really taken back by this, Mana got interested, "Yoruma?" "It's a clan of messed up assassins, they're bloodthirsty and they're some of the best swordfighters and torturers in the village, if even an infant Yoruma sadist couldn't get this guy to talk we may as well not bother and go in blind…"

Mana leant up to the man and placed her hand on his shoulder, "Please, sir, can you help us by telling us the information we need? Ooguchi is making a lot of people fear and suffer, he's also clearly doing something shady too… A lot of people will get hurt." The man spat at Mana's face but surprisingly enough missed. "What the fuck do I care?! Those people don't care about us! They're paying you ninja lot all the good money leaving all the nasty dirt work to us, normal folk who can't spit fucking fireballs out of their mouths. How the hell is a weak guy supposed to make money to feed his family if not by crime? Your kind MADE Ooguchi and our crew so it's time you got the credit for it…" Mana's arms weaved an illusion by themselves, this man was so angry and spiteful but she had no time to deal with his hatred and his feeling of being wronged right now, she had to know whatever Ooguchi had planned first.

The man looked around his body identifying Mana's "Scary Trick Jutsu", "Cockroaches? Really? Do you think someone who lives in the goddamn junkyard has never slept covered in all pathetic kind of parasite there is!?" the man raged out, the genjutsu was completely ineffective against him. "Wait… Those tricks, you're… Konoha's Sorceress? That magician girl that's doing her shows in the Hiro's hall, right?" the man suddenly recognized Mana forcing her to rub her eyes in annoyance.

"Yes." She admitted, the man's face changed, within just a mere second his face changed from that of an angered and hurt man to that of a man that is asking for his life. "My little girl she's… She wanted a long time to see your show and… I don't make enough money to… Maybe if you let her see it, I'd tell a thing or two…" he started almost begging Mana, "Also, please make sure she's not around when you take Ooguchi down." Mana stood up, "Fine, I'll get her here before we go talk to Ooguchi, and I'll let her see all the shows she wants, just please help us." the girl almost begged, it was a unique talent to beg while standing tall and looking person in the eyes, luckily over her career as a stage magician Mana gathered some acting skills. She wasn't lying about her promise though…

The man sighed, "Well, Ooguchi is in the house with that milk ad poster stuck on the roof, he's meeting this guy from Kirigakure today to exchange something but he's too much of a scaredy cat to meet the man himself, don't know what that deal is but boss says it's huge. That exchange will happen in the smaller house built out of cardboard entirely, the one that looks like a large farm toilet to the left of boss' place, there's one house with the working chimney, the one that's smoking, that's where you'll find the thing that the Kirigakure guy wants, Ooguchi's making a fool of him and will try to kill the bastard, he's got the goods in that smoking house. My house is the third house on the left right after entering the district."

Shimo stood up and looked at Mana and then at the guy that spilled the beans. "Alright you two, I'll bust the deal and prevent the Kirigakure guy from getting murdered, he may be a Kirigakure bastard but if he gets killed here it means war for sure. Sugemi go and take the goods, it might be something of value to help village compensate the people robbed by these people, it doesn't belong to these men anyways. Mana, you go get the girl to safety, I know you want to, then you have one shot to work your magic with this Ooguchi guy, if he doesn't listen we're kicking his butt and taking him in."

Mana fixed her gloves, "If he doesn't listen I'll make him try to make a wormhole through the floor with his face myself". Shimo nodded with a smile "Don't play heroes, if you're having trouble retreat and go right to the Konohagakure Police Force and the Administration." he added. The three nodded to each other in agreement, Mana looked at the bleeding man for the last time before heading out. "Sir, it'd be best if you stayed here, if we get caught act like we took you out and you didn't tell us anything, we'll act the same."

The three genin dashed through over the wall, scaling it up in just moments and then leaping over it and heading towards the direction of their objectives.

Mana carefully navigated the poor district. To be entirely honest she had never even seen it being built here. This whole district of warehouses and storage places was supposed to be more of an industrial place, how in the world these people moved in here was beyond her. A man wondered down the alley, clearly drunk, Mana let him pass without showing herself to him, someone looking like her would've stood out in the district plus she couldn't risk being recognized. The kunoichi had to move fast if she was to make it to both lead the girl to safety and confront this Ooguchi guy.

Something worried Mana as she kept moving, slowly but silently and still unnoticed, the man she let pass kept stumbling forward and dived nose first into a bunch of trash cans – he was drunker than anyone could describe. The girl wanted to help him but she couldn't afford a distraction, it was quite likely that this soft and warm sleeping place was the safest place in the district for a while. What kept that small amount of fear rustling in her heart like a little tongue of flame was Ooguchi himself.

These people that gathered here were not a clan, they were not friends, they were a community, one with incredibly powerful bonds that no amount of torture could break. Mana had not yet seen the might of this Yoruma torture herself but if it was enough to make Shimo instantly dismiss torture as a viable option it must've been impressive. What kind of man gathers such amount of loyalty, even more so, does so doing crazy things like occupying a village district and doing crimes right under Hokage's nose, working with Kirigakure that had less of an approval rating in Konoha than Death God himself. He must've been a man of ideals, almost a cult-like leader, an icon to these people…

"Your mother wasn't from Konoha…" father's voice echoed in Mana's ear. She tried to resist the urge to sink in the memories of her father describing the wandering tribe that he met Mana's mother in, she had no time for that now. Either way, was her mother's tribe of people wandering from village to village similar to Ooguchi's crew? Mana didn't want to make any judgments before she met the man but what if they were the villains here by separating a community of poor people that have nowhere to go and no ideal to live up to, people that literally have nothing, people that were risking their lives and betraying their ideals just to make sure that their children are happy for one moment in their lives… That kind of person cannot possibly be bad. Inevitably Mana, Shimo and Sugemi will not face off against bandits or animals trying to kill them but people, people with families that want their families to live in happiness…

Mana banged loud on the scrap door, a lady opened it – she wore rags and stank worse than Mana did when she was covered with centipede innards. "Excuse me, your husband sent me, he wanted to make sure you leave this district, it's going to go down today." the woman didn't look that sad or didn't even question Mana's words, she seemed to have a pack already ready to go, she gestured for the visitor magician to walk in and went to call her little girl. Mere moments later the little kid ran up to Mana with an actual piece of clothing which was a rarity – a raincoat and still held some sewn dolls. "Hey… You're…" Mana smiled and kneeled up to the kid so that she didn't have to look up all the time, "I'm Konoha's Sorceress and your daddy and I made a deal – you can see my show anytime you want and you won't have to pay anything, you can even bring your mom and dad if you want. Just please let's hurry…"

The kid looked ecstatic, this was probably the first time Mana saw someone love her shows that much, usually the public enjoyment was there but she never saw someone's eyes literally light up as if they were specks of stardust fallen to Earth. "Yay, I knew you're a nice person, Sorceress, when I find my third job I promise I'll buy my tickets like everyone else!" the kid shouted out. Mana's mouth opened to reply to that peculiar sentence and the horrible implications it had but she realized that she was literally wasting time here. "We'll talk later, please move to the gate, your husband is there waiting for you." Mana took some of her allowance money and handed it to the woman, "Rent a room in the village, sleep it over, we'll see how this goes. It'd be great if you went to the Administration and told them about this place and your situation in the morning."

Mana rushed out of the house with the woman following shortly and moving the opposite direction. This meeting made everything even more confusing, so people knew that their leader will eventually cause a downfall of this whole district they built here? Of course they should've known, this whole idea of building a community inside a ninja village and living their own lives and expecting it all to be swell was stupid. Of course the woman was smart and probably not even the only person here with a packed bag… This place started to make Mana sick, a place where even children had to work in several jobs and still didn't make enough money for basic survival needs. Just what kind of community this Ooguchi guy had here? Mana wasn't so sure she even wanted to resolve this peacefully anymore, she wanted that guy to say something, she was begging him to give her the option of fighting him and bringing him down. The genin quickly made way for the home where the man told her that Ooguchi was in.

Shimo tried to hold back a little bit, he needed to compensate for the time that Mana would take to move the kid out of the district. It was likely that no danger would even come to her but if such was the will of the man and that was the deal that Mana made with him… It was important to Mana that everyone was safe, she was lucky to have Shimo as her teammate. Most ninja would find such desire for heroism and making sure that absolutely everyone from common villagers to even the enemies were alright absolutely annoying. Sugemi didn't care about anything but getting a manga made about him so… She'd be lucky to stay in team with them forever, otherwise she'd have more conflict on her hands than she deserves.

The boy moved in and stood back to the wall of the house he needed to enter. His was probably the most dangerous of the tasks – it was likely that the Kirigakure man was a ninja and a skilled one. Usually only mercenaries, ninja or people employing mercs or ninja moved from one village to another. If that man was here it meant he knew how to defend himself or run away when things got hot. It was unfortunate that the Hokage had already left, if this man was captured he'd be a good proof of Kirigakure's dark involvement in Konoha's criminal underworld. Then again, the only reason why this deal was taking place at all was because the Hokage and "Red Dog" Tanshu and "Vapor" Miso were no longer here. It might have been a good idea to set up a diversion in this situation, make those guys believe that things were worse than they actually were… Either way, he won't achieve anything in here. Shimo moved in to a side "window", silently tapping the surfaces and checking which layer was supposed to be removed and worked as a window space.

Shimo gently removed the large piece of cardboard and placed it on the floor inside, he leapt inside and rolled to stand up – he couldn't waste time being seen between the house and interior. As Shimo's head lifted off the ground his eye almost got a senbon lodged into it – a tall woman was standing with her hand pointed at him with four senbons between her fingers, Shimo almost rolled into her taunting stance. "What do you know… The anonymous tip was right, Konohagakure actually does know about the deal." the woman spoke with an arrogant tone using her other hand to stroke her shoulder long dark hair. Her eyes met with those of the boy, "You messed up, this is how little ninja die…" the woman said and thrust her arm forward…

Sugemi kept running on forward to the place he was assigned to, why the hell did he listen to Shimo anyways? That idiot was in the way of his manga, what was his assignment anyways? To move the luggage with the money that Ooguchi was supposed to pay? That's repossession man's work, repossession men didn't get their own stories, no one wants to read about a repossession man. That asshole Shimo must want to interrupt the deal and get his own manga first, he just says that Hokage bullshit to others, just to move their attention away from the real goal. Even Mana got two jobs, how come she always got to do most of all in the missions? Just like in the Forest of Death when she got to do all of the actual work…

Then again, this wasn't a mission, money was important for the village, maybe he actually will get a pretty good word from the village to his manga publisher when he'll pitch the idea. After all, he will be the guy that recovers all of the money stolen from the people, he will be as much of a hero as it gets, he may even give everyone's money back to them personally! This was awesome! Shimo may have been trying to snag his dream but he'll end up snagging Mana's to fulfil his, that didn't really feel right, Mana was a pretty nice person, she didn't really deserve to get this shit pulled on her but it's all Shimo's fault anyways! Sugemi giggled to his own palm as he thought about it, the boy didn't bother to be too discrete – Sugemi thrust his punch to the scrap layer that served as a door.

"Ohhh, a little powerhouse… Isn't that cute?" Sugemi jumped backwards to avoid a pillar of solid rock shooting out of the ground, the amount of force behind that thing shook the whole scrap house. A man with rugged cape and a bandana and shades was inside with a cocky smile, what did this mean, no one was supposed to be inside! Did the guard play a trick with Mana? Did he lie about the actual locations? Mana was such a stupid idiot! She and her stupid belief that everyone was her friend, it'll get her killed one day and even worse – it'll get HIM killed once, maybe it's even in the process of getting him killed right goddamn now!

"Splitting your efforts to accomplish most assignments possible, or at least taking the money was a smart idea, we were fortunate to receive the anonymous tip…" the man spoke and made a handseal that made the rock structure disappear. Slowly, one step after another the man walked outside. "Oh no you won't!" Sugemi shouted leaping forward with a handseal charging up chakra and wrapping his Shadow Tendrils around his fist "Shadow Fist Technique!" Sugemi shouted leaping forward as fast as he could and punching the man right to the face. The force of his blow sent the man backwards right through multiple layers of scrap – Sugemi had to keep it contained, the man had some sort of Earth Release style that was dangerous to use inside such a house, by keeping it contained Sugemi might stand more of a chance and keep it more quiet.

The man's forehead cracked, then his entire body started to crack as if it was just a cocoon. The entire body crumbled revealing an identical copy inside. Sugemi's eyes were open wide – he had never seen anything like that, this was not someone of his level would use, his technique had the serious ability to break some bones, to soak all of it up was some pretty nice defensive armor. The layer of the man's armor that collapsed changed into dirt, the man smiled, "Nice technique, as you can see I have some of my own…" His half-exposed grin made Sugemi sick, he wanted to keep punching this guy but he shouldn't overdo it, one Shadow Fist used to take a lot of his chakra and while he has refined his mastery over the technique somewhat it still was easily his most costly jutsu. It'd be nice to finish it soon and without having to use it again, maybe two or three times if need be…

Mana opened the door, slowly she proceeded to walk inside, this house was by far the largest. Even if they didn't get their tip from the gate guard they'd have still been able to somehow figure out that the largest house made entirely of large ad posters stuck onto the usual junk materials was the most important place in here. It was strange to not be able to hear anything. One step after another Mana kept walking forward, gently peeking after the corner and doing her best to spot the danger before it spotted her. The rooms were pretty dark – there was little to no sunlight getting in there from the outside seeing how it was covered blind. One room however had light coming from there, Mana bet that would be where this Ooguchi guy was.

The girl tossed a smoke bomb into the room. She leapt at the first person that was closest to her having pinpointed his location almost instantly before using her tool. Using her kunai Mana smacked him at the back of his neck. She then acted through hearing and seeing mere shadows of the people inside the smoke alone, Mana lunged forward and rolled to avoid the blow of a man targeting her as his friends were still trying to understand what happened. The magician cut the man at the back of his leg and punched him with her palm. Mana knew perfectly how long her smokebombs lasted, she used plenty of those on stage, usually to announce her arrival. By then it was clear that these men were no mercenaries and definitely no ninja, they were just poor people to whom guarding Ooguchi was just one of their numerous jobs. That made the magician even more sick of it all so she started weaving handseals near instantly after taking out the last guy.

Mana pointed forward with two of her fingers sending a long string of channeled beam of wind chakra, it worked similarly to a blade, it was just much less piercing and efficient so it had no way of killing her enemy. Violence was a perfectly acceptable last resort kind of mean of achieving her ends but killing was out of the question for Mana. The sharp gust dug deep into the man's knee and he fell on the ground yelling, Mana tried to kick him in the face to finish him but he caught her leg and lifted it sending her down. He tried to crawl onto her but the kunoichi kicked him in the face. This was the second time that day she didn't perform as well as she could've in taijutsu – she needed to brush it up a bit, maybe invent her own style or something.

Mana's head turned up, her rough head count when she moved out to use the smoke bomb suggested that there was supposed to be another man there but no one tried to take her out while she was down. The wandering eyes caught a quite grotesque sight to behold, a morbidly obese man sitting on a collection of large pillows. He had an extremely overweight body but his arms looked pretty muscular and quite able to do some damage, his legs however looked miniscule and definitely undersized for the man. His head was the worst, it was easily the largest part of his body with his chin being almost half the size of his entire torso. Someone like that had to be the most important guy in the room. Mana rolled onto her chest and stood up, fixing her hair. "I can't goddamn believe it, Sugemi was right, this does feel like a goddamn manga at this point…" she thought as her eyes met those of Ooguchi.

"We need to talk, about all of this." she calmly stated as the man flapped his lips and licked them with his tongue, his miniscule legs moved just slightly pushing his body forward as he fell down on all fours with his bulky hands keeping up the weight. "I'd have liked to see your show, you're that magician right? That or you just dress like a magician which would be quite retarded… I just don't leave the district too much, people tend to point fingers and laugh at me all the time." the man spoke as he flicked his head to the side to get his dreadlocks off of his face. "You are insufferable, Ooguchi-san… You found those poor people and gave them hope gathered them together into a solid community, then you made them build you a home, not just a house but a whole village inside of a village and then you made them work for you, employing them into multiple "jobs", even children, using them like nothing else but a cheap workforce… I wanted to talk to you initially, see if we could find a compromise, maybe you could have still called off your men from their "jobs" and cancelled this deal… I'm sorry, Ooguchi-san, there is nothing to talk about with a person like you. This district will go down, its people will be free and will join the other villagers in an actual community, they will not be fueled by need to survive but need to live better than they already do. And most definitely, YOU will go down and into Correctional Facility" Mana said with her anger coming up inside of her, her heart slowly growing hotter and hotter before her entire body was tensed and ready to take this man down, him and his entire… Whatever this madness was.

Ooguchi's body shook as the man laughed, then all of a sudden his hands tensed up, the immense arms pushed the large corpus of the man off the ground lunging into Mana, Ooguchi's mouth opened revealing blunt teeth – what a peculiar method of attack… The girl tried to make handseals but it was too late – the man's teeth drove into her body causing grievous injuries, her head was barely even hanging on a small thread of muscle that the man's teeth did not tear apart, her body was almost cut in half from the lower jaw slamming into her gut… Or at least that was what Ooguchi saw as Mana's illusion connected first and she managed to roll under the man's colossal figure. Mana thrust her palms repeatedly, slapping Ooguchi again and again, driving her palms into his back, making her rage drive her strikes, punching again and again using her palms until she was too tired and stumbled back. "Is that it, magician girl? I didn't feel any of it, I'm a pretty thick man you see…" Ooguchi mumbled as he turned around with a despicable smile that would make the devil himself claw his eyes out. Mana's face twisted in disgust as she lifted two fingers into the air and made a handseal moving it up to her chest, "You WILL feel this though…" Mana spoke as the man noticed his back and shoulders being full of explosive tags.

"I don't think I can punch you out, I'm not the kind of girl that would kill either but this would not kill you, as you said, you're a thick man, you have a layer of both fat and muscle that my punches sized up quite well, this wouldn't kill you but your life would not be comfortable from that point on… Seeing how we're sort of stuck in a deadlocke, Ooguchi-san, let's talk…" Mana explained her intentions calmly, Ooguchi would have never listened to her before, now that she had his utmost attention and controlled the situation he'd be more talkative and willing to reach a consensus.

For a moment there Shimo just stood there, stood there watching and sizing his opponent up. She was a relatively short and not by any means a muscularly built lady, she had well shortened hair so trying to exploit that wouldn't have been a viable option. She used senbon, that much was for sure which meant she knew the anatomy of the body and had a pretty good aim. Wherever she planned to hit the genin, she'd hit him if given the chance, she wore a long black dress, an outfit very unlike the people living in the area. This would be an exchange of decisions, if Shimo lost the battle would've been over, if he won he'd be able to fight her for a bit longer – options weren't too much in his favor.

There it was, woman's arm twitched, her exposed shoulder muscles tensed up telegraphing her next attack. Shimo used a short blade – as a close range shinobi he must've had a certain degree of perception and ability to properly anticipate his opponent's moves and respond with optimal response from himself. The boy dashed back weaving handseals using his hands, his handseals were nowhere near the speed that Mana had, a strange thing having his amazing bloodline ability in mind… One would think he'd be a bit faster at that but with little luck the seals might just come out fast enough.

"Ice Plate Jutsu!" Shimo yelled out, he would've preferred to have some sort of water source to use in conjunction but unfortunately he had to settle for freezing air vapor for his techniques for now, at least until he gets smart enough to carry some water around or use a water technique to set his battles up. His female opponent used senbon, she tossed them forward with a straightforward attack but her tools bounced off of Shimo's defensive plates of ice – the two plates of ice that the boy created weren't large, but the size of a buckler but they were enough to deflect the senbon aimed at his gut. "She's aiming to incapacitate?" Shimo thought as he heard the needles clinging down onto the floor.

"An impressive display" the woman complimented, "An Ice Release technique, huh? You're skilled enough to freeze the water particles in air too but it doesn't seem too strong. Just how strong is it? As strong as glass?" the woman taunted Shimo. The genin was alarmed at how much she knew of his techniques, she either was a good warrior who had fought Yuki clansmen in the past or she knew about Water Release and its variations which meant she was a ninja and didn't just use tools. "She knew where she was targeting but she didn't want to kill me because if she did she'd have aimed elsewhere – senbon in the gut would've made it excruciatingly painful to move so I'd be down but not out… What is her goal here? Who even is this woman?" Shimo wondered as his opponent reached for her senbon, now that she knew the strength of his Ice Release she'd not play around. A ninja of her level would simply attack strong enough to both break his ice and take the opponent down.

The woman breathed in, the boy kept on guard but he knew that a ninjutsu technique was coming, so she was actually a ninja! The kunoichi of the Junk District quickly went through couple of handseals and spat a bunch of water out, Shimo leapt sideways to avoid it – that was good, she just made a source of water for him to work with! The woman breathed in again, proceeding to spit another mass of water right at Shimo, the boy slapped his hands together forming a handseal as the water she spat out before formed a flat and strong ice wall. This one was strong enough to withstand ninjutsu up to certain rank, Shimo kept it relatively small though – just large enough to block the assault with no damage to it but also left some space up and to the sides for him to pass.

He was surprised to be greeted not by shouts of frustration but… Laughter! The water that slammed into his ice wall didn't fall to the ground, it splashed up making bunch of smaller masses of water that stayed in the air shortly, they then transformed into needles, needles as large as senbon. "Water Senbon Technique!" Shimo heard the woman yell as the water needles bombarded the genin's body inflicting multiple cuts, moving in through the several spaces he had left for his own attack. The pain was unlike anything that the young shinobi has ever experienced, the pain of small pieces of water drilling through his flesh up to bone and then dissolving as it left marks on his bones in so many places at once – it felt like being shredded to bits!

The boy's injured body was drawn down to the ground, Shimo's hand shot forward to keep his body from slamming the floor like a sack of potatoes. "Are you… The Kirigakure ninja?" Shimo uttered some words, trying desperately to make the woman talk, just give him some time to get his pathetic ass off the ground and back into fighting shape. Shimo knew he could take this, all of what this woman had and more. All he needed was just a short break, just catch his breath and keep swinging back. She was clearly more skilled at ninjutsu, there was no use fighting her that way – anyone with the ability to shape elemental chakra into such complex shapes and at such numbers should've been beyond even Chuunin level.

Shimo's wall melted into a large puddle of water, the woman must've hit his chakra point which forced him to release any active techniques like this ice wall. The woman looked at the side, she was concerned about something, what could've been so important to her?! Never mind her concerns, Shimo got his chance to attack, gathering what he still had of his strength the boy leapt forward charging at the woman using all of his speed, that was what he trained all this time – his speed. That was what Tanshu-sensei told him, he spoke in what sounded like a riddle, he said that Shimo had the lock to his power-up already in his palm and that speed was the key. The genin figured that sensei meant that his body had the speed needed to impress sensei but he still needed to train it to achieve that speed so he spent those days running and pushing his body and ability to spend a great amount of force into quick leaps. Just focusing his chakra into the right muscles, making it work for him to transcend what even peak human condition could offer, all ninja were at peak human condition, it took a very special one to break that wall!

Shimo slipped and fell on the ground, that was impossible, his feet weren't even touching the ground! As the boy looked at what happened he saw water wrapping around his leg as if it was some kind of a whip or something. "Enough of this, kid, I'm not your enemy." The woman spoke, she was still looking at some point at the wall, her full attention was still somewhere else and she managed to counter Shimo's last resort attack? Just how strong was this woman? Finally her cold gaze returned to the genin laying on the ground, breathing heavily as the hard fall reminded him of all of his injuries from before. He quickly started forcing his body to lift off of the wet floor – she completely embarrassed him but he won't give this woman the satisfaction, he won't follow his own advice, he won't run! This woman must've had her eyes set on Mana's or Sugemi's location, she must've been a sensor and wanted to go. Shimo will keep her here, she won't get to where she wants to nor will she get the pleasure of dominating him, he will fight her as an equal to the end!

"I said enough, I'm a jounin of Konohagakure…" she nonchalantly added as the woman's eyes returned to wherever they were before. "W-What?" Shimo grunted out, still affected by the pain. How could this make any sense? Why would she be fighting him in that case, did she know about the Kirigakure deal? What was going on? "Me and my partner were both undercover here, we were on a mission to find out just what and how much of it was this district pulling in terms of criminal activities. Today was when we decided to blow our cover and take it all down – we couldn't allow this Kirigakure deal to go as planned but the man was close, I didn't want to tip him off and so me and my partner volunteered to keep you guys occupied and act like we're killing you when we got the tip from Hanada that you'd be coming. Going to that guy for help was a REALLY bad idea…"

Finally all of this started to make a little bit more sense to the genin. So this woman and whoever she was working with were already on Ooguchi's track and working on taking him down. Team Oak was given the low ranking mission of busting one crime, to just win a battle while this squad was working with winning the whole war! They really must've made all of this difficult for the two by getting involved… Shimo looked away, he was really ashamed of himself and that he got involved, also disappointed that he was so weak and didn't give this woman a good fight at the very least, he wasn't an asset in this mission of these two high ranking ninja at all, just a kid that was in the way… "I'm… Sorry…" he uttered, the woman tsked with her tongue.

"It's alright, I couldn't tip off the Kiri guy so that he doesn't get away, I had to play tough. He was in this house but when the end of the fight was clear he left, I can sense him moving to Ooguchi's place. He was a weird guy, wanted to make the deal only with the fat guy himself. I can sense that there's a friend of yours there, a small chakra signature, larger than yours." Shimo nodded, "Mana-chan…" he uttered, "We've got to go, if this Kirigakure ninja gets there Mana-chan will be in danger!" The woman scratched her head, "Yeah, the chakra of that Kirigakure guy is crazy, he'd probably give both me and my partner trouble, sadly Ooguchi's house isn't our first stop, we need to let my partner know that the rules changed too – without him we won't beat the Kiri ninja if he starts fighting us and he'd kill your other friend fighting him in the meantime. I just hope your friend can stall for time."

Shimo grunted and punched the ground, he was torn as both of his teammates needed help. "How about if I went to help Mana hold the guy off and you went to pick your partner up and then rejoined us. I'm sort of a gentleman, I can't leave Mana-chan in danger again, she always tends to get in trouble and do things by herself, I want to be with her this time!" the woman shrugged "Do what you want, I'm going to pick Dorimi up." she replied without a care in the world and dashed to the side, kicking out a cardboard layer while not losing pace and moving to the eastern side of the district – where both Mana and Sugemi were.

"I'm coming, Mana-chan!" Shimo uttered to himself as he jumped out the same hole and forced his body to move the best he could towards the place where Ooguchi's house was supposed to be.

Sugemi kept throwing punches at the man's general direction, they've been exchanging blows for a while now and he was holding the genin off, even more – he was returning more than he was taking. So far, for entire couple of minutes of non-stop exchanges of blows Sugemi managed to resist the temptation to use any ninjutsu but he had to. This guy already gave him a swollen black eye that will probably look like a second face in the morning, he also must've broken some ribs at least. At the current pace Sugemi might stall the guy but not knock him out. His dream of manga was floating away slowly and this was was all that stood in the way!

"You're pretty impressive, you're a genin right and yet you're giving me trouble at taijutsu. Granted it was never a field I excelled at or trained. I hope you understand that I'm beating you at the game rules of which you set up… That is unfortunate but the difference in strength is apparent!" the man shrugged, his voice, the words he spoke, it all made Sugemi more and more angry. Sugemi crouched up and started yelling loud, he was doing just like sensei showed him, letting his anger flow through his body while his motivation of manga was threatened, it was now that Sugemi was at his angriest and at his strongest, just like sensei said, however, anger made him slower and reckless so his strength was worth nothing!

"First Gate: Gate of Opening… OPEN!" Sugemi yelled as chakra burst out of his body for a brief moment. This was not something he did in battle, only something he trained with. So far Sugemi had never used this in combat but when he was training this technique let him train at least five times more efficiently which meant five times more gain for same amount of training. Still, the technique was not something he could allow to last, it also wore down his own body and his body wasn't tough enough to stand even one gate for too long. "Eight Gates?!" his opponent exclaimed surprised as Sugemi used all of his briefly unlocked speed and the strength of his rage and desire to destroy this man, he slapped his hands together to form a handseal and yelled out in pain and rage, "Shadow Tendril Barrage!" as tendrils of chakra shot out of multiple pockets of his own body – Sugemi's own Nara technique tied around his body, striking his opponent repeatedly from any source of shadow in his body.

The technique connected, the surprise of seeing the Eight Gates being used by his opponent seemed to open up the man's guard and allow Sugemi to catch him unprepared, the fists pummeled his opponent and the Nara gave him no chance to recover, he went all out allowing his chakra to continuously burst prolonging both his One Gate and his Shadow Tendril variant. It was such an exhausting technique that Sugemi needed mastery over his own body to perform it and not collapse, only while using the First Gate could the boy manage to pull Shadow Tendril Barrage off even if theoretically it was just multiple quick succession strikes of a Shadow Tendril technique that he used quite casually.

"No!" Sugemi shouted in his own mind, he could feel pain and exhaustion in his arms, his actual body was crumbling on using so much chakra and the strain of the gates. Sugemi's body was still quite puny, he wasn't used to it being pushed too far so even the First Gate was straining enough to be the boy's limit. No! No more limits! Just one more! "Shadow FIIIIST!" Sugemi yelled as the multiple Shadow Tendrils quickly wrapped around his arm forming a bigger version of his fist. His punch hit the man in the jaw, the boy felt a rush, he felt like he still had something in him and that if he didn't use that last amount of force his opponent will stand up, him standing meant Sugemi's defeat and death, death meant no manga for him, that was unacceptable! The boy roared as he pushed his fist to fling his opponent back using all of his force.

Just as the woman in a black dress settled on a small wall, built entirely out of discarded household things like ovens and washing machines she looked at the home – she still couldn't quite understand what was going on, her partner was in there, right? Why did he make that boy's chakra dip so much? It was like he was getting closer and closer to death but at the same time – Dorimi was struggling as well, his chakra took some dips too meaning he must've used a technique of some sort to defend but… His flow was calmer which meant he was in no danger of…

The entire damn scrap house collapsed as the side wall burst open with her partner flying out through it! The woman even jumped out of surprise, what kind of force can cause something like that? That wasn't the amount of force a genin should be capable of putting out. A boy walked out through the hole just before the whole thing went down, no, he just barely stumbled out – his body was strained, just like his teammate this kid was giving his all, did he even know he was fighting a Jounin? Then again, it didn't seem like Dorimi was doing much more than defending… The man that was flung out by something the genin did stood up, his Earth Armor collapsed! No. That wasn't even it, the man wiped blood coming out of his lip that was open, he spat some to the side – this kid caused Dorimi damage!

The kid fell down, just like that other one that faced the woman, he used all of his remaining force to keep his body at least on his knees with just one arm to keep him from kissing dirt. He was huffing heavily and sweating profusely – he was in no fighting condition but… This kid… He'd go places if he didn't die a youngling. "Hey! Stop playing, let's go, the cover's blown, let's proceed with takedown." the woman yelled from atop a barrier of junk.

"I see…" Dorimi spoke, he then quickly stomped the ground shooting multiple rock pillars that surrounded Sugemi and pressed against his body – an efficient way to keep him from making more trouble. Now that the man could safely use his Earth Release he settled this in just an instant! "You're a fool, stay here so that you don't hurt yourself any more than you already have. You pack a punch though, well done." the man replied as he picked up his bandana off the ground and tossed his broken shades away revealing warm and funny green eyes. "Let's go, Shibari-chan…" the man addressed the woman on the fence, "I assume you will now put on your glasses in that case? Your aim is horrible without them?" he smiled as the woman pulled out a pair from behind and put them on. "Yes, sadly it is, barely can see a thing without them, having to aim using sensory alone is weird, fighting genin like that doesn't bother me but that Kirigakure ninja will be trouble."

The two ninja head out their way, leaving Sugemi struggle and kick around trying to break out of the improvised prison he was left in. The head was the only thing he could use so the Nara kept trying to break the stone with it, however nothing was achieved but drawing his own blood. Sadly using the gates made his body more vulnerable after use too…

By the time that the brief scuffle in Ooguchi's house resolved and the magician got the man where she wanted him to be the Sun had already almost set. There were only the small light sources that were coming from the room – small candle like lights placed in various spots of the room. They were artificial, mechanical but they tried to imitate the real thing and only glowed like the real thing, dimly as no doubt was the intention of their maker. Mana had never seen such objects, people in Ooguchi's little "community" were amazing and crafty people, they had to be to survive…

"So… What do you want to talk about then?" the man asked the young kunoichi finally breaking the silence. Mana's eyes switched back to those filled with spite and rage, she usually was a peaceful soul but right now she was blazing inside and had no tolerance for men like Ooguchi. There was a part of her that wanted to activate the tags on his back and make him suffer. She extended her hand forward, still holding her hand in the handseal position as if to remind him that she has Ooguchi in her complete control. "There is not that much that I want you to do. We will be taking these people over from you, if you have any wisdom in there at all you'll leave this country and will never be seen again."

Ooguchi's fat body twitched, Mana knew what that meant, she did not activate the tags though, this was an attack made out of desperation and it posed no danger to her. The young genin lifted her leg up with a kick to meet the man's face, the silly chubby tried to literally bite the girl's arm off but Mana's arm was not where his oversized jaw chomped, instead her boot kicked right into the outside of the man's jaw. Ooguchi rolled back on the floor, whining in pain, the man spat out two gigantic for a human being teeth, they looked like they were tools of death, they had to be at least the size of a brick. "Did you just try to bite my arm off?" Mana asked completely confused? Why would anyone do that? That was not an attempt to kill, that was an attempt to injure her – even if Ooguchi had succeeded Mana would've still been able to activate the tags with just one arm. He was just insane…

"You can forget it…" a loud, artificial voice echoed throughout the room Mana was in making both the girl and the man she was fighting jump up in surprise. The voice had no man to claim ownership of it, it was just a sound that came from one of the multiple areas in the room that were pitch black from the absolute darkness and as the Sun went down and the artificial lights were not powered up the darkness was slowly increasing in size. Within just ten minutes of the magician being in the room the area corrupted by complete darkness grew from nothingness to at least one fifth of the total size of the room.

"After all, Ooguchi is a slimy snake, if you let him go he'd just climb back to where he is now." the almost cybernetic in nature voice came from the darkness again, this time followed by a loud whistling noise. Mana's hand shot forward to try and intercept it but… A blade hooked to a chain dug deep into Ooguchi's flesh. The man seemed to barely even notice it until he turned around and saw it, then he started shouting into the darkness completely ignoring Mana. "No… Wait… I'll, I'll pay… Come on… It was a joke…" he then turned to Mana and started crawling towards her with teary eyes. "Come on… Girl… He's lying, you're kind, you'll help me, right? I'll disappear just like you told me to…" the second blade on a chain dug into the man's back, completely ignored by the large figure of Ooguchi.

"Begging her will do you no good. She'll be dead too by the time you'll be found. She and her stupid friends actually served me well. I was wondering how to pull off this perfect crime – kill a Konohagakure businessman and disappear without a trace… Just like sensei taught me." Two more blades flew at the colossal man and wrapped around him instead of having the blades dig into his body. The chains were then pulled back resulting in Ooguchi being completely bound by the steel chains. "Did you know, girl, that tags can be set off not only by the user's chakra but also by any source of fire chakra?" the creepy voice came again as flames erupted briefly illuminating a man standing in one of the corners, hiding on a wooden beam right near the roof.

Mana knew what he meant by that, right after his words reached her she dashed back – she wanted to save Ooguchi but… She wouldn't have even gotten to the chains before the whole place would've went up in flames. A gigantic explosion went off, Ooguchi's tags were detonated by the man's Fire Release technique, Mana didn't make it in time – the explosion caught her and tossed her right through the scrap door, she was supposed to feel lucky. The crippling pain reminded her that she was still alive and the crumbling noise of falling debris suggested that the entire house was blown the hell up. Mana felt pain everywhere, she felt warm streams of blood going down her back, some areas of her body that were cut by the scrap wall she flew through. Her entire face was burning – it must've been cut in multiple places… So much for her performances for a couple of months…

Hair… So much hair was in her way… Mana peeled her head off the ground and looked at what used to be Ooguchi's home. No trace of it remained, no trace of Ooguchi himself, no trace of his assassin. That person, who was it? The guard mentioned that Ooguchi was having some sort of a deal with someone from Kiri, someone who obviously should've been a pretty powerful guy to move between villages with less than stellar relationship and working so deep underground. So maybe this assassin was him? The Kirigakure ninja that was having the deal with Ooguchi, and since Shimo went to intercept the deal… Oh God! Did that mean that Shimo died!? No… That couldn't have been true! Mana shouted out in pain as her entire body felt like it was covered with fire as it stood up. She tore off what little remained of her jacket, her uniform was completely messed up, just enough remained to keep her dignity intact…

Such powerful devastation, the man must've killed himself too, what the hell was that all about? He couldn't possibly have ran away, he had to hold the chains… A figure walked through the flames, since the house was mostly built out of junk and scrap it must've been Ooguchi's gigantic carcass that was fueling the flame. "Just a clone, magician girl, I very much plan to live through this." the artificial voice spoke again. Only now the magician had a brief chance to get a look at the man, he was dressed just like a ninja that clung to shadows would've been dressed like – a black but slick armor. It must've been made from some sort of cloth but some areas like the face and chest had tougher protection, made from steel or other protective layer. The armor was decorated, the whole cloth part looked like the skin, the protective parts tried to emulate human skeleton with his face being most over the top of all – even with miniature couple of fingers sized demon horns at the end. His whole body was wrapped in chains, those were without a doubt his main long range weapon.

"You may want me to kill you and be over with it. That'll have to wait for one second. I sadly have a fatal flaw, I really love to tell people things, sensei says one day that'll kill me so he keeps beating me half to death every time I try to explain my victim how I got them and how I'll kill them. Sensei tells me I am a prodigy, a genius even and as such I want my mind to be understood, I want my victims to know just how good their killer is." He started talking with that annoying voice again. Mana wasn't sure if it was something that he needed to breathe, like a breathing apparatus inside that ridiculous outfit of his or maybe just so his voice isn't recognized, he pressed something at the side of his neck and the artificial voice stopped. When he spoke Mana's body shook in anger and shock.

"You may recognize my voice. Yes, I am the guy that gave you the tip in the first place. You see this mission is sort of an initiation ritual, initiation into being an elite assassin. I was given the task to kill a man in Konohagakure, an influential man no less. Assassins always have to raise as little noise as possible, then again, I am also a perfectionist so I wanted my presence to not even be known. Then I heard you three talking about Ooguchi's thing, imagine my surprise, three young weakling ninja looking for the man I am trying to find ways of killing silently… Your expression betrays you, girl. You get it, don't you?" the man spoke with pride behind his voice, he was PROUD of having just killed a man, he was proud of what he was about to do too. He was proud of it all.

He was right, Mana knew what he did, he planted them, played them so that they got to Ooguchi so that then this guy kills them and Ooguchi and puts it on their heads. He framed their names, he was going to kill Mana, Shimo and Sugemi, no, he was doing more than that. On top of their deaths he will also mix their memories with dirt, their names will go down in history as names of murderers, ninja that one day just decided to kill a man inside their own village. Man loved by the people that the same man secretly enslaved… Mana was so stupid, why did she get involved? Now she brought shame to her entire family, she burned down every bit of fame her father worked for, she would be the person that ruins the family name that father made from nothing. All that her father did, she would undo… Mana's merciful heart filled with rage once again. She couldn't keep it in anymore, if she would die today she'd go fighting.

Mana shouted out, that was her roar of pride and rage, she charged forward at the man who obviously was not expecting it, probably wasn't even done talking yet. Her first kick surprised the assailant and it landed right onto his cheek just like the girl had intended it to go. Mana always wanted to make an improvised style of martial arts, one focused on kicking just so she could reach further, keep people away for her actual strategy to be used on them more efficiently. She may as well play with what she'll never get to anyways… Mana's kick seemed to hurt the man, what the magician girl perceived as armor barely absorbed the shock and it cocked the man's head to the side. This was her chance, she got the hit in, she dazed the man, she may as well make him work for that kill! Mana's legs danced gracefully as she kicked wherever she could find an opening in, the head, the chest, wherever she saw none of that ridiculous skeleton-like protection of armor her feet went for. As one leg got tired of attacking, the kunoichi switched to the other. She must've kicked him so many times but the man just stood there and took it, he didn't stumble back, he didn't fall… This was bad.

Both of her legs got tired, Mana was grunting and huffing openly as her relentless barrage of kicks made her defeat herself by exhausting her. NO! This was absolutely not the time to give up, she would fight with all she had, if she would die in the end she'd make the man lose more than couple of teeth from getting kicked in the jaw. The young genin dashed backwards tossing explosive tags in the air, just in time as the man had planned to counter her kick with a punch of his own which would've sent Mana down, kicking made one only have one leg of footing which was not a solid ground, one simple hit would've sent her down. Now the assassin dove right into the cloud of papers, the last of Mana's explosive tags went into the air. The magician made handseals and shouted out proudly "Friendly Gust Jutsu!" usually the technique was used to deliver the tags from one point to the other with a gust of wind – this time it was just to faze her opponent so that he stood still while she detonated the tags.

Mana made the seal, at that moment she did not think if the tags would kill the man or not, she just went all out, ridding herself of both most of her chakra and all of her regrets. As the chain of explosions riddled the area Mana's hands weighed down and her body hunched a little. Never has the dirt looked more comfortable and cozy than at that moment. Mana felt pulsing around her eyes and in her head, she knew this feeling, the feeling of being almost out of chakra. Her recent experience with this helped her better understand her limits, had she not spent too much in the archive in Forest of Death she may have spent too much here, tried to follow up this technique with something else… No, her "Magical Explosive Combo" was complete. As Mana breathed more and more heavily she wondered if the man had died.

Sharp pain – her opponent flashed out of nowhere with the kind of speed that would've probably made Tanshu-sensei proud. He dodged that combination with so little time to react! And yet… This was not the speed of a Jounin, in fact Mana saw that same kind of speed from Shimo. Could this man have been a genin?! A genin trained by the elite assassins so much that he transcended the lines of ranks? His body was trained just as much as Shimo's he must've been of around the same age. Mana's body stumbled backwards, at this point the girl almost felt no pain, adrenalin flooded all over her body. She heard the man's cloth rustle in the cold night's wind, "MOVE!" she ordered herself inside of her mind but her body froze. The man's arms worked like a machinegun, he attacked using his palms, just like Mana used to, the difference was that this man was much stronger and much better trained. He punched so fast, just as pain of one strike reached the magician's brain he was hitting in multiple other areas. And yet… He was not perfect, all this disguise of him being a Demon of Kirigakure and he still was breathing heavily.

The man jumped backwards flipping his legs and finishing his combination of blows with a backflip kick right in Mana's chin. The magician could've sworn that she lifted off the ground. Everything was white, was she dead? No… There were some loud voices all around her, buzzing inside of her head and then they all went away just as spontaneously as they came to be… She was alive. Mana could feel the pain of being alive, the reality that felt worse than dying at that moment. Pain all over, the bleeding cuts all over her body made her hair that were all over the ground feel sticky. She heard the man huffing! He was getting tired of annihilating Mana. That was just what the girl needed, a sign that all of this struggling was not in vain… What was she talking about? Of course it was not in vain, she was Nakotsumi Mana, the young woman that one day would change the world! Make human life be worth of something, this goal could not possibly be a vain one! Mana's eyes turned at her opponent, he jerked his hands to the side as blade claws shot out of his fingertips. "Don't worry, magician girl…" the man said while huffing, he finally then realized his mistake, revealing to his victim that he too was human, the assassin quickly flicked his cyber voice back on.

"These claws going through your neck will not hurt one bit, it'll end it all fast, you've fought valiantly, maybe even valiantly enough for me to care to get your name before I end this." the self-appointed demon spoke. The girl closed her eyes, the man took it as a sign she was giving up, truth be told – Mana was ordering her body one last move. The man's arm shot forward, his claws dug deep into the girl's neck, but something was wrong, in a poof of smoke her body disappeared and a piece of scrap iron was there in her place. "Substitution?" the cybernetic voice spoke to himself, a punch to the jaw silenced him. "My name… Is Nakotsumi Mana!" Mana shouted out as she started punching wildly, she was just as skilled at close range combat as a genin that did not specialize in it, that often got underrated, she certainly enough was no match for this man but… She'd make him sweat for his victory!

The two opponents started exchanging blows, Mana kept striking but her attacks were blocked one after the other. This man felt like he was impossible to hit, her every punch, every kick he pushed away with a simple flick of his wrist, it looked almost like he was resting throughout this entire struggle! His move economy was impossible, not a single movement was unnecessary. Mana had had enough of that brief exchange of blows to know where this struggle would lead her, she needed a ninjutsu technique but could she afford it? At her current exhausted state she'd have to be pretty cheap and use some of her weaker ones and that was never something the kunoichi liked to do. The young one kicked the man with all her might as he effortlessly blocked it with both of his hands, slightly slipping backwards, giving Mana that distance she so desperately needed as the girl weaved the handseals and…

The Demon's elbow dug deep into her gut. Mana just let out a single gasp of pain and surprise. Her mind turned off… She couldn't remember anything from that point as everything blurred and went white. There was just her weightlessness and her body hitting the ground but it no longer mattered… The assassin flicked his hand again getting his claws out, his last set was discarded as they were bent up and dulled from hitting solid scrap. "And that is how the magician dies…" he spoke thrusting his arm aiming at the girl's neck!

A loud clang broke the assassin out of his ecstasy – Shimo's wakizashi clashed with the man's claws sending a barrage of sparks out in the air! Mana was lucky not to have seen the face of her friend, this Shimo was smiling and enjoying the fact that he was about to be in a fight for his life. How could he not? He was looking for a chance like this whole day! "Who on Earth are you!?" the Demon grunted, trying to win the clash against Shimo's blade and cut Mana's arteries open, but Shimo's wicked bloodthirsty smile only grew wider. "Mana-chan is out, good, means I don't have to hold back, she won't be mad at me for kicking your butt with all I've got!" he grunted back at the assassin.

Shimo and the assassin struggled with their clash, each trying to push the other away with the assassin still trying to dig his claws into Mana's neck. Shimo smiled, something that the man facing off against him found annoying, "What's so funny?" he asked, "You need a break? You look like you're just coming from a beating of your life…" the assassin tried to regain his intimidation factor by noting the injuries all over Shimo's body from his encounter with the jounin earlier. "It's funny…" Shimo spoke still holding the clash of his blade with the assassin's claws firmly, "Mana-chan always believed that no person is ever unnecessary, that all life is sacred… I think right now I am bound to agree with her." Shimo spoke.

"What the hell are you on about? She got beaten by her own idiocy, she was so careful and foolish to try and set a trap for Ooguchi that she did most damage to herself when it blew into her face. She is a failure and she deserves the shame her death will bring to her." the Demon pushed his claws, trying to win the clash but unsuccessfully. Shimo just chuckled and shouted out loud as he shoved his blade with the last of his strength, the assassin's claws broke off of the device that held them to his fingertips, using this victory to its fullest the Yuki kicked right into the assassin's armor sending him sliding through the mud several feet back. Loud cracks started erupting all over the protective surface of the man's fancy outfit as the night-black protection of the tough material that absorbed blows to his chest and head crumbled. Suddenly the Demon of Kirigakure found himself standing with just a black jumpsuit and a simple black cloth mask covering his face.

"You had a pretty fancy outfit, protected in several areas making it hard to near impossible for a blade to land a solid hit. I'm not sure what Mana-chan's intentions were fighting you, she's a peaceful girl that hates fighting but… It's entirely possible that she wanted to make it easy for me and Sugemi to take you out by leaving you exposed. Cloth offers less resistance to cold steel than whatever you had on there, also now that stupid voice of yours shuts up!" Shimo swung his wakizashi to the side and stood back into the fighting stance, spreading his legs wide to have better solid footing, lifting his blade into the air and ready to strike. "Plus, it looks like she gave you some trouble, even if she didn't want to fight you to begin with…" Shimo never dropped his wicked smile for a bit, it felt great finally facing an opponent closer to his level, whatever that jounin meant by this guy being troublesome, he had this in the bag!

"I see… You believe that you are in some sort of advantage over me because your friend who is unconscious in the mud just waiting to be finished off removed my armor and made me huff a bit? My skin may be exposed now…" the assassin's body suddenly disappeared, within just a blink of an eye he closed the distance to Shimo, the boy swung his blade trying to hit the man's eyes with a slash, blinding him for life, it took the Demon a simple ducking motion to avoid the blade as his palm was thrusted right into the boy's body – opening it up for a combination of blows. "But feeling cloth rubbing against my skin…" punch to the gut, "Or cold night's breeze sending chills through it…" diagonal upwards blow to the jaw, "Or there being no protection on my chest making it hard to breathe…" downwards kick to the side of the neck with the shin, "No tough plastic to get in the way of my muscles tensing…" double punch to the nose, "It only makes my body more primal… Faster, stronger…" a combination of crushing blows to the chest leaving no air in the boy's lungs, "More ruthless" a blow from the side of his arm covering all the way from his chest to the face, sending the boy down to the dirt with his friend, where he belongs.

The Demon was surprised to see that his relentless combination of blows did not keep the already beaten up boy down, instead of staying down the little swordsman used the momentum from him being blown back to roll back right on his feet and stay on his knees at the very least. Shimo clenched his nose, it spat out some blood, he could taste blood in his mouth and breathing hurt just the same as getting punched. This man seemed to favor quantity of blows over strength, he attacked a lot of times, covered many areas but he never really packed a lot of force behind single blow. Still, if Shimo lets him up close again and wastes his reach advantage that the wakizashi grants him he's as good as done. Nothing would stop the man from snapping his neck if he wanted to… Shit. This had to be it – Shimo had to go all out but could he? Could he use THAT in his current condition? Could he be fast enough? There was only one way to find out, the boy smiled and laughed out raising his blade up and taking a defensive fighting stance.

"You know… Not long ago, before leaving, sensei gave each of us a training session, one on one, told us bunch of stuff, where we were strong, where we needed training, mostly how stupid and hopeless we were…" Shimo spoke as he threw his wakizashi into the air with all of his might and made some handseals. "I am Shimo Yuki, of the Yuki clan, I can use the famous Ice Release and am the only active ninja in Konoha with this ability." The boy kept speaking, his opponent did not attack, he was now on the defense, it was obvious that he didn't want to be up close to the boy when he uses his ace technique. Shimo's wakizashi slammed into the mud and stayed driven into the ground handle up. "Do you know what the most astounding advantage for a swordsman is? Speed. Good old raw speed… Do you know how to achieve speed? Speed is very relative, you can become faster… Or you can make your opponent slower… Do you know what cold does to your body?" Shimo smiled as a powerful chilling gust rose up making it impossible for anyone to move around.

The boy's technique drew water out of the air and froze it, he created a small artificial blizzard around the area making it hard to see, hard to move around and for those that did not share his bloodline and weren't used to this technique it slowed down their reaction time and their movement. Shimo smiled as he reduced the blizzard to one compact twister around his opponent, it did no damage to the enemy and barely threatened his life, but it weakened his body which in terms made Shimo look fast. "Blizzard Cut – Two Slashes!" Shimo whispered to himself as he dashed forward with all of his speed that training bukijutsu helped him gain. "Too slow!" the assassin shouted out trying to outshout the howling gale of a blizzard but he felt sharp pain and warm stream of blood shooting out. A tap of Shimo's foot alarmed him that the child swordsman was already behind him, the assassin tried to turn around but he dashed through again. The blizzard stopped after the second slash as Shimo sheathed his short blade.

"Sure to you I seemed slow…" Shimo spoke with certain spark of arrogance in his voice, this was something sensei had told him back then that helped him make this technique, no this style – using Yuki Ice Release to make his enemies slower, to distract them and ruin their chances to dodge or counter. "Your trained eyes saw me move from a mile away, ordering your trained body to counter but the problem was you were in shock, you were freezing, your trained body was just too slow to respond." Blood shot out of the assassin's body as Shimo's blade cut his flesh and left cuts in his clothes and his body instead of damaging his Demon's armor. The man was breathing heavily on his knees, he was injured and bleeding, he was moderately tired. "You little pests!" he yelled out from sheer rage, his body disappeared again, only to reappear right in front of Shimo.

The man's elbow quickly dug right into the boy's cheek, this attack was different, he put actual effort behind this one hit, he was slower but stronger! "Why do you stupid kids have to make this all so difficult!?" he yelled while kicking Shimo in the chest and reaching behind his back. "Weapon?" the genin instantly recognized the danger and tensed his body for a response. "Just stop trying to cause me trouble and die like good little Konoha weaklings!" the assassin shouted out grabbing two of his chain blades and using them like swords, Shimo's wakizashi just barely got in time to block them. The Demon's knee pushed the boy away, he already knew enough of the boy's physical strength not to contend with him in a clash. Seeing how the chains were already in his hands the Demon tossed both of the blades right at the boy. "Shit!" Shimo cursed swinging his blade to deflect the projectiles. Sharp pain came from his side as well as a warm torrent of blood went down and started dropping on the dirt.

Shimo managed to deflect one of the two chain-blades but one of them went right into his side. They weren't too large, just about as large as a small knife so they posed no immediate threat from a single stab but it was what the assassin was going to do with this successful hit that intimidated Shimo. "One, huh?" the opponent grunted with certain amount of disappointment and grabbed the chain that held the blade with his arm, pulling Shimo in at close distance. The chain blade ripped out of the boy's body but the force still pulled him in, the boy already knew he'd be dead if the man got his hands on him, he wasn't going to give him the chance, this was his fight! He was going to win! Shimo didn't resist the pull and the momentum, he used it by jumping into the air and dropkicking the man making his wound shoot blood like crazy. The boy loudly grunted from the pain but quickly jumped back on his feet and swung his wakizashi aiming at the man's throat. As much as Shimo wanted to respect Mana's beliefs, the girl was goddamn crazy if she wanted to take this guy in alive…

A loud clang echoed throughout the alleyway that the genin was fighting in as another set of Demon's claws blocked the swing. Shimo yelled out from pure rage and turned around kicking right to the assassin's chin sending him down on the ground. He was injured, he was tired, his reaction time wasn't that great. The fact that the Demon took this kick made Shimo believe in his victory again. The boy dashed backwards clenching to the wound that the chain-blade left on his side, a hand proved to be a poor barrier for blood, Shimo felt the weakness all over his body already. He had to end this soon or he risked just collapsing from his bleeding. The boy made some handseals again, "Ice Wolf Jutsu!" he yelled out making a cold gust of wind, unlike the one he used in the Forest of Death this one was twisting around himself with a head of the wolf shaping just couple of feet above Shimo's head. The boy's feet kicked his body out forward in a dash, it was pretty lucky that he could use a wakizashi with just one hand while clenching his wound with the other.

The boy dashed right through his opponent slashing him with the blade, a loud clang echoed as his blade was blocked with the claws again but this was not just another slash. Shimo finally recovered from his dash and sheathed his blade again with a smile just barely distinguishable from the pain. "White Wolf Slash" Shimo whispered under his own nose as blood shot out of the Demon's shoulders. This was Shimo's strongest combination, if this didn't keep the Demon down he'd be left with very few options. Shimo's brother who used to be a ninja in Kirigakure but was not allowed to be one in Konoha used "Ice Wolf" as a projectile of Ice Release, Shimo made the technique his. If his opponent blocks Shimo's swing, there was still the gust above his head cutting with multiple shards of ice to deal with, eight gashes to deal with – it was almost like an actual wolf was on the boy's back attacking his enemy together.

"A sneaky technique…" the voice of his rising enemy made Shimo afraid, "But the slash of the icy slicing winds is much less dangerous than your blade, the icicles were not as sharp, not as strong. Your exhaustion betrays you." The Demon definitely looked more demonic with each injury he received, his top was torn up by cuts and gashes, his mask had small holes and was covered with blood but… Somehow revelation of his humanity behind this nameless symbol of a demon only made him look that more supernatural. "He's just a man, you just messed up your cut… It's you… Not him…" Shimo tried desperately to convince himself this was his fault, that he just slipped up because no one had the strength to take his "White Wolf Slash", only Tanshu sensei withstood it but only with a kenjutsu technique of his own – "Red Cerberus Draw" a triple cut technique that makes the user draw and sheathe in rapid succession three times, doing it so incredibly fast that it looks like one slash from different angles. Even against such a technique… "White Wolf" cut through one of Tanshu-sensei's draws, Tanshu-sensei only won the clash because his technique was composed of three strikes so the two other strikes hit the boy knocking him out…

"Now it's just a matter of time…" the Demon lifted his body up, his hands were still weighed down and he was breathing heavily but he was clearly doing better than Shimo who probably was about to go down any time soon. The two charged at each other, it was blades against claws again as each one of the two swung their weapon trying to cut the other, the assassin's moves were predictable, had they not been, Shimo may have skipped a couple of strikes but the way things went – the two were absolutely equal. They clashed with every strike, it seemed like the man's injuries compensated Shimo's own exhaustion. The two kept trying to find openings, switching their attacking sides, attacking high and low, left and right, diagonally, upwards and downwards and nothing worked, every time one cut, the other blocked it and responded with a thrust or slash of their own. Obviously the Kirigakure Demon was the more masterful combatant – his weapon had a couple of times shorter range compared to Shimo's blade but mastery and skill had no role to play here, this was a brutal exchange of blows, mastery and precision was long since forgotten, this was just two young men trying to kill each other.

Shimo roared loud trying to lob his opponent's head off or just open his throat but the Demon thrust both his hands forward launching a flock of sparks and pushing both men down on the dirt. The two crawled backwards and stood back up, both of them were struggling to breathe, desperately trying not to collapse. Shimo's wound was still spitting up blood in weak but relentless torrents but the Kirigakure assassin must've had more wounds to worry about. The assassin laughed and clenched his ribs that may have been injured. Blood was hard to see in all of that black cloth. "You know… My official rank is… Genin!" the man kept on laughing. "That is the difference between our villages, in my village a prodigy genin is capable of passing through your stupid defenses, one of me is enough to kill all of your stupid generation… Come, send all of your genin my way, send chuunin or jounin… You will only honor me more! There is no greater honor for a Kirigakure assassin than to die against many more skilled opponents after a successful kill!" Shimo slapped his dizzy head with his palm, "Gosh you sound like the darn Yoruma so much… I hate those guys…"

"I may be from the Yoruma clan, a clan of proud and unstoppable assassins or I may not be – you will never know because I have no history, no name, no face… I am a mystery to you and your pathetic village." the demon removed his mask and showed his true face – a face of a young man, perhaps sixteen years of age, not more, covered with scars and one that clearly has taken a beating or two in his life, his black messy and greasy hair went all over his pale face, he reminded a madman, a berserker much more than a Demon now. "Even when you see my face, even if you have my body you'd see but a void, there is no name to tag to that face, no meaning, no man. What is a letter to a man who cannot read?!" Both of the men simultaneously made handseals, the assassin spat out a small fireball, Shimo rolled out of its way and set out another small blizzard – this was the last of his chakra. This had to do! Both the assassin and Shimo dashed at each other, "Blizzard Cut!" Shimo shouted out loud aiming at the assassin's body that was shivering from the sudden cold around him as the Demon of Kirigakure swung at Shimo with two more chain-blades in his hand, using them as knives. Unfortunately the blades of the two clashed, the clash shot out such blinding sparks and the noise was so loud that the two youths were temporarily deafened and blinded, or maybe that was not the bright sparks, but a figment of their burning souls, maybe it was not the deafening clang of steel clashing, but a small demonstration of their prideful roars of rage, but their own exhaustion…

The two ran past each other, the Demon dashed out of the small area of the artificial blizzard and Shimo's body slid through the mud. Both of the men fell down on their knees. Tearing sounds came from the assassin's side, the man straightened his body out and tore his cloth off, revealing his bare cut up muscular chest, it was hard to tell which of his scars he earned this day, which ones were from his gruesome training. Shimo coughed up, he fell on the ground. The Demon looked at his enemy, "You cut me first, my blade barely scrapped you and yet you collapsed… It seems that Galateia, the Goddess of War is in my favor." The assassin spoke to an empty street, he wanted to peel his body off of his knees, lift his chain-blades, walk up to Shimo and kill him, then proceed with his magician friend… He couldn't… He was just too tired. The man closed his eyes and put his black dirty mask back on, the mask that only showed his brown eyes. "Sensei… I will not fail you, I will not shame you any more than I've shamed you while fighting enemies of my rank and not finishing them off immediately." The Demon mumbled under his nose and stood up, creeping up to Shimo. The chains were too heavy, he let them slip off of his body and down to the dirt. He'll do it the old fashion way – with his own shaking exhausted and bleeding hands.

His hands wrapped around the magician girl's neck, she passed out first – she'd come back first as well. The man applied pressure, strangling an unconscious body was weird, it offered no resistance, how was he supposed to know when she was dead? Suddenly a loud rumbling noise alerted the young man making him jump backwards from the girl's body and just in time to dodge a giant rock flying his way. The rock flew past into the distance and took down a small scrap iron home. The boy's tired half naked and bleeding body turned at his new opponent's – a man with a bandana and a pair of shades and a woman with a black dress and glasses. "Is this a bad time?" the lady asked, mocking him. "Come! I am the Demon of Kirigakure, I will tear you down with my bare hands!" the young man's body tensed up as he shouted loud at the duo.

"Well then… Shall we?" the man fixed his shades.

Without hesitation, the young now unmasked and injured assassin charged at his two opponents. Dorimi, the male jounin with shades weaved a single handseal and slammed his foot to the ground, a large pillar of rock shot up blocking the assassin's path. However the Demon of Kirigakure was nimble, his foot quickly rose as he stood on his toes and his entire body twisted around the rising pillar. He thought to continue his charge but then froze and his body was thrown backwards as Shibari's senbon hit him right in the chest and his shoulders. The young man rolled on the dirt and grunted in pain before slowly getting up and removing them.

"We weren't done talking yet." Dorimi remarked nonchalantly, "What did you mean before, saying this little brat could give us trouble, Shibari-chan?" The woman's eyes closed, judging from the assassin's eyes he would've loved to exploit this opportunity but with all of his injuries and exhaustion he was now almost glued low to the dirt. "The Sorceress kid is alive, her chakra is slowly going down which means she's in danger of dying eventually. Strangely enough the Yuki swordsman's chakra is on the verge of death but it is not too excited over crossing this boundary, he is in much worse condition than his teammate but she is in more danger as her condition worsens slowly while that of the Yuki does not. I'd say we have five to ten minutes to deal with this, the girl might slip into coma within half an hour or so with the rate her chakra is dropping. Be careful, your body seems hurt too, your chakra has taken a large dip too, fighting that youngster tired you out, close range combatants naturally trouble me so… We'll win, for sure, but this won't be pretty."

The young man rose from the dirt and wiped the mud off of his bleeding wounds. He laughed maniacally before his face froze in cold expression. "I've never killed jounin before but I enjoy when my opponents act cocky, I love to see that cockiness leave their face, is that the expression you will make?" he asked looking at the two jounin. He was confused that the woman in the black dress did not attempt to hide that her partner was injured and tired, why would she not be afraid to expose the weakness of her team? If such was the extent of the Konoha jounin stupidity, the Demon will grant them their deaths by rubbing that very same idiocy into their faces. He's beaten two genin already, they were pitiful and weak, how much stronger can jounin of such weak village be? Zero multiplied by any number is still zero. The young assassin believed in his training that his sensei granted him, this knowledge, this skill, this abuse and pain that made him grow strong. It will not bring shame to his village!

Dorimi made one more handseal raising four more pillars from the ground. "I don't believe you know who you are facing off against. I am Dorimi – the jounin of Konoha. My ability to manipulate the battlefield is without equal as I believe that battlefield advantage makes a won battle." Shibari fixed her glasses, she was annoyed by her partner's theatrics, "For example, my partner Shibari is one of the best Water Release users in the village but Water Release users are weaker without a source of water, sure, they can usually use the water from their own bodies or the air but their potency with an active water source nearby is multiplied tenfold." Dorimi leapt back onto one of his pillars as the four rock formations started to spin around and close in on each other, quickly grinding an open hole into the ground. Dorimi leapt into the air and weaved more handseals, "Water Style: Great Waterfall!" he yelled out spitting a large amount of water from his mouth onto the newly generated hole creating a pool of water.

"These so called jounin are fools! They give me intel on their abilities. Normally I'd be honored to die fighting them after a completed job but… This information would be useful for Mizukage-sama and more importantly – sensei!" the assassin thought to himself. The body of the young man rose up, he overpowered his own bodily limits. How could he not? He now got another purpose, another assignment – survive and deliver this intelligence to sensei. Dorimi – the battlefield ninja who can shape the battlefield for a strategic advantage and Shibari, a mysterious woman with Water Release techniques said to be the strongest of her elemental affinity. It'd have been even more ideal if the young man scoped their abilities, found weaknesses, all of this was going to be integral during the war!

Suddenly Dorimi's hands were slammed together as the rock he was standing on disappeared in the mud. The demon closed his eyes and reached for the ground, he was trained to fight after losing all of his senses, most genjutsu users were frail and weak when their opponent closed their eyes and shut off their vision. The young assassin felt the vibrations of the dirt and jumped sideways to avoid each of the rock pillars. "Such weakness… It would be a sin to let them…" unfortunately the boy did not finish his thoughts as a sharp kick hit him in the back sending him slamming right into the rock, breaking it into pieces. "Don't get cocky boy." Shibari spoke. The rock pillars were weak, most likely because the ground was so soft, they crumbled after just one hit but the young man felt the impact all over his body – his body had taken so much punishment and was literally breaking, collapsing after being able to take no more. Luckily the Demon knew how to fight with his bones broken, all he needed was to adapt, stop using movements that hurt the bones that were broken!

The assassin of the Mist removed his boots and closed his eyes. He needed to feel the movement of the earth while listening to the best of his abilities for the attacks of the woman – these two jounin worked quite well in tandem, they must've been a team that went through many hardships. That gave him an idea. What if the two were bonded? What if they were friends? Naturally working alone the Demon had no friends and no bonds but he knew that such a thing existed, despite being located in the body of his enemy these feelings were his friends, no, his tools to exploit. The Demon lunged forward, he heard rumbling of the ground and the man's fist hitting the rock, he was throwing a rocky projectile at the Demon, the young man rolled forward right under the rock, no, a small edge of the rock cut the assassin bruising his back, it hurt, pain did not matter. In the middle of his role the assassin pushed his body up using his arms and spread his legs wide spinning using his arms and kicking the Battlefield Ninja using his feet and knees repeatedly. The youth could hear the body of the man cracking, he could hear him grunting – the man really was injured and tired!

The Demon thrust his arm forward, aiming a rock-hard punch right to the man's neck, his fist would've broken the man's throat, made him unable to breathe and incapacitated, the Demon would then kill his first jounin and bring his head to his sensei! "No!" the mind of the assassin yelled inside his own head and stopped his arm in mid-air, sensing something around the man, something like an armor, something that'd hurt his arm without a doubt if struck the wrong way. It was then that the boy heard something, a rising gurgling sound – the woman in black! The youth rolled to the side as he heard sounds of crashing water. "Your Water Spout Jutsu missed? I thought your aim was spot-on?" Dorimi asked confused. Shibari fixed her glasses, "I wasn't aiming, I was watching your back." "I see…" the other jounin smiled as took off his shades and threw them away. Shibari laughed, "So you finally removed them? Gonna fight seriously?" Dorimi smiled "You do realize shades don't help you see in the dark, right? Actually they hinder my vision quite a bit…"

The Demon could not believe this, were these people making jokes? What was this? Were they not serious? Their lives were on the line! Not that the lives of the Battlefield Ninja and the woman in black mattered in the grand scale but to them it must've. The assassin lunged forward again, rising up from the dirt trying to attack the man with a combination of taijutsu blows. This time he decided to use his palms, thrust them to make impulses and shockwaves through the man's armor of dirt and shatter it, then finish it! Sharp strikes were the way against meat and bones, blunt blows and throws helped against armor and barriers. The man didn't even protect himself, not until the first blow of the Demon shattered the armor, strangely enough the woman did not aid the Battlefield Ninja, she just stood calmly and kept breathing calm, the assassin could've sworn that she even laughed out at some point. Were these two not friends and comrades, not even a bit in love perhaps? Had they no bonds like the Demon thought previously?

With a lock around the man's throat the young man drove the jounin to the ground and started suffocating him. The woman still did not interfere. Suddenly the boy felt his body being lifted off by something – a rocky platform? How could he not hear it? Then the young assassin's eyes shot wide open, only to see the Battlefield ninja wearing rock like a glove, trying to slam the assassin between the two rocks. A crushing shockwave emanated through the district as the assassin's body was crushed and then poofed into smoke, the youth managed to replace his body using "Substitution" with a scrap piece of junk at the last moment and was breathing heavily further away. This jounin was smart, he moved the pillar incredibly slow, so slow that it only sent such small shocks to the ground around it that even with his entire body on the dirt the young man couldn't feel it. Had he not moved fast enough he'd be crushed by two rocks, even he couldn't have survived that impact, these jounin fought to kill…

"Is this hatchling giving you trouble?" the woman mocked her colleague, something that the man found annoying, "I let him get to me, I wanted him to grab me!" he yelled waving his arms like an idiot. These "jounin" of Konoha were pathetic, they did not behave like killers at all, it appeared that they were just playing a game. Such lightheadedness pissed the Demon off most of all. The youth weaved handseals and yelled out "Fire Style: Rooster's Tongue!" as he spat a giant spreading wave of flames. There it was! The two idiots were dead, they had to have been, the man was too busy bickering with his wench partner, both of them were deader than dead! The roar of flames was soon overcome by the roar of crashing water and the boy was washed back away by the flood. He slammed into the rumble of Ooguchi's house as the whole thing was washed away. It was that woman…

Pain was all over the assassin's body, the water he coughed up came together with pools of blood and his whole body was cracking and twisting as he tried to stand up. He was close to dying, this was his cue to try to escape. Make the two fools believe that the water killed him and just get away with the intel. These jounin were fools but they were still jounin and certainly too powerful for the young assassin in his current state. The youth started to crawl away, slowly and quietly, the woman may have been a sensor but she had to concentrate to sense chakra, plus his body was so mangled and beaten that she may not have even picked up his signature at all. That was the first thing sensei taught him, to only lose when he died. Keep moving, stay conscious unless he was dead. That took years of beatings and injuries and experiences to learn. "Oh shit…" was all that the Demon had the chance to think as the water wrapped around his leg and lifted him up into the air and slammed down into the dirt on the other side where he was trying to crawl. The heel of the woman called Shibari then dug sharp into his forehead, yet the assassin did not shame his sensei and his peers, he did not scream in pain!

It seemed like the water itself wrapped around the body of the assassin and the woman's fist then closed, "Water Bondage Jutsu!" she uttered as the pressure of the water pressed tight and broke his body. The assassin could not remember anything past that point. Dorimi scratched his head and looked at his partner, "Did you kill him?" Shibari coughed and then took off her glasses, "Don't joke around, he's a little bag of intelligence gold. I look forward to seeing how he responds to water filling his lungs only to retreat and then fill them again… His dark purplish hair… Might be a Yoruma, it'll be fun to torture the torturer for once." The woman winked at her partner. "Jeez you are cruel though, Shibari-chan, that technique was a bit too much for the boy." The woman turned around and formed a rope of water that she wrapped around her arm and the other end around the unconscious assassin, as she walked backwards the body of her prisoner got dragged together with her. "You're carrying Sorceress, Yuki and the Nara we left behind…" she casually finished the talk.

Mana's eyes slowly peeled open. Just as they opened to a certain degree sunlight instantly burst into her eyes. The girl tried to roll to the side but pain took over her body stopping that from happening. Her muscles felt like they were completely disabled and unused for days if not weeks. It took some getting used to, slowly, one by one the magician got the feel of her every limb. What happened? Was she still alive? The pain all over suggested that this couldn't have been the Afterlife, plus what did she do to deserve it yet? The growing feeling that she was alive begged another question – how did she survive? Did Shimo or Sugemi help her? That had to be it. The girl sat back up letting her feet dangle just an inch from the mat on the floor. Then came the painful part of standing up and stretching out.

Mana descended down the stairs, mother was busy in the kitchen, father was toying around looking over the death traps that the two were building before that last mission. Father looked at Mana with angry eyes, "Morning." he said and kept on looking at the trap, his movements were rough, but also precise, it took precision to know just how precise his movements could be before pain took over his arms. Mother didn't say anything, the chopping of the octopus in the kitchen intensified hundredfold though – it was obvious that the woman was angry. There was a huge "talk" brewing in the future, Mana's head dipped down, she messed up big time. Something wrapped around her, the girl lifted her head letting her dark locks slip to the side as she saw mother's arms around her.

"You could've died…" was all that she said. "Your mother's right, what you and your teammates did was irresponsible and stupid, you're lucky that Hokage-sama is away, he'd have taken your licenses away and you would've never went on another mission for a hundred years. The guy's an icon of peace but he's strict on stupid suicidal genin." Father was still angry, angrier than he could successfuly try to hide, he let the anger take him over completely but he couldn't have been blamed – he had his own pain to deal with as well of stupidity of his own daughter. "I'm sorry." Mana said, her eyes lifted to meet those of mother's "But… We had to do what we did, we didn't know that Ooguchi-san was being investigated when we started, we had to take him down, he was forcing people to work while keeping them in poverty."

Mother's eyes changed, she turned around and walked to the kitchen to continue chopping that octopus with as much force as her body could handle. "Well, you'd be glad to know that the district was completely taken down and reshaped by Dorimi-senpai, the people in the district will be given temporary places to live until they decide what they want to do – move or start making a living here. From what I've heard most of them were people from other villages and countries. There was this family that came to see you, wanted to let you know they're alright but… You were out at the time, apparently being able to manage three jobs made the family a lot of money and they've bought their first small home from their first pay. All of Ooguchi's wealth was also split for the people he kept under his watch so that'll help them settle in too." Father spoke while trying to do his thing adding up to the device. Mana smiled, she looked outside through the window and saw the Sun shining brightly. This was great, things worked out well, she was glad to hear that the family she went out of her way to help was OK.

"So… The secretary at the Administration was at your ward when we picked you up from the Hospital, she said your team won't be given missions until Hokage returns from the Summit, what'll you do in the meantime?" Father asked. Mana sat down near him, "Help you finish this, then I've got to learn how to throw a kick." The magician looked at the metal contraption of death and spikes, she had so much training to do. Fighting that assassin helped her understand just how much she still had to learn and just how powerless she was. That man was the exact antithesis of what she stood for – man that used ninjutsu for killing, a man who held life at no regard and threw it away casually for his own ends. Next time she meets a man like that, Mana needs to be able to fight them, to defend and stand up for her own beliefs even if she doesn't want to fight or hurt anyone. She needs to become strong, to become able to crush her opponents that wish to discard innocent lives with overwhelming force so that she can show them that their way is evening Mana started training using her father's dummies. "Okay, I dunno how to actually train my taijutsu, I guess I'll start by just kicking this thing until I can't kick anymore, then in the morning I'll find someone to teach me… I'll also need to keep meditating and performing… Vacation has never felt more busy." Mana thought as her leg lifted into the air and slammed into the dummy making it shake. Noises of thumping and crashing could've been heard from the magician's room throughout the night.

A small boy, couldn't have been more than six years of age, was observing his parents that were preparing for leaving. The boy's feelings were mixed, there was a certain amount of pride in his eyes but his face was as long as that of a horse. Despite being proud of his parents – the brave and strong Konohagakure chuunin little Tanshu could not stop crying. The sides of the boy's eyes started bleeding when the boy instinctually wiped his tears with the rough sleeve of his pajamas, the boy's mother saw the boy and slowly walked up to the little one sitting on top of the stairs and watching his parents through the space between the handle bars.

"Hey, what are you doing there? Go to bed you little rascal. Grandma said she'll be here in the morning so you won't be feeling lonely while we're gone." Mother said while wrapping her headband around her hair, letting just one lock fall over it so that they are not tied too tight. Father came up to the mother calming down her young boy and silently wrapped his arms around his wife. "Don't worry, son, it's just another big brawl, mother and I will be back in no time. We've got three candidates for the Sannin spot coming with us, they'll be eager to show themselves off for that title so they probably won't even leave any action for us. I'm actually jealous of you, your week with grandparents will at least be somewhat exciting, your mother and I will be stuck watching those guys plowing through the bad guys."

Little Tanshu smiled a little, father was always such a goofball saying the dumbest things. How could his parents have a boring time? They were going to war after all, just a battle of a war but it was a long and dragged out war with many battles like this and his parents were in multiple already. Tanshu read all about war, that glorious place where strong ninja earn their name by killing the other bad ninja. It was the direct path to respect and adoration, other kids in the Academy keep looking at Tanshu with those jealous eyes because his parents are fighting in the war together with the likes of Misu of the Vapor and Chestnut Hanasaku and Howoku the Star of Hope – the three Konohagakure's top ninja that were told to soon succeed their elders in taking the title of Sannin. Tanshu didn't want that honor, he didn't want sensei in the Academy praising his family just if father and mother wouldn't have to leave.

Tanshu was a smart boy, he was able to see through what sensei and the books and every grownup told him. He knew what war was – father and mother would be fighting the bad ninja from the other villages. Even worse, ninja of the whole world were involved in the war. From what grandpa spoke last week the village of Sunagakure was sacked and torn down to the ground, now it's just a large sack of tents in the endless desert. The Kazekage was killed, most of Sunagakure ninja died in the battle as well, all four other ninja villages just attacked Sunagakure and tore the village down. Everyone said it was a great victory but truth be told it was just a bunch of vultures descending on the weak. Three villages against one. Sunagakure against all the other villages that at the same time were fighting each other as well because with every ninja of another village they kill they withhold more loot from falling into the hands of that village. After that battle Sunagakure was completely ruined and had to withdraw from the war, it was lucky that they were still allowed to exist. Sensei was confident that Iwagakure will be the next one to go through this scenario. What if soon comes Konoha's turn?

No! Father and mother were heroes, they left and fought for their country, they were ninja of Konoha, Konoha may have fought alongside Kirigakure and Kumogakure and Iwagakure to tear Sunagakure down but… They were different, they had to be! Konoha couldn't have been just a vulture feasting on the dying weak village, they were different, they had to be, they were… Konoha was Tanshu's home, they couldn't have been bad. Mother and father were supposed to be the heroes, fighting against the other villages defending Konoha so that Konoha is not the one to fall. As mother and father finally prepared themselves Tanshu thought he finally understood. Konoha had to be ruthless, had to be cruel, had to be evil and tear Sunagakure down together with their enemies but only to defend themselves. In order to avoid dying they had to kill, in order not to burn they had to burn down the others. That was how life truly worked. Strongest survive, no, not really, strength alerted the prey and made them gang up on you, strength was irrelevant, only the cold calculating mind mattered.

Tanshu knew what had to happen in order for his parents to return to him, they had to slay the wicked by being more wicked than those they were slaying. Such was the natural order, the boy looked his father in the eyes, the boy's eyes were cold, exploding with rage and desire to kill those that would soon wish harm upon his parents whom he loved the most. "Father, I will pray that you slay everyone, that there is not a single enemy alive to cause harm to you or mother!" he yelled out through tears and anger. Mother's face was pale, she wrapped her hands and pressed little Tanshu against her body hard, the boy could feel tears falling down on his little head and going down his hair onto his back, then the warm teardrops disappeared somewhere below. Why was mother crying? Was she that proud of him?! She had to be! Tanshu made mother proud! Tanshu's head looked at his mother, he tried to catch her eyes that were filled with sadness but he saw father standing behind her looking right at Tanshu down her shoulder.

"It's not about just killing the others, Tanshu. That's not what Konoha fights for, that's not why we are leaving to battle." Father spoke, his voice was strict, little Tanshu shook and forcefully escaped his mother's grasp, he was confused. How could his father possibly have been mad at him, now of all times, now that he understood what it all meant? Fighting was necessary to prevent fighting, it made no sense but it was the natural order. "Then why?! Why are you leaving me!" Tanshu yelled out right into father's face, he saw mother's arm lifting to smack him but father caught it and shook his head, he kneeled down and looked his child into the eyes. "It's about protecting your home, protecting your "katei"." Father's voice spoke softly, now he wasn't really angry, didn't sound like he was. Mother wiped her tears too.

"Katei?" Tanshu repeated the word, he knew what it meant, it was pretty simply but why did his father make it sound like it had some other meaning? "Katei isn't just home, this house isn't your "katei", Tanshu. Katei is where your family is, where the people you love are, where happiness and serenity is, where you feel calm and bliss and as long as you're there you'll never feel differently. Katei of your mother's and mine is this place, where you are and we go to war not to kill the people we are told to kill but to protect our "katei". Promise me you'll protect your "katei" while we are gone." Tanshu's head sunk down, so this word did have a special meaning, this "katei" he had to protect wasn't just "home" but it was where Tanshu is the happiest. The boy's hands clenched a knife in his hands, "I can't fulfil that duty, father, wherever you two are is my "katei", that means I must go to war with you two!" the boy yelled out with anger and certain bravery in his voice.

Father laughed, "Your moment for war will come, there will be wars as long as we live but this one is not yours. You need to trust this war to me and your mother. You can protect your "katei" after the battle is over but while you are, do not go to battle, that's your father's word." Mother kneeled down and hugged Tanshu gently and softly stroking his wild reddishly-brown hair. "That's right, Tanshu, you must protect your "katei", but you are grounded until the war is over for talking like you spoke before, that's the word of your parents." Tanshu nodded and hugged his mother back. After that father gently flicked him on the head and hugged him, before stroking his hair and leaving. The two just walked out into the rainy night, disappearing and giving birth to that certain feeling inside Tanshu's heart, that feeling that life just won't be the same anymore…

The battle that little Tanshu's parents left for was for a small speck of land inside the Fire Country. It was right past the neutral port that set sail ships that went to the Water Country, it was right in the middle between the access to the port and to the Snow Country – the road to Kumogakure to the north and to the Kirigakure. It was important because it provided access to all three currently relevant warring countries. Now that Iwagakure was less relevant, growing weaker and weaker with every battle yet, continuing to strain itself to try and fight with the stronger rivals, and Sunagakure had dropped out of the equation whoever controlled this invaluable land had access to the other countries. If the controller wanted they could easily assault Snow Village and block off Kumogakure from the rest of the world or they could take over the neutral port and block off Kirigakure from anything but what the ocean provides. Ocean's provisions would've also been contended for by the other island villages and countries around Kirigakure like the other islands in Land of Water. It might have caused a small Civil War inside the Water Country if so the controller of those lands pleased.

Seeing how Kirigakure wasn't pleased with this possible scenario as the Mizukage had plenty of reasons to fear the uprising of the smaller isles he desperately wanted to keep the land out of the grasp of his opponents. Even more, the man would've loved to make the land Kirigakure's bridge on land, from there his mighty village may have started to take over smaller lands and transcended its island roots, perhaps move into the Land of Waves which Kirigakure so desperately wanted for itself, the small neutral village would've made a wondrous industrial district for the Kirigakure so that those hideous industrial districts could've been moved from the main island and stopped making the environment so bleak and depressing. Mizukage was an oppressive fellow so he needed some desperate "happiness points" to keep his island village and the smaller islands around it from getting any bright ideas of change. His predecessor was assassinated by some rebellious black ops after all…

Kumogakure wanted it mostly to ensure safety for Snow Village, the small village was a neutral shopping and rest town that had all sorts of winter resort activities in it, plus the vast white hills of Snow Country land were filled with natural resources and made plenty of money for the Snow Village that was an ally of Kumogakure. In order to maintain the steady and generous flow of natural resources like minerals and metals used for military purposes Kumogakure had to assure Snow Village safety and keep those bleak allies happy to the best of their ability as they were an invaluable ally. It was understandable that one of the warring Countries having the land in their control would threaten Snow Village's safety which the Cloud Village could simply never allow.

Most importantly of all, this was Fire Country land from the time that the Great Satsuhimasa won them over, all the way back from the days when the Garuru clan was still a thing, from the Heaven-Earth war days. Such land was a part of Fire Country's cultural legacy, it was a beautiful and warm forest land with lakes and rivers that had plenty of small settlements of farmers all around it. To Konoha it was all about protecting their land, their interest, that which had belonged to them since times unknown, since before people counted time even, since before there were actual countries and villages, since the clans of descendants of the First People roamed the Earth looking for a better life. Konoha could not afford to lose this lovely and integral piece of land… Needless to say, all the countries went all-in to claim this land!

The battle waged for many days, entire two weeks passed before word of the results of the battle came back. The battle was won by Konohagakure but by a very small margin and as the result of the battle the land became useless. Every side lost pretty much all of their ninja, one Kirigakure Sannin died in the battle and two of Kumogakure Sannin had perished as well. Just like that two of Konohagakure Sannin perished too with the third wishing to leave her title behind and pass it over. To make the victory even more Pyrrhic, the land that everyone was contending for became tainted by the dead bodies and covered with dust of bones and ashes of the dead, it became a wasteland of death, it constantly emitted noxious fumes making the stench almost too difficult to take for any human being, the land transformed into a wicked swamp that would've swallowed any attempt to use the land for industrial or military uses or transferring any goods, moving ninja through there would've been impossible! Everyone died and did so for absolutely nothing.

The village was completely crushed, in just several days they lost all of their strongest ninja with the young-bloods being injured and unable to assist them in multiple future battles to follow. The land was claimed by no one. All three countries exchanged letters of apology, grief and sorrow with every other country admitting that this war was looking more and more pointless. Even more, every other warring country promised to never threaten this land again with the bones and ash of their dead as well as their unburied bodies around the dark swamp to remind them of the worst of days. The day when everyone lost their heads out of fear that the enemy would threaten them making them do the things they were afraid the enemy would do. Even Kirigakure promised to never contend for that land again and Konoha answered with a promise to never use that land for any strategic war-related purposes. That land was sacred sanctuary for those that died for this country and fighting in this war.

Little Tanshu was playing with his friends in the house, training and sparring with them for tomorrow's test in the Academy that would determine if he finally became a true ninja like his parents. It was then that grandpa entered his room and asked for his friends to leave. The kids' heads were down to the ground, the room was suddenly surrounded by this dark gloom that would never leave it. The old man looked at Tanshu, breathed in and out, in and out again trying to make it easier for himself to say those words. "Little Tanshu… Mother and father won't be back… Ever…" he said, he was a veteran ninja so he knew little of how to comfortably deliver such news, he was rude and just said things like they were.

Tears filled little Tanshu's eyes as he shook his head. He roared out in pain and grief, charging for the door and pushing his grandfather away violently, the old man fell down on the floor and grunted in pain, yelling for the little boy to wait. It was to no avail, the young one kept running and running, past these endless houses this wretched village of liars and murderers that mother and father died fighting for, NO! They didn't die fighting for this village, Tanshu refused to believe it, they died protecting their "katei", just like father had told him before leaving! The child ran past the gate guards that didn't even notice the child running outside the village walls. Tanshu just kept running, into the wild, past the trees. He knew where he wanted to be – where his mother and father laid down their lives because without them his home was not his "katei". His "katei" was now that battlefield, where his mother and father were laying dead. That was where his "katei" was.

The boy kept running until he just got exhausted and collapsed. Initially he thought that his life now had no point, what did he have to look forward to? What did he possibly had there to comfort him? Was he supposed to look forward to becoming a ninja too, perhaps fighting in these stupid wars for nothing?! For some stupid land that would switch its owner after the next battle only to be regained and then lost again later. No! To Hell with that bullshit! As the boy woke up the next morning, hungry, cold and exhausted, he thought long and hard about his life and what it even meant anymore. His life was meaningless and he was the only one left to give it meaning anymore. Slowly, one step at a time, through pain, hunger and exhaustion, covered with bruises and blunt traumas and his own blood from continuously tripping over and wounding himself little Tanshu kept walking forward.

He was a different young boy now, he killed small and large animals to survive, he kept training for hours on end during the night. He would find his "katei" again and he would protect it until the end just like he promised his father! That was the new purpose of his life that the boy had given to himself. Tanshu would wage war against anyone that threatened his "katei". Finally the ground become black and sticky, filled with bodies and bones and ashes of dead people. The boy leaned over a rock and threw up, so that was the smell of death? It did not matter! It was the smell of his new "katei", his happiness and bliss. The boy kept walking forward, trying to find his father and mother or at least some sign that they were there before they died. He would protect his "katei" and he swore it to his father and mother, now he had to swear it to their graves as well. The boy kept drinking just to have some liquid to throw up, he had to get used to this putrid smell of guts and death, this smell of burning and no one knew what else. If there was Hell, Tanshu was there, not only that, Hell was where he wanted to be, Hell was his only and true "katei"…

A band of men was marching through a nasty landscape filled with downed and rotten trees and skeletons all around them. While skeletons were certainly a poor company for traveling group of moderately armed men that was not what intimidated the group – that would have been the ground in the swampy wasteland of death. The ground everywhere was black like the eternal void of death that the place reeked off. One could not know when the ground would open, when the black dirt would become a pure sludge of lethal stench that eats one up in seconds and when it would be sharpened coal-like surface that is able to cut through shoes and legs like sandals.

Many people disappeared around those parts, no one ever went to that place which was why this ragtag team of bandits had decided to settle down there and make that place their headquarters, the place where they return to after every big job to settle for their share of the loot and party until the morning. Morning of course was a relative term there, the clouds were always gloomy and the Sun never showed its face, sometimes the marshlands and the swamps ignited and started flaming and that made even the late nights bright but gloomy – it was literally impossible to tell when it was night and when it was day in this cruel birthplace of death itself.

The criminals advanced slowly, helping out their friend that got into trouble by getting into the black sludge up to his knees or fending off the few animals that wandered to those parts. The stench here was impossible to stand, every couple of minutes one of the bandits threw up on the black gooey dirt surface, the men literally had to keep drinking so that their constant vomiting from the stench and lack of fresh air did not kill them. This place reeked of sulfur and despite this place having its battle concluded three years ago, it still reeked of rotting human waste. Perhaps it was the flesh and bones of the curious or daring travelers that passed through this place that still kept the stench going?

"This is a bad fucking idea…" one of the men spoke up finally as he waved the stick to hit a vulture spinning around his head as his body dug deep into sludge again. He was pulled out by his friends, one of them spoke up as well, "Everything's a bad fucking idea with you. Remember when we wanted to raid that caravan near the Konohagakure gate? You said that was a bad fucking idea too." The man took off his boots and shook black slimy dirt off of his shoe, then cursed and yelled out loud as the ground cut his feet opening up a gruesome wound. It was almost like he stepped on edges of multiple blades. "That was the WORST fucking idea, Higumo, Shoji, Mangoku and Okumo died!" the man replied and bandaged his foot. "Details… We escaped with plenty of food and loot" someone from the group replied.

"May I remind you gents that it is because of that fucking raid that we are here to begin with!?" the bandit spoke up as he approached the man leading the party. "Had we not raided that caravan and didn't attract attention of ninja we wouldn't have needed to hide here, just when we took those damn bags from the cart those fuckers just started chasing us like crazy!" The man in front kept walking forward silently, he was a nasty looking fellow with a certain "cool" charm to him, he looked just like one would've imagined a bandit to look like – rag clothes, a dirty cape that looked like somebody's curtain or dirty sheet stolen from the laundry bag, a giant scar all over his face as well as an eyepatch. The man's eyes were always angry and looking cruel, always ready to incinerate anyone he sees with his eyesight alone.

The man turned around and slapped his comrade, the man fell onto the ground and screamed in pain as more wounds opened up on his body after getting cut by the now rock solid ground. "Shut the fuck up, you loser! Konoha ninja ran like dirty dogs because they follow an agreement to not have any military forces in this ground ever, a group of five or more qualifies as "military force" in the agreement and they didn't want to send less than five ninja of average rank into this place. It's perfect for bandits to hide, I've no idea why no other bands ever grouped up here. This place is amazing!" the man shouted out, his voice echoed through the wasteland of death. Some people who have visited this place and lived to tell the tale had described it as "Hell on Earth" and it was quite apparent that they weren't too far off.

"Jeez, it's getting dark here!" another bandit shouted out, "It's always fucking dark and gloomy here, on top of it all it stinks like your dead mother's diaper!" yet another replied. The group kept walking, they weren't yet sure where exactly they were heading, they had to find some materials for their base, all they had were some clothes and bunch of bones lying around. It didn't quite make good bunch of things to build a solid base from. "Why didn't we stop, yet, boss? What are we waiting for?" one of the closer to their leader bandits asked, the man grunted and grumbled under his nose but didn't reply a thing. "We need to walk far away from the border of this place, I'm worried that entire armies of bandits might come here and realize just how perfect this place is for hideouts." the man then replied after a long enough pause to make no one expect a reply any longer.

A loud shout of pain came up as a man disappeared from the group, only his closest comrade saw him fly off into the darkness. He shouted out some unintelligible babbling, then just pointed at the direction he disappeared in. "We keep going" the leader ordered with an angry tone. "I've heard there was a battle here three years ago, I bet that the spirits are still goddamn furious that they died so they killed your pal" one of the dumber sounding bandits laughed out holding his stomach as he laughed. "Have some shame, fucker, Chucho saved your ass today, did you forget how he deflected that arrow for you?" the bandit that saw his friend fly off into the dark gloomy shade yelled out. A loud scream of a man dying interrupted the bandit group, that convinced the leader to keep moving faster, he ordered the men to keep watch. "Yeah, cause that idiot found a coin and ducked to pick it up, when he stood back up the arrow hit his damn helm… AAAAAGH!" the bandit tried to reply but was interrupted by an unseen force that dragged him outside the perimeter into the gloomy darkness.

The men started losing their cool and freaking out, losing and meeting new people of their crew was nothing new to them, comrades died and new friends were made each day. What worried the men was that they did not see their slayer and were worried that they'd be next. Usually any danger can be evaded by just running really damned fast – now there was nowhere to run. For kilometers around this place there was only deadly Hell of a battlefield surrounding them, hungry for victims to swallow whole or bloodthirsty and wishing to cut them as deep and as many times as humanly possible. Then again, even if they did run and get lucky, what would've stopped this demon of the gloomy night from catching them completely off guard? The men were absolutely terrified.

Suddenly the leader stopped in his feet making the men behind him bump into the back of their leader. A dark and short figure stood in the gloomy shadows, completely invisible beyond just recognizing the basic humanoid shape, this could've been a spirit, a mad psycho killer or a demon of this swampy gooey Hell for all they knew. "You are in my katei, leave now and you'll be spared, continue to desecrate it and I will kill you" a grumpy yet almost childish voice came their way. A bandit yelled out and gasped in fear, "It's a demonic spirit of the child that had his parents sneak him into a battlefield and then he died!", his friend to the side slapped the back of his head, "You dumbass, who'd sneak their child into a battlefield, parents keep children away from battle!"

The leader of the bandits drew his curved sword and took a step forward. "I am the new owner of this wasteland and I claim it as my home! Be you just a child, a spirit or a demon, I spit at you and I will be the one killing you…" suddenly the man stopped in his tracks, only then did the bandits notice a young child behind him with an exposed blade. It was a short blade, the likes of which inexperienced ninja carried, the blade was cracked and chipped in multiple places. The boy himself was short and looked like a little jungle boy with his reddish brown hair flowing freely over his shoulders and his face being completely pummeled and bandaged and his body covered with scars. "You're in my katei, leave now!" the child spoke again as the boss of the bandits collapsed having blood spray from his chest. The black slimy ground started to slowly consume the man's body. The bandits all drew their swords and took their staffs and improvised weaponry. The boy yelled out loud to express his discontent at this decision and charged forward at the group of bandits.

It would've been an incredibly odd sight to behold to see this battle transpire from the side, one would've had to come extremely close through the noxious gases that erupted from the ground and through all the perils that the place had. The boy's cracked blade continued to dance over the bodies of the men that have entered his sacred space, the boy was not a demon, just a young man and he constantly slipped up and got punched or struck with a weapon opening up wounds. Not that it mattered for this boy truly acted like a demon, his endless dance with his blade continued and would've never stopped until he or the men he was facing off against had died. To this boy this space was sacred and no other man or woman or child had the right to be present in his "katei" or else they be killed. Many times Senju shinobi from the Leaf have come to this place to try and fix it, make a forest of trees using their Wood Release and then use Earth Release and Water Release to fix this landscape but… All of them caught only their deaths, all of them died and while each of them injured young Tanshu, each injury taught him yet another lesson. Made him stronger and faster and smarter and the fact that in order to honor their agreement with the other countries only less than five ninja could've entered this ground at once helped him not to get overwhelmed and captured throughout the three years he lived here.

Tanshu's sword went through the throat of the last bandit. The man coughed up and fell having been cut down by the rampaging demon of this hellhole, no, Tanshu was no demon, not yet, he still felt pain, he still got hit, a demon was perfect, a demon made no mistakes and killed without any warnings, a true demon craved death and bloodshed which Tanshu did not. A fighting dog was what Tanshu was, fighting when his bowl of food is threatened. He warned these men, he wanted them to leave but they didn't, so he killed them just like his parents would've in order to protect their katei. Parents would've been so proud of him if they saw him! Tanshu wanted to believe that there was an Otherworld where they saw him from but… Seeing what he had seen through these three years, the worst that this world has to offer, bandits, thieves, murderers, arsonists and rapists fleeing to this ground to hide from justice. They were not welcome here! If someone wanted to take Tanshu's katei they were welcome to come and claim it.

As the boy tried to pull the blade out of the man's throat it broke off, it was inevitable that it would happen, the boy looted this sword from the first man he had killed in this place. He cursed as he looked around, he found the loot of these men and looked into the bags, they were full of food and medicine, bandages and the things that he so desperately needed. The boy sat down and started bandaging himself, all those endless gashes where he was cut by either the bandits or the ground he was sleeping on, he then ate and drank from those bags and took what was left with him, all that he could carry and what he couldn't the boy tipped with his foot into the sludge that soon devoured all of it. This loot was not his, he felt bad that he claimed it but… In order for the rightful owner to claim this loot they would've had to come into his katei and claim it, if that happened Tanshu would kill them defending his katei. He did not wish to do that, it would've been better off if there was no loot to begin with…

As the boy passed through the corpses he noticed that the bandit leader was carrying a larger katana, the boy dropped the loot down and bent down to see what it was about. As the young kid picked the sword up and checked its blade he cursed, the blade was dull as a chunk of steel – must've been one of those "non-lethal" sword junk. These were quite common, slave traders used those, people that just wandered the out of village areas that belonged to no country claiming villagers and travelers as well as other bandits as their slaves, "pacifistic" travelers also had those, Tanshu hated all of them. One group were just human filth that had it coming when the boy cut them down, the other were just fools that were lying to themselves. There was no place for not killing when wielding a sword, there was no other option than to kill when fighting. These fools were just easy food for slave traders and then to Tanshu – slave traders had a nasty habit to command all of their slaves to fight the boy before they themselves tried to. Because of that all peaceful idiots that refused to kill automatically associated with enemies to Tanshu, potential enemy was an enemy regardless. In the wild a potential enemy was even more dangerous as current enemy is fighting you right now while a potential enemy might attack you when you're unprepared.

Those were the times that Tanshu lived in, times where he killed whoever wandered into his katei with no mercy or reason other than that they were where they shouldn't have been. It all changed however, all changed just couple of weeks later from the day that Tanshu killed those bandits and changed his blade. Despite that the blade was dull, the boy still preferred longer reaching blades than the curved trash that those fools had, at least with the dull sword he could still thrust and stab someone, the boy already lacked range because of his short arms anyways, he couldn't afford to fight with a curved short sword. Still, the boy had decided to sharpen his sword one day as poking things he hunted or wanted to kill was just too difficult for him. Tanshu always preferred slashing over thrusting and he didn't feel like adapting his style. It was then that he heard a bunch of people walking up to him, how could they do that? Tanshu learned to feel the vibrations of the ground, he had traps and all sorts of alerts and impeccable hearing that alerted him when something was going on nearby. He controlled an area at least three kilometers in radius and only missed out on two or so by the edges of the wasteland, those that passed through there either got scared by the view of the place and the deadly stench and left, or went in deeper to where Tanshu saw them.

The boy didn't bother to lift his eyes at the passing by people, he kept sharpening his blade, only nonchalantly adding "You're in my katei, leave now or I will kill you." Someone of that group laughed out, a woman stepped out in front, she had creamy pink hair and deep green eyes, her voice was annoying as hell though. She was dressed pretty weird for such a place too, her white clothes would've gotten dirty with black goo from the dirt or her own blood when she cut herself on the rocks. Only her boots were pretty cool, they were large and thick, maybe Tanshu should loot them off of her body? He wouldn't have to worry about getting cut in his feet ever again! "So what if we're in your home, brat, scram out of here and maybe WE won't kill YOU!" she spat out with her stupid annoying whiny voice. That voice pissed Tanshu off and he stood up, the boy easily swung the sword around his head and then put it into his sheathe and then stood into a drawing stance.

A man with a black round hat stepped in, he had his entire face and body covered with a huge coat and the lower part of his face as well as everything below wrapped in bandages. "Halt, Hana" he lifted his eyes at the boy, his eyes were so strange, they looked like pure silver but had strange circles all around it, only looking at them was scary! "It appears like this boy is a swordsman, he may be worth his words and if he is he'd be worth to be my beloved apostle, if he is not… Well… A swordsman should always die by the hand of another swordsman, isn't that right?" the man looked at Tanshu and slammed his staff into the ground, drawing an oodachi from it, revealing the gigantic staff to be just a sheathe for his blade.

"Let us fight, if you impress that with the eyes of God, he will allow you to join his ranks. If not, you will get an honorable death as one who is smitten by that with eyes of God has no place in Hell!" the man spoke. His weird manner of speaking addressing himself in the third person annoyed Tanshu even more than his female friend. His voice sounded cool but a bit forced as he clearly had to use moderate effort to lift his own sword.

"You refused to leave my katei, all four of you will now die!" Tanshu replied looking angrily at the man and his three companions. The man traveled with the strangest of companies: besides the bubble gum color haired girl with the white dress there was a man in a completely black jumpsuit with chains around his body and with a blue oni mask and a swordswoman with a kimono and strangely large white irides with no pupils. Tanshu tied his sword to his belt and stood in a taijutsu stance, changing his stance and weapon of choice was a good idea – the man's blade was impossibly large so it must've been troublesome for him to keep up with a fast fighter, hand to hand will destroy this man and when he can't lift his sword at all because of his broken ribs – one quick strike would finish it all!

One with the eyes of God was about to close those eyes forever…

The face of little Tanshu twisted with anger, it was a clear telegraph of his attack but it mattered little to the boy. He would unleash all of his anger at this man and destroy him! The boy's foot just gently tapped at the ground after a small hop tossing him forward, his fist tightened and his arm went back, Tanshu's foot shot forward right onto the closest solid piece of dirt he could see and within an instant a full powered punch using not only his natural strength but also the ground itself as a balance point. Sadly Tanshu's opponent was no longer where the boy saw him just mere moments prior to his attack, Tanshu was fast, this man was even faster!

"Was that supposed to hit One with Eyes of God?" the man asked mockingly as his own arm blurred. Tanshu wasn't going to take this simple attack standing up, within an instant the boy repositioned his balance and leaped into the air, as the man's arm appeared at a downwards diagonal position after the blow was completed, Tanshu was already rolling over the man's shoulder and back to get behind his opponent. That darned bandaged man! Right as Tanshu's feet landed solidly on the ground the boy heard a whistling noise – it was slow but that was what scared him. Just barely Tanshu managed to duck and avoid having his body cut in half by the man's colossal blade. This won't work, the man was too fast, the young warrior drew his own blade and met the top-hat swordsman's force with that of his own. Obviously Tanshu was not stupid enough to clash with him, the boy simply pointed and gently poked the giant blade to push and mislead it away from where the boy's flesh was.

This impressive and lightning fast dance continued for quite a while, the man with the weird silver circled eyes kept slashing and thrusting only for Tanshu's own blade to gently push the sword to the other side using the man's own strength. Sometimes the man's effort was great enough to overcome Tanshu's speed of redirection but the boy was always in time to duck, at times the boy found himself in a favorable position for a quick thrust or a slash but the man avoided it as well. This was a match of two incredibly skilled nukenin, had Tanshu had the time to be impressed he most certainly would've been. This man was by far the closest one to become one to survive an encounter with the Black Fighting Dog of the battlefield. The man swung aiming at Tanshu's neck – there it was, the boy's chance!

Tanshu's blade drilled through the air decimating its puny resistance, this had to be it! This had to hit, Tanshu just knew it! With a loud scratch and a nasty sound of blade piercing flesh the boy realized he was right – a small squirt of blood landed on his face as the man's belly was slightly scratched, sadly he moved almost in time and only received a minimal injury, one only potent enough to annoy him with a sting and small bleeding wound. A powerful kick followed, landing right onto Tanshu's face and sending the boy rolling away. It didn't matter – Tanshu drew the first blood, that meant he had not only the advantage in this battle but also in a one on one swordfight he could've overpowered the man. It was unfortunate that once the black goo started enveloping the boy's body he realized just how screwed he may have been – he fell into the liquid gooey peril, quickly the boy flipped his body on his belly and swam onto solid ground, tumbling to stand back up onto the sharp black coal surface and cutting himself multiple times.

The boy roared out into the air as he leaped forward, the man did not expect such aggression, such amazing skill of recovering from a kick to the face and the boy's recovery from the black goo pit. What did he expect? Tanshu lived there for years, he fell into this stupid annoying trap millions of times and almost died several times but after all those terrifying experiences he learned to quickly swim out of the goo. The goo was stupid, weak, it was literally impossible to drown in it unless one struggled for too long and kicked themselves into a grave of their own foolish making, if one just calmly swam out they could've gotten out no problem and Tanshu was the world's best conqueror of this barren wasteland's petty traps!

Tanshu's fast swipe cut the man's bandages on his face, revealing skin under them. The man managed to twist his face in time to avoid severe disfigurement or having Tanshu's blade pierce his forehead. The boy didn't want to lose his advantage, he kept cutting and cutting, attacking relentlessly with slashes, cuts, thrusts, spins and flips giving the man absolutely no time to respond. The injuries of this God-Eyed man were numerous but none of them were solid, they were just scratches and cuts as the man avoided everything or blocked it, still – Tanshu was slowly dictating his dominance over the man. "You're… In… My… Katei!" the boy whom some currently dead bandit named the "Black Fighting Dog" yelled out as he landed a solid cut onto the man's chest and face. Tanshu then leaped forward with a downward diagonal slash, "GET OUT!" he shouted after flashing down and rolling further away from the man. A loud clang of the last cut, the one that was supposed to be lethal, signaled that the man survived this combination.

Tanshu was breathing heavily, huffing and panting, down on his knees as he turned at his opponent. One with Eyes of a God was holding the bandages on his face – his clothes were cut up into pieces and his hat had fallen off, the bandages on his chest and all over his body had scratches and damage that would've made it get in his way. Tanshu was getting tired sure but this man was about to start tripping on his own bandages. "What?" Tanshu's eyes shot open as he saw the skin and face of the man as he straightened out. The man's skin was not burned or injured or had at least a single scar on it in fact – the bandages were just for show! What was the meaning of this? The man with those weird eyes stood straight and his head was up high, was he not afraid of death at all?

"Having trouble, God-Eyes?" the other guy with the oni mask and the black jumpsuit asked mockingly. Was this man not the boss of the group? Why was this man so indifferent and mocking towards his leader? "I see… You are indeed a talented young man, normally One with Eyes of God would have invited you to his ranks after this clash. Think carefully, you've now seen the skin and the face of a God, if you refuse One with Eyes of God will have to kill you! One cannot have people walking around telling other people how beautiful and divine One with Eyes of God is… Divine beauty and absolute awesomeness is not for the eyes of mere mortals, for that reason, so that your puny mortal eyes are not bothered by my divine appearance He wears these bandages and these excessive black clothes." The more this "God-Eyes" spoke, the more Tanshu despised him, why was he still so cocky? Did he not realize that Tanshu was more skilled yet? Surely he had to!

"Go eat donkey droppings, then again, you won't have the chance, I'll kill you here and now…" Tanshu replied standing back up and standing back in dueling stance. Tanshu was an aggressive swordsman and his style relied on overwhelming his opponent and his stance would've shown it. There was no chance in hell some half-baked cocky fool like this guy stood a chance! Even without his sword, Tanshu was just as skilled with just his fists and feet. Killing people with fists just felt… Odd and somehow uncivilized… God-Eyes looked pretty annoyed by the boy's display of rudeness. He grabbed his own face with his palm and squeezed it hard trying to hide his displeasure as his crazy silver circle eyes pulsed. What was this chakra right now? It felt like… Something that invited fear even in Tanshu's brave heart. "That is unfortunate, One with Eyes of God will have to kill you in that case…" God-Eyes shouted out in an angry and insane voice.

The bubble gum hair lady that the weird swordsman was traveling with turned at the Demon with the oni mask. "Hey… Achima, maybe we should go, I mean this kid does look like he's stronger than One with Eyes of God", the man called Achima laughed out openly and loudly. "Truly you do not believe that was all of God-Eyes' power? Trust me, he might be a punk born from the right loins and too lucky with the eyes he was given but… If that would've been all the power he had I'd have killed him when we first met in Kirigakure… Just shut up and watch, the show is about to get really interesting." As the two spoke, Tanshu being the sensory prodigy that he was could hear everything. What did this mean? Did this "God-Eyes" have some amazing ability? What was this "born from the right loins" thing this oni mask man was talking about?

Suddenly God-Eyes' arm shot forward revealing an open palm. A powerful force hit Tanshu from behind taking the young swordsman by surprise and throwing him towards his enemy. No! He was pulled by some amazing force towards his enemy, what the hell was this? Some sort of bloodline, Tanshu had never heard of such bloodline in the Academy. "Attraction Cut!" God-Eyes shouted out as he slashed with his blade in a wide arc, Tanshu managed to thrust his blade into the dirt, pushing him up and helping him fly over the man instead of right into his lethal slash. Tanshu tried to cut back, counterattack and then get some distance but God-Eyes leaned back and shot his hand up to his face again. "Universal Push!" he shouted but Tanshu was no longer there. The jutsu that the man just used was incredible, it lifted bunch of sludge and rocks and dirt and tossed it forward… No. It pushed and repelled everything in front of the man and behind him, forming a bubble of gravity around him… What sort of technique was that?!

Tanshu grunted angrily, he was still trying to understand what kind of technique he was attacked with but this didn't look good. If the man used this "Attraction Blade" or "Universal Pull" during their first clash Tanshu would've been in trouble. The realization that his enemy was holding back made Tanshu even angrier, it was like his entire body was flaming up from sheer anger. Tanshu shouted out in pure rage as his sword ignited, this was the first time that this had happened and Tanshu was just as surprised as his opponent and his henchmen. "A chakra conductive blade… Hmmm, you were lucky to stumble into someone with such an expensive treasure, a Fire Release ninja, huh? The folk call you Black Fighting Dog outside this place for your ferocity but… The name Red Dog describes you better now…" God-Eyes spoke with a playful smile, the bastard was excited about this new ability of his opponent. Very well, if he enjoyed being cut to pieces Tanshu would give him something to be happy about!

The boy leaped forward, he didn't care if his opponent would hit him with his stupid gravity manipulation, all that Tanshu wanted was to cut this man down! The speed of the boy was incredible, he made all this distance within mere moments and made the first fiery cut with no effort at all. God-Eyes grunted in pain as a new wound opened on his chest, he responded to the following outrage of the boy, the two continued to clash with their blades. "Amazing, utterly astonishing! Your Fire Release cauterizes the wound it opens but the pain it causes by opening it is like Hellfire itself! Show One more, Red Dog, show One with Eyes of God more!" God-Eyes shouted as the two continued to try and land a cut on the other. Tanshu tried to remove the filthy head of the man but he leaned back and thrust his hand forward, the boy tossed his sword forward and made a handseal…

"Universal Push!"

A giant lump of coal was broken into small pieces and pushed away at least two hundred meters – Tanshu's opponent had such amazing force of gravity under his command. Luckily enough the young swordsman managed to substitute himself with the giant rock in time. It was good that he knew his environment and remembered the location of the big lump. The two leaped at each other again, slashing swords and clashing several more times, Tanshu pushed the giant blade to the side using his full force – it was apparent that God-Eyes was getting tired swinging it, the force of impact was just a small piece of what it was before. Using the momentum of spinning his own body like the spinning toys that the kids used Tanshu tried to leave a giant gash at the man's side, God-Eyes tried to jump back but was still cut. The boy spat to the side, he was pissed that he didn't finish sharpening his blade before, had he finished it this cut may have been more dangerous than it ended up to be!

"Well, this was fun, but I'm afraid a God can only afford a useless pawn that does not intend to serve him only so much time…" God-Eyes sighed, still clenching his side, he suddenly thrust his bloody arm forward as Tanshu felt the attraction force hitting him again. The boy cursed as he didn't have any other objects to substitute with or any other hidden tricks, he had to think of something! Tanshu's handle of his giant sword drove right into the boy's stomach, the boy could've sworn that he blacked out for a moment there, driven by instinct alone he blocked the downwards slash, the weight of the giant sword drove Tanshu to his knees and his blade started cracking. Once again God-Eyes charged in close and drove his handle into Tanshu's chin sending him upwards, as the boy's body landed on the floor it was stopped by God-Eyes' knee, sharp pain to the back alerted the boy that an elbow sent him down.

Tanshu's eyes were closed. He couldn't believe that this was it, that he would die right there against a man of no skill, just some stupid set of eyes. What was the point of this fight? What was the point of his life if he died like this?! The little Tanshu cursed as his eyes were forced open by him just in time to see his opponent effortlessly floating in the air. His sword was sheathed, it seemed like they both knew this fight was over. Tanshu had no more strength to move, he had some chakra but his body felt broken. Thinking back on all the fighting, all the bloodshed, what did his lifelong goal of protecting his katei amount to? He killed bunch of people, defended his home which would now fall into the hands of this man who will kill him… His life was pointless, his death was made pointless and by itself made lives of all those he had killed pointless… Maybe there's no point to anything anyway? Tanshu relaxed and accepted his punishment.

"UNIVERSAL PUSH!"

An awesome force hit Tanshu's body, he felt pain just for a mere moment before blacking out. God-Eyes slowly landed on the ground, huffing heavily. He had no more force left to execute this cocky youngling, the man kneeled and picked up Tanshu's own sword, it was cracked and damaged beyond being useful but maybe it had one more cut in it. "Stop!" a loud voice stopped Tanshu as his arm met strong resistance before it could do its swinging motion. "What is the meaning of this!? You stop the hand of God, Demon? After he intentionally holds back so that One does not injure his followers?!" God-Eyes asked looking straight into the black void where the holes in the oni mask for eyes were. "Don't make me into a fool! I know that after using a push of this power you lose the gravitational ability for at least three minutes so for three minutes I am your God. I could snap your neck with one quick motion before you could possibly respond." God-Eyes appeared annoyed by the insubordination of his henchman but he tossed the cracked blade away and turned at him.

"Speak your mind, One with Eyes of God shall decide how to deal with this insolence later." It was impossible to say just exactly what sort of history these two had, how come Demon had the guts to talk like this to the one possessing the divine Rinnegan or why One with Eyes of God did not execute him right after getting his ability back. "Let's take this kid with us. I always wanted to open a school, breed Demonlings that would make not only this generation of ninja afraid of Demons but also the next. I shall make him into an assassin, just imagine a young swordsman with a Fire Release to enforce his image of a Demon! I could not ask for a better pupil. I shall make him void of emotion, void of sympathy, desiring only happiness for his head Demon, I will be the Devil and this boy and his peers will be my Demons… And of course we will serve the One with Eyes of God, without question."

The swordsman scratched his chin, his eyes closed and he sunk deep in thought, after a mere moment his eyes opened again. "Very well, One with Eyes of God shall allow this Red Dog to live, make him into your infernal subordinate, but know that you are responsible for him. That includes carrying him. One with Eyes of God has spoken!" the oni masked man calling himself "Demon" picked Tanshu's unconscious broken body and put it onto his shoulder. "I have an idea, this boy is a great defender of this place, let us build our temple of bones here and we will not have to do anything to brainwash this boy, he will work for us without question because he will still be watching his katei." God-Eyes nodded and pointed at the pink haired girl, "Heal him, I shall begin building our temple of bones once he wakes and I get my ability back…"

The pink haired lady bowed and dragged the boy further, tearing his clothes off and placing her arms on his chest. Emerald green light started emanating from her hands, the only beacon of light in the gloom of this cursed swamp.

Tanshu woke up in a dark room, to be entirely honest, it was quite difficult for the boy to even properly identify that he had even woken up since the room was so incredibly dark that he barely saw his own body. The feeling of waking up inside a pitch black room was weird, the boy was obviously confused. How could he have ended up here? What was going on? For a moment Tanshu had settled on the thought that his opponent had crushed his body so hard with his repulsion jutsu that he had destroyed the boy's eyes. Still, weak and lingering reflections of his own body somewhat ruined that theory.

"Is someone here?" the boy murmured under his own nose, then after he braved up a bit once again. Out of nowhere a blue oni mask lit up in the corner, maybe it was just the distinctive color of the mask combined with the fact that the boy's eyes were getting quite used to the darkness that this mask could even be identified. It was the same mask of that man who was with the God-Eyed swordsman, it made Tanshu even more confused as to why he was kept alive. His enemy was not supposed to show him mercy. "What is this? Why am I here? Where are we?" questions spilled like beans from a bucket.

"As far as you need to know… You're still protecting your katei, boy." oni mask replied, it was incredible how the man's dark jumpsuit completely made his entire body disappear in the darkness, only his mask was left visible which would've been quite frightening had Tanshu not seen the man in the gloom of the wasteland. The young swordsman stood up and felt his sword being hung by his side, why would the man leave his sword just hanging? Within an instant the boy rushed towards the masked man drawing his sword and slashing the mask in two. The mask fell on the floor as it was split in two, eight more lit up taking its place. This had to be an illusion of some sort! Tanshu turned back and grunted angrily. He may have lost against the leader but there was no way in Hell a mere henchman will best him.

"If I were you I'd hear me out, I'm the sole reason you are alive after all…" oni-mask's voice echoed throughout the room again. Tanshu lunged forward cutting all of the masks in pieces with multiple slashes. Right after he did so, dozens of strikes hit him in his back in multiple areas. Tanshu roared in pain as he collapsed onto the soft wooden floor. "As you are right now you are too weak to protect your katei, there are people in this world that are both stronger than God-Eyes and wish your capture. If God-Eyes was to clash with any of the higher ranking Konoha ninja, most of whom still are looking for you because you're a nukenin, he'd die. He may not admit it but that's the reason why he had aligned himself with a still active Kirigakure jounin and two Sunagakure ninja."

Tanshu's sword slashed backwards, the mask collapsed revealing behind it a busted and disfigured face, it was hard to tell this in the dark but its general shape made it look like it had melted off its owner's facial area at some point but instead of falling off it just stuck and kept looking like mashed fruits. "I warn you boy, your next strike will be your last." The voice came right from the fact as its lips moved slightly, the fact that this figure even had lips that could even move was miraculous by itself. The face slowly disappeared in the shadows and the entire room sank into darkness, now there wasn't even a single mask or any clue that anyone was even there. "I asked God-Eyes to leave you alive because you can be helpful to him, despite what that arrogant brat might think, and he may be beneficial to you. What I offer you is power, the only thing that matters, the strength to crush those that threaten your katei and all I ask in return is that you allow us to help you protect it."

Tanshu scratched his head, he had never considered if he wanted another family after the death of his parents. "That being said… I know it's hard, but remember what went through your head at the moment when you were down, I'm no psychic but I've seen that face before, the "my life was useless and I'm about to die and it won't matter for shit" face. Well, with us by your side you can make your life and your death amount to something. With us you could be a part of a bigger achievement without having to do anything you wouldn't normally do." Tanshu looked somewhere off into the darkness, "OK, even if I'm interested, I'd like to know my new "family" better."

Suddenly a wire tightly constricted around little Tanshu's neck and someone pulled it dropping the boy on the ground. The little nukenin felt his neck bleed, had the man wanted he could've beheaded him like this, this man had more physical strength than Tanshu and despite the boy being just a bratty kid this was still a feat he had never seen during his days in the wasteland. "Don't get cocky, kid, call us a family and I'll kill you right then and there. I will train you but there will be none of that fucking marshmallow nonsense. I am the Devil and you will be my Demon, in order for a Demon to be born, a man must be broken down and burnt in the flame the Demon comes from. Plus, God-Eyes has problems with his daddy and mommy despite his eyes being entirely the result of who those two were, I wouldn't mention "family" around him anytime soon." Tanshu breathed out and pulled on the newly formed space of the wire getting out of it, the boy then stood up still clenching his neck where the blood was coming from.

"God-Eyes is a renegade, he comes from a faraway place you need not care about built long ago by you don't need to care who. He spits some bullshit about reincarnation or something like that, wouldn't listen too close to what he spouts out of that cocky mouth of his. His goal is to take over the world – all of the villages because his grand…grand…grand… whatever once controlled it. Then at some point he just lost it and started talking of himself as God and now having the world is his right as a God… Anyways, he is an idiot and he'll catch his death one day by a ninja that is actually worth his mettle." Tanshu sat down and felt his neck again, he tore off the sleeve of kimono he was wearing and tightly tied it around his neck. It didn't look like any vitals were cut, had it been so he'd have died momentarily.

"He established his "temple" here, calls it Tower of Bones or whatever because he believes that his grand…grand… whatever once knew how to manipulate her bones or something. He likes symbolism, that God-Eyes… Either way, once he fails and is killed I'll kill his other "apostles" and grant you his eyes, then you will become the true Demon, ironically enough you will be the angel of a God that has fallen, doesn't get any more demonic, don't you think?" the man laughed out somewhere in the darkness. Tanshu stood up and tightened his look trying to see the figure of the man with the oni mask somewhere, spotting his humanoid twisted and slim figure in a faraway corner of the room. "So you are the one secretly calling the shots?" Tanshu asked, a powerful laugh met his question. "No, not really, even if God-Eyes fought me here, where I'm strongest, he'd probably win. I'm just one of the apostles with the weakest link to God-Eyes, you see, unlike Vashia and Hana I am still an active ninja, I am here with the mission from Kirigakure to train an order of young assassins, a brood of demons if you will. That is why I am mostly on your side and if God-Eyes died I wouldn't shed a single tear about it. So, what do you think? Are you ready to let the Red Dog die and be reborn into the Red Demon?"

The rest of the four years, after he had accepted the deal, were difficult for Tanshu to remember clearly. After his small talk with the Oni mask man, who surprisingly didn't go by any names, everyone just referred to him as they pleased, he was introduced to the rest of the apostles. Each of the apostles had a room assigned to them, so that in case of attack each of them fought the ninja one on one until one reached the final floor. Each of the rooms were quite compact making a larger brawl impossible, it was simply most efficient to fight each apostle one on one and the groups of ninja that came only came in groups of five at best. As the apostles would've been beaten the attackers would've advanced one floor further until they reached God-Eyes at the final floor. In order to advance a floor the attacker needed to get a key from the apostle inside that floor, they could've tried to use ninjutsu on those bones but apparently Hana, one of God-Eyes' apostles, was some sort of sealing prodigy and left protection seals all over them.

Strangely throughout all of the four years of Tanshu's demonic training the tower was only attacked once by Konoha, by a party of Chuunin that were scouting the area looking for Tanshu who was still regarded as a nukenin. The four had found the tower and decided to investigate, they never advanced further first floor where the man with the oni mask lurked. After that day many more bandits came trying to take the tower for themselves but none of them ever even left a scratch on the man with oni mask. Strangely enough only the bandits attacked all at once and got in each other's way, from what the man had told Tanshu during training the ninja actually followed his advice to fight him one on one with the rest waiting outside. They still would've needed the key to the other floor anyways.

The apostles themselves were all quite strange people, throughout his four years of training with them Tanshu rarely ever met with God-Eyes again and when he did the man didn't even bother to talk to him or even acknowledge his existence. He was still acting high and mighty and in control when often it was the Demon actually calling the shots and giving the best advice. It was clear that without support of Kirigakure this man wouldn't have advanced too far with his plot to take over the world. Why would Kirigakure even support such a man was a question to Tanshu and one that Demon never answered to him, it must've been the fact that God-Eyes was targeting Konoha first, after all, Kirigakure had significant influence over God-Eyes through Demon anyways.

The girl called Vashia was a kind and a nice girl, that being said she was always very shut in her own inner world and rarely left her floor. It was said by the Demon that her floor was modeled after a typical dojo, one that her family had and where she was raised as a child which made the boy believe that Vashia actually was longing for her previous life in Sunagakure. The girl had raven dark hair and always wore a sword by her side, actually that was all that Tanshu even knew about her, whenever he tried to ask her something or talk to her she politely and very directly answered his question leaving him no openings to know anything more. She was really skilled in avoiding all conversation and stroke the boy as a somewhat shy girl. Why such a person was on the group trying to take down all of the ninja villages and take over the world was beyond Tanshu, she acted and looked most like an actual honorable kunoichi out of the entire group.

On the other hand, the girl called Hana was really just as spoiled as God-Eyes was, sure, she never spoke of herself in third person or called herself a God but she was arrogant and bratty in her own way. Her floor was located right after Demon's but she always tried to get a higher floor for herself since she disliked fighting. From what Tanshu gathered about her she wasn't even that much of a fighter, more of a supportive role that could do anything anyone wanted her to: she was a sensor, she knew how to heal people using ninjutsu and she was a great cook, she was one of the best seal users in Sunagakure according to the Demon. Still, she always enforced her image of bubble-gum haired diva, she always dressed too pompously for a kunoichi and always ate only candy, popcorn and fries as far as Tanshu could remember. She also always acted most childish out of the group making God-Eyes often quite annoyed by her but he had a sweet spot for her so he more often submitted to her will and gave her the final chip in the bag or the bigger ryo split or that lovely puppy left over by the Inuzuka who had died fighting Demon whenever she threw a fit.

The training that Demon was giving Tanshu was odd, the oni mask man always asked Tanshu to take some pills, from what the boy understood they messed with his mind for the duration of the training. That meant both good and bad things – for one the boy lost his sense of pain which was for the best, oni mask often beat Tanshu down beyond recognition during training, also his fatigue was always absent when Tanshu woke up making the boy ready for more training next day even if his body was pushed to its limits. On the other hand it made the boy's body and mind function on sort of an auto-pilot mode, also it made him completely forget anything that happened during the training sessions when under influence of the pills. From what oni mask man told him, it was because Demon didn't want Tanshu training people the same way when one day Tanshu becomes the strongest Demon there was. Apparently despite Tanshu being a nukenin and his apprentice the Demon still treated him as Konoha ninja as opposed to him being from Kirigakure.

God-Eyes found quite the army of bandits and thugs during the four years, just the promise to freely hide in the wasteland and the fact that Konoha could not legally pursue them in there was all that entire bands needed to swear allegiance to One with Eyes of God, apparently Demon called those eyes "Rinnegan", Tanshu liked that name better than "Eyes of God". Also he started referring to God-Eyes as God-Eyes which somewhat irritated the man, he always forced his underling bandits address him as "One with Eyes of God" instead of the more rude "God-Eyes", even Vashia and Hana did not address him as Demon and Tanshu did but since Tanshu was Demon's little protégé something let the boy get away with it. Still, the young nukenin had to respect the amount of power that God-Eyes had gathered in only four years, he was almost ready to attack Konoha with that amount of bandits as far as Tanshu's perception was concerned but Demon desperately tried to talk God-Eyes out of it.

"Konoha has bunch of seals on its gates those cheap tricks will shave off a fair amount of those losers. While you might beat them with sheer numbers and these men are thousands of times the killers that the people in the Leaf Village are but… Sannin alone could blow your army away in just five minutes, we need more ninja that are on their level, even if you…" that was the only moment when Tanshu saw God-Eyes lash out and blow Demon away with his repulsion technique. It didn't even seem like the man had a good reason to, he just hated to be reminded that he lacked the ways to deal with the Sannin of Konohagakure and the Hokage if he needed to. It was true, as numerous as his numbers were, God-Eyes still lacked the appropriate ninja of high level to deal with the Sannin. His four apostles according to Demon only could hold the Sannin back and prove a worthy distraction to them. It was then that Tanshu started to develop a technique in secret to his sensei. Demon-sensei taught him many things, he taught him every little thing that a powerful ninja needed to know about how chakra worked and how appropriate techniques worked, he gave Tanshu many tools but he never asked the boy to use those tools. Demon only wanted to shape the boy the way he saw him fit but Tanshu wanted to be his own man.

For a moment, right before the end of those four years of his training, right before Tanshu started feeling like a challenge to any powerful ninja he saw, before he started appreciating this power he had gained and these new people he had met… This life started to feel good. The boy started to actually feel somewhat happy – the feeling that he had thought he'd never feel and he'd forgotten since his parents had died. Still, something was missing, while Tanshu viewed these people as his family they never really shared his belief. Every time Tanshu wanted to talk to any of the apostles they shunned him: Vashia despite obviously hating her own approach turned away and walked to her own floor, Demon-sensei always tried to kill Tanshu when he tried to even address him as Demon-sensei but times when Demon could even do that had long since passed and Tanshu always survived, Hana always felt like an older sister to Tanshu. The two always fought each other and bickered like two siblings and it appeared that inside only Tanshu really cared for the other where Hana actually may have hated him.

It was that one day that everything changed and Tanshu was finally shaped into the man he had finally become. That time when four shadows appeared in the distance on the top of the crater that God-Eyes built his tower in one that served as a testament of the power inside his eyes but one that did not intimidate the two men and two women on that slope one little bit. For they were the Sannin: Misu of the Vapor, Howoku the Star of Hope, Chestnut Hanasaku and the transcended Sannin of the past generation, survivor of the great battle that gave birth to this wasteland – Sorano the Raijin's Prophet!

The four people standing on top of the edge of a gigantic crater continued to look down on the Tower of Bones that was just standing there – a giant obstacle in the path of the village they all came from. These bandits were a threat to not only the world peace that finally settled down after the Second Great Shinobi War ended but they also had the guts to kill Konoha ninja. Exploit Konoha's international promises as if making fun of the Great Village. It was as if the bandits openly taunted the Leaf village by posing a question: asking which was more precious to it, the village's honor and its promises or their own well-being and the short term peace they've established.

"Let us not be hasty, Howoku-chan has a lot at stake here. After the Third had passed he is one of the names thrown around by the council after all, a success of such level would basically guarantee him the spot" an elderly lady spoke up. The violent wasteland winds picked up and thrown her silver hair around forcing the lady to restrain them. The Sannin of the last generation and the sole survivor of the great battle that made this wasteland it was difficult to understand what drove the retired lady ninja to return to active duty. She was known as Raijin's Prophet – Sorano, her name coming from the great staff hanging on her back which was said to have been one of the legendary weapons of Gods themselves. Right now the woman struggled to hide from the chill of the place in her blue coat, tightening up the belt and buttoning the top two buttons.

"I could not care any less about the title of Hokage. These criminals threaten the peace your generation fought so hard to bring, Sorano-san, that is a transgression I cannot allow to go unpunished!" one of the three current Sannin, Star of Hope – Howoku spoke. He was the man who would soon become the Fourth Hokage but at that moment in time he was but a young shinobi who was in his early twenties but already a jounin declared a Sannin by the village. He was known around the world as one of the greatest defenders of peace and a great orator as well as an amazing ninja who has never taken a life in battle, his blunt-edged sword on his back was the greatest testament of that achievement. Having all that in mind, to a neutral eye Howoku may have looked like a rather puny and geeky man, being quite tall but slim and having curly and messy hair and still needing his glasses. This goofy exterior hid inside a powerhouse for the village like none other, underestimating the Star of Hope would've been a fatal and the last mistake one could make.

"Eh, who the Hell are you kidding, you and your softcore ways… Howoku. Either way, it was pretty cool of the village to authorize this mission. These limitations with them being unable to send more than five people made this really interesting, eh?" the third ninja asked, standing tall and proud over the horizon and observing the tower from the perfect place to sightsee. It was Misu of the Vapor, the past teammate of Howoku and the third Sannin – Hanasaku. The man renowned for his tricky fighting style, unmatched speed and a strategy of fighting that made him one of the least likely people to get hurt, seeing Misu being tagged or injured was indeed a rarity on the battlefield and he was also one of the best swordsmen shinobi that Konohagakure had, a man whom many placed on the level of the Kumogakure swordsmen or even the Iron Country samurai who were previously considered dominant in this area. Misu was a quite attractive young man, often he showed off his bare chest by thrusting it forward and letting his kimono slip off of his shoulders or stroking his wild hair. That being said Misu's vanity was vain by itself, there was no single woman he tried to impress, he just liked showing off.

"I'm really glad you let me tag along! I can't believe the village wanted to keep me contained, it makes me pretty angry, when are we gonna get to fight someone already!" the third Sannin – Hanasaku shouted out. The woman was by far the most tomboyish of the group often seen in male clothes she was also a halfway decent medical ninja and surprisingly enough the physically strongest and most durable ninja of the village. Normally lethal injuries like getting impaled many times over barely seemed to bother Hanasaku to the point where many may have suggested she's enjoying getting injured. Either way, out of the three Sannin even as children she was often put in tongue and cheek as compared to more gentle and soft Howoku, many spoke how the personalities of the two should've been reversed as Hanasaku often acted most macho out of the three. Konoha's "Gentle" Chestnut as she was called came both from her "tough as nuts" attitude and her chestnut colored wild hair. When Hanasaku rampaged through the battlefield often chestnut brown flash of her hair was all that her enemies saw before being brutally taken down.

"Patience, my dear." Sorano uttered before letting her voice suddenly turn wild, "Is what I'd normally say, but an occasion like this: a retired Sannin of the past and all three of the current Sannin is not something that should be put to waste. Allow me to smite those scum using the chakra I've stored up in Raijin's staff during all those years!" the old lady yelled out loud and swung her staff sending a wild gust of wind. For a brief moment there was absolutely nothing, a silence that suggested that there was nothing to the staff but then a gigantic thunderbolt split the sky in two, cutting through the impossibly thick dark clouds of the location as if it was butter giving in to a hot knife. The bolt of lightning was as wide as a vortex of pure lightning, the sound and the amount of light it made forced everyone, even the great Sannin to turn back and cover their eyes. Such power would've truly only been accessible to those wielding the power of Raijin himself as this lightning bolt could've easily caused yet another crater of same magnitude if not greater.

"DAMN IT, OLD LADY! SHOULD'VE WARNED US!" Hanasaku yelled out as her ears were still overwhelmed by the impossible amount of noise coming from the lightning bolt. Howoku removed his glasses and blew into them, "Well now you've done it, Sorano-san, I've finally gone completely blind…" he joked as he scratched his eyes massaging them carefully and waiting for his eyesight to return. It must not have been the first time that Sorano's lightning prowess caused this much displeasure for the young man as he was reacting to this loss of sight quite calmly. It appeared that Misu was the only one barely affected by the lightning. Then again, the man was quite indifferent even to opponent's attacks so something like excessive sound and light would've barely proved to be an annoyance to the Sannin. "That was amazing, Sorano-san! It seems that you've still got it!" he shouted as the staff of the old woman hit the back of his head. Strangely enough this weak attack actually hurt the man and he started scratching the aching spot and whining.

As the smoke and the leftovers of light from the lightning strike cleared and everyone affected by it regained their sight an incredible sight greet their eyes – the Tower of Bones was not damaged by the slightest. Sorano looked at a point somewhere on the roof of the tower spotting a single man, "Damn that Rinnegan user, he has already learned to absorb ninjutsu then… It is good we've come for him now before he had mastered Samsara as well." Right after Sorano's statement, noting that God-Eyes somehow managed to absorb the entirety of Raijin's fury charged for seven years straight, men started flooding from the tower filling up the battlefield in the crater, the four Sannin all shared a collective smile and jumped off of the edge right into the fray of the battle.

Raijin's Prophet Sorano danced across the battlefield like a Goddess of war, suddenly the memories of the Second Great Shinobi War made the old lady to feel right at home as she effortlessly wielded her Raijin's staff just efficiently enough to deflect all of incoming attacks. Sometimes it had appeared like she would be hit, but some astonishing chakra would leak out from the Staff expelling powerful and violent gusts of wind and pushing all the attackers away. When things got particularly difficult Sorano just pointed her staff at the enemies she wanted gone shooting off lightning bolts from her staff without ever needing to use handseals. Sorano's mastery over this lightning was unlike anything anyone had seen, not only she didn't need handseals to use Lightning Release but also the jutsu she used with the staff's aid appeared to come out effortlessly and in many various shapes: channeled beams of lightning, chains of lightning dancing and passing through all the enemies in the line, powerful lightning bolts coming from the sky or even lightning pulses running through the ground or barrage of small lightning spheres. Sorano truly earned her name as Raijin's Prophet and hundreds of bandits fell under her feet burnt and defeated by this incredible woman. Bandits that were supposed to be able to lay siege on Konohagakure itself were rendered powerless against a single woman just like the man with the oni mask had predicted.

Needless to say, other Sannin did not stand around doing nothing. Howoku graciously fought using his sword, he was more than a match for any casual swordsman so he was right at home fighting bunch of ragtag self-trained criminals. To tell the truth Howoku struggled much more than Sorano but his blunt sword found its target and the few injuries that the young man had sustained were not threatening to neither his life nor his future fighting potential. If anything else the pain had drawn out Howoku's anger, hidden will and power to fight like the man named by the council as prime candidate to become Hokage. Strangely enough just swinging his blunt sword was all that Howoku seemed to show these bandits keeping his true power to himself, whenever the situation got too difficult Howoku simply took couple of steps back letting Hanasaku or Misu take care of the situation instead of revealing all of his cards. One wouldn't have been wrong to say that the Star of Hope Howoku did not enjoy battling but still, his reluctance to fight at full strength did not mean weakness by any means.

Where Howoku held back against mere bandits worth the attention of average chuunin, Misu of the Vapor was scooting all around the battlefield. It looked like his legs had blurred and become a stream of vapor and when he got hit the man's body simply dissolved into vapor that then heated up and punished the aggressive attacker with Misu appearing behind them and cutting them down. This was the only way of fighting that the man was known to use – Vapor Mode, the mysterious and unstoppable strategy that no other ninja ever seemed to understand. Whenever the man got hit he simply dissolved into vapor like a clone, becoming just a cloud of heated vapor with the real Misu striking from an open spot. Often Misu used this quick one slash kills even without his Vapor Mode, he called the style "Deceitful Blade" with his body avoiding a strike and counterattacking quickly and pinpoint to the enemy's opening. The combination of his mysterious vapor clone technique and "Deceitful Blade" was the fantastic and awesome "Vapor Mode" that has never found a situation it could not overcome. It was said that no one had ever figured out Misu's weakness ever since he invented this "Vapor Mode"

Where her teammates were subtle, striking like scalpel or a gentle fish gutting knife, Hanasaku was like a rocket launcher. The wild woman leapt around the battlefield wildly throwing mad combinations of blows or simply leapt hundreds of feet into the air and creating mad earthquakes after landing. Out of the four Hanasaku took the most damage as she barely bothered to defend herself, the woman was not distracted by an enemy striking from behind, she always just kept punching and dashing around forward destroying the enemy ranks effortlessly. Her single punch was enough to destroy any man, even the largest ones that probably ate elephants for breakfast fell like autumnal leaves after just a single flick of the woman. Once Hanasaku bet against the village's strongest taijutsu ninja that no amount of Inner Gates would keep up with her, it was unknown how that bet went but from the tales of the ninja himself the woman could easily keep up with first four gates and to bump it up was useless because the technique actually hurt him more than a successful blow to Hanasaku seemed to do as nothing kept her down for long. After the battle was over the woman was covered with bruises and blunt traumas and had multiple swords stuck in her front and back to the point where she looked like a pin cushion. Just another mission for Hanasaku the Chestnut. That being said, the woman had the largest pile of broken bandits beneath her feet, even if she did cry like a little girl on a dentist's chair when Howoku angrily pulled out all the weapons stuck in her body and scolded her.

"Is it OK to go on? Hanasaku-chan seems injured." Sorano asked looking questioningly at Misu, the man just shrugged. "I dunno, she's always like that. Just give her five to ten minutes of rest and she'll heal herself up no problem." Howoku still did not look happy, "You'll exhaust your chakra fighting these goons, who are you trying to show up getting hurt so much?!" he yelled at the silly young woman, "That's right!" Sorano got surprised as if she just remembered something, "Every supernatural physical feat uses chakra manipulation, right? Won't Hanasaku-chan tire out?" The brown haired wonder looked at the old lady and gave her a thumb up, "Don't worry, I'm not like the other ninja, my body doesn't use chakra to maintain superhuman strength, I'm just strong cause I train a lot!" while the old lady didn't buy this Misu waved at her to let it go.

"Howoku was not referring to chakra used with physical prowess but her mediocre healing skills. Hanasaku isn't like the other physical ninja, usually there are two ways to become like her. One is to make up some sort of jutsu like imbue your entire body with chakra and give it some sort of supernatural feature native to that Elemental Release, like lightning fast reflexes using Lightning Release etc. The other is to train one's body to become strong, to find the bodily limit and keep training to break it. The problem with this method is that it'll never give you the amount of strength that the first method gives, the user of the second method will always be weaker than a user of a jutsu that enhances strength. Strangely enough Hanasaku is an exception to that rule, she trains not her body itself but her overall chakra level, seeing how physical energy of our body is an element of chakra her physical prowess seems to increase together with her chakra level. That being said, it is only because she's a silly idiot that this even worked, I don't think anyone else could pull such ridiculous concept off like increasing one's physical strength by only increasing one's chakra level. If any of us were sensors Hanasaku's chakra would feel like a Sun compared to small fires of normal ninja that is why she's such a freak." Misu explained observing the tower for any surprise developments.

As Howoku was carefully tending to Hanasaku's wounds, removing any weapons stuck in her or giving the woman a description which wounds she'll have to heal up with her mediocre medical ninjutsu skills, there was something that bothered the man. "Sorano-san, how about you? You've blasted so many people with your staff, surely wielding it tires you out, right? Lightning Release is quite a difficult Elemental Release on chakra control seeing how unstable it is. Are you going to be OK?" the young man inquired, he obviously intended to add her age into the mix but remembering how violently the woman lashed out on Misu before the clever Sannin kept it inside, just letting it float in the air and letting the woman catch the idea if she was perceptive enough but without proof of Howoku's intention of bringing it up.

"My staff of Raijin works differently. It costs chakra to use, yes, but it is a steady flow of chakra, it tires me consistently to use it unsealed, not to use techniques. Its concept is very peculiar and difficult to understand and use efficiently which is why it is likely that there will be no one to use it after my passing… Which will be in a million years! Anyways, whenever I swing my staff it generates charges of electricity somewhere inside of it, the stronger and faster the swing – the more it builds up, if it comes into contact with another body or weapon it builds up even more. It is that built up charge that is used in staff's Lightning and Wind Releases." Howoku sighed, "In other words, you do not use Lightning Release at all, you use the force built up inside of the staff but it feeds off of your chakra. Interesting. Wait… Wind Release?" the young man got curious when the woman nodded, "Yes, I can also generate weaker gusts using the same energy built up inside it, but same energy charges are used in both lightning and wind releases so it is often a strategic decision how to use the staff. It takes much more time to learn to properly use it than it takes to gain enough chakra to use it…" the old lady laughed.

With the last knife being pulled out of Hanasaku's shoulder, Howoku stood up and sighed, turning at the Tower of Bones and tightening his gloves. "Well, I think if we let Hanasaku-chan rest for the first couple of fights we can go in!" Misu and Sorano joined Howoku and once the chestnut color haired woman joined the squad of past and present Sannin the four all collectively entered the building. The figures of the four disappeared in the darkness of the Tower of Bones that no one has ever conquered before. The fight was about to get started for real with One's with the Eyes of God apostles facing off against the Sannin!

Darkness was the first thing that greet the Sannin as they entered the Tower of Bones. The whole place was very briefly lit by torches but those only demonstrated where the walls that they were hung on were. It was not easy finding the staircase, it only took a couple of minutes of wandering before Hanasaku got a bit impatient. "This is stupid, let's just bust through!" the woman yelled out. Sorano's lifted up palm stopped the impatient Sannin in her path. "Even if we tried it'd be of no use, if the protective seals that protect this thing can make it withstand my strongest lightning bolt I've ever cast it can without a doubt take anything we throw – playing by the rules is the only way we'll get anywhere."

"Stop, you've wandered enough, Sannin, please follow me!" Tanshu shouted to direct the attention of his guests at him. "Finally, some direction, some thugs these days can't even be bothered to show us around…" Misu shrugged with a smug face. Howoku however was much more dumbfounded, "You're… Black Dog Tanshu, the boy that ran away from the village seven years ago, so you survived this long by joining with One with the Eyes of God?" he asked. Howoku's tone was quite interesting, usually when a high ranking ninja addressed a nukenin they had a certain shade of disrespect, resentment towards the peer that dared to betray the village, Howoku had none of that. He was respectful to the end.

"Well, boy, the man with Rinnegan is going down today, it's still not too late to switch sides. We can write your nukenin story down to you escaping when you were far too young to understand your actions. We've done something similar before." Sorano spoke softly trying to lure the boy back to Konoha's side but Tanshu's face did not falter for a moment. These were the people that got his parents involved in a useless war, this very old lady was a survivor of the war where his parents died. She, an old hag who survived while young parents died, has no right to speak to him. "The purpose of my life no longer lies with that place, it is where my katei is. Make no mistake, you are standing in my katei and disgracing it with your filth, if Oni Mask sensei doesn't kill you I will do it myself. By the way, I go by Red Dog now… Follow me." Tanshu's voice was full of anger and rage towards these ninja, all of them were in the war and yet none of them did anything to save his parents, they all looked like they lost nothing in that war at all. They were just in it for the glory, they didn't care about who lived or died out there and such filthy humans had no right to draw breath, not in his katei!

"Awww… He's so cuuute! Can we keep him?" Hanasaku shrieked as she ran up to Tanshu pinching his cheeks, for a moment the boy could not believe what this woman was doing. She crossed all the lines, he'd kill her right then and there, who cared what Demon sensei and God-Eyes told him?! Tanshu's arm caught the woman's and pressed it hard. Usually that'd be enough to break anyone's arm and the woman's bone cracked but… She didn't even flinch, Tanshu threw an elbow at her face to break her nose but she simply clashed with the elbow of her own sending a gust of wind through the room as the two powerhouses hit each other. "You can be my little brother!" Hanasaku smiled as she didn't care about the injury to her arm at all.

Tanshu released the clash and turned around, all he had to do was to lead these idiots to sensei's room. Then again, the woman was supposed to be the strongest of all the ninja, Tanshu felt like if that strike of hers was all she had he could've given her a good fight, were these Sannin really that strong? There it was, oni-mask's room, Tanshu stopped by the room and turned back at the Sannin explaining the rules to them. Misu cracked a grin after the boy finished his speech, "So… What's stopping us from attacking the guy in full force and killing him together?" he asked, Tanshu shook his head and opened the door revealing sensei's dark room, the one where Tanshu woke up in after his fight with God-Eyes. "If you feel that's what you want to do, by all means, attack Oni Mask sensei all at once…" Howoku seemed to be the smarter one, he instantly understood the condition of the room they entered. "No, we will follow the rules and fight one on one, these rooms don't look like they'd let us let loose, plus our abilities are wide scale, we'd risk hitting each other if we fought here and would constantly get in each other's way."

Sensei's mask lit up and appeared out of the absolute darkness of the room. "Hello there, Konohagakure Sannin and retired Sannin, my name is… Well, Demons don't go by names, you can call me whatever you like. Which one of you will go first? I warn you, I am going to definitely kill the first one to fight me, my odds will of course decrease once the fights stack up, but the first one to fight me has 0% odds to survive. I'd suggest the old lady, she must have already finished all her things she wanted to do in life…" Hanasaku cracked her fists and entered, yelling out "I'll fight!" but then Sorano's gentle hand pushed her back softly. "No, dear, you've still not recovered from your reckless battle outside, let this be your lesson to be more careful next time." Just like that the first battle for the key to the next floor begun – Sorano the Raijin's Prophet, retired Sannin against the man with no name, Oni Mask!

Out of nowhere the oni mask started moving up closer to the woman, she slammed her staff to the ground lighting the room up for a mere moment and then blocking the strike the of the man. The man with oni mask continued to strike but Sorano's strategy of using one end of the stick to spark some light and using the other to deflect assassin's lethal blows seemed to work perfectly as all of Oni Mask's blows were deflected or blocked by the staff. The man pulled some impressive moves, jumping around and kicking, flipping and vaulting around, using both floor and ceiling for footing and using ground and aerial as well as low attacks but using her staff Sorano always knew they were coming and was in time to react to them despite being an old lady.

"Impressive, Old Hag's amazing!" Hanasaku yelled out loud impressed by how fast the old lady managed to respond to the attacks, Howoku nodded, "The man has a very interesting approach to fighting – he lives in a very dark room with the room being tuned to his outfit which makes his attire invisible, it is impossible to tell if he is coming and where from, what kind of attack he is using without a source of light. Actually, out of us all only Sorano-san and I could beat him." Misu looked displeased by this conclusion, probably because he wasn't included in the list of names. Tanshu barely managed to contain his laughter, how did these fools plan to beat sensei? The Red Dog himself could beat sensei in theory but not in this room, in this room, sensei was God, not God-Eyes.

Suddenly Oni Mask's speed picked up, he landed a couple of nicks on Sorano and what was even more impressive – his blows were cutting like knives, the scratches that Oni Mask's strikes left on the old lady were like she was cut by blades. It was becoming apparent that the lady could not keep up with the same two point strategy she was using before with this increase of speed and Tanshu could tell – sensei was not fighting at his top speed. As expected, even the mighty Sannin could not keep up with sensei in this room. Vashia and Hana and even Oni Mask himself were not up to Sannin level but in this room, right here, they could win! A loud grunt echoed, one coming from Oni Mask as a loud flesh cutting sound echoed. Tanshu could see it – the old lady's heart was pierced with sensei's hand – it was over! The quickest Sannin death ever. As always sensei's strength that helped him hit like a sharp weapon was impressive! A loud poof echoed through the dark room and a sound of wood hitting the ground came – it appeared that the woman managed to substitute herself with a wooden floor tile at the last second.

"As expected from a retired Sannin, to make a fool of me with such a basic technique…" Oni Mask applauded the old woman, Sorano however did not return the honor of talking to her opponent. She was focused completely on the battle as she just witnessed how making a single mistake may have caused the ex-Sannin her life. Then the woman shouted out as she forced her body to swing the staff around her body and then drove it into the ground. The entire room lit up with lightning as impulses of electricity went through the floor and erupted violently focusing on the man that the woman was fighting. The amount of Lightning Release that the woman could whip up impressed Tanshu, judging from how stressed out Oni Mask was to pull off his quick side vault dodges it could've been told that he did not expect such violent attack as well. "Wow. Old Lady gathered so much charge into her staff from such a brief exchange of blows?! That staff is impressive" Hanasaku once more shrieked out like a little girl.

Oni Mask was panting pretty hard, he clearly did have to use a moderate amount of effort to dodge that attack, but now this stupid young woman with chestnut colored hair told him the secret of the old woman – the staff was what used the lightning techniques and not the lady herself. The Oni Mask charged at the woman with all of his speed that he could muster up in his tired state, if what this silly young woman said was true, it meant that the old woman had no more juice in her staff which meant he had to exploit the opportunity! Right as the man closed up with his thrust of the palm aiming to once again impale the woman, the old lady drove her staff into the ground and leaped over her opponent, then she proceeded to avoid his attacks using the same strategy as before. Oni Mask may have had the advantage of speed before but his current worn out state quickly wasted that advantage. Sorano quickly thrust her staff forward shooting off a bolt of lightning but Oni Mask leaned to the side avoiding it. Minor branches of electricity gently separated from the bolt burning the man up a bit and revealing some of his skin. Now Oni Mask was not completely invisible in the darkness as some of his burnt flesh was well visible.

Tanshu was surprised by how well his mentor took those lightning burns, it was no secret that his sensei's body under those clothes was covered with burns, for a burned skin to be hit by more minor lightning branches and to keep its owner completely unfazed was impressive. Sensei must've had tremendous pain tolerance, had he not drugged Tanshu when training him the boy suspected he'd have just the same kind of tolerance too. The ex-Sannin and the Oni Mask clashed again, as much as the man tried to break the staff using his near superhuman strength he could not do it, as much as the woman tried to land a single blow on the man using her staff she also couldn't do it. It was evident by now that the battle would be decided not by who was more skilled but who could catch their opponent off guard with a more powerful technique. Having realized this both fighters leaped back.

"This fight sucks, I can't see a thing." Misu sniffed angrily, Howoku did not move his eyes from the battle. "That's because you do not use perception in your battles, your Vapor Mode protects you from every attack your opponent makes which makes you careless. If you knew how to pick up and interpret sounds, if you could see the entire situation in those brief moments of light that Sorano-san gives herself, if you had any imagination and perception skills at all you'd be able to see it." Hanasaku showed Misu her tongue and pointed at the boy, "Look, even my little brother can follow the battle clearly, jeez you're such a loser, Misu!" she laughed out. Misu sniffed again and looked at his friend, "You're as careless as I am if not more, I bet you can't follow it either…" Hanasaku's head dipped to the ground, she looked like she was about to cry, "I can pick up bits and pieces… I'm missing so much of such an awesome battle!"

"Well then, we've danced long enough, lady, let us proceed to finishing touches then." Oni Mask huffed out, without replying a single word Sorano swung her staff and pointed it at her opponent shooting off a bolt of lightning. The lightning bolt seemed to keep going and the wall behind Oni Mask. Sorano was thrown off guard by the fact that the glowing in the dark oni mask at that moment wasn't even on the face of her opponent but actually on something else. It was too late however as every observer could hear only loud thuds and the grunt of the woman before Oni Mask's demonic voice returned. "Demon Kenpo" he said naming his style of quick succession strikes that hit the woman's body. In some ways Oni Mask was the perfect ninja as he represented all that ninja stood for, he deceived his opponent, threw them off guard and then took them out quickly while being completely invisible to his victim. Even the mighty retired Sannin was now dead laying on the floor…

"Not bad, for the both of us to use the same technique to trick their opponent." Sorano's voice echoed from some other corner of the room. "String Reeling technique to hang the most visible object in front, making the enemy believe that their opponent was standing still. It seems I've gotten used to the dark already just as you are." Oni Mask lifted off the coat of Sorano that he tore up using his quick thrusts strong enough to stab a human being with his own hand before laughing out and tossing it aside. "It is true, I suppose I am as blind in this darkness as you are, Sorano-san" Oni Mask nodded as he turned around to face the old woman in the corner where she has hidden. Tanshu was completely confused, when did this woman pull this trick off? When did she have the time to do that? He had to hand it to this woman, even if he did hate her, she was resourceful. How in the world could she and sensei have the same idea at the same time to trick their opponent?! Tanshu refused to place this woman on sensei's level of smarts, that was impossible.

The two leaped at each other, exchanging blows with each powerful strike being blocked by the other. Oni Mask's thrusts managed to deflect Sorano's staff just as easily as her staff deflected his fists and thrusts. Knowing that Oni Mask trained his fists punching steel and stone it was to no surprise. Then something happened, the whole room illuminated as Sorano just became lightning shaped and dissolved appearing behind her opponent, Oni Mask tried to react but quick and precise blows from her staff stopped him in his tracks. The woman worked the staff very well, spinning it around to confuse the man and charging it up with lightning chakra to make a stronger blow. She tore up the man's jumpsuit even more making it even harder for him to properly conceal his body in the dark as his purplish dark burnt skin was quite standing out compared to the darkness around him to a trained eye. The woman tried to finish it all by driving her staff to Oni Mask's head, an impact like that would've knocked him out for sure. With a loud clang the staff shot up in the air as the Demon deflected it with his arm thrust.

Having found his new opening the man did not hesitate, his balance and speed was thrown off, he kept punching the old lady but his strikes did not kill her, just open cuts and bruises, broke her teeth and cut her lip, made her body swell but did not outright impale her. It was apparent that sensei's "Demon Kenpo" needed some preparation and concentration time but it didn't matter – sensei was fighting a Sannin one on one, he was returning her the blows he took and that was satisfactory. Even if the idea of a Sannin matching sensei in his dark room was scary, at least it provided some comfort as sensei was not entirely over his head. Sensei's arms weighed down, he was breathing heavily, the woman took this time to recover and started striking back herself, charging her staff up even more, giving the man no time to respond or defend. This was no longer perfect chain of blocks or a match of skill, this was two people desperately trying to kill each other! Sorano slammed her staff right into Oni Mask's head, sensei's head let out a disgusting and alarming sound – something told Tanshu that it'd be a very disgusting display if this darkness wasn't here to conceal it.

"Demon Kenpo!" Oni Mask yelled out of nowhere right as a combination of stabbing-like sounds broke to Tanshu's ears. He got her! Tanshu could smell the blood, he could feel it that both combatants were injured but did sensei hit the woman in her vitals? He could have hit her many times but if no vitals were hit any ninja could keep going even after being impaled by his strikes multiple times. Tanshu was hit by that many times when sensei wasn't planning to kill him and he always could take multiple of those. The woman grunted in pain but kept swinging her staff. Suddenly her staff lit up with sheer lightning chakra, she was going to use all that she had accumulated revealing just how much damage each fighter has taken with the light from the charging up lightning. Sensei's head was split open, it was hard to determine just how much damage he had taken since his face was disfigured but it was bleeding quite heavily, the woman also was bleeding out as she evidently took multiple stabs from sensei's strikes. A powerful beam illuminated the room making each ninja inside cover their eyes and ears from the deafening sound. A powerful lightning wave blew covering most of the room as the woman yelled out "Heavenly Punishment Jutsu!"

It would not have taken a genius to know that if that technique had landed on sensei he would've been disintegrated… Tanshu couldn't see how things happened but he knew that this was the woman's plan all along – to quickly gather up charges in ugly one on one clashes and use this. All of this darkness worked in her favor, contrast of absolute light breaking absolute darkness forced even the other Sannin to flinch in place. Nothing could have survived this inhuman jutsu. And yet… Tanshu knew not to count sensei as being dead before he saw the pile of his ashes. All the ninja in this room, both the fighting ones and the ones waiting for their turn stood silently waiting for the conclusion to this battle in darkness that was approaching and seemed to be getting closer and closer every second! Every blow could've concluded the battle now.

After the aftermath of Sorano's technique there was a brief moment of illumination even after it had resolved, such "afterlight" effect was not something that was common to many techniques. Also there were countless of lightning sparks crackling in the air, even the aftermath of the technique was violent enough. The retired Sannin was breathing heavily and clenching one of many wounds inflicted by her opponent with small drops of blood ticking down on the floor once in a while. As the afterlight cleared the result of her technique was apparent, then slowly the surrounding dimmed away into gloom. Loud grunts and whining could've been heard in the darkness.

"Your leg is quite messed up, perhaps it'd be for the best to grant us passage and let us go?" Sorano taunted the opponent whom she saw to be alive. "You've got to be kidding…" Tanshu thought, he noticed from sensei's stance that he used his "Demon Kick" technique charging his body with Lightning Release chakra and kicking transferring all of the force into this one kick, such kick was swift, silent and was strong enough to cut people in two, even more, the Lightning Release nature of the technique would've been enough to absorb the technique while sensei's other leg would've grounded it. And yet… Oni Mask's leg looked like a lump of coal, it was black and barely resembled a human appendage, just how powerful was this technique that this retired Sannin used? This strength was beginning to defy even the ninja limits, these Sannin were not superhuman, they were superninja.

Sorano grunted again as she spun her staff and pointed it to where Oni Mask last was when light illuminated the room, a powerful and unstable lightning bolt shot out, as the room was lit up it revealed Oni Mask standing right up to Sorano and having ducked right to the ground. "Demon Kenpo" he shouted thrusting his hand right to the woman's heart, as the body was penetrated it dissolved into pure lightning chakra and lit the room again revealing Oni Mask grunting and falling to his knees, "Lightning Clone!?" he shouted out in frustration. A loud thud echoed, then the thud repeated, then again, and again, and again, and again. The thuds started echoing around like a machinegun, it was tough for Tanshu to keep his ears open – the two were exchanging blows again in total darkness, using just perception and imagination of their opponent's position and predicting their movements with complete precision, as Sorano's staff grinded against the floor it shot out lightning sparks that briefly lit the room. It was a glorious dance of light and violence. It made Tanshu almost beg for another peek just to see these two amazing ninja clash again.

A flash of light lit the next exchange, the woman's palm was shooting straight at the mess that was Oni Mask's face, there it was – the opening. The arms of the assassin shot backwards like he was winding up to push the woman away, he then just shot them both forward at the same time. "Twin Demon Kenpo!" he grunted as another flesh tearing sound reached everyone's ears. Then it started sounding like someone was spilling a bucket of water on the floor, as the lightning lit everything up again it was revealed that one palm penetrated Sorano's gut, this was major, with so many injuries and her elderly body there was only that much that the woman could do, this battle was wrapping up. Sorano tried to use her chance to hit Oni Mask's exposed head but she couldn't, pain made her slower, exhaustion made her even slower. She shot all of her lightning out already from her staff, if she hadn't she'd have used staff's own abilities and not her own "Lightning Clone Jutsu" moments before to avoid death.

Once again loud clangs echoed through the room, again and again, Tanshu could not believe for how long these two were dancing together, for how long they could keep this race of mind, will and determination up, for how long they could both fight to the best of their abilities without slowing down. Sensei was being pushed, according to Tanshu's calculations he only had one last technique and no chance to use it – the All Speed. As the name suggests it is the entirety of sensei's potential speed and strength but… It couldn't just have been thrown out like that, especially not when sensei was this hurt, his eyes were flooding with blood coming from his forehead and his body was tired at this point of the fight, Tanshu had expected the jutsu to come in early to gain advantage but why was sensei keeping it for last? Having its drawbacks in mind…

A loud clang, louder than the thousands before interrupted the boy's thoughts as a powerful gust of wind made him cover his face. For the first time the room lit up not because of the lightning but because of the actual sparks from sensei's "Demon Kenpo" clashing with Raijin's staff. The woman's staff was first to attack, Oni Mask could not react in time and got a couple of blows, the woman aimed for the head – she knew that if she hit hard enough she'd break the man's skull at some point, if it wasn't broken yet… Oni Mask was flung around mercilessly as Sorano's staff hit him again and again, the man tried to block using just his arms but without chakra enhancements of "Demon Kenpo" he was unable to keep up with the staff's strength, it was simply flesh against ancient steel.

With a powerful swing hitting Oni Mask's cheek and lighting it up just for that extra strength and flare, sending most of his teeth to the floor, Sorano sent the man down. Her staff started crackling with lightning – she was charging up another attack! She probably had enough for a lethal thunderbolt strike which made Tanshu worried – sensei just kept twitching on his knees, was he down and out? Sorano pointed her staff right at his bleeding head, at this rate… Wait… What if he wasn't still affected by the blows, what if he was… For the last time Sorano's staff lit up with powerful impulses of electricity as a ball formed on the tip. The room lit up, so brightly that everyone had to cover their eyes. It was over, but the sight that greet everyone when they turned back surprised everyone.

The spot where Sorano aimed her lightning bolt was flaming, her lightning bolt had missed and hit the floor! Oni Mask was right below the woman, his legs were stretched out to the human limit as he ducked his frontal body to avoid the blast, his back was still smoking from the side burns of the bolt of electricity. Sorano's body twitched a couple of times – Oni Mask's arm was dug right through her chest. There it was, All Speed. Oni Mask channelled all of his remaining chakra into lightning impulses that enhanced his bodily reaction time and movements to superhuman levels. However using his All Speed required charge up time, appropriate to how exhausted the user's body was, also it fatigued the body and basically burned the muscles up. Tanshu understood what this meant, both short term and long term implications. Oni Mask straightened out as he held the old lady's body, gently placing it on the ground and closing her eyes with his soft stroke of hand.

"You BASTARD!" Howoku yelled out, at that same moment his body lit up, it was like chakra was simply leaking out of his pores, like some sort of white divine-like light was leaking from his body. The man charged forward, Tanshu could follow the man's movement but it was incredibly fast, just how could this wimp have pulled this off? Oni Mask obviously could not move in time, Tanshu had already predicted that using All Speed so late in the fight would pretty much kill his chances of movement afterwards. A sphere of light of the same nature shaped itself in the palm of Howoku's hand as his arm shot forward hitting Oni Mask's chest. "Starlight Sphere!" Howoku yelled out thrusting his hand forward and throwing his opponent back like a ragdoll as the sphere of light violently dissolved. Oni Mask yelled out loudly, flying backwards and hitting the wall, after Oni Mask's body hit the wall behind him it collapsed with the lifeless body flying right out. Light seeped through into the room, it was symbolic that as Oni Mask died so did the darkness in the room… Tanshu blinked and it was over – to think that the power of this wimp could break even Hana's seal, sure, it was weakened by the old lady's most powerful lightning bolt but the boy had to know.

"This light… This chakra, it's a Kekkei Genkai, correct? May I know what kind?" Tanshu asked looking at Howoku, the man's eyes changed, this was no longer the stare of a noble and kind soul, this was a stare of a bloodthirsty fighter. "This man was your sensei, correct? Don't you wish revenge for his death?" the man replied, his voice was rude and strong, no longer the gentle and soft tone he had when he came. Tanshu looked down, "To tell you the truth I think sensei wanted me to kill him at some point, just to finish his training. I did like him as a mentor but in this world people die, I've already lost any grip with reality, death of people dear to me no longer bring up any emotion. Neither this floor, nor the one above it is my floor to fight. Now answer my question, Star of Hope, Howoku!"

Howoku turned around and drew his blunt blade, slowly the man stroke his hand by the blade, normally it would've opened up a grievous wound but the blunt steel was made more for bashing than slashing. With a swift and precise movement of his hand Howoku threw the blunt sword like a spear aiming at Oni Mask's body lying outside on the black rough ground. Just mere moments before the sword went on its trajectory outside and impaled the body of his sensei Tanshu's wrist wrapped around its handle catching it in mid-air. "I no longer want that title or this blade that cannot take lives!" Howoku yelled out in rage, "I held myself back, restrained my Starlight Release and used a blunt blade, I believed that if I fought with peaceful intentions in heart that the world would change, that it'd pull its punches on me as well! Curse you, Red Dog Tanshu, go to Hell for catching this blade, from now on I live by a new ideal – evil people that threaten peace deserve absolute death, Iron Country samurai call it "Aku-Soku-Zan!" Tanshu threw the useless junk weapon to the side, this blunt sword that could not kill anyone did not deserve to be held by him.

"Starlight Release… Huh?" Tanshu spoke under his own nose as he boldly stepped forward walking up to Howoku who seemed to be going through a crisis of ideals. After the young ninja passed by the saddened Sannin he turned to the side, "There is no need to attack corpses, even for one who follows "Aku-Soku-Zan", I'm not nearly patient enough to check if sensei is dead or not, all I know that no one can live through a battle like this, even if Sorano-san had survived this battle she'd have collapsed not too long afterwards, sensei cannot be beaten one on one in this room and his purpose to God-Eyes is now fulfilled, I no longer care what happens to him and if you do you're just an angry child fixed on revenge. If you keep me waiting and standing here wasting time I'll kill all three of you, now let's move to the next floor." he said showing to Howoku the key. Hanasaku jumped up, "Wait, did you have all the keys this whole time!?" Tanshu kept on walking, he just waved his arm and carelessly replied "You did not bother to properly answer my question, I don't owe you the explanation of this situation as well."

As the boy started walking up the stairs he heard the Sannin catching up, Howoku then spoke. "Starlight Release is a Kekkei Genkai I awakened during my teenage years, I have no idea where it comes from or why I have it but I'm the only person in the world with it. It's a form of combination of Fire and Lightning Releases, it creates a plasma-like substance that is said to be as hot in its core as the surface of the Sun. I didn't like to use it because it usually either hurts people very badly or outright disintegrates them if I hit them head-on, such extraordinary power needs to be restrained, used carefully… Or so I thought, now I don't care about the lives of scum that threaten peace. Please tell me about the keys now, Tanshu." For a moment Tanshu just kept walking up the stairs contemplating on what Howoku just said, "Starlight Release", so that was the kind of ability that the Sannin used, superheated gas that can be used to absolutely decimate even Hana's seals. Even God-Eyes' most powerful Universal Push lacked the strength to do that, that was how this crater was formed this deep in the first place, the one God-Eyes made when fighting Tanshu wasn't even one tenth the strength of this one.

"Well, I guess now I can tell you the truth, now that you broke Hana's seal there is no use in this whole key thing, this key doesn't unlock anything, it's my key from my floor. You can just bust the door down, there are no longer any protections to this tower, you can even go as far as to break the rules and attack God-Eyes right now." After Tanshu finished talking Howoku nodded angrily, his cold and scary look started giving even Tanshu the creeps. And yet… A man who cared so deeply about his comrades, a man who was able to change his entire life worth of beliefs to better respect the memory of a dead comrade. The boy felt it inside – he wanted to be this man's comrade now, if he died while being Howoku's friend this man would avenge Tanshu and protect his katei for him even if someone powerful killed the young man… His life would finally have meaning.

"Nah, screw that, let's play by the rules. I'm really getting into this." Misu spoke as Tanshu's fist flew straight into the man's face sending him tumbling couple of steps backward. Apparently even the Sannin did not expect this blow as his face did not dissolve into vapour after getting hit. "You bastard, Sorano-san died! How can you just play by the scumbag's rules after he had Sorano-san killed! How can we return to the village having lost someone like Sorano-san! The village will never wipe away the tears!" the man was literally shaking as he yelled it out. Hanasaku's hand reached over Howoku's shoulder. "No, I believe what Misu said is what is best" for the first time in a while the young woman spoke in a very calm and assured tone, "Didn't you see it yet? These nukenin are able to kill us, they're just as strong as we are and when I clashed with Little Bro here I felt it – he'd kick me in the butt a couple of times and it'd definitely be tough to fight him. If we split up and fight everyone at once we won't be able to assist each other if needed assistance. What if you or Misu or me needs help and the others are fighting somewhere else? More people will die and you will blame yourself even more, Howoku-kun. Please stop and calm down, we'll play this how Little Bro wants."

Tanshu was truly annoyed by being called "Little Bro", who did this lady think she was? If memory served well the next in line would be Vashia… It was really hard for Tanshu to kick down the door, not because it was hard, the door itself was just a wooden construction and a simple shoulder push could've taken it out when the seal was broken. The hard part was the emotional part. Vashia was a nice girl, Tanshu knew it. She was silent, closed in and didn't wish harm upon anyone else. But if she was told to fight she would fight until the end because she was devoted to the cause, deep inside the Red Dog knew that she thought of them like a little family, just like he did. "Is something wrong, Little Bro?" Hanasaku laughed out and tried to stroke his hair, with a rough blow Tanshu pushed her hand away. "Shut up, I'm just thinking…" As the door fell out and the Red Dog started leading the three he noticed something wrong, this was not Vashia's floor, it couldn't have been. Hana and Vashia must've switched floors, it was most likely God-Eyes who ordered this – still, the purpose of this switch remained known only to him. In the manner of a true God he was unpredictable till the end. The walls were covered with some stupid graffiti-like paintings done with simple red and purple paint. The whole place was well lit and had multiple cushions thrown around randomly on the floor. As the boy opened the door he already knew the face that'd greet them inside. "This is Hana, she's the one that placed all those seals on the Tower. Please gang up on her and kill her quickly before she speaks." Tanshu facepalmed.

"Shut up you loser! Why didn't you help Oni Mask fight?! Maybe you sided with the Konoha trash then? Come on, I'll take you on too you twerp!" the lady broke out spitting filth. The young nukenin sighed in frustration and stood to a wall gesturing that it was now OK to challenge her. Hanasaku jumped forward and cracked her knuckles, "OK, my turn!" she shouted out but Howoku was already standing in front of the young woman. "HOWOKU-KUN!" she whined out comically but it appeared like the Sannin couldn't hear the voice of his companion anymore. He just pointed his fist at the young lady, "Your boss is threatening the peace and is responsible for the death of a retired Sannin, give your key up and I will let you live." His voice sounded husky and angry but Hana didn't get the clue. She just made a comic grimace and showed her tongue and her middle finger. "You'll get rabbit poop, ya loser!" the girl removed a small piece of bubble gum from her purse and put it into her mouth.

"She had bubble gum in her ninja tool pouch?" Hanasaku's mouth opened in shock, "Shit, how come I didn't think of that!? I can carry food in there!" Howoku's head sunk down and then lifted back up as the man fixed his glasses. "Then I shall remove you from the equation, as a threat to peace you must be destroyed!" the man shouted out, despite the fact that he looked calmed down after the death of his comrade he still acted like this new "Aku-Soku-Zan" version of the man he once was. Tanshu didn't complain, at least he'd use his Starlight Release and shut that annoying mouth of Hana's up. Meanwhile he could think of some way to prevent Vashia's death, maybe he could somehow lead them over her floor right to God-Eyes! No. That wouldn't work, the construction of the floor was pretty simplistic and it only had one pathway, from down to up. Maybe he could talk to the girl? No, Vashia had a strong sense of honor, she wouldn't budge even if the enemy is a Sannin. Stupid God-Eyes, he should've fought these people himself, now he's counting on his apostles to wear them out so that he can finish them himself. What a despicable guy!

Hana and Howoku leaped at each other, preparing for a clash. The fight on the second floor was about to begin!

The two opponents just continued to stare each other down. Tanshu knew that making a move first and taking the offensive approach was simply not Hana's style, especially when taking on a Konohagakure Sannin like Howoku. On the other hand, Tanshu was afraid of Howoku's silent and cool stare, while he may have spoken a lot of trash about Hana he still sort of cared about her. He was like an older abusive sister to him, on a day to day basis he may have hated the girl's guts but when the choice of life and death was given, it wasn't truly a choice at all.

Chestnut Hanasaku looked at Tanshu curiously, "Say, Little Bro, what's this Hana chick like anyways?" Tanshu pouted angrily and yelled back in a rude manner, "I told you to stop calling me that! It ain't any of your business, Sannin!" Hanasaku just smiled and then looked back at the two opponents that just kept looking at each other. Hana shot her palm forward as if she was a queen issuing an order to her subordinates. "Don't you dare say another word, loser! Your tongue won't do me justice! I am Hana of the Sand Village, the most handy right hand person to have by one's side!" the girl spoke in a rather arrogant tone. It was obvious that the young lady had great pride in her abilities. All of a sudden Howoku's body started leaking Stardust Release chakra as the man disappeared from where he was standing.

An elbow strike connected to Hana's face almost instantly after everyone noticed that the man disappeared, then another blow to her middle body area, Howoku punched and kicked again and again in a combination before finishing his ruthless attack with a knee to the girl's stomach and a finishing downward strike from his elbow. Hanasaku yelled out in frustration, "Oy, Howoku, that's rude to do to a lady! You should stop playing around and just take her out quick!" Tanshu's face did not flinch, actually Howoku's approach was the right one – hit Hana fast and take her out, don't give her a chance to do anything before she uses one of her crazy tricks. His only mistake was to stop hitting her once she was down. Howoku's ruthless eyes looked back at his two teammates, "I don't care if she's male or female, she became an enemy to be taken down the moment she acted against us. She chose this world of violence and death and brought this onto herself. She or anyone else in that matter has no right to complain about any of this!" he grunted out angrily starting to leak Starlight Release chakra from his body.

This attack was different! The amount of chakra that Howoku sent out was insane! Why would any technique make one leak such overwhelming amounts of chakra, maybe this was a proof of this man's lack of chakra control, he must've been so hesitant to use these destructive Starlight techniques that he had no control over them. Howoku's arms shot forward as he roared loudly in pain and effort that it took to keep this impressive display up. All of the star-white chakra gathered outside of his body and just started making the man glow and shimmer. "Starlight Bridge Jutsu!" Howoku shouted out as the chakra violently shot forward in a powerful slightly arching beam shaped right like the user's body. This was without a doubt an attack to completely disintegrate the opponent.

As the overflowing light of Howoku's Starlight Release filled the room everyone had to cover their eyes. Tanshu tried to duck and bolt out of the room as a technique of such caliber expelling so much heat would've completely eradicated the entire room making the whole building collapse in the process. "This is useless, I won't move in time… This intense heat!" Tanshu thought to himself feeling just how hot it was being in the same room where Howoku used his Starlight Release. Hana would've been dead in moments… Then suddenly a realization hit the young boy – this wasn't so bad. For a technique that was as hot as the surface of the Sun this wasn't half bad… Stumped Tanshu opened his eyes and saw Hana standing still with her own hands thrust forward with a big black insignia formed from her chakra in the air. The girl grinned with a cocky and mocking smile and then made a nasty grimace, showing the Sannin her middle finger.

"I told you loser, I'm the handiest ninja in the world! I possess the power to use amazing sealing techniques like this "Black Hieroglyph Seal" I used to seal away your "Starlight Bridge Jutsu". Also I am a sensor so I can feel just how much your chakra levels dropped. Come on, big man, fire some more of those, I'll just drain you out in seconds. Or maybe you want to punch me some more? Well you should know that I'm a medical ninja too so whatever punch you throw I'll return with six times your strength – you have no options against me!" Hana spread her arms opening up her body as if taunting Howoku to try his best shot. The man's cold and ruthless eyes did not falter for a moment, he didn't even look surprised that his powerful Starlight Bridge Jutsu was absorbed.

"You cocky little brat…" Howoku spoke lunging forward with an onslaught of taijutsu techniques. The man just punched again and again, kicked and flipped to punch from the other side while Hana effortlessly dodged or blocked his attacks. Medical ninja were hard to hit in close distance because they trained day and night to properly evade and Hana was just like that. She was training to dodge, sometimes when Tanshu came to Oni Mask's room in the morning for training he found Hana training to dodge Oni Mask's attacks in absolute darkness using just her sensory alone. This woman was impossible to land a solid hit on when she was pumped up. Tanshu observed carefully to see how this Sannin would deal with the situation, it may have been that in the end he'd see another Sannin die that day. Before he hit her when using his Starlight chakra boost and while Hana wasn't expecting it, now he couldn't even land a single blow on her.

With a powerful clash of kunai the two leaped off of one another making some distance, both of them were huffing a little bit, Howoku was obviously the worst of the two tired combatants – that Starlight Release he used on Oni Mask and right here was already catching up with him and here he was fighting a perfect evader up close where, Tanshu could easily tell, he did not exceed in. "He should not have dropped his sword, I can see from his style that he has only above average skills with taijutsu, I assume that he was a better swordsman?" the boy asked looking at Howoku's fellow Sannin. Misu of the Vapor cracked an evil grin, "Nah, he sucked at it, the idiot just fought with a dull blade because he considered fist-fighting "uncivilized"." Tanshu's eyes shot wide open, these Sannin were weird people. They purposefully restricted their abilities in battle to have a more satisfying fight? What crazy fools!

Hana once again shot her finger forward with a cocky smile, "So, what's it gonna be? Ready to surrender? Maybe if you say "Hana-sama, you're so amazing and beautiful and all-around a perfect lady I'll let you go… If you also give me something nice to hang on those walls… And maybe kiss my ring while kneeling in front of me!" Howoku smiled as his eyes calmed down, Tanshu was starting to get scared by the man's ruthless eyes but now that they returned to calmness they also seemed to calm him down. This man had a weird feeling to him. The boy was starting to somewhat understand why Oni Mask said he was called "Star of Hope", whatever he felt, the people around him felt too. When he was grieving everyone else couldn't help but feel sad just looking at him, when he was feeling hopeful he also brought hope in the eyes of others.

"Girl, you're truly a remarkable ninja. I must say, however, I figured out your thing so if you continue fighting me I'll have to show you just what the true difference between a remarkable ninja and a Sannin is. Please turn back and leave this tower, go back to your village. Abandon this hopeless man who uses his friends like pawns just to keep the enemy away from him." Hana yelled out in frustration some unintelligible nonsense and leapt forward with a chakra enhanced punch, throwing it straight at Howoku's face. Before it landed, Howoku's body lit up with Starlight chakra and with a tap he gently pushed the woman's punch away and gave her one of his own, with overwhelming force he pushed the young lady back crashing into the bone wall, he did not stop however as Howoku jumped right next to her and started punching her again, now that the first impact fazed her Hana was not nearly as good at evading the strikes. "This Starlight Release chakra seems to enhance his physical abilities somewhat…" Tanshu noted to himself but overall even in this shining new mode Howoku was not too impressive of a physical force for the young boy.

With a powerful finishing blow Howoku sent Hana to the ground and turned around, nonchalantly walking away from her without looking back at her. As far as he was concerned the battle was over. Howoku did not see Hana get up from the ground, trembling and covered with slight burns and bruises from his barrage of blows, spitting out blood but with a powerful glow of green chakra she started wiping all of those injuries away. "Don't you dare walk away! You cocky shining bastard!" she yelled out at Howoku stopping the man in his tracks. Howoku turned his head back at her halfway and mumbled in a cold and careless manner. "You're a sensor ninja, no, you're what we call "an Advanced Sensor", normal sensors can sense chakra from certain distance, sense as if in they can confirm the presence of chakra. They are incapable of telling that much about the details of the chakra, their use of sensory is also a bit limited in battle."

After a brief pause Howoku turned back from Hana and took several more steps back towards the exit from the room. "What we call "Advanced Sensors" use some sort of sensory enhancement, like Earth Release users sensing vibrations coming off of the ground or in your case… Lightning Release users sensing nerve signals and being able to use it in tandem with your normal sensory. With enough training you learn to react to sensing the signal incredibly fast and you make your opponent believe that you predicted their moves because of how effortlessly you evade their attack. That being said, I've shown to you that this ability won't change the outcome of this battle, you are simply outmatched here and even your Advanced Sensory won't make the difference between us stop mattering. In ten or so years you may have beaten me easily but you lack training and discipline, now get out of my sight. You keep calling people "cocky" when in fact you yourself are nothing but that. I have no time for talented people that get in over their heads thinking they don't need to work hard as well…" Howoku grunted.

It appeared that the man's words have broken Hana down. She dropped down on her knees and started pounding the ground and shouting in rage and frustration, Tanshu had never seen the young woman so psyched out, she was really unstable now and could've lashed out pretty quickly. Had he cared at all if any of these Sannin lived or died he'd have warned them, his predictions just happened to be correct, Hana roared out into the air for one more time before slamming a smoke bomb into the ground with all of her strength. The smoke filled the room making it impossible to see a thing inside.

"Disappear without a trace, you filthy Sannin! Oracle Shot Jutsu!" Hana shouted out with a very uncommon for her enraged tone as she shot her hands forward firing off a wild bolt of lightning at a random direction. Tanshu knew this technique, it once hit him when he pissed Hana off and burned him severely as well as stopped his heart, it took Oni Mask to threaten to kill Hana for hurting his only apprentice for her to heal him. She popped the smoke bomb to reduce the visibility to zero, she then used her "Advanced Sensory" as Howoku called it to take proper aim at her target leaving them no chance or time to properly respond as they didn't know what was coming at them.

As the smoke cleared Tanshu couldn't see Howoku anywhere, only a black burning spot where Hana's "Oracle Shot" hit the ground. Only in several moments could he locate Howoku hanging on the ceiling of the small room looking at his opponent with already finished handseals. Hana's eyes and mouth shot open in surprise as she took a couple of steps backwards in fear. Howoku angrily taunted her, "What's wrong? You're a medical ninja, right? You can take it and get yourself back to fighting shape in no time… For your sake though… Don't." the mad leaking Starlight Release chakra formed four basketball sized spheres of Starlight chakra, Howoku thrust his arms forward shouting "Star Chart Strike!" as the four spheres went on to strike the area where Hana was erupting in a powerful and wild explosion as all four spheres violently exploded upon impact with the floor or the walls.

When the destructive explosion resolved Tanshu saw the extent of the damage, nearly half of the Tower of Bones was blown to bits. It was really unstable now and it couldn't have taken much more to make the whole roof just slide down to the ground below. Hana was down on her knees with her white dress torn up and burnt and her pink hair now flowing wildly instead of being set in her stupid girly hairdo of twisted braids. "Im…Possible… I absorbed it… I had to…" she uttered coughing up blood and dust. Howoku landed back down on the floor and breathed out, he obviously strained himself more than he needed to in this battle but that was how one had to fight a medical ninja, explode quickly right into their faces with all or nothing assaults because medical ninja would eventually heal back from any weaker attacks and simply outlast even much stronger opponents.

The girl once again started healing herself when Howoku turned around and returned to his friends, turning at Hana for one more time. "Your absorption seal doesn't seem to handle barrage techniques that well, you only absorbed some of my technique, maybe one third of it at least… You should invent a new seal for continuous or barrage ninjutsu techniques, there are plenty of ninja in the world that use those kind of techniques, if your will to become a powerful ninja one day isn't broken, that is…" Howoku smiled back at Hana. Tanshu could not believe, was this really the same man that broke down in rage over the death of his comrade not too long ago? Did he forget his oath to kill anyone that threatened peace? Or maybe in his eyes this girl was no longer a threat to peace, it was God-Eyes that was the big threat…

Tears burst from Hana's eyes as she rushed forward, Howoku leaned back and forth to evade her blind chakra enhanced strikes. This time even the girl's own tears of shame seemed to prevent her from punching straight. Howoku thrust his knee into Hana's central body area and as she staggered back he dashed right behind her and punched her in the back of her neck with a powerful but restrained blow. Hana's eyes rolled back as she tried desperately to catch some air and to retain her consciousness but she collapsed on the floor powerless and defeated. Tanshu sighed, "You should take away any sharp tools from her, she will most likely just commit seppuku once she wakes up. Old sis doesn't handle shame that well…"

Howoku looked back at the unconscious girl and picked her up into his arms. "There's no shame in losing to a Sannin, she had the potential of surpassing me but she wasted it by treating her amazing talents at ninjutsu and sealing techniques as if they compensate hard work. She's a lot like Misu that way… Anyways, I'll go take her outside, if this tower collapses she'll die in the rubble, I'll go find a safe place for her where the ground is more stable." Misu was really annoyed by Howoku's expression but then his friend just played it as a joke and went off to find a safe place for Hana. Chestnut Sannin smiled ironically at Tanshu, "What did you just called her? "Old sis"?" the young woman burst into laughter as Tanshu desperately tried to shut her up. "Anyways, I won't let you stall this and give that Starlight guy time to recover, let's move on without him." Tanshu said quickly dashing up the stairs into the next room. The young man stopped and looked down shyly when he approached the door, he stepped back for one of the Sannin to break down the door.

Hanasaku stepped forward and flicked the door making a powerful shockwave emanate making the door crumble down in multiple pieces. Tanshu looked back and then to the side, "Ummm… Maybe… You could not kill the next opponent? She's a really nice girl but she is really loyal to God-Eyes so she'll say anything to make you believe otherwise…" Hanasaku cracked her knuckles and nodded energetically, giving Tanshu a powerful thumb up right after. "Sure! I won't hurt her too bad, don't worry!" Hanasaku smiled. "Wait… Where's Misu? THAT BASTARD! HE BETTER NOT BE TAKING MY FIGHT!" Hanasaku yelled out as she started dashing up the stairs. Tanshu only then realized what was going on – this Misu guy disappeared while Tanshu was acting the shy little brother to fight Vashia and that dumb idiot Hanasaku was dashing right towards God-Eyes' room! Talk about a conundrum! "Ugh, I'll just have to trust that Misu guy's integrity to not kill Vashia-chan… WAIT UP YOU STUPID IDIOT! That's the wrong way!" he followed the incredibly fast Sannin that was bolting upstairs right to his room!

With a silent tap of his feet to the stone hard and edgy floor Howoku landed onto the wasteland ground. It'd have been problematic had the man landed on the mushy slime and started sinking, he'd have had to use more of Starlight Burst to escape by simply dashing out of the sinking death. Gently Howoku placed the pink haired girl onto the ground and looked at her. Since she had no life-threatening injuries the man followed Tanshu's advice and removed her pouch, placing it around his other leg which didn't have a ninja kit on it. Then Howoku's attention turned at the half busted tower. For how long would this shaky construction hold? If the battles turned too hectic it'd inevitably go down...

Misu was not the one that worried Howoku, the man was incredibly powerful but his fighting style was very small scale and self-contained. He knew quite well how not to make a fuss out of things and was the last one to leave a blazing trail of destruction behind. Hanasaku on the other hand... She's a rampaging beast of destruction, if she got into her fight she'd take the tower down with a single blow. That much was for certain. Howoku closed his eyes, breathed in and out, trying to balance his tired body out, regain at least some stamina so that his body calmed down. He would need some more strength in the future, he'd be the one fighting One with the Eyes of God, that much Howoku knew for certain. With a slow and confident step the Star of Hope went up to the entrance of the tower, he still had to carry out Sorano's body and bring her back home as well...

Tanshu rushed desperately trying to catch up to the stupid young woman that was running ahead of him. Her speed was ridiculous, everything about this woman defied logic: her mindset, her abilities and the extent of them. It was like the world itself had gone insane to match the insanity of this woman. "Wait up, you stupid broad!" Tanshu yelled out in frustration but a powerful blow shook the tower. The young man struggled to keep his balance on the steps as he reached for the wall. It was of no use, the walls themselves trembled and for a moment it appeared that even the bone walls were crumbling down but somehow they held it together. This woman was a walking calamity. "Damn you!" he yelled as Tanshu charged forward dashing into the room which the woman broke into.

Inside was a room of black tiles on the floor, walls and the ceiling. The room was not completely dark like the one where Oni Mask always fought, this one was quite well illuminated, it was just covered with black accessories and had one red hieroglyphic symbol on each of the walls, the ceiling and the floor. The symbols were pulsing with chakra, with each pulse the symbol started glowing even more intensely as Tanshu entered the room the glow went insane. Within that same instant the boy felt his chakra leaving his body - his seals started working. The woman's eyes and mouth shot open, it was like she couldn't believe her feeling, with a look of surprise, fear and desperation she turned at Tanshu. "W...What is this room?" she uttered as Tanshu's eyes closed and his face turned away.

"This is the room where Red Dog Tanshu fights people that invade his katei - the Demonic Pentalimbo" the boy replied drawing out his sword from behind him. The woman started shaking, she must've felt the effect of this room, the effect of the seal which Tanshu had invented as an ultimate fruit of his training. "You... What have you done?" her eyes looked like those of a cornered animal. "Oni Mask-sensei taught me many things, he taught me how to be a true demon. He however did not notice just how strong I've become, even more, he constantly tried to deceive me about the level of my abilities. His silly attempts were to no avail, I've discovered a hidden talent inside of me, I've drawn out this power and created bunch of seals. I've finally created an ultimate technique and sealed it within the very walls of this room, it is set in motion and the seals are undone the moment I step inside, it is active as long as I'm here to feed it chakra and it is automatically sealed inside again when I leave. You feel it, don't you?" Tanshu took a step towards the woman and pointed his blade at her. "Demonic Pentalimbo Seal is a perfect version of my technique, a seal that allows me to reduce chakra of a person I am fighting to the level of an ordinary human, normally I can place the seal into people as a genjutsu but in this room... I don't have to, I don't have to touch them, I don't have to place the seal into their chakra system as a genjutsu, I just have to be inside..."

Tanshu's eyes opened, they were burning with incredible passion and desire to kill this woman, then her friends after they come inside. Howoku's Starlight Release wouldn't work here, Misu's ability would not work here. In this room Tanshu could have killed God-Eyes himself, then again, God-Eyes stopped being an obstacle long ago, in his eyes God-Eyes was just a pesky roommate that lived in the same tower as Tanshu did, he provided a roof over the youth's head and for that he was allowed to draw breath inside Tanshu's katei, everyone else had to die! "Konohagakure Sannin, Chestnut Hanasaku, you have entered my katei. Leave it or I will kill you!" Tanshu shouted angrily, he still had hope that this woman would see how outmatched she is here, honestly though, who did he think Chestnut was? "I can't do that, I need to pass this room to get to that God-Eyed guy. Once I punch him in the face a couple of times we can leave... As sister and her silly little brother." Hanasaku broke through the fear of losing her chakra control. She stood into a fighting pose. Was this woman not intimidated she just lost most of her chakra? Was this woman not afraid to die? Was this woman an idiot!?

One floor below a sliding door opened and a young swordsman entered a dojo-like room. A young lady was sitting in a meditating position facing the wall. "Please take off your shoes, Sir." she asked with a gentle but strong tone. Misu kicked his sandals off and continued to stare at the young lady. She turned around, "I apologize I greeted you with my back turned" the young lady bowed gently putting her head to the ground, she then stood up and looked the man straight into his eyes. "My name is Hyuuga Vashia of the Sand Village, however now I am in debt to One with the Eyes of God, the descendant of both that of the Moon and that of Earth. Please state your business but now that I am ready to fight for my master until my debt is paid." Misu stared the young lady down. She was young, probably in her late teens or early twenties, she looked frail but had a katana by her side and wore a flowery kimono, strong suggestions of the classical style of swordsmanship, that combined with her Byakugan eyes could be troublesome...

"I am Misu of the Vapor, Konohagakure Sannin and before this turns unpleasant, I wouldn't mind to hear just what you owe this "One with Eyes of God"." Misu spoke, still standing firm on his two feet and not even hinting at reaching for his own sword. This would be a battle of swordsmen but the man felt confident in his victory, he was simply lead by curiosity in his inquiry. Vashia smiled gently and closed her eyes lowering her head and letting strands of hair fall on her face. "Right now! This is my chance, cut her down... Damn... I really want to know though..." Misu wandered as his eyes switched from those of a manslayer to those of a gentle visitor of this young lady's abode within mere moments, switching between light and shadow came particularly easy for Misu of the Vapor. "I do not wish to burden you with my story, Sir, let us just say that God-Eyes saved me from a situation where my village condemned me to death, now until I save his life by beating someone aiming at his life I am in his debt. Sadly I have never had my chance to repay my debt, the Sir with the Oni Mask killed everyone before they got to my room."

Misu took a sword drawing stance by reaching behind his back and slightly ducking his legs to increase the strength of his balance. "I apologize in that case, you must feel quite excited about an opportunity to repay your debt and you will fail the one and only chance you get. Sadly I am but a lowly ninja, I have no honor and won't be bothered by ruining a lady's debt. I will only do what I have to and not bother my head with the alternatives." Misu smiled. Vashia also took a fighting stance and gently nodded, "That is a pity but I understand. Let us settle this then..." she said. While the young woman did her best to act indifferent her eyes were shining with happiness, she was so excited to finally be able to repay her debt, to finally be free to live her life and abandon the path of a mercenary, to finally stop bringing shame to her family and her clan, not to mention her own lowly self.

With his right arm Misu made a handseal and felt chakra seeping slowly from his body, evaporating just like he would if he gets hit. Then with a powerful pulse of chakra, completely invisible to the enemy unless she was a sensor his flawless "Vapor Mode" was set up. Just as the handseal was completed the woman's eyes shot open, the blood vessels around her eyes stretched and her Byakugan became apparent - she activated her bloodline! A smile covered her face, she must've seen it through! Misu's Vapor! Within the same moment the man stopped his Vapor Mode. The young lady spoke, "What is the matter, Sir, do you not wish to settle this anymore?" the man shook his head, "No, by all means, please, ladies first, I just reconsidered my strategy..." Right after those words Vashia charged forward drawing her blade and slashing with a straight cut. Evading such a simple attack was as simple as leaping backwards.

"Curse this young brat and her stupid eyes!" Misu thought "Misu of the Vapor didn't have to dodge for quite a while, I can't use my Vapor Mode because she'll see through it and then my secret will stop being a secret... Unless..." the man desperately tried to figure his actions out as his opponent stopped in her tracks again. "Please, Sir, do not shame me by being elsewhere in your mind, would you please fight me seriously." she asked with a soft but demanding tone breaking her stance. This was just another chance for Misu and this time he would exploit it, with a downward slashing motion the man drew his sword cutting through the young woman's kimono and leaving a very small slash on her bandaged chest, just deep enough to get through her skin and bandages. Obviously he had to follow up such a good and early first blood attack, the man slashed again and again, the woman happened to be more skilled than he thought before as she evaded his attacks with some effort. This was strange, Misu was barely holding back at all...

A powerful shout coming out of the depth on the young lady's lungs alerted of an incoming attack, Misu turned sideways to avoid her thrust. He responded by cutting, striking faster and stronger than the last time and landing a couple of cuts onto the young warrior's body. She was indeed a worthy opponent but when Misu used all of his speed and ingenuity, all of his experience as a swordsman he outmatched her and landed a new cut on her with each couple of strikes she managed to block or evade. He was a better basic swordsman, no, they were equal in sheer skill, he just had more experience with pressuring and killing people that were just as good as he was. Misu's sword style was fluid, like the water, it adapted perfectly and slashed calmly, actually he was quite slow, but that lack of speed was something the enemy couldn't predict. Vashia saw his attacks from a mile away, then she predicted his next one and moved her blade from the block of the first, but as that rhythm was set into motion, Misu's first attack only landed at the moment when she was readying for the next attack - his style was a very nasty one to face.

Misu's arm made the handseal again, he acted out of sheer instinct using his "Vapor Mode" again as white blinding water vapor covered the room. This was different from the technique Misu ordinarily used but this would prove great against this young woman - the vapor was chakra, every water particle inside that cloud was controlled by chakra so it's pretty much a Byakugan smokescreen. Just as expected the young woman was completely overwhelmed by the technique and dashed back, too late. Misu appeared from the vapor cutting her in the arm, then quickly dashing to the other side shooting off streams of vapor from his feet to propel him like a jet as he spun his body around slashing continuously with the sword. As the Sannin passed through the woman's body spinning with his sword and stopped he sheathed his sword again. "Vapor Cut - Double Strike!" he uttered under his own nose as blood shot out of the young lady's body. She was in over her head, she wasn't like that previous brat, this one was just a naĂŻve young girl who believed in a code of honor, that there was some debt she had to pay. Misu hated fools like that most of all, this young lady had to be taught a lesson...

The woman coughed up some blood as she was just barely standing on her knee by using her sword as a support. Blood slowly leaked from multiple cuts over her body and she without a doubt was in quite a lot of pain. Misu grinned, "Do you know why they call me Misu of the Vapor? Not just because I use the Vapor Release Bloodline, the combination of Water and Fire Releases, it is because I am slippy and fluid like the water vapor. I am everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I can cut you from all the angles, my reach is as wide as that of the expanding gas whereas you cannot hit me because vapor also protects me. The young lady jumped forward, without any warning of words offered clenching her blade. Misu grinned with arrogance, did this youth get that desperate? To charge at him so blindly... The Sannin drew his blade slashing downwards and crushing the wooden tiles beneath him but... The blade just passed through the young woman as she disappeared. It was some sort of afterimage attack. Misu knew where she'd be, she dashed forward leaving an afterimage so she had to be behind him, such a simplistic technique if only he could get there in time... He didn't

A powerful thrust of two fingers hit him in the center of his skull sending him back a couple of steps and the woman then tried to cut him right after. Luckily Misu recovered in time to jump back and only get a small scratch on his chest. This was the first scratch he got in forever, this was all because he was too careless and worried to reveal his cards to this girl! He didn't set up his Vapor Clone and replace himself with it in time... No more, the kid gloves were off. Misu then stumbled back and coughed - something was wrong with his body, he couldn't feel his chakra flow like usual. "Wh...What did you do?" he shouted. Vashia moved her blade onto her shoulder and looked at him with careless eyes of a true swordswoman. "Hyuuga are famous for their Gentle Fist style, I put my own spin to it - I use it with my katana creating my own style - thrusting my sword at a chakra point closing it forever - the Gentle Sword Style"

Misu smiled as blood broke out from his nose, leaking up from somewhere this woman had struck - she was too slow to swing a sword at him but she wasn't too slow to strike his head with her darned Gentle Fist that all Hyuuga used then. This young woman was quite skilled. Misu sheathed his sword and prepared to draw again, "Show it to me then, your Gentle Sword Style..." he said as he weaved a handseal activating his Vapor Mode combination of jutsu. He did not care if the young lady would see his hidden style, even if she would, she deserved it. Vashia dashed forward with her Byakugan open slashing at Misu but his Vapor Clone dissolved. The girl knew it wasn't real, she had to see the clone through, still, she may have seen real Misu coming out of nowhere but she wasn't fast enough to respond. Another crimson gash covered the young woman's chest as she stumbled back and coughed blood up. "Vapor Cut" Misu uttered sheathing his sword again. Vashia leaped at him again, cutting through Misu's clone and the man appeared behind her back, he knew she'd just be moments late to turn around and block - instead she reached with her sword over her back and blocked his slash!

"Rotation!" she shouted as she spun incredibly fast striking Misu with a blast of chakra and knocking him back, the young lady then thrusted her sword as if it was an automated rifle piercing through the man's body in several spots and landing a couple of shallow stabs before he replaced himself with a clone as he usually did and dashed backwards. This girl was learning as she fought him - one could not use the same technique against her and now she closed multiple of his chakra points, if her statement was correct his chakra was decreased forever! This girl just made him weaker permanently! She had the ability to completely normalize one's chakra, make someone's chakra manipulation ability null! That Misu could not allow, she had no right to take his power away from him. He sheathed his blade.

"I will show you something interesting. You've seen through my Vapor Mode and now know its secret. I shall show you my Secret Technique!" Misu lightly jumped up, tapping his foot as he propelled his body forward, shooting off a stream of vapor to propel his body forward even faster. He appeared close to the young lady almost instantly. There came his secret ingredient! His sword was actually chakra conductive, the Sannin shot his strongest stream of vapor that added to his natural strength and speed of the draw propelling the sword from his sheathe!

"Vapor Style Secret Technique: Misty Flash Murder!" the man uttered.

A powerful impact emanated throughout the entire tower shaking it from its basis to the roof, the pointy classical roof of the tower collapsed in on itself falling down onto roof before being propelled out by a bubble of gravitational push. Howoku looked up - that was where God-Eyes was and there was no better time to confront the man than now! The man's body stuck onto the wall and the Sannin started his wild dash to the exposed final floor. The man only took a moment to wander just what caused this mad shockwave...

The blinding combination of smoke and vapor cleared from the air. Misu grunted clenching aching spots on his arm, as the smoke cleared he finally saw just what the sword landed on as a powerful rotating shield of chakra was where Vashia was before. Right below the sword there was a large hole that went down a couple of floors right to the first floor. It seemed that Misu's sword was deflected by the rotating chakra shield and redirected at a different spot causing shockwaves and cracks on the tiles and the walls. The tower was in a critical condition, Misu would've appreciated if this scuffle ended before the whole construction collapsed, then again, if God-Eyes was the one who built it he must've had some sort of tricks to keep it standing…

The rotation of the young woman stopped as Vashia's injured and bleeding, breathing heavily body appeared from the fading shield of chakra. "You can use your rotation technique with a sword too then? It'd be certain death of anyone caught in it…" Misu grunted lifting his arm and sheathing his sword, then gently massaging the aching parts. That deflection and the force of his Secret Technique clashing with this rotating Hyuuga jutsu really injured his arm a lot, there were most likely numerous bone fractures as only thinking about moving that arm hurt. Vashia straightened her body, taking tremendous effort to stand tall and proud against her opponent. "I would've loved to pull this as an ace in the end. Sadly that technique was simply too much for me, I could not allow you use it again. I apologize if my defense caused any long term damage to your arm…" the young lady replied with a slight bow of her head.

The young swordswoman drew her blade and stood in a thrusting position, her blood vessels around the woman's eyes tensed again as she activated her "Byakugan", something very interesting was coming and Misu knew it. "When this battle started the difference between us was too much to ignore, I took many injuries that would without a doubt lower my lifespan even if I healed them. Even now they hurt so much and tempt my body to fall down and to not get up. However I have greatly reduced your chakra as well, also I've disabled your drawing arm decreasing your potency, right now you are less than one fourth of the man that started fighting me like this – I CAN WIN!" Vashia exclaimed charging forward as intense chakra formed around her katana while she thrust it forward. "Chakra Dragon!" she shouted but Misu managed to leap sideways. What the Sannin did not expect was such quick recovery from Vashia's jutsu, she cancelled this "Chakra Dragon" almost instantly swiping sideways. With his weaker right arm Misu managed to block her slash and use the momentum from her force to let himself get pushed further back from her.

The woman leapt forward, striking with her "Chakra Dragon" again but Misu just jumped in the air and pushed his blade horizontally against the katana's tip sending the thrust down to the floor that let out a shockwave that crumbled bunch of more floor tiles. Misu's body split into vapor and as the cloud passed through the young lady two more gashes appeared on her back. She admitted that these small injuries were taking a toll on her. Misu was confident that he would win and he just wanted to see how strong the will of this young swordswoman was. That Tanshu boy wouldn't have liked his torturous approach, he appeared to be very fond of this girl but… That brat wasn't here, was he? Misu was free to win this fight the way he wanted it to be won. With a powerful shout of anger and rage Vashia lunged forward, "Gentle Sword Style!" she shouted thrusting again and again at what her Byakugan showed as Misu's vital chakra points but even at his weakened state the Sannin managed to deflect the attacks.

Something was wrong, the young lady thrust her foot forward far too much – something big was coming and Misu prepared to block it. The man opened his eyes and watched the girl's movements carefully. Suddenly two thrusts hit him, one went right after the other and one hit Misu right in his chakra point. "Two Thrusts!" Vashia yelled as she turned around and thrusted her katana in impossible to defend against speed again. This time Misu was ready as he had already activated his Vapor Mode. "Four Thrusts – Eight Thrusts – Sixteen Thrusts – Thirty Two Thrusts – Gentle Fist Style – Sixty Four Thrusts!" Vashia kept bombarding Misu's Vapor version with thrusts that were impossible to defend against. Had Misu not escaped his condition would've been pathetic – with sixty four holes to bleed from and most of his chakra points completely closed.

"You were very skillful to manage to use your Vapor Mode in time, Sir. This technique is special, each thrust hitting a chakra node closes it forever, combined with injuries from this technique as well as shock of getting this many chakra points closed – the body gets overly protective of one's chakra, as one's life directly depends on it, and seals itself from using it ever again subconsciously. You'd be just as strong, just as fast as any normal civilian and unable to manipulate your chakra." Vashia explained as she sheathed her sword and stood in a drawing position again. This young girl drew her katana from the side where Misu drew it from up on his shoulder, swinging his way down. He actually had an advantage, the girl was faster but she was faster to reach his non-vital spots whereas Misu would reach straight her head. It was get maimed but kill your opponent type of situation, obviously that'd have been if only their drawing potentials were compared…

The two charged at each other, drawing their katana together. Misu almost expected this girl to make the mistake that he had predicted but… His clash was greeted by her block. She sacrificed her speed but managed to block his draw in time, when she was using casual swordfighting before she was not able to properly intercept him in time but when she added the speed of sword drawing she managed that just fine… Or maybe it was just those hits she landed earlier with her "Gentle Fist Style" kicking in already. One's physical and spiritual abilities directly depended on one's chakra level, when one's chakra level was decreased forever so did their abilities, their natural speed and strength. This was not good. The two clashed their swords a couple more times, jumping around and sensing just where their opponent was at that point of battle. Vashia was slowly bleeding out, at this time it was only her willpower that kept her standing, Misu was now unable to dominate her like before – his chakra got slightly decreased, his right arm got injured so that he was unable to use it efficiently. They were almost on equal grounds now…

As the two finished their clash and backed up Vashia sheathed her blade and moved it back on her kimono belt. It was obvious that she wanted a time out of sorts – maybe she had something to say? "I've figured out your Vapor Mode, Sir, if I figured it out correctly and you use it again I'd kill you, if I was wrong you'd kill me. Such fifty-fifty outcome is not fitting for a swordfight of skill, perhaps we can make a deal, I describe it to you and if I'm right you promise me not to use it anymore and if I'm wrong you can use it all you like. This way it will be our perception and skill that decides the battle, not random chance." She spoke looking at Misu with those same soft and childish yet also determined and ridden by pain eyes. This young lady wanted to return her debt but she wanted to do it with her own strength and skill, not out of luck. Misu nodded.

"So to begin with you create a small cloud of Vapor Release so that it would be harder to spot your trick, that was why it took me a bit longer than usual to spot it. You then create a version of Shadow Clone using your Vapor Release, a Vapor Clone that stays behind you and hides, once you are about to get injured you simply replace yourself with it and then use a ninjutsu that reflects all light falling onto you and you make yourself invisible. Your clone fights in your place and when it'd be beaten you simply add in chakra and do not disperse it. It is costly in terms of chakra but effective. You can cancel your invisibility technique and appear behind me at any point, you can do it even easier if I am engaged in one on one combat with your clone and am distracted. Well, was I right?" Misu smiled and closed his eyes, he looked down and shook his head. "No." he exclaimed.

"I see… Well then, feel free to use your Vapor Mode." Vashia looked disappointed as she looked at the decimated dojo room around her. "Just how stupid is this kid? She hit the nail on the head but she is ready to believe me if I tell her she's wrong?" Misu wondered as he also took a fighting stance. Still, he decided not to use his Vapor Mode, after all, if she saw it again she may have seen it through. There was only one outcome to this battle. He had to go all out and attack her with his second most powerful technique right now and end it. "Since I agreed to your deal I'll ask you to do the same, come at me with your most powerful technique right now and I will clash at it with my own. Let us use our strongest kenjutsu techniques to decide this." Misu spoke as he drew his sword and took it into his right arm. Ironically his right arm was the only arm capable of using this technique, it required certain amount of control and his left arm was only able to exert violent outbursts of force… The Sannin ducked down pointing the blade of his sword at Vashia while his left arm remained down like a sack of dead weight. Misu's right arm tensed up, the muscles blew up like balloons as he prepared to lunge forward. His entire katana got covered in a twisting vortex of vapor. It was as if steel itself was evaporating instead of air particles around him.

Vashia straightened her body, placing her right and left legs parallel, then she stretched them further one to another while placing none of them forward. The young lady bent her body forward placing the hand with the katana forward while she raised the other in the air behind her. This was such an incredibly odd stance but it did intimidate the Sannin a bit, this young lady has proven herself to be capable so this unusual stance may just have been a sign of another incredible technique. A tile loosened up and fell from the ceiling, just as it hit the ground both swordfighters leaped forward. Each of them ready to use their most powerful techniques. Suddenly Vashia's position changed, she stood just like she did when using her "64 Thrusts" jutsu but… She changed stance so incredibly far away from Misu…

The man suddenly thrust his vaporing sword forward shooting off a rotating dragon shaped whirlwind at Vashia, its point had incredible concussive force and when the man added the speed of his sword thrusting to the speed of the technique's natural speed the force became impossible to overcome by any sword technique. It was a sword shattering technique, even if Vashia used chakra to enhance her blade it'd shatter without failure. Still, Misu sort of cheated as this wasn't really a kenjutsu technique, more like combination of kenjutsu and ninjutsu but honor had no place in a battle where ninja fought. The dragon shaped whirlwind rushed forward opening its jaws to crush the young lady. Her own technique was just as surprising.

Just as the dragon came to the middle of the total distance the girl thrust twice with her blade creating two dragon shaped beams of chakra – she literally combined her "Chakra Dragon technique" with "Gentle Fist Style: Sixty Four Thrusts". So she was also not entirely honest about kenjutsu, she also used a combination of ninjutsu and kenjutsu even if her technique was much closer to ordinary kenjutsu than Misu's. "Vapor Style: Vapor Dragon Jutsu" Misu shouted out right as his opponent yelled "Two Chakra Dragons!" The two techniques clashed in mid distance. Vashia's "Chakra Dragons" held Misu's dragon in its path, the girl continued to send more forward, with each dragon fading more heads joined its place! "Four Dragons – Eight Dragons – Sixteen Dragons – Thirty Two Dragons – Gentle Sword Style: Sixty Four Chakra Dragons!" This technique would've completely obliterated Misu if not for the hidden factor of his Vapor Dragon – it was supposed to take everything that the opponent threw at it, it was the perfect clashing technique. As Vashia's strikes hammered at the dragon slightly budging it back at Misu, it ended right before it could completely overpower him and the dragon simply shot forward hitting the young lady tearing her kimono apart and damaging her bandages that covered most of her body as well as opening new wounds all over the body, her body was pushed forward and slammed violently at the back wall.

It was over… Misu walked up to the young lady and observed pool of blood gathering around her heavily breathing body. She's reached the point where her body simply could no longer move. She was lucky that the dragon was a concussive and not a piercing technique or she'd have been dead for sure. The girl coughed up blood and raised her head looking at the feet of her opponent. "To think that you had such a technique… Even if I'd have used my "Rotation: Sword Variant" it'd have waited out until it was over and then finished me off… That was a perfect clashing technique so your deal was with a hundred percent success rate." Misu raised his sword and placed it on his shoulder. The muscles on his right arm were pulsing intensely and he'd have been unable to fight back if the girl had survived this shock. "So it's that phase, huh? It'll be you telling me how dirty I played? Grow up, kid, in the world of ninja there is no honor or "foul-play". All that matters is who lives and who dies. By the way, you were also spot on with my "Vapor Mode", I lied…" the man spoke up as he raised his sword into the air.

"One young boy asked me really nicely not to hurt you, sadly I cannot allow a person that knows my Vapor Mode live, if that information fell into the hands of the enemy it would be a risk to the village's safety, as the Sannin of Konoha I'd be unable to defend my home anymore so I must kill you." Misu grunted out, his voice didn't tremble one little bit. Suddenly his young opponent surprised Misu as through pain and sheer willpower Vashia got up on her knees and looked to the side to see the shattered pieces of her katana. She looked Misu in the eyes and smiled, "I see… That is too bad. I did know that Tanshu-kun liked me for some reason but even so such a request was awfully nice of him, it's a shame I won't be able to thank him… Showing you how an honorable woman dies is the best I can do now." Vashia spoke as her eyes teared up, still, even through tears she was crying as she spread her arms to the side. Inside the girl understood why it had to be done, she understood the Sannin's logic, if she was captured or tortured out of this information it would fall into very wrong arms and God-Eyes' organization was already too much involved with Kirigakure…

Misu wandered through the floor, walking up and down various staircases and trying to discover just which one lead to the floor above. Judging from the number of floors that Tanshu guy and the God-Eyes guy were the only guys left. Killing that girl felt really strange, truth be told Misu always intended to not leave her alive, she was a criminal but she also was one of those "honor-bound" people that kept pissing him off with talks about lines that ninja must not cross and how he should behave. Ninja were tools, they did the job that was assigned and there were no lines, there were just two separate ends to it: success or failure. People that went on about lines and morals and ethics of killing other people were idiots, honestly they were tainting this world. The kid realizing the secret behind "Vapor Mode" was just something he used for the victim herself to justify why she had to die. Everyone tend to misunderstand him all the time and explaining it to that kid would've been incredibly difficult and Misu had neither the time nor the patience.

A ray of light came from one of the staircases, Misu looked up and started rushing up. That had to be the floor where Hanasaku was, only then it occurred to him. Why was he so into it, this foolish search? Misu turned around and rushed back to the room with the hole in the wall, then leaped outside. Strangely he could not see Howoku, only the body of the other girl. This one was useful, he wanted to kill her too but her skillset may have proved useful, maybe ANBU could brainwash her and use her for the sake of the village like God-Eyes brainwashed her and took her in from the Sand Village. How did Sunagakure even produce such a handy and rare talented kunoichi in the first place? Any chick could learn to swing a sword but someone with both potential for seals and medical ninjutsu as well as sensory… Maybe Sunagakure was regaining its military potential, in that case ANBU definitely needed to know. Several subtle political assassinations may have been in order to keen Sunagakure in check… Misu looked at the crumbled rooftop and realized that was where Howoku would be, without rushing too much the Sannin stepped onto the wall and started slowly scaling it up to the top.

Tanshu had never seen similar behavior to that of Hanasaku, most people when confronted with his "leave my katei or die" proposition either left because they were afraid of the general concept of their own death or fought him because they believed they could beat him. This woman was afraid, her eyes revealed her to be almost crippled with fear but… She did not move a single inch backwards. She was petrified by the power of Demonic Pentalimbo seals but she did not let this fear make her move back. Tanshu sheathed his blade and prepared to strike, he took the woman's refusal to move as a sign that she won't.

With a single powerful leap Tanshu closed the distance and slashed at the woman, channeling his fiery chakra through the blade. The woman did not attempt to defend or block it, she just took the slash as it went – straight through half of her face and her chest. Luckily for her, her body was strong enough to prevent Tanshu's blade digging deep enough to cut through something vital and his Fire Chakra cauterized her cut. Despite the fact that the cut was not dangerous fire amplified the pain tenfold, and yet this woman did not whimper or moan, it was like the pain did not affect her at all. Tanshu leaped backwards. "Are you not afraid of death at all!? Don't you get it yet? In this room you cannot heal yourself! These injuries will kill you!" he shouted at the woman but she just stood like she was standing this whole time, no, her eyes changed.

Hanasaku's eyes became different, she was not afraid anymore but she was just looking at Tanshu as if she was sorry for him. "You don't have a sword, cutting you to pieces won't feel fair…" Tanshu murmured to himself as he tossed the seal straight into the wall. The katana bounced off the wall and landed somewhere further in the room. The young man raised his fists. "So… You want to fight me? You'd honestly kill your Older Sis?" Hanasaku spoke as her eyes became the combination of her previous expression and the changed one. "Don't joke with me! As if that's what was scaring you! This room bumps your chakra down to the level you need to survive, in here you are literally just another person, there is no need for your idiotic act! It's OK to fear for your life now!" Tanshu shouted out. Hanasaku kept looking at him with those same eyes, it was obvious that losing all that made her special did not matter to her. Perhaps it wasn't her abilities that made her special but her personality and her mind!?

"So… Your parents died in the war and you decided to forever protect their graves?" Hanasaku spoke up again. Did this woman not intend to fight him? Was she stupid? Of course she was, she was Chestnut Hanasaku after all… "Yes, I must protect the place where I am the happiest, my katei. The place where my happiness and those dear to me are…" Tanshu replied. "I know you love those people, that pink haired girl, that other one you spoke of to Misu, but we will catch them and move them to Konoha, they will be put in prison for their crimes. Unlike you they have a history of some pretty nasty crimes. How will you protect Hana-chan and that girl you asked Misu not to hurt from here?" Hanasaku asked. "My bonds with Konoha died the day when my parents were sent to war to die, my purpose now lies with protecting my katei – their resting place!" Tanshu repeated. Hanasaku raised her fist and tightened her glove.

"You retarded brat! What kind of nonsense is that!? Your parents would be ashamed of you knowing that you have thrown your life away to watch over the place where they died. This place means nothing, they've moved on to the Afterlife by now, this is just a dirty wasteland and a young man throwing his life away for it. There is no greater shame for a parent to see than their child being miserable. I shall bring you back to Konoha as my Little Bro, I shall bring smile back to your family's face!" Hanasaku yelled out loud with so much conviction and volume that Tanshu's body almost trembled. The woman then lunged forward, did she intend to actually fight? How? Tanshu reduced all of his opponents to just their physical bodies and he trained his body to be naturally superior to any people that enhanced their bodies using chakra. Where most people worked to increase their chakra level to increase physical strength which was the element of chakra Tanshu just trained his physical strength, completely ignoring his spiritual side and therefore not increasing his chakra. Without their chakra control most ninja were average physical combatants, Tanshu was peak human condition one. With a thrust of his palm Tanshu pushed Hanasaku's fist away and headbutted her back.

"You have no right to talk of my parents!" Tanshu shouted leaping forward and starting to pummel Hanasaku, throwing his fists out of instinct, rage and frustration just like Oni Mask sensei taught him. This woman was on that battlefield, she deserved having Tanshu's rage directed at her! The young man shouted that out as he pummeled the woman with his combination of punches, the force behind them made it feel like the woman's body broke with each punch, each strike blew her body away, throwing it up or further where he tried to push her. And yet not a single sound of pain came out from the woman's lips. A powerful thrust of her elbow sent Tanshu back, stumbling into the wall. This woman was fighting back, it was true – losing her abilities did not trouble her at all, she did not hesitate, it was like power to her was not a factor, as if she was too dumb to consider strengths of her own and her opponent before fighting.

"No, Little Bro, I deserve to take all of your rage not because I was on the battlefield that day. I shall take your every blow, I shall shoulder all of your rage because I am your older sister and that's what family does. I am happy that you took my healing away, now I can truly earn your trust and love and crush your rage and darkness with my body alone. So come at me! Attack me with every bad emotion in mind, show me what troubles my little brother!" Hanasaku yelled out again as Tanshu's mouth opened. This stupid lady really believed that he was her family despite meeting him just recently, just couple of hours ago. This woman was unbelievable. "No! Don't just take my punches, punch back… I lost many friends today, it might be that I will lose Vashia and God-Eyes too just like I've lost my parents. While I do want to punch something because I'm angry…" Hanasaku leaped towards Tanshu and punched him in the face, stepping forward and pushing her fist towards his face, throwing Tanshu like a ragdoll. This was taijutsu prowess, she was a good martial artist and wasn't just insanely strong, she could compete with a stronger and faster opponent using just her skill and experience alone just like Sorano did with Oni Mask, just like Howoku did with Hana, just like Misu would have to do if he was to beat Vashia… These Sannin did not fight with power, they fought with their experiences and their emotions. That was what made them so strong!

Tanshu recovered throwing punches at Hanasaku wildly, he was by no means a lousy taijutsu user, Oni Mask perfected Tanshu's taijutsu but Hanasaku blew both of them away, she dodged those blows almost effortlessly and tried to return some. She moved without wasting a single movement, without any difficulty, her body was her best friend, her strongest tool, not an obstacle. Hanasaku's foot rose to the position of an upward kick, Tanshu leaned under it and quickly moved to the other side, kicking the woman as a counterattack while she was open. The impossibly powerful kick made Hanasaku's face swell and made her bleed from her lips and nose. Tanshu did not stop, but not because he wanted to kill this woman, he believed she could and wanted to take it all, he trusted her as his Older Sis. He decided to return her feelings for once. With a combination of blows Tanshu sent the woman down again. Without a doubt these blows would've broken some bones…

Bleeding and broken Hanasaku rose on her feet, she didn't do it effortlessly, she huffed and struggled, she did not moan out of pain but out of sheer force to keep her body up. "I can only promise you one thing. If you die here with that God-Eyed guy, your life will feel pointless. You will die thinking that you have thrown your life away watching a bunch of rocks. If you return with your sister home… You will be like me, like Sorano-san, you won't be afraid to lose your life because you will know one thing – you did not live in vain. Instead of regret your mind will be full of joyful memories of times with those you love, those very same memories will help you stand when some punk takes you down, those memories will help you bust through the wall of any amount of pain!" the woman muffled out through her swollen face. The two jumped forward and started exchanging blows again. The woman was incredible at redirecting Tanshu's nearly superhuman amount of strength to the side while attacking and not opening herself up too much. She was the best taijutsu user in Konoha, she had to be! Better expertise in the field could simply not exist, her movements were already flawless and not a single move was wasted. Did she fight like that when she had her full strength too or was this her Plan B?

Tanshu leaped forward, thrusting his foot and aiming at Hanasaku's chest. This kick was able to stop one's heart but inside of his own heart the boy knew that his "sister" could take it, no… He believed she could. She wanted him to express all of his darkness, all of his anger and he'd be damned if he didn't. Hanasaku moved to the side and tipped her foot to break Tanshu's balance in the air. With a powerful thrust, moving his imbalanced body with her arms straight into her own knee with a powerful grab she roared out expressing rage of her own. Tanshu yelled out, he felt great shock going through his spine but miraculously it held. For a moment he envisioned his spine snapping, him dying in the arms of this woman and it didn't scare him! He'd die having discovered the true way of life – moving past all the darkness and enjoying life with those one loved, letting those wonderful memories guide him happily to the Afterlife when the time came.

Tanshu struggled to get up, "Leaf Whirlwind!" Hanasaku shouted out with three powerful twisting kicks pummeling Tanshu's chest, the boy flew back into the wall with so much force that he bounced off of it. "Sis… I'm finally… I think… I'm finally… Almost rid of it! My darkness!" he grunted as through willpower he forced his body back up, huffing and grunting in pain and due to the tremendous effort spent to get up. The woman smiled, or at least tried – her face looked like she went on a date with a bee hive. "Let it all out – now!" she yelled out as Tanshu leaped forward, he stretched his fingers and then bent them bursting his body with violent flames that burned his torn top off. Roaring from chest the boy thrust his palm forward, striking the woman three times while doing it so fast that it appeared he had only punched once – this was his Secret Sword Technique re-enacted with a palm.

"Fire Style: Red Cerberus Bite!" Tanshu yelled as the force and flame tossed the woman's body back through the entrance door smashing out of the Pentalimbo room. Tanshu collapsed on his knees, smiled and laughed out. He won! He wasn't exactly fighting Chestnut Hanasaku, he was fighting his own inner darkness and his own despair but… He obliterated it, he could feel it! The boy fell down on his back and breathed heavily. Suddenly he heard Hanasaku standing up. He lifted his head and looked at her, green light started emanating from outside the Pentalimbo room. "Are we done yet?" he asked, "Yeah, there's no reason for us to fight now, I give up…" Hanasaku mumbled out in a much better sounding voice – slowly she was putting her body back into shape. "Thing is, I wanted to fight whole day but those douchebags didn't let me! Thanks, Tanshu!" she smiled at him as the green light illuminated the most beautiful smile of anyone Tanshu had ever seen. Most beautiful not because this woman was incredibly beautiful, but because his sister was smiling, she was happy! "So, did you find your new katei?" she asked, Tanshu lifted his fist into the air. "Screw that, now I'll fight for whatever I want to fight for, there will be no person or place that binds me to fight. If I don't like someone I'll deck them in the face, it's as simple as that…" Tanshu replied. Silence dominated the room from that point on up until Hanasaku finally stood on her legs and entered the room again, she helped Tanshu get up and hugged him. "That being said… There's one guy I wanna deck right now." Hanasaku spoke, Tanshu nodded and the two bumped their fists and left the room.

Howoku was huffing as he made his way up to the top floor of the tower. With a powerful leap he jumped up to the final floor that had the roof tiles still all over it with one man sitting bored in a giant throne-like chair. "One with the Eyes of God?" Howoku asked looking him right in the eyes before pointing at him with a finger. The man stood up and tossed his coat aside revealing a muscular, bandaged up to his nose build. God-Eyes took his great sword from the side of his throne and tossed it onto his shoulder bringing his palm up forward to face Howoku and prepare an immediate "Universal Push" if this Sannin decided to attack him too fast. "You have done well, Sannin of Konoha, bringing my plans back at least several more years but now that you stand against He who possesses the eyes of a God… You stand bare and naked, not a Sannin but a mere man for One with the Eyes of God to do as He pleases with."

Howoku breathed out, he was a bit tired from his previous two encounters and it was quite likely that Misu and Hanasaku may not have been in much better condition. This man however was not only completely fresh but also had those troublesome eyes – the Rinnegan. "You are not a God, God-Eyes. You are just a fruit of a forbidden union of two people who should not have been together, your very existence would threaten all of our villages if your ancestors knew that you are alive. You are also a terrorist plotting to overthrow Konoha and later other Ninja Villages, as a threat to peace I shall kill you." Howoku said with a calm tone. He had a little bit of rest and caught his breath but he was far from fresh entering this fight, still he was probably the most lucky one with the injuries he had sustained, or rather, not sustained.

"To address me thusly… For that I shall destroy you!" God-Eyes shouted visibly getting angry and attacking Howoku with a swing of his giant sword, slamming it into the ground. The tower shook from the weight of the sword and the force with which it was slammed into the ground but only because of how damaged it already was. Howoku punched, successfully, the man continued to strike again and again, the man's blade was too heavy to defend in time and Howoku's punches were too powerful to give the man breathing room and readjust his stance. The Sannin kicked at God-Eyes' chest and leaped backwards, bursting with Starlight Release chakra his hands started glowing. The man thrust his palms forward sending a barrage of small spheres of chakra bombarding the ruined tower. "Starbright Jutsu!" Howoku yelled. The man could not see what was happening, suddenly everything shook and a loud popping sound emanated. Something cracked incredibly loud – as if the ground itself was opening and the tower started to sink down.

Howoku started descending as well but he would've died had he fallen right down, he had to burst his body with Starlight chakra at the last moment and spend some of it to kick off of air itself breaking his fall. That was easier said than done… "You heathen!" Howoku heard a voice behind him as a powerful kick made him grunt in pain. God-Eyes bombarded Howoku with kicks, sending his crashing down with a final finishing kick. Howoku felt so weightless as he went down… He couldn't even begin to think about activating his Starlight right now, he was too hurt and couldn't concentrate properly. "Darn it! The Sannin of Konoha cannot die falling down from a tower he himself finished off!" Howoku cursed as he felt something bump into him hard. As Howoku snapped out of it he saw the face of Misu holding him. "Well well… Brought the whole damned tower down, didn't you… I was running on it you know…" he spoke up. Misu looked really injured. "Where's Hanasaku?" Howoku grunted looking at the rubble of the tower still falling down while the whole construction sank into the goo of the wasteland leaving just oversized blocks of bone structure around the place.

God-Eyes descended slowly – using his weird gravitational jutsu. "Your fellow Sannin are dead… And soon I shall finish you two off as well!" God-Eyes spoke pointing his sword at Misu and Howoku, Misu placed Howoku on his own feet and shrugged. "Nah, I'll pass, I'm pretty cut up, you can have him, Howoku, I'll let you be the next Hokage in return." Misu laughed out. A loud and powerful bang shocked the earth behind God-Eyes as the bony rubble shot up into the sky, flung by a powerful force of nature. "GOD-EYEEEEES!" Hanasaku roared out as she leaped out from under the goo, holding Tanshu by the boy's collar. She looked banged up too – she must've been hit by some of the rubble on her way out but she looked pissed and ready to pound someone. Even One with the Eyes of God looked quite worried and just for a moment – fear found its way in the heart of a God.

For a brief moment all three Sannin proceeded to stare God-Eyes down. Despite the fact that Vapor Misu had already declared his decision to let Howoku, Hanasaku and Tanshu handle it, he was still not out of the equation and looked quite capable to still at least fend off for himself. Hanasaku and Tanshu looked pretty banged up, it was still a mystery as to why those two took so long to leave the tower or what exactly had happened between them to the other Sannin but God-Eyes must've known he was betrayed by the last of his apostles. His condescending sight betrayed that. He simply extended his arm forward, "Come then, I shall destroy all of you for you are just speck of dust against a God!" he spoke.

All three: Tanshu, Hanasaku and Howoku leaped forward, surprisingly enough Misu also dashed towards the man. Tanshu and Hanasaku threw their most powerful punches, Howoku tried to kick the man in the face after jumping up, Misu tried one of his simpler sword drawing slashes. It was almost like time itself had stopped around God-Eyes as two words were muttered from his lips, escaping them just mere parts of a second before the group collided with him mashing him into dirt. "Universal Push!" he mumbled as an incredible and awesomely powerful bubble of gravitational force formed around the criminal swordsman sending his opponents crashing back into rocks or debris of the tower of bones. This shockwave was so powerful! After hitting the bones Tanshu didn't feel like he had what it took to stand up, even below the man there was a crater that he made around himself, grinding and crushing the bones beneath him.

Howoku flipped onto his belly and his arms shoved his body onto his knees. Hanasaku just grunted and rolled around, still trying to overcome her injuries and pain. That falling tower did a number on both Hanasaku and Tanshu as the two had to not only escape the tower by Hanasaku busting through one of the walls, but also escape the Pentalimbo walls that sealed Hanasaku's power. That extra time caused them to get hit by quite some rubble and in terms made them less effective in this scuffle. Misu also looked pretty banged up, Tanshu yelled out directing it at Misu, "You! Vapor guy! What happened between you and Vashia, you're pretty banged up so there was a fight, right?" Tanshu's voice sounded pretty desperate and quivering from the pain and exhaustion. "Yeah… Kinda… She flew out through the wall, I think she may have escaped before the tower went down, spoke something about some debt being returned or something too." Misu lied. God-Eyes was breathing heavily and did not move out of his crater to finish his opponents off. It was clear that the repulsion technique of this calibre tired him out greatly.

Howoku stood up, he was still staggering, the man tore off his orange jumpsuit and slipped his green coat back to remind more of a cape so that it didn't restrict his movements. "Howoku…" Hanasaku grunted as she reached towards her wounds, a strong green light started bursting from her hands as she started treating her own injuries, Howoku thrust his palm at her signalling her to stay down. "Sorry, Hana-chan, this is something I have to do as the one who will become the next Hokage!" the green light coming off of her hands stopped as the woman just laid down and relaxed. "Do what you want, I won't heal myself because if I'd be up and in fighting shape I'd kick that guy's butt without being able to control myself. I'll just play too weak to stand up. Kick his butt Older Bro!" she yelled lifting her fist into the air. Howoku laughed briefly as God-Eyes levitated out of the crater landing gently nearby. "Hokage? So that's how hopeless fools croak before I squash them with my divine power…" he spoke with a strong and confident tone.

"Yes. Before I didn't really want the big chair, nor did Hanasaku-chan or Misu… That made a big power vacuum causing the poor Sandaime-san stay in the big chair for longer than he had to… Now I think the title of Hokage is the best for a man like me: it is a title of hope for world peace that I shall establish, it is also a title of despair for those that wish to threaten that peace. Those like you, One with Eyes of God! I shall crush you and demonstrate that I am capable of carrying the responsibility of crushing all that oppose my peaceful ideals!" Howoku yelled out. The man with the Rinnegan extended his arms towards Howoku and pressed one of them into a fist. "Come for me then, pathetic man! Struggle before you start boring me and I decide to crush you." He arrogantly replied.

Howoku leaped forward, he did not enhance his body with Starlight Release, he had used it so much already so he must've been saving his strength. Howoku's roaring fist hit right into God-Eyes's jaw and the man placed his foot forward using it as a balance point to shove his fist so hard that he threw his opponent forward. God-Eyes must've overestimated his own power, after using his "Universal Push" before he must've still been unable to use it, that jutsu had a great cooldown period and now Howoku saw that. With a relentless barrage of punches Howoku kept throwing the man off his feet, God-Eyes drew his great sword swinging it around but the one that declared to be the next Hokage avoided the colossal tool of murder without much trouble. Howoku tried to throw another punch to take his opponent down off of his feet but God-Eyes' slash opened a gash on his arm. The Star of Hope shouted in pain and dashed back to recover.

Starlight chakra started bursting from Howoku's body, God-Eyes leaped forward driving his sword where the man was standing but Howoku was no longer there. The Rinnegan user thrust his arm forward, ready to use his powerful version of "Universal Push" to grind Howoku's bones to dust which was right what the future Hokage was waiting for. Howoku's shine became brighter and brighter before it exploded in a violent beam that collided with the gravitational force bubble. With a powerful roar, naming his technique – "Starlight Bridge Jutsu", Howoku's Starlight Beam burst through "Universal Push" pushing and burning One with the Eyes of God up, sending him almost tumbling down back into the crater of his own making. The man's body after the collision of techniques was burnt up and shaking, the color of his skin was much redder as if he spent long time burning up under intensive sunlight and multiple spots of his body were bleeding – his own Rinnegan technique held off a significant portion of Howoku's Starlight. Shaking, cursing and spitting out blood God-Eyes stood up.

"Impossible… Only a Rinnegan technique can match Rinnegan techniques, you cannot be of Godly Origins!" he coughed and cursed at Howoku again and again. Misu grinned, "Actually I was always wondering about that, I think this numbwit actually has some Moon people blood somewhere in him, Starlight Release was described being used in the War of the Moon and the Earth. That'd explain why it can match up to Rinnegan's stupid ninjutsu absorption and "Universal Push"." Tanshu looked at stumbling and panting Howoku confused. This man had some remnants of Moon people blood in him? That is to say a distant relative of his must've been one of the people that were later settled on Moon which meant that during War of the Moon and the Earth Moon Clan procreated with the Earth Clan, giving birth to both abominations of sheer luck like God-Eyes but also people that used their power to inspire hope. People like Howoku.

"I couldn't care less who my distant relatives were, maybe my grand grand grandpa was of the Moon Clan or whatever… All I care about is killing those that threaten my vision of peace!" Howoku shouted putting a stop to this discussion of his origins. But then if Howoku was a descendant of both Moon and Earth Clans, did that not mean he also had to have the Rinnegan like God-Eyes? Maybe Rinnegan was obtained differently then… Tanshu wanted to ask around these Sannin for what exactly God-Eyes was so that a man like him never again appeared. Then again, killing such men when they raised their heads had to do for the teenager. "So what if you can clash with my Rinnegan with that ability of yours!?" God-Eyes yelled out charging forward with a powerful swing of his blade, with a stumble to the side Howoku's tired body avoided it. God-Eyes' sword kept swinging around, Howoku's arms deflected each slash, thrusting his palms at the blunt side of the blade, sometimes receiving minor cuts, also the fists of the future Hokage found their way through the defences of the Rinnegan user as well landing on his face and beaten up and sensitive body. With a powerful clash of their elbows the two separated dashing to the sides.

God-Eyes' arm unexpectedly shot forward attracting Howoku to him, the man had never yet encountered this attraction technique so he fell right for it! "Attraction Cut!" God-Eyes shouted as his body left a powerful gash on Howoku's body. Because of the extensive damage on God-Eyes' body however the sword swing was half-baked and only capable of dealing intensive injury but not completely severing the man's body in two. Howoku huffed on his knees clenching for his spilling blood. God-Eyes lifted his blade to smash Howoku when Tanshu's arms caught it in mid-air, getting only minor cuts on his palms with the blood gently tapping on the black wasteland dirt. "Shut up about this macho-Hokage bullshit! You've got me and Sis-chan here to help, don't be an idiot, no one wants to have to elect the Fifth Hokage right after the Fourth!" Tanshu grunted as Hanasaku's tired body dragged Howoku away and started treating his gut injury. The Rinnegan user swung his sword around with Tanshu easily dodging his swipes. Fire chakra blazed on the teen's palm as he thrust it towards God-Eyes' blade breaking it in two. "Fire Style: Red Dog's Bite!" he yelled as steel bent and broke from his force and blazing chakra.

God-Eyes pulled a kunai out, swiping right at Tanshu and opening up a painful and deep wound on the boy's chest but he kept on clashing with the man. Pulling out a kunai of his own the two clashed for the second time, again and again this new and trained Tanshu cut open God-Eyes' body but this incredibly arrogant fool did not surrender. "Give up, Blood Zebra…" Tanshu grunted making fun of his cut up opponent, pointing the blade of his kunai right at God-Eyes' face, he's bested the One with Eyes of God in sheer swordsmanship even before Demon's training, now he completely dwarfed God-Eyes in that department! God-Eyes' body lifted into the air as he extended his arms and legs to the sides, as if reaching for the whole world. "You fools! You stupid worms squirming under the boot of a God!" he shouted like a madman as powerful and tense chakra erupted from his body, one did not have to be a sensor to feel it! "After this I may not be able to use my gravity controlling jutsu for a while… But if that is the cost of smiting you heathens that will be fine! Ultimate Universal Push!" a loud screech echoed through the location. Complete silence… And then… Destruction.

Tanshu couldn't understand what had happened, he was certain he was supposed to die but… He felt someone holding him in his arms gently. When Tanshu's eyes finally understood what he was seeing his mouth opened wide. "What's this?" he wondered out loud, Hanasaku was holding both him and Howoku in her arms, she was in terms covered by gooey and dripping body of Misu of the Vapor. "Do you know what happens when you exert great pressure on vapor? It becomes water." Misu spoke as his vapor clone collapsed into a puddle of water running down Hanasaku's shoulders and hair and head, dripping all over Howoku and Tanshu too. This… This was how quick on their feet and amazing Konoha Sannin were… God-Eyes slowly descended from the sky, he was breathing heavily and had large black bags under his eyes, his muscles were twitching and his body was no longer straight but instead hunched from the exhaustion.

Howoku stood up and gently pushed Hanasaku away, "Thanks, Hanasaku-chan and thanks to you too, Tanshu, for occupying One with Eyes of God while I was out. I do believe that this match is mine though." He spoke in that heroic and confident tone. "You pathetic, insignificant scum! I keep showing how insignificant you are and yet you still struggle!" God-Eyes roared out of sheer rage dashing forward and thrusting his kunai forward at Howoku which the man dodged, throwing a kick into the opponent's gut making God-Eyes throw up blood – it appeared like the body of "God" was finally broken. The two exchanged fists again, with Howoku blocking God-Eyes' arms from bending in a way that'd have made him cut Howoku with his kunai. Both were injured and exhausted, it was an exchange of willpower, not fists! With a powerful kick God-Eyes sent Howoku backwards a great distance and thrust his arm forward.

"What? But…" Howoku couldn't believe the attraction force that was pulling him in again, how was this possible? Was God-Eyes unwillingly breaking the limits of his own body? Just to kill him? It didn't matter! Howoku's arm pressed hard into a fist, then opened up as a powerful burst of Starlight chakra formed a small sphere in Howoku's arm. Using the attracting force of God-Eyes' "Attraction Blade" technique to his advantage Howoku leaped in with his sphere and drove it right into God-Eyes' gut, the sphere went all the way in and expanded making Starlight chakra burst from God-Eyes' wounds and his orifices. "Starlight Sphere… Into… OVERHOPE!" he yelled changing the intensity of his technique and shoving God-Eyes' powerless body with a powerful wave right into the crater where his "Starlight Sphere jutsu" expanded fiftyfold into a gigantic sphere making the crater twice the original size as the "Overhope" sphere completely destroyed God-Eyes.

Howoku fell on his back and huffed heavily into the air – the fight finally was over… To think that this man and his followers prove themselves capable enough to pose such a challenge for Konohagakure Sannin… "Well, I suppose this may as well be your field promotion to Hokage… You do need to rename that big sphere, no way you're gonna use "Overhope" as the official name…" Misu said smugly as he looked at Howoku from a sitting position from somewhere further away. Hanasaku crept up to Howoku and started healing his injuries, "You guys owe me… You snagged all of my fights…" she grunted before turning her smile at Tanshu. "This guy is Little Bro by the way, he beat me up so I guess it's OK if we take him back to the village… I think he's gonna make a fine Sannin sometime soon! With Howoku-kun becoming Hokage and the spot being vacant and all…" Misu and Howoku smiled too. "Welcome to the "Familia" kid. For the record, don't feel bad because you got into it against your will – we pretty much all did…" Misu spoke at Tanshu as the teen laughed out.

"Vashia…" he thought looking at the distance… "I wonder where you went, what you're doing and what you plan to do… I wish we could've went to Konoha together, got to know each other…" he thought before falling down on his back and stretching out. He looked into the clouds that were starting to part away – could it have been due to the colossal battle that transpired here? Then again, Tanshu himself was so similar to this place – he too once was full of despair and darkness but got all of it cleansed away by someone much dumber but stronger and a more amazing person than him. "So… Uhm… I guess since I ran away right after Academy…" Tanshu opened up the speech before Howoku nodded, "Yeah, you'll have to go the distance all the way, don't worry, with your power you'll climb it in no time… It's a pretty sweet deal if you can handle most of your peers being chuunin already."

Many years later, even more miles further from the wasteland where Tanshu returned back to his life as a Konoha ninja, Howoku the Fourth Hokage with Misu of the Vapor and Red Dog Tanshu by his side looked at a giant system of buildings. This was the building where the Kage Summit was supposed to take place and it was in neutral territory, set in an ancient system of temples of people that worshipped a mystical being that was told to be sealed in the moon. This cult was long extinct and the location was mostly used for political meetings of international scale just like this Kage Summit. Misu looked at Tanshu, "What the hell were you thinking about all this time? It was like you were somewhere else entirely…" he asked his friend, Tanshu's head sunk down letting his shoulder length hair flow over his eyes, only his nostalgic smile was visible. "It doesn't matter… I was just thinking of an old friend and where she's now…" the man replied.

Howoku turned her head, "Don't worry, she wouldn't be ashamed of you knowing you're protecting the Fourth Hokage and are standing by his side as his trusted advisor in a Kage Summit…" Tanshu laughed out loud, "I don't know, that's just the sort of thing she hated – politics, I tried everything from politics to fighting but she just wasn't interested in anything… "Politics has no honor in it, it's not up to my tastes" she used to say…" Misu looked confused, "You look strangely cheerful today, everything's alright with you?" he inquired and right after Tanshu's eyes returned back to their ordinary state – cold and careless with his insane killing intent filling the air. The bunch of samurai that let the Konoha delegation of Hokage, his two advisors and bunch of bodyguards through shook in fear of it, making the iron constructions of their armor clang out loud. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna go soft on those Kirigakure scum, they'll answer for every bullshit thing they've pulled, one magician in Konoha wouldn't forgive us if we screwed up and they were left without a punishment for what they did to her father…" he angrily replied looking at the open doors leading to a hall that lead to a chain of halls leading to other halls, somewhere down the line there was the place where the Summit was to be hosted. This was going to be big!

NEXT: KAGE SUMMIT BEGINS!

The group comprised of Howoku – the Fourth Hokage and his two Sannin: Tanshu and Misu advanced through the countless large halls. Howoku occasionally turned and commanded some of his men to guard the halls, it appeared like this decision was by no means a unique one as many more ninja were standing around watching the halls as well as the samurai of the Iron Country. "What are the samurai doing here?" Misu asked silently so that only the trio from Konoha would hear it. "I asked Haoru-san to moderate the Kage Summit" Howoku replied, Misu's eyes shot wide open in surprise, then he adjusted his shocked expression so that he didn't appear caught out of his comfort zone to the ninja around.

"I guess there is no better man than one of the legendary samurai wielding one of the God Sword techniques to observe the order and protect us…" he added his conclusion when Howoku gently shook his head. "No. That is not why I invited Haoru-san, I am well aware that he and his insane kenjutsu prowess can best any ninja on the battlefield but I am more interested in his personality. He hates all ninja and thinks them arrogant of their own power and irrelevant, he believes that they are a sick mutation of noble warriors like the samurai and that they not only have outlived their purpose, they never had one in his eyes to begin with." Tanshu scratched his wild brown hair and looked at Howoku questioningly, "I haven't seen that guy but… Is he really that strong? He doesn't really sound like the guy that'd be fitting to moderate ninja villages' petty squabbles." Howoku smiled, "Exactly, he won't tolerate Mizukage's dragging political bullshit, he'll force us to go straight to the point, he won't be afraid to ask the tough questions and offend us on a deeply personal level and people like the Mizukage cannot stand that, they'll be exposed, they'll be stripped and if we're lucky… Removed from their post…" Both Sannin following the Hokage looked at each other, none of them really thought it was a good idea to invite such a man to see over this event.

As the group entered to the second hall leading up to the hall surrounding the main meeting hall Tanshu looked around. Something looked very suspicious to him and he just couldn't understand it. "What's with all those men in hoods? Those steel masks on their faces, who are they?" he grunted as he felt a bit on edge around people concealing their bodies and faces. He wouldn't have minded if they pulled something funny, that'd have given him the excuse to take them out. "They're Kirigakure Barrier Corps, they serve a similar function to Konoha's Barrier Corps – they're the protection team whose main purpose is to create and observe the village protection system, notice barrier breaches, close the threat inside and take it out." Misu replied. "You know a lot about Kirigakure to identify those guys from their uniforms…" Tanshu looked at his comrade with surprise. Misu smiled "I've been to Kirigakure many times on missions, so has Hanasaku, you're the only one who avoids missions there." Howoku scratched his chin, the fact that there were so many Barrier corps ninja in here alerted him.

"I feel you, Howoku, it's unusual for Barrier ninja to even leave their own village. Once they complete their exams they stay inside their village and protect it from threats, their presence in such numbers is something to bring up during the Summit, huh?" Tanshu spoke out nervously reacting to nervousness of Howoku. The Hokage ordered all of his remaining men to stay in that hall, a secretary bowed and gestured that the men entered the main hall and took their seats. As Howoku and Misu entered Tanshu looked back and observed all the ninja he could identify before turning back and following Howoku and Misu inside. "I don't like this, I would have thought that Mizukage would bring his dogs but… I see none of them." Howoku nodded as he moved his large chair and sat down, Tanshu and Misu followed sitting down on smaller chairs from both sides of Hokage. "Yeah, the fact that the one being blamed does not bring the men whose actions he is blamed for… It's either very arrogant or very ignorant, either way it's suspicious…" Howoku closed his eyes and looked at the other end of the long oval table.

Door at the other end of the hall opened and a bunch of samurai clanged inside running in a slow jog, a bulky but short figure entered, a man with messy dark hair and a ponytail, face covered with scars and several small patches of burns and wearing a rugged brown coat. The coated man removed his cloak revealing his muscular build, wearing a white kimono that had its sleeves removed just to expose the man's incredibly thick and strong arms, this was not just any samurai, someone with this muscular structure could cut just about anything given a proper blade. The man opened his eyes and stared at the Hokage sitting at the other end of the table, Howoku slightly nodded his head, "Hello, Haoru-san" he dropped with a small smile. The man's eyes shot open and his grin turned sideways, "Yo, Howoku-ninja!" he replied with a strange manner of speech for a samurai, especially as respected as the famed God Sword user Haoru.

"The others appear to be late then?" Howoku asked cutting it right to the point, Haoru didn't drop his smile, he stared down at the doors and empty seats and squinted a bit. "I thought they'd be late too, they all arrived at the same time which seemed odd to me, Howoku-ninja, I swear to God if those disgraceful ninja plan something I'll cut all of them down!" the man grunted while still not shaking his smile off, the prospect of killing all of the Kage as they gathered in the same room must've really appealed to him. Howoku just laughed it off and looked at each of the doors, "Indeed, all of the Kage arriving at the same time appears to be odd… I don't believe that has happened in the history of Kage Summits." All of those signs being present just rubbed Tanshu off in the wrong way, something was bound to go wrong but to do something stupid in such a place was to court war with all of the other countries.

One may have assumed that peace worked well with all the Great Ninja Countries that was not entirely right. They were all just acting according to the deals they've made in many conflicts in the past. Some countries hated war, Tsuchigakure and Sunagakure wanted nothing more but to prove to the other countries that they've recovered from the conflicts that have almost eradicated them in the past, they wanted to prove that they were now an economic and political and military force to be reckoned with and deserved to be dealt with under equal terms with the other villages. Now the big three that have signed the peace treaty of the Second Great Ninja War: Kumogakure, Kirigakure and Konoha were the "Great Ninja Villages" that got more liberties and overall better rep in all the relationship with the other villages. That was something the smaller villages couldn't have despised more.

That being said, some if not most villages actually wanted war, they were living in peaceful times when in reality they were all breeding soldiers. Soldiers all needed action. Most villages lived on a standby mode, ready to charge at the first village that broke the international treaties. To do something stupid in such an event would've justified all military action to be taken against the village and with the bloodthirst of about twenty years in the stomachs of each village a conflict would very unlikely stop at just beating a village. The scapegoat would be decimated like numerous others. Third Great Ninja War would be the most devastating and claiming most lives of them all, everyone knew it and for that reason even the most tyrannical Kage upheld the international law. As powerful as the greater villages were, none were strong enough to withstand even a single battle against the rest of the world. It was act civilized or be destroyed – a world that Howoku the Star of Hope helped create, he was a coauthor of many of the treaties in question and always strived to create such status quo.

The door busted open, then another, all of them opened within a short period of time from each other and four people walked inside, surrounded by several guards. As the participants of this Kage Summit looked at each other they noticed something wrong with Kirigakure party. Instead of the Mizukage some strange blonde woman in a black dress entered, surrounded by Barrier Corps ninja that Tanshu saw before. All of the Kage sat down and stared down at each other, as the awkward pause continued Haoru slammed his palm into the oval table. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BULLSHIT!" he yelled angrily grasping the sheath of his sword with one hand while his other one was shaking on the table. "Where is Mizukage-ninja!? Is he too important to attend the Kage Summit!? Shall I tell the other Kage-ninja to just march into Kirigakure and burn it down! They'd have the full support of the Iron Country samurai, that I can assure you!"

The woman opened her seductive eyes and placed her finger up on her blood red lips, silencing the samurai and then she placed the hand on her chest, making a very sorry face. "I apologize, everybody, it appears that the news didn't reach every corner of the world yet… I assumed that your intelligence was better than this and that your spies would whisper all about this situation so I didn't even bother to send a proper declaration…" the woman spoke in a very strange, almost acted apologetic tone. She was incredibly attractive and her voice just added to that image. Haoru was still shaking in rage as the woman spoke, "Will you get to the point, woman-ninja! Where is Mizukage-ninja!?" he yelled as the woman smiled and moved her finger shyly to her lips. "I am the new Mizukage, we've removed Daikon-san from the big chair. I believe you are all well familiar with my predecessor and do not need any reasons as to why a coup was necessary? As the leader of the Barrier Corps and the woman who has protected the village many times while our leader sat in his room munching his steaks while his people were slaughtered, often observing said slaughter from his balcony, I Namikaze Shirona have been elected by the council to succeed my incapable predecessor."

"Namikaze?" Tanshu whispered at his party when Misu replied, "Yeah, a branch family of the Senju, they don't really possess the Senju bloodline or any other exceptional abilities, except of their elite heritage they aren't really that interesting…" Howoku jumped up from his seat. "How could the other Kage sit so calm!?" Howoku shouted. "What is this game, Mizukage? The purpose of this Summit is to punish the Mizukage for his deeds and questionable decisions, his continuous abuse of both his own people and his power and complete disregard of other villages. I have plenty of proof against Daikon, the previous Mizukage. It is clear that this move is just a cheap shot at avoiding responsibility. The other Kage, that were still wearing their signature cloaks and hats just nodded and mumbled something inconclusively making Tanshu even more suspicious of what was going on. Haoru slammed his sheathed sword on the table and relaxed into his chair, breathing out and sighing, trying to calm down. "Fine, it is decided, I am not a man who likes to have his time wasted. Let us carry on with the Summit and if the charges brought by Hokage-ninja are sufficient we can make Mizukage-ninja responsible for her predecessor's actions. Her irresponsible behavior and failure to inform us of these developments in the already extremely secretive village serve as a weighty stone on the scale supporting my decision."

Haoru then angrily glared at the other Kage and grunted, "What kind of man sits near a table and discusses business with a hat!? Remove your hats, Kage-ninja!" he instructed angrily as the three reached for their hats. A young woman, in her early forties removed her hat revealing bright murky cerulean hair, she had peculiar eyelashes that matched her hair, also her skin was of much darker shade than that of the rest, even darker than Mana's by many shades to the point where Mana looked like she had a permanent tan where this woman looked like she was from an exotic faraway land. Her strange looks had some mystic charm to it. This woman was Samaya Imasu – the Fifth Raikage.

A tall man in his middle forties removed his hat and placed it on the oval table as well. He sighed shaking his wild long white hair. His face made the man instantly identifiable as one of the Kaguya clan as he had all the traits of the typical Kaguya: his flowing white hair, the red line below his eyes and the typical Kaguya marking on his forehead. After placing his hat on the table the man did not utter a word, just like his fellow Kage to the right, it was quite strange as the Tsuchikage – Kaguya Yaban was not one to stay silent for too long. Another man, by far the tallest out of all in the room as he may have been more than two meters tall removed his hat putting it onto the table. He had relatively casual dark red hair that had two extremely long braids going down his shoulders almost reaching his belt. The Kazekage was a strange looking fellow, no one who has ever seen Akasuna Mugao would have thought he looked any odder than the time they have seen him.

Haoru sighed and then sat straight, gesturing at Howoku, "Now that Kirigakure's pathetic attempt to hinder or postpone this meeting is dealt with, please, Howoku-ninja, bring up your accusations and state your facts and proof. The council of Five Kage will decide how to deal with the Mizukage, having in mind that she is merely a successor of the man responsible. Just for clarity sake… I'll assume you've disposed of Daikon-ninja, as is the Bloody Mist's way?" Shirona – the Mizukage smiled with a pleasant but having the context in mind somewhat scary smile. "But of course, it was fitting to allow the villagers that he had oppressed and tortured with his bloody ways for so long to finally have their justice with the man…" Judging from the smile of the attractive blonde it remained completely clear that she did not regret anything that had transpired that day. Perhaps it was for the better that Konoha and the other villages did not know of this for the details may have been too shocking and disgusting even for those who've seen their fair share of revolutions to hear. What was even more troubling to hear was that the woman did not even react to her village being called "Bloody Mist", which was an ancient nickname given to it. Even more, judging from the crimson crescent of her smile – she took pride in it…

Howoku stood up and cleaned his throat. "I need no proof for the first accusation – it is something that every of you know about – Kirigakure had ninja acting in Konohagakure soil, ninja that interrupted a mission transpiring in Konohagakure's jurisdiction and took over a scroll from the team sent to take the scroll over by a client that asked Konohagakure to have the scroll taken. By interrupting with this mission and slaughtering the squad sent to take the scroll you have brought shame to the Fire Lord in the name of Water Lord, also, you have killed Konohagakure ninja on neutral soil, not only that, it was the soil in which the climactic battle of Second Great Ninja War occurred over twenty years ago, one that signaled the nations to end the war. That land was sacred and no village had the right to move military force comprising of more than five individuals inside of it. It is a land that reminds us all of how greedy and bloodthirsty we can get during times of war, it reminds us of the worst in us all. It appears that your predecessor had not learned his lesson and broke multiple treaties he himself has signed. He is responsible for breaking multiple peace treaties and deaths of many Konoha ninja, also his orders cost the career of some very prized and important ninja to the village like Konoha's Great Trapster - Tsukumo Nakotsumi who assisted all of the villages by dismantling the wandering showman ninja clan early in his career. Such losses are not the kind of accusation just switching the person in charge fixes, Konohagakure will need some serious satisfaction for the damage caused and the lives lost, needless to say, our diplomatic ties will suffer either way, no amount of money or other political settlement can replace the value of human lives."

Howoku sat down, Misu remained cold and static, staring at the blonde woman who has remained completely still and cool throughout the entire speech. Haoru grinned and pointed at the Mizukage, "Those are some serious claims and accusations. The incident brought up is indeed public enough to need no further proof and its details are well known even to a politically neutral country like the Iron Country. What will you have to say for yourself, Mizukage-ninja?" Haoru asked looking curiously at the woman. Misu couldn't help but whisper to Howoku, "Something about her strikes me as odd… I'm gonna return in a moment" he said as he lifted his hand "I'm going to excuse myself for a moment, I need to issue orders for some ninja waiting outside, Hokage-sama forgot to tell them to take relaxed positions and they may be taking it the wrong way. May I temporarily leave to clear it out for the ninja outside?" Misu made up a ridiculous excuse, Haoru lifted his arm and waved it ignorantly, "Your presence here isn't needed unless you are a witness, Sannin-ninja, you can come and go as you please if your Hokage is not inconvenienced." he replied. Howoku looked confused but Misu rushed out of the room.

"Now, let us return to the matters at hand, Mizukage-ninja, may you address Hokage-ninja's accusations or do you admit having broken the mentioned treaties?" Haoru asked looking at the still calm and scarily smiling Mizukage.

The woman who had declared herself as the new Mizukage closed her eyes and grinned with a cruel smile, it was quite clear that she was just hardly restraining a full on fit of laughter. She then once again switched into her acting mode, placing her hand on her chest and looking almost like she was about to cry. "Honestly, I don't really see your point. I agree with all of the charges and admit that Daikon did all of that, I cannot prove that he did it, most of his documents were burnt during the coup so it will be years before we finally untangle all that he had done throughout the years as the Third Mizukage but…"

Tsuchikage interrupted the woman. The Kaguya shook his head and replied in an annoyed mood, "While it is unfortunate that you did not inform us of this change as it starts feeling like we are just chasing shadows here… Judging from what Fourth has said… The thing is that all of those charges only improve her position. You've brought up the charges against Daikon-san but he has already been removed. This meeting has no point anymore and I cannot believe that a respectable man like Haoru-san is still taking this matter further." Haoru stood up, "What are you implying, Tsuchikage-ninja?! That I am in kahoots with the Hokage-ninja?! My job is to make sure that justice is done in this meeting of liars and murderers, truth be told all of you are despicable to me and I'd rather see all of you executed than listen to one minute more of your intrigues and lies. I am well aware of Mizukage-ninja's point but I see her own political game in that and letting it pass is something I'd never allow as a man and as a samurai. Mark my words, ninja snakes, justice will be done here today and none of you will leave until you all put all of your cards on the table and all matters are resolved."

Tanshu grunted, "Now I see why you chose this guy… He's something else, it'd all fall flat, of course, if he couldn't back his talk up…" Howoku shook his head, "Konoha withdraws all charges brought up and agrees that justice has been done to Daikon-san even if it was rude and abrupt and secretive justice…" he said quickly sitting down. Tanshu shook his shoulder angrily, "Hey, what the hell?" he whispered to the man right at his ear, the man had absolutely no respect of boundaries as Tanshu treated his Hokage just like he'd treat an old friend. "What the hell did you just do? How am I supposed to look my student in the eye and tell that her father's injury…" "Stop, Tanshu-san!" Howoku raised his voice, even the other Kage sitting around the table could hear it. After the Kage settled down and silence once again took the room over Howoku turned at Tanshu angrily.

"Our charges have been turned against us… I can't believe I'm saying this but our work is all burnt down to nothingness… This woman…" Howoku grunted looking at Shirona – the Fourth Mizukage angrily. "The more we blame Daikon, the more she benefits from our charges – she's the one who removed him after all. As his successor she benefits from all filth we spill on the state of her village in the past. We've got nothing to bring on her and even Haoru-san sees this. This meeting is as good as pointless, she's won. Our attempts to beat her by bringing up the sins of her village's past only makes her look that much stronger in the eyes of the other Kage." Shirona finally saw that she was in the right and her face took the triumphant look, it was then that Howoku stood up again.

"That matter being settled, we've still got the glaring issue at hand – Lady Fourth has not informed the others of the sweeping changes in her village that has slipped the rug from under the entire meeting. She's done so during the interval that was given to us as preparation as the letter sent as agreement to attend the Summit came from Daikon-san, which means that Lady Shirona must've known of the incoming Summit as his successor and purposefully withheld this information during preparation period. This still is a serious issue which is a big stain on Lady Shirona's sheet, enough of a stain to maybe consider her removal from the chair as well." Howoku's speech surprised all of the Kage. His quick adaptation to the surprising changes in situation must've pleasantly surprised even Haoru as well who openly expressed his disgust for the filthy politics going on in this meeting.

Haoru cleared his throat and looked at Mizukage who was unpleasantly squirming in her chair. "That is true, if Hokage-ninja wants to abandon the previous charge and focus on this one that is fine, what do you have to say for yourself, Mizukage-ninja, I have here Daikon-ninja's letter of agreeing to participate in the Summit so which was it: did you purposefully withheld information of Daikon's change during the preparation period, knowing of the Summit as it was public news to every common villager reading the papers or did you fake Daikon-ninja's credentials?" both of the answers would've meant pretty much the same – either a very big stain on the Fourth's reputation or her removal from the post depending on the strictness of the judgment.

"Well, well… I suppose you got me, I did withhold information. I am a woman raised in the world of intrigue and political moves, Kirigakure under Daikon's rule was a cruel place and my mind genuinely thought that the other villages had enough spies in our rotten Daikon's dumphole of a village that they'd know all about the change. I did withhold the information on purpose, I suppose but only as a result of my own origins and mindset." The woman bowed her head to the other Kage, "For that I beg your consideration and hopefully forgiveness!" she added. Haoru scratched his oversized chin. "That is a serious offense, Mizukage-ninja, even if your confession does make me rather hesitant to remove you from the post… What say you, Kage-ninja?" Howoku nodded angrily, "True, Lady Shirona's removal would serve no good for her violence ridden and broken village, her people need a leader, a good one, that can bring their village back from the image of the "Bloody Mist" and yet I doubt if Lady Shirona is the person willing to do so… I say that each other ninja village are allowed to have a member in Kirigakure council to regulate and oversee its matters for three years. This punishment seems fitting enough to Konoha…"

"Well, I really don't care, doesn't seem like much of a crime to me…" Tsuchikage shrugged, "Even if Kirigakure has demonstrated extreme cruelty in their dealings with enemy spies… We must admit our intelligence in this matter was also lackluster…" Raikage spoke up. "I personally do not see the point of pursuing punishment." Kazekage added. Haoru grunted, "Seriously sometimes I don't get you ninja, a woman plays all of you for fools and you just shrug her off…" his eyes shot open and he jumped up leaping quickly on the table and swinging his sheathed sword at Raikage, the young lady jumped back out of fear and fell down off of her chair. Haoru grinned and laughed arrogantly.

"I don't know who this young chick is, but she is most certainly not Samaya Imasu, I myself taught the young girl swordsmanship and I know her speech mannerism too well. This person is a fraud which makes me assume the rest of you runts are too…" Haoru said out loud still standing on the table and pointing his sheathed katana straight at the nose of the young Raikage who was angrily shooting stares back at him. Within a single moment Raikage, Tsuchikage and Kazekage leaped out of their seats rushing at Haoru, the man drew his sword from his sheathe making a powerful and violent gale that blew the Kage back crashing into the stone wall. In a loud poof the "Kage" de-transformed back into ninja with Kirigakure headbands.

"Executioner of the Clouds, Wakashi Moya and his Executioner Blade and the rest of Kirigakure Sannin… I'd have imagined you to pose more of a challenge!" Haoru grinned and laughed out madly, enjoying his brief chance to fight a ninja and get back at them. "Oni Mask-sensei!?" Tanshu suddenly shouted out having recognized one of the men transformed into Kage to sabotage the Kage Summit. The man wore a different shaded Oni Mask and the same sleeveless kimono outfit, one of his legs looked like it was just a piece of iron and plastic – this would've fit Oni Mask's injury in the battle against Sorano twenty years ago… Then again, Kirigakure had numerous Demon assassins of varied strength, it could've just as easily been just a diversion.

Howoku jumped out of his chair and slammed the table, shouting loudly at the Mizukage, "Shirona, what is the meaning of this!? What have you done with the other Kage?!" for a moment there the man started to believe that the others may have been dead by now. Shirona giggled into her palm and made an arrogant and victorious face, "Who knows… Maybe they're all dead, maybe they're still fending off the entire Kirigakure military force that I've mobilized for this "peaceful" meeting…" the woman replied mocking the word "peaceful" as much as humanly possible. So this was her game? Mobilize all of her forces, drain her village of resources and manpower right after it has rid of the worst Kage in history… All just to mess with Konoha?! This woman was mad. Just as mad as Daikon… No. Even Daikon wasn't dumb enough to attack the Kage by himself. Even if it was the entire military force the Kage likely moved with sufficient support that they would be able to fend off, they were the three most powerful ninja in the world after all.

"Why? Why would you hurt your village and rob your people of peace?" Howoku grunted out, at this moment he hated this woman most of all in the world. He wanted to strike her, to beat her until she was one with the dirt but even dirt was not worth of accepting her corpse. Shirona stood up, she leapt on the table and charged right at Howoku, in mid charge she was interrupted by Haoru who blocked her attack, his sword clashed with an orange chakra barrier similar to that which Barrier Corps used. The barrier that Shirona used was covered with hieroglyphs of unknown origin or meaning. It must've been a higher tier jutsu compared to the casual barriers to successfully clash with Haoru and withstand the clash without the barrier shattering. The woman withdrew and dashed back as her barrier stayed until she dashed back and then disintegrated into small cubes that dispersed into smaller particles and disappeared in thin air.

"Because… You spoke of reputation of ninja in general. What is that reputation worth when weakling scum like you are in charge? How is a client to ask a slothful imbecile who rambles about peace to assassinate someone? What do you know of war, of combat? Peace has made your mind narrow, you and your pathetic peers didn't even consider the possibility of being attacked with full military force – your time slobbering over peace and political alliances made you drop your guard too often. Your predecessors would have never allowed another village to intercept their mission because they were powerful men of war. They were men that were worthy of being rivals to Kirigakure but people like you make me sick. Within just one day I will take everything from you and the other Kage, I will kill them and then manipulate my way onto ruling everything just like I manipulated you shallow minded fools in this Summit. There will be no more villages, just ninja and a single Queen of all ninja, the mightiest and most cunning of them all. That is what Daikon wanted to achieve but he was too scared to ever set any of his plans in motion, instead he got his kicks out of torturing common villagers. I on the other hand am a youthful woman full of youthful enthusiasm and ready to act upon my desires, take what I want. That makes me different and superior to Daikon, the true successor of his title! Now just…"

Before she could finish her title Haoru charged forward thrusting with his katana to impale the woman. He was a man that hated ninja after all and he had heard enough of this woman's ramblings for a decade. All that the man's impressive charge met was another barrier that was as large as the hall room, effectively splitting the room in two. Shirona waved for her henchmen that have impersonated the Kage to follow her as she turned around and started making her way towards the door that Haoru has entered through. "Now that this part of the plan is complete, set out and assist the squads, make sure that the other Kage are dead and under no circumstances let them come here…" she commanded them as the team disappeared in the darkness of the corridor. Haoru started striking the barrier madly, again and again and initially it seemed like his attacks only damaged his own blade.

"You arrogant youthful ninja bitch!" Haoru yelled out, however he was not angry, he was excited. His entire life this samurai just wanted to kill ninja, he despised them but as one of the four best swordsmen who wielded the Four God Sword techniques he had to behave and submit to the world order. No more, this young and ambitious woman stepped out of the world order and entered the pecking order the caliber of which she could not possibly imagine, Haoru stood leaps above all else in that order. "You just made this Summit really damn interestin', I'm gonna love to cut you and your lackeys down! Stop hiding!" Haoru roared as he wildly cut at the barrier that was starting to crack. Tanshu looked at Howoku, "This guy is starting to scare me a bit…" Howoku looked back, "Good, if Haoru the God Sword does not scare you, you've no idea of the battle you've gotten into. It is said that ninja cannot beat samurai in an open field on a one on one match… Well Haoru is a monster that surpasses even the level of samurai. He genuinely hates ninja too… Lady Shirona was more foolish to piss him off than to make enemies of all of the ninja villages." After replying Howoku tried to desperately decide on what to do.

Leaving right now would've proved to be quite counterproductive, going around the room would've taken enough time for the woman to make her escape – if that was her intention to begin with… If she wanted Howoku's death why did she wish to leave the building so much? Perhaps Howoku was supposed to die with the building, she probably had something very destructive in mind… "Tanshu, that man might be your sensei, you sure I can count on you with this?" Howoku asked looking at his old friend Sannin, Tanshu nodded, "Oh yeah, let's rampage like old times. She's probably brought everyone here, the jounin, the Water Temple monks, her own henchmen – the Barrier Corps. Let's kill them all." The barrier shattered and only Haoru's afterimage remained as the man had long since disappeared and was dashing right at the Mizukage. Howoku pointed back, "Let's regroup with our men, Haoru will cause enough of a destructive diversion for us to regroup and then attack Shirona's whole group with our whole group, that way we'll stand more of a chance at survival." Tanshu grinned and turned around, "The lady was right, you are pretty soft, we could take care of the situation solo but you just want to make sure no one of your men dies… Nothing wrong with that I suppose. Lead on." Tanshu smiled with an angry look on his face.

This Summit actually turned out just the way that Tanshu wanted it – he was sure that if he returned and told Mana that her father was avenged by imposing some political sanction upon the nation, as peaceful as she was Tanshu would've felt sick and as if he's betrayed himself saying it. Now he could really dish out a form of justice he could understand and it still will be right, technically he was doing it defending his Hokage and himself, defending his comrades when in reality he'll be killing these Kirigakure scum not because of that, not primarily, he'll do it because they are insanely cocky bastards and he wanted to teach them a lesson. After pulling a dick move like this they really deserved to be burnt down and beaten to the level of just primal existence just like Sunagakure was during the Second Great Ninja War.

Mizukage Shirona and her three assistants that were impersonating the Kage were fleeing through the hall. "Mizukage-sama? Why must we fight someone like the Kage? Can we really do it?" one of her assistants asked, the woman gently stroke his cheek and slowed her pace. "Of course, they are currently facing military force, they will be tired, weakened, do you not wish the title of the man who has killed a Kage? That'd bring you straight up to the ranks of Sannin and not only Sannin of Kirigakure like you are now, you'd be a Sannin of the entire world!" The man with the Executioner's blade looked back, "I sense someone coming, he's pretty loud, are you sure you're OK, Lady Shirona? What do you plan to do?" he asked her. The woman just smiled, "I'm alright, you guys go, I'll handle this joker and then I'll disintegrate this whole building with the Hokage and his Sannin inside. I've got many aces in my sleeves, even if THAT doesn't work, I still have some nasty tricks for that man. I am completely certain that he will not survive this day." The Sannin with the Oni Mask lowered his head and turned around, "Lady Mizukage, please be careful, do not underestimate Red Dog Tanshu, he is considered one of the strongest ninja alive for a reason." The woman turned around to look at the empty darkness of the corridor behind her. "I am well aware, I have plans to deal with him as well, now go." Her Sannin disappeared in a loud poof of air as instructed.

Moments later with a loud tap of wooden sandals hitting the floor a short but muscular samurai descended to face the Mizukage, he drew his sword and leaned back into two hands thrusting position. His smile betrayed how much he enjoyed the prospect of killing a ninja. "My my how I love killing young ninja who underestimate me…" Haoru said in an excited and upbeat tone. The woman lifted her arm into the air and placed it in front, letting her relaxed palm form a round imaginary circle in the air. "To face a Kage is to court one's own destruction, even for you…" Shirona replied "I have no time for you, I have everything to destroy, so I shall kill you quickly."

Haoru stood still in his battle stance. This ducking and widespread balance point position was perfect for him, within an instant he could throw a quick thrust of his blade at any point, even more, he could enhance his blade with his Wind Release chakra making it able to shoot near invisible cutting and piercing currents of wind. However the man called the world's strongest samurai remained still, his style depended on his opponent making a mistake and she's made plenty: pissing Haoru of the Iron Country off, fighting him one on one on a battlefield. Such a narrow walled corridor would've served perfectly to Haoru's thrusting techniques. Surely this woman should've been worth her mettle, she's seen him effortlessly toy around with her trusted Sannin did she not?

Shirona's face pouted, this obstacle in her path was clearly annoying her, she slipped her palm through the air as a round barrier, similar to a small buckler, covered with hieroglyphs and ancient symbols formed around her palm. The woman threw the barrier as a disc, spinning right at Haoru but the man's katana blade thrust forward busting it into pieces. The Mizukage was not where he last saw her after Haoru recovered however – she was right in his face with similar cutting barriers around her palms. The woman thrust them forward, trying to slam them into the man's body again and again but Haoru just moved to the side and backwards repeatedly, dodging her assaults almost effortlessly. Why did this woman struggle? Against the man called the strongest samurai she could only accept her own destruction… Shirona's arms shot forward forming a combined shield-like round barrier and thrusting it right at Haoru. It merely hit an afterimage. Shirona's eyes were shocked, instinctively, just following her intuition she formed a barrier above her head and made it as strong as she could.

A powerful clang echoed sending gusts of winds as shockwaves as the barrier and Haoru's katana collided. The man grunted as he pressed the blade forward, breaking Shirona's barrier and thrusting it forward using gravity and his own weight to cut the woman in two. That was not what happened, however, the blade just got stuck on the woman's dress and tore a piece of cloth which remained hanging on the big golden rings holding the shoulder pieces of her dress together and preventing the dress from falling off. Haoru was confused for a moment, he looked at his katana which was cracked and completely unusable. "Those barriers… How tough are they? I have no problem cutting steel but these barriers ruined my Yama no Perun – a blade that has been by my side since I was a young man…" the samurai asked spitting to the side.

Shirona formed more round barriers around her palms and stood in a defensive stance showing off her glowing and colorful orange barriers and the impressive markings on them. "Before I became the Fourth Mizukage I was the head of Kirigakure Barrier Corps. Limits and barriers, whatever concerns these two things - I can do it. While my good looks has aided me plenty in my quest to obtain everything imaginable, my ability to do with barrier ninjutsu what no one has ever seen before helped with those persistent men that were impossible to reach a compromise with. Now without your sword you are nothing, bow before me, lowly samurai and swear allegiance or get swept aside by my crashing wave of change!" the woman ordered lifting her chin up arrogantly. Haoru laughed out, his laugh was deep and genuine, not an acted one – almost like the man has not had that much fun in ages. "You seem to believe that my sword is unusable now? As expected, a woman knows nothing of a fine blade, even if my edge is cracked all I need is to focus my Wind chakra more and make the blade even sharper. Still, I haven't done this in a long time, not since the war I was challenged to channel my chakra this intensely and cut this deep…"

With a smile just as smug as that of the woman's opposing him Haoru's blade lit up with greyish chakra which soon turned cerulean blue, before the chakra around the blade looked more like an aura, now it was basically a raging wildfire, ready to cut through and destroy anything in its path. Haoru lunged forward in his thrusting stance and thrust his blade, Shirona clashed her own barriers together to form a triple large shielding wall of barriers. She was lucky to instinctively move out of the way – Haoru's sword went through the barriers with moderate difficulty. The Mizukage was surprised, this man was proving to be quite the challenge for her for a samurai, granted, samurai were told to be superior to ninja in pure one on one battle, only in tricks, stealth and assassination could a ninja best a samurai but Shirona Namikaze was no ordinary ninja. The woman made couple of handseals making countless barriers around her. "Barrier Ninjutsu: Guanyin's Protection!" she chanted as seemingly hundreds if not a whole thousand of similar barrier bucklers started floating like satellites around their planet which, in this case, was Shirona.

Numerous barriers cut Haoru, they were as sharp as disc saws and upon cutting the man they also inflicted some sort of chakra burns. Not that Haoru could not handle pain, only the initial performance of the technique even fazed him as he quickly started wildly slashing and thrusting, destroying each and every barrier while Shirona jumped on a larger platforming round barrier and floated back. The Mizukage was in awe of Haoru's speed and strength, his hands and blade were but a blur as he cut through each and every of her thousand disc barriers. After the first couple of scratches not a single barrier even touched Haoru, now she was starting to understand the danger this man posed to her plans – he was certainly the most skilled, swift and strong swordsmen that Shirona has seen. If such a man was not hers to play with, he was to be no one's.

"What a woman… Beautiful, smart, ambitious and strong…" Haoru sighed as he swiped his sword to the side as if he was shaking off blood off of it and stood in his signature stance with the same confident smile. "Oh, I had forgotten, you have your women stay at home, maybe that is why Iron Country is such an irrelevant little dump in the world's grand plan…" Shirona replied forming two more barriers around her palms. Haoru laughed out loud deeply again, "I'm almost tempted to let you cut me down so that you may know my wife's wrath. Iron Country men are so strong and able that women need not concern with their lowly matters." Haoru replied as both combatants charged at each other. Shirona grunted throwing her barriers forward, "Barrier Ninjutsu: Barrier Multiplication!" she yelled as the two barriers she had around her arms became eight, all of them stacked on each other to form a stronger protective wall. "Windcutter Style: Power Cut!" Haoru yelled out striking with both his arms from above down. A powerful flash of light blinded both competitors as the barriers and Haoru's strength guided sword clashed. As Shirona struggled with her blindness Haoru's blade cut her figure in two, his blade pierced her flesh as if it was as easy as cutting air. After the swing was made Shirona's body became as thin as paper and a transparent barrier shined around the deceptive figure as the barrier's upper side slid down being cut in two.

"Barrier Style: Barrier Mirror Mirage!" Shirona chanted from further away, forming more barriers around her palms again. Haoru was open – this was her chance! "Barrier Style: Koho!" she fired the barrier hitting Haoru straight in his bulky and muscular chest, the man staggered back as the barrier shattered on impact from the force it packed. "Barrier Style: Baikoho!" she shouted sending two more barriers crashing and shattering into the man's body. Haoru kept stumbling back and grunting from the force, "Now get out of my way!" Shirona ordered sending the final small barrier hitting straight into Haoru's jaw from the side sending him crashing into the wall and leaving a small crack in it. "Insects need to be stepped on with force…" the woman mumbled arrogantly to herself looking at the man's body on the ground – an impact like that third one would've been more than enough to break a man's neck and the barrier's speed hitting from the side would've been enough to snap it as well. "Agreed… Wait, are we discussing insects now?" a grumpy voice of the samurai reached Shirona's ears as the woman took a couple of steps backwards in surprise.

"I've grown bored discussing your ogre wife." Shirona cursed angered by the man's persistence. It appeared like he barely took any damage at all, the man nonchalantly spat out several teeth to the side and smiled with his disgusting half-complete smile. "Shouldn't have played that card, lady-ninja…" Haoru cracked a somewhat annoyed grin as he sheathed his sword, a weak current of air started twisting around the man's frame lifting off dust and small pebbles alerting Shirona of his concentration of chakra, could Haoru only have been playing up to then? With a single handseal the woman's arms shot forward, four square barriers formed into a cube. Mizukage mumbled "Barrier Style:…", as the samurai leaped at her the woman thrust her barrier cube forward. Haoru's foot thumped right before Shirona's feet breaking the stone below it as the man's voice roared loud enough for the Gods themselves to hear. "Windcutter Style Secret Technique: Zephirus Dragon Draw!" he spoke right at the same time as Shirona thrust her cube to block Haoru's blade, finishing the name of her technique – "Shibaikoho Cube!"

A powerful current of wind rose, roaring in the air as the wind howled, it was coming from Haoru's blade. While Shirona's technique managed to block most of the force and prevent the woman's death, the sheer power of Haoru's blade tossed her backwards while the dragon shaped projectile coming out of all the Wind Release chakra stored in Haoru's katana surrounded the woman's body cutting it up as her body was thrown around by the violent twister as she hit the wall, the violent winds then seemingly crushed her body with absolute force drilling it into the wall. Haoru looked at his bare blade, now absent of any chakra enhancements and sheathed it. "You've done good over the years, Yama no Perun-chan… But now, against this woman-ninja, you've done goofed…" he mumbled in a comedic tone to himself.

"The insolence…" Shirona's hurt and angered tone echoed through the corridor. Haoru looked at her body curiously as the woman's body stood up, covered with small cuts that looked like they were made with tree branches not a cutting gale of wind, her black intricate and expensive silk dress was all cut up and her hairdo was messed up to the point where her wild blonde hair now flowed everywhere as the woman's scorned and injured body pushed itself off the ground. "Those barriers' o yours are somethin' else, Mizukage-ninja. You've made so many around you – shielded yourself from most of the damage and prevented your body from being cut up and drilled into stone." As Haoru spoke Shirona's crimson red lips twisted into a sick smile as she predicted a compliment coming her way. Haoru drew his katana and tapped its blunt side on his shoulder as he looked at her with an unimpressed face, "Truth be told it just tells me your body is as fragile as a daisy, I for one wouldn't have bothered shielding my body' cause I ain't afraid of such injuries…" the man replied sending Shirona into a mad fit of rage.

"Barrier Style…" the woman mumbled as Haoru comically reached for his ear, "What was that, you said something? That wind was really loud ya know…" The woman's palms were raised forward as countless small round barriers shot out of her hands. "Guanyin's Thousand Arms of Judgment!" the woman straight out screamed in frustration and rage as the barriers started flying at Haoru like machine-guns, the swordsman leaped backwards shouting "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" in shock and seemingly childish fear as his hands blurred with his sword deflecting all of the barriers flung his way, every single barrier was deflected and kept flying further past Haoru slamming through to the main Summit hall where it crashed randomly leaving a hole in stone. Haoru leaped forward deflecting some more barriers right at the same moment as Shirona's technique ended. The samurai placed his blade in a thrusting pose, aiming to pierce the woman's stomach so that she bled out on the stone cold floor thinking about the foolishness she'd pulled.

"Koho!" Shirona shouted as her raging barrage of barriers continued, a powerful rectangular wall slammed into Haoru's face and sent him tumbling backwards, slowly the woman started walking forward, "Koho!" she chanted again sending another barrier right into the man's face and making him tumble backwards, then again and again! "Make a joke out of me, will you!" she shouted angrily as she sent another "Koho" barrier wall the samurai's way as the orange wall sent the man slamming right into the heavy gate that separated the corridor from the main hall. The woman's palms shot forward, "Barrier Style: Shibaikoho!" she chanted sending four simultaneous walls of barriers slamming and stacking one on another and pressing Haoru's body into the steel gate, crushing it like an insect between a foot and pavement. The man's body fell onto his knees, his face was swollen like he had hit a mountain flying at the speed of sound. "Jokers like you are not even worth licking dirt off my sandals, Koho!" she shouted sending one final Koho barrier that hit Haoru so hard that he crashed through the steel gate busting it down as the man's heavy and bulky body rolled into the busted up hall.

Shirona looked at the man's body for a moment before turning around, then as she finally congratulated herself on an obstacle removed… Some stones shifted and something cracked in the main hall. Horrified Shirona turned around and witnessed Haoru standing up from under the stone table, pushing the stone off of himself and dusting the half of his kimono that wasn't ripped. "Darn, Rudoviga-chan cleaned these trousers for me this morning… Now they're all ripped up and… Oh well, serves me right for making fun of a lady, I s'pose…" Haoru examined his torn up white trousers as his attention turned back at the woman who beat him around for a while.

"Well, Mizukage-ninja, that was fun, but now I'll have to kill you…" he smiled with a certain shade of confidence as his red swollen face started to regain the normal color. This samurai was hit in the face so much that torn blood vessels stopped leaking almost instantly now, that being said his face still looked rather funny… "You… Insolent… Old Geezer!" Shirona roared into the hall making her feminine powerful shout of rage echo through the room as she put her palms together in front of her chest. "I have no time to beat you around, I've no time to play ragdoll with a lowly samurai! I've got to destroy this whole building and the darned Hokage with it!" she shouted out as another cube of barriers shaped around her arms. Haoru looked around searching for his sword, he dug around the pile of table rubbles and removed the sheath and unsheathed it taking his defensive stance. "I mean, your plan sounds alright for a twisted lady… If you want to kill Hokage that works but you'd be killing your own men in this building too, even if you do have the jutsu to tear it down." Haoru spoke getting ready, he knew how to kill this woman – he'd see her technique and wait for an opening when she uses it – all ninjutsu have openings. Then his blurring blade will find her heart before she can as much as take a breath. He killed countless ninja this way and had he not enjoyed this brawl with the Mizukage so much he'd have done so to her as well. "Ninja are but tools, if the owner wishes they are free to throw them away." The blonde replied with a dark and husky tone.

Shirona shot her palms forward letting the cube of barriers fly slowly forward, Haoru broke his stance as he took one of his hands off the handle of his katana to scratch his head. "Ain't this a bit slow, Mizukage-ninja? I think Hokage-ninja will kill all of your guys and get here before this gets to me…" he taunted her as Shirona swiftly made a handseal. "Barrier Style: Barrier Multiplication Jutsu!" she said as the cube started glowing faintly with the shade of mixture of azure blue and white light. Haoru stepped back a bit as he didn't quite understand it, now the cube was standing completely still! "Do you know what my Barrier Multiplication technique does? Even your small samurai brain should comprehend the concept… Do you know my barriers have a certain amount of mass, yes, they weight approximately sixteen kilograms each, without the aid of my chakra to move them they'd be quite a shield… Do you know that when an object of certain mass multiplies, their total mass increases accordingly?" Haoru started frantically scratching his head. "Darn it, Mizukage-ninja, are you pulling some of your stupid ninja witchcraft again?"

Shirona smiled as her wild hair covered her eyes that were emanating certain triumphant glow from them. "You fool, how many times do you think I must multiply my barriers before they become too much for the fabric of reality itself to handle?" she mumbled as suddenly the barrier started quaking from pressure and sending ripples through the walls and the floor of the room, the ceiling and the entire roof of the temple started to collapse on the room's walls and floating to the barrier combination, Shirona made a handseal. "Barrier Style Combo Technique: Infinite Mass Configuration!" she uttered as a loud shriek coming from the barriers took the hall over, overwhelming all of the sound anywhere close. Haoru grunted as the immensely powerful gravity started attracting him to the technique, his own body started to crack and stretch from the pressure as he could swear his bones broke in multiple places and his muscles and joints were torn apart by the immense pressure of gravity. An incredible amount of debris also gathered around the cube making a large mess out of the hall. The whole main hall formed a sphere of debris around where the cube was.

Shirona was huffing heavily, still in the corridor behind the hall, she could not believe she was pushed to this, no way she can use the larger version she intended to use to destroy the temple now… Plan A was ruined now, she had nowhere to rush. "Well…" the woman panted, "I suppose now I'll have to kill Howoku myself…" she finished her own sentence barely as the woman spat up some blood on the cracked stone floor observing the destruction in the main hall. This insolent man and his refusal to just bend over and die made her plans more difficult, she could use her "Infinite Mass Configuration" multiple times if it was just room scale but expanding the scale of her combination required immensely greater proportions of chakra, one temple sized configuration would've taken everything she's had and she's spent so much already that there was no doubt – she'd have to rest and kill Howoku herself by other means.

Tanshu and Howoku rushed one hall back from the main hall where the Kage Summit was taking place. The two ninja looked around witnessing a gruesome sight – the Kirigakure Barrier Corps were nowhere to be seen while their own ninja laid there knocked out without any signs of life. "No blood, no signs of battle… These men were some of my most trusted ones, they also were quite high ranked… They must've been taken down in a sneak attack." The Hokage uttered confirming what both men already knew inside. They were now on their own. There was no more reason looking for their men as the cunning Mizukage had made sure that they'd be all alone. She's thought of everything. It was a good thing that Howoku picked up those extra men from outside the village after leaving and didn't arrive with just the few guards he left with, otherwise those barrier ninja may have caught him and Tanshu unprepared.

Tanshu cursed, "Damn that Misu, didn't he leave the room to make sure that everything's OK with the men? Where the hell did he go off to?" Howoku looked at the Sannin questioningly, "Do you think Misu's out too?" he asked as his tone descended. Tanshu kicked down a chair and flipped a wooden table over just trying to let all of his anger out, "Nah, that bastard's too tough even for Kirigakure sneak attacks, he spent entire year in that pisshole, if there's anyone knowing a Kiri scheme coming, it's him." Howoku turned around looking at the main hall. "We've got to go back, maybe we can still catch Mizukage and have her answer for all of this?" "Too late for that, Haoru probably already caught up to her and he didn't strike me as a guy who would've appreciated the help of ninja, we turned back to find our men, may as well look for Misu or confirm that there are no more surprises coming our way." Tanshu replied. Howoku nodded, "True, Haoru-san is not the kind of man who likes ninja butting into his fights." The two men started moving towards the exit from the temple they entered through.

As they entered the next room the trio saw bunch of Konoha ninja on the ground just like in the last room, this time however their assassins actually were present in the room. Within an instant Tanshu's body instinctively dashed towards one of the barrier ninja driving his elbow into the ninja's gut and then again into his neck. The barrier ninja fell lifeless. "T… This is Red Dog Tanshu… Fall back!" the barrier ninja yelled as several of them fired moving barrier walls at Tanshu as the man tried to strike them down as well, the barriers pushed Tanshu back to the other end of the room. Tanshu made several handseals and charged towards the barrier, thrusting his palms at them as they flamed up, "Fire Style: Red Cerberus Rampage!" Tanshu shouted out as his palms started shooting wildly busting through the barriers near effortlessly with his flaming barrage of blows, the man then proceeded to jump amongst the enemy ranks and take them all out with quick and precise blows and kicks. It only took one blow to their necks for the ninja to fall, it only took mere kicks from Tanshu to break their bodies and cripple them for life or outright kill them. It was quite a while before Tanshu got serious…

"Die, Hokage!" bunch of barrier ninja yelled leaping from a balcony and shooting off some walls of barriers trying to crush Howoku from below, after weaving just a single handseal Howoku's arm lit up with bright light that was his Starlight Release and the man swiped it sideways sending a powerful scythe-like projectile incinerating all of the barrier ninja assailants while cutting right through their barriers as if they weren't even an obstacle. The man fighting now was not the young and hopeful Howoku but the one that followed the belief that all that stepped out of line had to be destroyed and Kirigakure had long since threw rotten fruits at Konoha from over the line. Just about long enough… More Barrier Corps ninja flowed the halls, Tanshu and Howoku leaped at them, carefully dodging their assaults and offensive use of barriers by maneuvering around them and striking all of them down. After the last of the Barrier ninja fell the two once again reunited.

"I think wearing us down is Mizukage's intention, I certainly hope that you're not feeling worn out just yet, Tanshu." Howoku said as Tanshu showed the man his fist, "Not even close, I could beat losers like this around whole day" he replied confidently. As the exchange of lines went the ground rumbled. Deafening quakes echoed all through the temple as the sound of debris and shrieking of some sort of supernatural origin made Tanshu and Howoku cover their ears and fall on their knees, they had to find cover for support as the roof in their room also dropped several fist sized stones. This entire place was very ancient and even more unstable, just what kind of nonsense were the Mizukage and Haoru engaged in? As the sound stopped Tanshu looked at Howoku questioningly and the two took off and dashed back to the main hall. All this time they assumed that Mizukage had already taken off but this sound suggested she may have been closer than they've imagined. If these barrier ninja were all that Misu had to look out for he was safe.

"Haoru, one of the four God Sword Jutsu wielders… I thought he had an advantage against any ninja, he usually cut the enemy down before they could weave a single handseal." Howoku grunted as he was genuinely worried about what exactly had transpired in the main hall. Tanshu coughed up as clouds of dust cleared up, "Not necessarily, a very skilled barrier ninja could excel at keeping a distance or protecting themselves as the enemy tried to take them out with their half-baked attempts to intercept their seals." Either way, these were just speculations, finally the main hall was in sight. As the two men entered the destroyed landscape they couldn't stop themselves from looking around in awe – the entire room was disassembled and it appeared like all of that part of the building had centered and piled up on one place – the center. "That's… Like… God-Eyes' power…" Tanshu grunted, he had already seen Oni Mask that day, was it possible that God-Eyes was also alive?! "No, that cannot be, we've all seen him disintegrate after being hit by my Starlight Release jutsu, he cannot possibly be alive nor can there be another Rinnegan user. Someone did this without Rinnegan and that is possibly even more scary…"

At that moment the gigantic pile of rubble shook and rumbled, loud muffled grunts came from under and then a great gale of wind gusts blew all of the destroyed hall off of the central area where it had formed a crushing sphere. "DON'T BURY ME YET, DAMN IT!" Haoru shouted as he burst from the rubble. His kimono and trousers were torn up and covered with his own blood, his body was covered with bruises and injuries and his hair was set loose and was flowing wildly as some superhuman chakra pulsing off of him floated it in the air. Haoru pulled cuts of his kimono from under the rubble and tied his hair back into the ponytail, he then started wildly throwing the smaller rocks aside while pushing the larger ones with his unnatural strength. Howoku and Tanshu were both astounded and couldn't believe. "You were… Under that pile?" Howoku spoke first. Haoru looked back at the man for a brief moment and showed him a thumb up before continuing to dig around for something. "This is nothing, I've fought in several wars, a moment of larger than life injury cannot bring down a man who has been cut up by swords for entire days on end…" he grunted as with a powerful push he flipped over what looked like a rumbled pillar that held the roof. "There you are, honey!" he shrieked like a little girl and pulled his sheathed sword from under the rubble, checking on it for damage and then tying it up to his belt.

"Well, I'm set to go! Let's get that woman!" he energetically raised his fist into the sky. Tanshu scratched his head, "Wait a moment, old timer, first you should tell us what the hell happened here, I think we need to know just what kind of ability this woman used because we're sure if we'd get hit by something strong enough to do this – we'd die instantly…" Haoru laughed up and then comically grabbed his injured ribs, they must've been broken but it didn't seem to bother the man except the occasional fits of pain. "Well, she can make pretty tough barriers, she can also multiply them seemingly infinitely to where they weigh enough to rip holes in reality leaving a dent in it that causes everything in that place to be sucked into the rip. Luckily I used my Hurricane Draw jutsu to not get made into a spaghetti and keep myself far away from the tear by giving him my wind to eat up instead of me. All I had to do was survive the hall crushing me into a big pancake!" the man laughed at it as if it was something funny.

Howoku sighed as he looked on ahead, the spring breeze picked up and rustled his hair. "If Mizukage can use that kind of jutsu it's troubling, I've never heard of a ninja who could legitimately kick your butt, Haoru-san. Still, to make a barrier so heavy it'd tear away reality surely sounds like a tiring concept, she must've used her barrier multiplication technique many times in rapid succession and that's something that tires a person out. Good to know we are not the only ones to get chips on our armor…" Howoku said. Tanshu curiously stared Haoru down, "Can you go on ahead, old timer?" he asked, "Sure, I may have bunch of my bones broken but when you've been battered, burnt and zapped as many times as I have it stops bothering you until you die. I may move slower but I'm sure I'll still beat you shadow humpers…" Howoko smiled, "If you can still make fun of ninja you'll be fine, let's catch Mizukage and take her out." The three men dashed with all of their speed onward, entering through a hole left in the temple when the main hall was disassembled and mushed up on one place.

As the three were rushing past the corridor Howoku pouted and turned his head at Haoru, "Haoru-san, did Mizukage tell you what her actual plan is? I mean she told us that she's planning to crush all the Kage and take everything over, that much is for certain, she believes that she's the only competent enough person to control the entire ninja population, that being said, what was her plan here?" Haoru grinned, "She planned to leave the building and then use a larger scale of that thing she used against me on the whole building killing everyone inside. I think now she's unable to do so, if pulling those glowing cubes came easy to her she'd just have done so from the start, it was more of a last resort to her so now she'll try to take you guys by other means. I'm wondering just how well her effort to hold the other Kage off with her military is going, surely Kage is a ninja much stronger than any number of usual ninja?" Tanshu nodded, "True, at some point, when talking about Sannin and Kage, the number of opponents is irrelevant, someone like the Mizukage could take out an entire army by just using that reality tearing jutsu on them. The highest ranked ninja need to be taken out by equally high ranking ninja, no number of chuunin or genin can outmatch them…"

The three ninja dashed out of the overly drawn out short corridor into a cage-like hall. The structure had rotating staircase with countless openings where windows were supposed to be, instead of glass there were bars for protection. This location must've been built way before glass was even a thing. "Where to now?" Howoku wondered, Haoru pointed right in front at a door that must've lead onwards. "If we are to assume that she still wants to leave, there, that way is the straightest path outside while the staircases lead to various other corridors to other halls." Two figures landed right in front of the trio – both of the men looked very similar yet each looked also different from the other. "Water Temple monks." Haoru smiled as he drew his blade, "What did that lady do to make you guys sell out and join her pack?" he taunted the duo. One of the monks got visibly annoyed and outraged, he almost charged at the swordsman when the smaller one held him. Both men were wearing the typical black and white rag monk attire, they each had some strange face paintings, the larger one was bald and the smaller one had excessive dark facial hair and wore a bandana which barely helped contain his long hair.

"Mizukage-sama did nothing, we've joined her cause by our own choosing, the Water Temple agrees with her ideas, each temples worship different divinities, they each are lead by different ideals and the world needs not such confusion. There must be one temple, one ninja establishment so that there is no conflict to be made. Such eternal lasting peace and prosperity justifies one giant slaughter to end all slaughters" the smaller one replied as he moved his hand away from his bigger friend's chest and took a fighting stance. Howoku turned to the side and looked at Haoru. "Haoru-san, please remain uninvolved. You need to gather your strength and let your body recover somewhat, we cannot afford letting you die in a middle of battle unaware of how critical your condition is, even if you have overcome your bodily limits, that does not make you immortal." Haoru was very visibly not pleased with this suggestion but he stepped back and sat down to the wall. "Fine, don't like killing monks anyways, would much rather cut down ninja…" he grumped out crossing his arms on his chest. Tanshu tossed him a small bag, "Take care of your bruises and injuries while we fight, these men are pretty tough if they are monks but it shouldn't take too long…" he confidently declared. He then jumped up grabbing onto the second floor staircase and pulled his body up, dashing madly to the upper floors, the larger monk followed. Tanshu's goal was to separate the two monks, it was likely that the monks were trained to work together and while they normally could've both ganged up on Howoku their goal to keep the two away from Mizukage made it difficult to ignore Tanshu's movement.

The monk appeared right in front of Tanshu, dashing several floors up and then making a mad rush downstairs, throwing a wild punch at Tanshu's face. The Sannin ducked under it only to receive a kick into his chest that sent him tumbling one floor down before he pushed his body up with his hand and backflipped into a balanced stance. Tanshu was impressed by the speed, strength and precision of the man's moves – he was very clearly a taijutsu user so he may have been troublesome to someone who specialized in negating opponent's ninjutsu and genjutsu, either way it made no difference, whatever the playing field was - Sannin surpassed all ninja.

The smaller monk dashed and threw a punch at Howoku as well, the Hokage leaned his head to the side and tried throwing a punch of his own only for the man's other hand to catch it, the two kicked their knees forward at the same time only for them to clash, the two exchanged several blows and then dashed back to get some distance. At this point they were just checking each other out but Howoku was feeling the pain where he clashed or blocked the monk's blows but it didn't look like it bothered the monk that much – his face remained stone cold. Howoku clenched his fist as it lit up with Starlight Release chakra, the Hokage leaped forward throwing a fist charged up with enough chakra to disintegrate the area it connected to, the monk leaned out of its way as the punch dispersed, the heat from the punch did seem to bother him as he lost his footing for a moment. Howoku tried to throw a combination of blows to the man's abdomen and his face but the monk managed to respond in time by blocking all of the blows and tapping his foot at Howoku's chest and pushing his own body away instead of using it to kick. The Hokage had never seen such strange taijutsu moves before, it made a lot of sense – the monks had very secretive and amazing taijutsu styles of their own with each temple developing their techniques incredibly differently from the other.

Many floors higher Tanshu's fist finally connected to the larger monk's face, the large man stumbled back, tripping on the stairs and having to use one hand for support, as Tanshu prepared to exploit this opening the man shifted his balance using the hand as balance point and pushing his body into the air while kicking the air wildly using his long legs. Tanshu leaped into the air and stuck to the wall just in time to not get kicked down the stairs again. The Red Dog quickly made some handseals breathing in deep and then releasing all of that air at once – "Fire Style: Red Dog Bark!" he shouted spitting out a mass of flames at the monk who just covered up as they devoured his body. The technique wasn't lethal as it sacrificed density and power for speed and versatility but any damage he could land could still quickly establish his dominance. As the monk moved his smoking and damaged by slight burns hands to the side his monk attire was scorched off and his whole body was smoking and covered with small patches of burns. He cursed loud as the monk got up from the staircase and finally got on his feet, taking a fighting stance and readied himself to keep fighting. He needed to hold this man here for as long as he could, every second he struggled Mizukage regained her strength and the Water Temple monks were not the kind to let down the Mizukage!

ONE MONTH AGO:

A cold evening breeze blew rustling the numerous small ponds in the Water Temple yard. Usually during the mornings the monks exercised together in a coordinated fashion, honing their fluid and fast movements, striking hard and moving fluently like the water itself. The Temple was on a small island, in fact there was a beach nearby the temple and elder monks often ran to dip their bodies into cold ocean waves in the early morning. This was no small feat as there have been accounts of people actually dying of hypothermia trying to reach the Temple from a neighboring island. Then there was the matter of elderly hearts, monks were men who have pushed their bodies to the limits their entire life, a simple dip in cold foams of the crashing ocean waves could've easily stopped their hearts. There were many who also fell victim to the water taking them down their feet and dragging them further into the ocean, taking all air out of their chests and leaving them unable to swim back. Even such primitive training routines were incredibly dangerous.

Of course, there was no training exercise more dangerous and perilous than the body strengthening training of standing in front of violent crashing waves during a storm. Each and every monk hardened their body by allowing powerful force of water bash mercilessly at their mere human flesh and bones. None withstood the wave their first time, very few could even stand up after their first time training. Youngsters have had their ribs and even skulls broken by the violent movement of water, crashing waves were not a thing to be taken lightly after all. The results of this training however couldn't be argued against – a monk's body became as tough as a rock, no – tougher! Even rocks were susceptible to being broken off of their formations, shattered and washed away, men of the Water Temple stood still and took everything the cruel ocean had to throw at them. As much as they trained their martial arts and strength, water was their greatest tool of training.

This cold breeze of salty oceanic air was different from yesterday's however as a woman in a black coat had landed on the shores of the Island of Isolation, where the Water Temple was. There were women amongst the monks, very few as their bodies were much tougher to get past the initial training stages, women had a much steeper curve and often gave up on their choice of isolation and firm suffering in order to strengthen their bodies. Because of their initial frailty it took them much more pain and willpower to match their peers, not that it never happened – it did, but it wasn't as common as it was with men. This lady was not interested in joining the temple however – she came her with far more destructive motives and a suggestion that was, to be entirely honest, crazy. Even with Mizukage Daikon in power, such suggestion would've been ridiculous, even merciless and crazy Daikon didn't have the guts to talk to Water Temple monks this way! This woman was evidently more ambitious than her predecessor, much more willing. This woman's willpower and ambition surpassed that of all those that have died trying to become monks.

"Return in the morning, this is time of peace and head monk is resting after his training." A young monk spoke up pointing at the woman ordering her to return to the small boat that has carried her there. "I insist that I must talk to him. If I put matters bluntly I am sure even you would see the mutual benefit in my suggestion, boy." The woman spoke up taunting the young monk for his youth at the end. It was not just a matter of age, this hooded lady couldn't have been a decade older than this youth but it was experience and mindset that set them so much apart. "Oh yeah, and what is that offer, lady? Before I bother head monk I must know if it's worth it!?" the young monk yelled back at the woman clearly annoyed by her insolence. The long sleeve of the woman's coat raised up in the air and gently slipped off revealing her crimson red dyed nails and two fingers being shown, the top of her hood slipped up gently revealing her blood red lips smiling and moving softly. "I need two monks, give me the support of the Water Temple and two monks in my guard as a testament of your support and I will not sink this salt-stinking island beneath not only the waves but the scorching magma beneath the bottom of the ocean itself. I can't stand salty smell…" she said as the boy was starting to annoy her too.

The inexperienced monk leaped right at the woman, his body flowed like the water, he did not tense his body but moved relaxed – perfectly managing the sensitive balance between strict tenseness of the body that hardened it and the relaxation that made it move more swiftly and fluently. One of the woman's companions just blurred as a moment later he was already standing five meters further with the unconscious monk helplessly collapsed on his firm arm. The man swiped his palm to the side as brief sparks of lightning chakra ran down his arm and the blood of the monks faintly colored the salty and mossed rocks near the beach. "Big mistake, kid." the man said with his husky and low pitched voice, it was unknown who he was talking to as it most certainly was not the unconscious monk who had his eyes rolled up to the point where his pupils weren't even visible. He may even have been dead but none of the hooded figures really cared too much. Suddenly black flashes danced lit only by the pale moonlight, all of them trying to impale one of the figures with at least eight men devoted to a single figure.

The one who had knocked the young monk out responded in time, carefully his body deflected every blade pushing every one handed sabre away from his body while his leg blocked the swipes completely. However as the sabre hit the man's appendage it did not spill blood – a loud clang echoed as half of the blade was sent flying off into the distance and etched into the beach sand. The man's cloak hood slipped off revealing a blue oni mask on the man's face. He looked around staring each of the monks down, even if his eyes were not really visible over the oni mask it was evident that he was sizing each man up for their coffins. He just had that feeling of a merciless killer around him and it was apparent to absolutely everyone that this man had killed countless people in his days, even before his leg became this strange metallic abomination of nature.

Another figure just moved their arm to the back of their heads, reaching up for a handle. The motion happened so incredibly fast that his hood slipped off revealing large and spiky golden hairdo. The man did something, in the darkness of the forest it was absolutely invisible but all of the monks screamed out in pain and fell on the sand as blood shot from their gruesome wounds. As grievous as the men's wounds were, they were still non-lethal and it was clear such was the man's intention. After all of his opponents were cut down the man kept his arm on the oversized sword handle which hid some sort of a weapon under his cloak. Judging from how totally deep and battle ending the wounds on the men's bodies were it was clear that the blonde swordsman had quite the oversized tool on his back!

Powerful streams of water shot breaking through the ground of the third figure, each of the aquatic appendages grabbed hold of the attacking monk's faces and held them up in the air forming a large sphere of water around them. Each of the monks were tied up and could only struggle trying to break free from their terrible fate of drowning in a beach surrounded by nothing but sand for about three hundred square meters. The man released his hand seal at the same time as he leaped on his arm and kicked around, spinning on his arm to deliver a spinning kick to the gut of each monk which caused every single one of the locked down monks to grunt out and start drowning right before being released. As the attacking monks fell powerless on the ground coughing the man looked at each of them from above, as if judging the monks who had fell victim to his superior talent and skill.

The monks attacking the crimson lipped lady did not get too far, each of them slammed into an invisible wall and dashed backwards, cursing and swiping their blades, then tossing them at the woman in frustration. Nothing even left the faintest of marks on the woman or even got through her invisible walls. The monks then stopped their completely fruitless attempts at attacking these cloaked figures and just helped their injured ones get back at their feet as reinforcements gathered on top of the hill. The hooded figure who almost drowned his opponents smiled and spoke up, trying to act intimidated even deep in his heart he was impressed. "Hoh, these fellows are different from those youngster monks. If they all attack we may be in trouble, Lady Mizukage. I sense their chakra signatures to be at least Special Jounin level each."

"Enough!" an elder man shouted out and landed in front of all four cloaked figures with the fifth still watching from the boat. The head monk was tall and had that strange shaped round head, his facial features were not attractive as it just happened that the man was not overly gifted by nature, he did not have any facial hair which was odd for a head monk, however. "May I know what your business is, mysterious visitors?" he spoke up, the man was taller than all but the Water Release ninja with whom the monk was equal in height. As the cloaked lady walked up in front and removed her hood revealing her flowing tied up blond hair the man crossed his frail elderly arms on his chest. Water Temple monks practiced fluidity and endurance, strong defense over everything else in their fighting styles. It was uncommon for them to have too bulky builds even with their barbaric training methods. It only made sense for the head monk to follow this mantra to the extremes.

"Nothing much. Before I state my business I'd like you to welcome us like proper guests. I believe that the Mizukage deserves a proper welcome, no?" the woman asked with a playful tone. The old man mumbled something under his own nose and turned around, nervously shooting his palm up in the air, the monks turned around. The cloaked figures heard bunch of clinging noises which were revealed to be monks hiding in bushes with bows and arrows. "I was almost excited to see the infamous "Water Temple archery", it is said that a monk archer's arrow can pierce the ocean all the way to its bottom…" the blonde with an oversized sword politely joked, the monks did not honor the man with a response. The head monk lead the entire party of monks and the cloaked figures into the shrine where the head monk sat on one side of an altar with an ancient scroll placed on it and gestured the woman to sit on the other as the monks made several circles around them. The lady nodded and kneeled by the altar, sitting on her knees and getting to an eye-to-eye level with the head monk.

"So… What business brought our late night guests at such a time of night in a matter of utmost importance which could not wait until the morning?" the head monk asked. A loud laughter pierced the silence that dominated afterwards as the monks all stopped rustling and talking. "Well… Not that it's that urgent, there is still a month till the Kage Summit, I am a woman who likes to do all her work upfront and rest after, anyways." The head monk scratched his head, it was clear that he wanted to ask a question but was too shy to do so. "Ummm, please do not get offended but… Who exactly… Are you?" he uttered at last as Shirona started giggling from top of her lungs. "It's too bad that I don't carry Daikon's head around, that thing started to smell so awfully after the first couple of days. People don't take "I'm the Mizukage" as seriously as they used to these days… How could I ever convince you…" the woman acted as if she was genuinely troubled by her own thoughts but the head monk just waved his arms. "No no no, it is just fine… Any woman who would enlist all three Kirigakure Sannin to her side is either a very good courtesan or a woman of very high political power." "Or both…" Shirona giggled, then angrily looked at the monk who at first did not follow her joke, the man nervously faked a laugh.

"Anyways, here I was wandering around my land, informing all those who were troubled by Daikon's rule and I thought for a moment… Why don't I fix the relationship with all of those little insolent countries: Land of Waves, Island of Isolation, all those other islands of varied importance. So here I am… Interested in forming a pact with the Water Temple, decided to fix our relationship, so to speak, I'm sure Daikon did his best to piss you people off…" the head monk scratched his head, obviously he and the past Mizukage had a history that was not entirely pleasant. "Anyways, whatever taxes you paid Daikon so that he did not tear this place down are no longer imposed, feel free to practice your thing here freely… In fact, I'd love to hear all about your religion and your interpretations of it, I've heard that all temples worship different divinities and that somehow influences the art they create, both martial and the exquisite kind of art."

The head monk looked back at his fellow monks, to the man it became obvious that they were just as troubled by this woman and, in a way, afraid of her as he was. "Well… We technically do not worship a divinity, our martial art is based on a legend and we craft our faith and model our lives around the ideals it represents. According to the said legend there is a being so powerful and large sleeping deep in the oceans in between Kirigakure and the other islands that even a sight of it would drive a man mad. If the legend is true, when this beast awakens it will inevitably destroy all that we know – sink all of our islands and return back to sleep. It does not necessarily mean that we are living in fear of a giant monster wiping us from existence, what is to be taken from this story is that our lives are temporary. We must all strive to be as kind to those in our lives as we can, we must constantly strive to improve ourselves because we are remembered for the people that we were in our lives that could end at any time."

"Just lovely… Well, if our ultimate fate is to be decimated by some sleeping ocean monster, may as well do the most of it – I'll get to business. I'd love to set my sympathy for this little island in stone, it will only take two of your best men to aid me in the Kage Summit." Head monk was visibly intimidated now that he saw Mizukage's political play being very much involved with this visit. "What exactly do you have in mind, Lady?" the man asked carefully. "Well, I sort of wondered just how successful your existence was? I mean your ideals and morals and lessons sound great, your men are powerful because they follow those beliefs faithfully but… I can't help but feel that other Temples are in your way, I mean Fire Temple and their thousand armed Gods of murder… It's boring… I plan to wipe all other villages off the map and make all of the world into my own empire, then there will be no competition between ninja and all clients and all of the Lords will only hire one village, there'll be no bloodshed, no wars for dominance, only… Ninja. Cold, efficient and simple. In return for helping me realize this dream I'd be willing to give Water Temple the chance to make more temples worldwide, exclusive right in fact. Think about it, you could tell the tale of your scary sea God for all to hear and then if it actually awakens – survive his rampage somewhere deep in the oasis of the Land of Lightning's deserts."

"With all due respect, Lady Mizukage… That sounds terrible, you're asking us to be a part of your suicidal attempt to slaughter countless people just to satisfy lust for power. It has nothing to do with anything that Water Temple stands for, no temple in the world has ever involved itself with ninja affairs and we will not become the first, especially not over such pitiful motive as one woman's ambition." The monks all looked petrified, they were literally shaking in their boots because they knew that when you refused someone who wielded infinite power over an entire village with only a slothful and incompetent Lord to answer to… Saying they don't usually take it well would have been an understatement. "Oh well… That's too bad…" Mizukage shrugged as she stood up, the monks couldn't believe it she'd let it go so easily, didn't this woman just declared war on all the ninja villages? Was unifying all the villages under her rule as Ninja Empress not her ambition?

As she passed by the monks, Shirona slowly walked up through all of them, giving each of them those playful glares, checking their eyes out, looking for that particular emotion. There it was… Ambition… One young monk lowered his head in shyness, he wanted power, he wanted to fight for a chance to be someone more than just a monk, he didn't want to die with lungs full of sea water in his late nineties unable to withstand crushing ocean wave pressure. He did not want to be a statistical victim of the current Mizukage's crazy regime, he didn't want to be part of a temple washed away on a mad woman's whim. He had the eyes of a King, more importantly he had the eyes of a traitor! Gracefully the woman stroke his cheek and looked him deep in the eyes, gently she moved her finger from his cheek to his lips and then walked away as if nothing had happened. "Oh… I sense a storm incoming, would it be fine for me and my Sannin to stay camped in your beach for the night? Perhaps you will still reconsider my offer?" the Mizukage asked curiously looking at the head monk. With his head as heavy as ever the man nodded, of course he agreed, when refusing the most powerful woman in this part of the world and having been granted forgiveness, one did not refuse her second request. This man was too easy to play with.

"There will be no storm, Mizukage-sama, why are we staying?" one of the Sannin asked while the woman smiled, "I feel the wind picking up, trust me, my dear, there will be storm. A storm of changes… Now if one of you would be so lovely as to build us all a camp…" the woman playfully spoke. It felt so great to be right, it felt so great when one set up all of her pieces of the board perfectly for a winning move. That feeling when you are just superior to everyone else was unmatched by anything else in the world… Surprisingly enough, an actual storm came, right out of the blue clear sky suddenly storm clouds gathered and it started pouring as if the hungry sea God of destruction had woken up just as those monks fear. Soon. Soon it will rain blood.

The woman never went to sleep that night, she sat waiting, waiting for that sound of betrayal and lo and behold! Screams and shouts and lonely lights lit up the bland stormy night sky.

Once the woman and her party got to the Temple grounds they were stopped, as the Sannin stared the monks that dared stand in their way down and they moved aside the woman finally saw what she came here to see – a trial in process. "Mizukage-sama, please, this is internal Water Temple matter, this man killed our head monk in his sleep, he said he wanted to bring you his head and be one of the two monks to accompany you!" the monk giving the trial speech shouted right as he saw the woman. Shirona grinned, "This man is the new head monk. That's how the world works now, that's how it will work when my new ninja establishment is complete – he killed a man therefore he gains all that his inferior had in his life, namely his title."

The monks stepped up and started making a noise. "IF NOT!" Mizukage's voice outshouted all of their voices. "I will kill as many monks as it is needed for this man to be the most viable contender for the spot. I am a very favorable woman to those that seek my approval, my allies will always get what they want as long as they are my allies, this man seeks my favor and he is the new head monk." The traitor stood from his knees, struggling out of the hold that his peers had him in as they cursed out loud into the sky. "For my first decision as head monk – two of our top monks will join her guard and follow her to the Kage Summit, disobedience means expulsion from the temple!" he ordered with his still childish voice. As two monks stepped up to the Mizukage's party and joined her cloaked men the woman nodded and thanked her "ally", she then turned around and stated to be busy and left for the boat. "So… What does this mean? Do you think this boy will hold power for long?" one of the Sannin asked.

"God no! He will get murdered on this same night, his is an empty title, without me here to uphold my own law it is but a word. These monks are all idealistic fools but their purpose is served. I don't care about the chaos that will take this place over now." Shirona turned at the two monks behind her, "Mark my words, you two will still thank me for removing you from this island. The previous head monk should've known that even his temple order was temporary, had he learned nothing from his tales of slumbering ocean Gods?" The lonely boat set out into the nightly stormy sky, somewhere further in the horizon lightning cracked temporarily lighting the sky up and then letting it sink back into darkness.

Tanshu let out a sound of frustration as he lunged forward to once again try and land a blow on the injured monk. Even with burns covering his skin this man did not show any amount of pain after clashing with Tanshu which was something that the Red Dog has never seen before. He was supposed to be second best ninja in terms of pure physical prowess, second only to Chestnut Hanasaku who was a monster to whom rules of nature apparently did not apply. It appeared that the legends about the bodies of monks from Water Temple were not exaggerated. People spoke of how apparently they trained by allowing crashing waves of stormy nights hammering their bodies and after seeing the amount of toughness and willpower that these men showed Tanshu was not feeling any doubt in those tales. Truth be told they'd explain just how in the world these men managed to become so durable.

Tanshu desperately tried to find an opening in his opponent's defenses, he attacked high and low with both direct strikes and fluid but misleading thrusts of his palm trying both striking with fists, tips of his fingers and his palms to see what sort of impact would do the most damage to these immovable monsters. It appeared that all of it was in vain. The few blows that the monk's martial art prowess did not block or deflect just hit the man's body with a thud but not even an eye twitch came from the man to suggest a painful reaction. The Sannin was certain he was doing damage but his opponent just did not show it, he did not waver of flinch. That worked as both strength and a weakness. Carefully Tanshu retreated some distance back, blocking the blows and kicks that the monk decided to return after Tanshu's offensive ended. "This is really embarrassing…" Tanshu panted out as he needed to make some things clear to his opponent while catching his breath. His opponent remained still and just observed his opponent with a blank stare.

"Monks working with ninja, men of faith and discipline working side by side with a tyrant to reach the goal of an over-glorified assassin." The Sannin spoke with appropriate amount of discontent for the matter he spoke of. The monk jumped forward swiping his fist to the side, using more his strength but not his skill. "So you believe Fire Temple's approach is better?" he yelled as his fist dug into the brick wall sending dust and specks of stone into Tanshu's eye. "Completely isolating oneself from world's problems, caring only for one's own?!" he shouted as Tanshu leaned backwards and jumped back to avoid being struck, his speed gave him enough distance to dodge even with his troubled eyes as the Sannin carefully removed all the dust within mere moments. The monk was gone! "Sitting still and doing nothing while people die and then acting high and mighty because you were not the one who made mistakes!" a loud shout came from Tanshu's back as the man felt tremendous force hitting him and sending him crashing into the stone stairs. With a forceful push from his arms Tanshu avoided breaking his bones into the stairs and leapt up higher.

"Whenever a schism occurs one must make a decision, place themselves on one of the two sides." The monk tried to catch Tanshu from behind again but the Jounin was smarter this time. The Uzumaki leapt backwards with a backflip letting the monk charge through him while Tanshu got behind the monk. A loud crashing wave of air emanated through the higher floors of the hall as Tanshu's elbow clashed with that of the monk's. "And if you remain indifferent!" the monk shouted punching Tanshu in the face from the left, "You dismiss both sides!" he punched his enemy from the right, "And if anyone dies you are to blame for all of the deaths!" the man punched from the left again, "And you are to blame for everything bad that the conflict brings because you deemed yourself too good to get your hands dirty, you were above all that!" the monk outright roared as his punch flew directly to the center of Tanshu's face where it stopped with a deafening thud.

The monk's will shook for a moment as the Red Dog's body did not fall nor did it move, the Sannin just stood there as his face barely moved back after getting hit by the oversized punch this time. "You're right." Tanshu said nonchalantly before thrusting his face forward and pushing the monk's entire punching arm backwards making himself an opening. The man's arms blurred in the air, his opponent could barely discern what was happening, it was a combination of his opponent's natural speed and his skill in taijutsu. With a powerful elbow strike to the face the Sannin sent the monk rolling down the stairs down. "But if you intentionally choose the side of the killers just for the sake of choosing a side you lose the right to use this argument. You're just as much of a trash as one who chooses no sides." the Sannin spoke staring at his opponent struggling to get off the stairs and wiping the blood leaking from their broken nose.

Below Howoku attacked his opponent with a flurry of hits, one just as impressive as Tanshu did in the upper floors. The fist of the Fourth Hokage burst with Starlight chakra as the man thrust it forward but he only managed to hit a head of a statue placed in an occasional hole in a wall which the monk substituted himself with. As the small gargoyle stone piece of art disintegrated into dust the monk's figure appeared out of the dust trying to pummel his opponent into dust that matched the kind made by his own jutsu. "Lightning Style: Safety Fuse!" Howoku yelled spreading his arms to the sides and shooting off miniature strings of lightning chakra in a small radius around himself, the monk got in too close, invested too much into his attack. The attire of the monk Howoku was fighting was set ablaze from the immense heat and strength of the Hokage's lightning technique so the holy man tore it off taking a fighting stance again. Then the monk suddenly changed his stance, standing up straight and placing his arms to his belly and raising one above his head as if he was praying. "Ninja Monk Style: Inshirrinbu Seal!" the monk shouted out as bright blueish glow shot out from somewhere behind him. It was almost mystical in nature as it appeared like the monk was standing in front of a light source. As Howoku clutched to keep as much of his ability to perceive the battlefield as he could, he had to step back and cover his eyes. Suddenly he felt a powerful clutch and as he opened his eyes he realized to his horror that he was trapped!

From whatever the source of the monk's mystical lightshow was hailed transparent blue constructs of chakra shaped almost like tentacles of an octopus, some of them were humongous and barely fit in the room but the ones that tied Howoku were significantly smaller. "Ninja Monk Style: Inshirrinbu's Wrath" the monk chanted out as if he was praying, the tightly tied chakra tentacles dragged Howoku towards the monk who delivered a crushing blow to Howoku's abdomen. The Hokage felt the taste of blood in his mouth and whited out for a moment before the whistling wind awakened him – he was flying backwards out of the hall the two were fighting in and he was about to crash into a stone wall. "Starlight Style: Bright Wing!" Howoku shouted as he swiped his arm to the side and made a crescent projectile just in time – the monk leaped behind him attempting to punch Howoku's back and break the man's spine instead of letting him crash into the wall. The monk's fist struggled with Howoku's quick and unfocused Starlight technique before it violently dissolved in a blaze of blinding white flames sending Howoku backwards and crushing the monk between the eruption of the jutsu's inner heat and the stone wall.

Howoku coughed up blood and breathed in – it hurt him to do so as the punch he had taken was quite a powerful one, nevertheless, his opponent must've taken some damage as well. The monk's burnt up and ravaged figure appeared from the smoke, the arm which collided with Howoku's Starlight jutsu looked charred up and had excessive amounts of blood on the floor below, luckily for the man the immense heat burnt every injury that it caused as well or he'd be dead, either way, even with his strange ninja monk style jutsu he took much more damage in that clash than Howoku did. He probably intended it to be that way and that was what intimidated the Hokage – by now it was clear that Tanshu and Howoku would come out on top, the thing was that these monks tried their hardest to inflict excessive damage on the both of them so that Howoku could not compete with Mizukage later if that clash ever occurred. Howoku could not allow that, he had to end it quicker than he sustains any more damage but it'd be better if he also didn't overuse his Starlight Release since it did exhaust him more than any other technique he may have used.

The monk dashed up right to Howoku, "Water Temple Taijutsu Combo: Rising Tide!" he yelled as the man punched from below aiming to land an uppercut at Howoku's chin, the technique was fast but the man only had one arm to perform it with, had he had both, he may have been significantly more dangerous even to Howoku. The Fourth Hokage leaned back and avoided the blow, the arm then descended as an elbow strike only to be blocked by Howoku's own elbow. The Hokage let out a grunt in pain as it hurt his flesh and bones to clash with such tremendous amount of physical force but it appeared like once again, even with his injuries, the monk did not even flinch. The monk tried to drive a knee into Howoku's abdomen and the Hokage decided to take that trade – he had more usable limbs and was in a hurry after all! Howoku took the knee but traded that blow for a free elbow strike to his opponent's face at the same time as he got hit, both men stumbled backwards clenching their injuries.

"You do not have to fight for Mizukage with such devotion, if she has you here by force then just let us pass and we'll tell her we beat you. This does not have to end in death…" Howoku tried to both reason and confirm one thing. It was not when the monk told Howoku his answer that it became clear but when he moved his healthy arm away from clutching his charred one and took a one-armed version of his fighting stance. "I apologize but I believe in what Mizukage is trying to accomplish, I did not do so from the beginning, I must admit but… There is truth in the words that she speaks – ninja kill each other and each other's children because they compete for territory and jurisdiction like children. If a singular entity of ninja would be established, a ninja empire… Then such petty squabbles for meaningless things would stop, after this bloodshed there'd be none more and no more blood of children being spilled… That is a cause worth dying for." Howoku's face twisted in anger. Mizukage Shirona must've been a master of manipulation to have even ninja monks twisted around her ideals like this.

"In that case…" tiny shining sparks, reminding of miniature glittering stars broke off of Tanshu's golden aura as a gigantic blade of pure Starlight Release chakra formed in his hand which the man gripped and swiped to the side leaving a trail of shining falling little stars of light. Almost like snowflakes, like little souls falling down from the heavenly shine above. "As an opponent of peace I worked so hard to establish over the years, I shall destroy you!" Howoku yelled out, he saw already that this man was beyond saving, this manipulation of men to do her bidding was Shirona's greatest sin, not murder. A murderer leaves only bodies whereas a manipulating monster like Shirona only twists one's friends forcing friends to kill each other instead. In the end she kills not only the victim of her manipulations but also she kills the person who sees their friend being played like a card in a game and then has to kill that friend. Any man who must kill their friend out of mercy of what he had become dies inside every time it happens. Even if Shirona would not achieve her goal that day and did succeed with killing Howoku, she'd have killed a part of him either way…

The monk shouted out charging at Howoku but with a slow and painful swipe the man's body lit up with Starlight chakra bursting out of the gash left by the man's technique. "Starlight Release: Pleiades" he whispered quietly as Howoku's arm swiped again and again, the blade never really made contact with the monk's body but the pulsing heat from it cut the man's body open as if it had with chakra bursting from each gash until the man had been cut seven times. Howoku's sword of Starlight chakra burst into small shining sparks and fell to the stone floor. There was no blood, the monk's body was slowly falling apart, burning up like a piece of paper with the burnt parts flying off in glittering shimmer mist. And yet… The monk was still standing. "I used to be a fool like you, monk-san…" Howoku spoke up as two little stars lit up under his own eyes, no, just small tears that reflected the pain and sadness that the man's shimmering body emanated. "I believed that maybe this one more bloodshed could end all bloodsheds, that maybe one day the killing would stop. Then one day my eyes opened. That is impossible, even if ninja will not kill each other for one reason – they'll find another. In the end there'll be just you and the deeds that you've done to get to that point, you'll be just a manslayer who has created a world that changed nothing from the world he tried to change, in other words… Just a manslayer."

A powerful sphere of chakra lit up in Howoku's arm as he pushed it into monk's body, the sphere carried monk's unconscious body away before expanding and disintegrating the man's body in a giant sphere of bursting light. "Overhope…" Howoku uttered silently as he turned away and started walking back to the hall where he originally started fighting. What Mizukage has done with the lives of the people she played with casually was unforgivable, she preyed on their dreams for peace to achieve her own ends. She was far worse than the likes of Daikon – the Third Mizukage. Daikon was a tyrant, plain and simple, he killed people because he was a sick individual who enjoyed that sort of thing, he tortured and killed people from other villages and when he got bored – those of his own. It mattered not to him who he was torturing as long as his sick ears heard the screams he yearned for so much. Shirona on the other hand… She had her own goals but she went around achieving them by using other people like tools, to her it meant nothing to make fun of people and make them only a mean to her end. What a despicable existence, Daikon was despicable but Shirona… This woman wasn't satisfied with just that, she decided to ruin lives of honorable people by making them just as despicable as she was.

This woman decided that it was up to her to completely ruin everything that the people that fought for her lived for. She just made their entire lives mean nothing by making them commit atrocities for her under the illusion of peace. She made them believe that they were achieving the ultimate goal but really they were just destroying and burning up their own legacies. Haoru peeked from the hole in stone and then looked at the busted out door, then stared Howoku down. "Now who needs some rest and medical assistance, Howoku-ninja? You ain't beatin' Mizukage-ninja with those injuries, here, this ointment helps internal injuries a lot, I wonder where Tanshu got it…" the samurai handed a small bag to Howoku who looked at it with nostalgic eyes. "A young Hyuuga woman he loved as a young man gave it to him, he never got injured enough in a battle to ever use it but he figured that young Vashia's will would've been to save lives, to make him happy so he gives this bag to his friends so that our injuries do not keep him down. If his friends die, Tanshu would fret, drink and beat himself over it and young Vashia's memory would be tarnished. That is the story of this bag."

Haoru looked up where Tanshu must've been fighting with the monk. He breathed in and out and stretched his body out, he moved with no stuttering, no obstacles – he felt no more pain. "Well, young Vashia-ninja has my gratitude, wherever she is…" Haoru leaped up and down quickly to feel his regenerated body. The medicine was no miracle but it helped as much as it was possible. It healed no bones but at least it made it easier for them to heal in the future while removing the pain from moving with broken bones. "I've no idea, all I know is that he talks about her every time he gets drunk…" Howoku smiled as he gently applied some ointment to his abdomen where he was struck, then wrapped the bandage around the spot. Haoru grinned as if he had not a care in the world and kept staring up to the staircase as loud crashes and thuds kept echoing and reaching their ears. "What a drunk man speaks of is what truly is in his heart. That is why young samurai feel so compelled to drink – they need aid to learn the ways of truthfulness, a lying sword will always be shattered by an honest one!" the man laughed out.

Tanshu and the monk huffed heavily, both men had their upper bodies dragged to the ground but only through sheer willpower did they resist the temptation to fall down and pass out. Tanshu's face was red in multiple spots, beaten and bruised and the monk's body was covered with burns and black marks. The Red Dog took a brief moment to look down the stairs to multiple floors below witnessing Howoku and Haoru standing around and treating each other's injuries. His comrades were safe, they'll get to return to their katei, Tanshu will defend his own, baby gloves could've been taken off, there were no more concerns in Tanshu's mind. The monk leaped forward, he smelled blood and knew that there was a chance that he'd be the one to outlast his opponent. A direct blow right to the monk's face sending him crashing into the staircase and making bricks and stone fly out of the construction convinced him otherwise.

"Your speed picked up…" the monk huffed out spitting several teeth out and wiping blood from his broken face, after getting pounded again and again this man's balanced flow of chakra was interrupted. His mastery over chakra control to enhance his physical abilities now mattered less than it did ever before as it now didn't feel like Tanshu was punching a steel barrier covering a stone wall – it felt like a mace hammering away at soft flesh and bone. "Hokage finished his fight, I've no more concerns over anyone else, nothing on my mind to keep me away from this battle." "You mean you didn't mean this whole fight?! You were somewhere else in your mind the entire time?" the monk shouted out in frustration, Tanshu's arm disappeared in his messy brown hair as he scratched the back of his head. "Kind of… That's why I didn't use my sword, if I swung it when I don't look at what I'm doing I can cut my own limb off by accident, I'm really clumsy when I'm thinking about something else entirely…" the Sannin laughed out admitting to his opponent that he never had any hopes of winning to begin with.

"So you're a swordsman then?" the monk asked, Tanshu took a taijutsu stance and shook his head. "My sensei taught me how to use a sword in my childhood but… I wouldn't say that I am." Tanshu replied. The monk charged forward, with near perfect precision the Sannin leaned out of every blow, effortlessly pushed away every kick, ducked and leaped over every attack before moving away untouched. The monk fell on his knees. He had trouble breathing, it was more than likely that broken ribs added to the shortage of air by making inhalation painful. "I'd give you five minutes to recover normally but… We sort of are in a rush, if you'd feel better I can think about something else again so we can fight as somewhat equals again. Make your last fight an honorable and good one. No one will notice my own wandering thoughts anyways…" Tanshu spoke, he really wanted to be done with this and go after the Mizukage but this man was a strong and disciplined one, he deserved an honorable warrior's death in combat, not to get completely trashed around by an opponent who wouldn't even break a sweat against him.

"I cannot ask you that. You have your goals, I have mine. Asking for you to hold back would be selfish." the monk sighed and stood back on his feet. Tanshu smiled for a second, he couldn't actually satisfy his opponent's desire. When he remembered the story of his own swordsmanship memories flooded back by themselves and the Red Dog found his own mind wandering again. "I'm sorry, monk, I won't be fighting you at full strength for just a little while longer." He thought to himself as the two clashed again. His opponent must've felt this, Tanshu's strength reducing, his speed dropping, the man's breathing becoming irregular and amateurish at best. It couldn't be helped, a man with such painful and long history of countless battles like Tanshu had many memories that flooded back once in a while…

Little Tanshu approached Oni Mask, he was hesitant to ask his sensei about something, usually the boy had no fear to ask anything but… This topic was different, it concerned feelings and communication - social skills. Something that sensei told him was irrelevant for a ninja and even more so for a demon. After all – a demon is what Oni Mask trained Tanshu to become. Had little Tanshu been a bad student perhaps Oni Mask wouldn't have tried so hard but Tanshu was a talented and incredibly powerful student, the best one that the old wolf could've wanted. The old man had said many times that he'd train legions of demons and yet both he and Tanshu knew that none would surpass his original student.

"Speak up, boy. If you won't it'll keep you back in training and this day will be wasted, even more, I may end up killing you and wasting my precious little demon. I wouldn't want that…" Oni Mask grunted out angrily after noticing the boy's distress. At that point he must've already analyzed the boy's feelings: Tanshu had no reservations about anything, he shared everything with his sensei and so it had to have been something that Oni Mask had forbidden him to talk about. The boy wanted to talk about "family" of "feelings" of some sort and while Oni Mask hated those things – if he didn't help boy out he would not be the best little demon he could be that day and the training would have been useless. If you're not risking your own body and life when training then may as well not train at all…

"Well…" young Tanshu stuttered, "My katei is my best motivator, when I fight to protect it I am at my strongest. You once said that if you faced someone in this room of darkness you'd be able to kill anyone, when I fight to protect my katei I feel the same way and… I know that you told me to abandon those feelings but… That would mean spitting at what makes me the strongest." The shining Oni Mask twisted around ninety degrees, after several creepy moments it returned back to its original state. "No… That is good. If you just did what I told you you'd never surpass me, you'd just be a slightly inferior version of me. That's no good at all. To ever surpass the devil a demon needs his own source of power, he needs to fly with his own set of wings and not use those given to him by his overlord." Sensei's voice sounded strangely dull and uninterested, usually he kicked Tanshu's butt whenever the boy brought family and friends up. "Go on…" he added.

"Well, I spoke with Hanasaku and Vashia… I thought that maybe we could be comrades, maybe we could develop some sort of stronger bonds with each other so that my feelings for my katei are stronger and I can fight to protect it even harder but…" Tanshu's head sunk down, his tone of voice shifted to incredibly sad. "Bubblegum-head keeps cursing me and punching and kicking me when I try to talk to her, Vashia won't even talk to me at all. Why is that? Why am I the one no one talks to? Why am I the untouchable one!?" Tanshu yelled the last sentences out in pure rage. Oni Mask moved up, the lights coming off of the mask's eyes just made a path of light rays where the little points went as the mask flipped over and went up to the ceiling. Suddenly the mask appeared right in front of Tanshu's face and the boy felt sharp pain in his gut – it felt almost like sensei's leg dug deep enough to bypass his innards and reach the boy's spine. The boy fell down on the floor and writhed around for a while. Sensei spoke up again.

"Forget talking to Hanasaku. She is a hopeless person who has nothing for her in this world – she is an arrogant person, the worst kind in fact. Under normal circumstances she always deems herself correct and the strongest, most beautiful and most talented out of all the people in the room. I'm sure that deep in her heart she even thinks herself superior to God-Eyes…" sensei's attacks kept coming but Tanshu leapt back up, following the sound of his rustling fabric he avoided his sensei's lethal blows while still getting hit a couple of times – in that room such injuries were unavoidable. "The only way to get to her is to beat her – prove that she is not better than you but… If you did that the little brat would kill herself – it is imperative for her to be the best in this world, else why bother breathing? That is why she is the absolute worst person with no hope to improve – she never assumes "what if I'm wrong", she'd rather die than be wrong and that's why she'll never grow. She'll always remain the "bubblegum girl"… Give up on her."

Tanshu and Oni Mask exchanged blows again. The boy landed several blows on his sensei by imagining his sensei's body based on the picture provided by his other senses – his hearing, his smell and touch, by seeing his sensei's mask and its position he could better draw an outline of where his sensei was and what the position of his body was. "As far as Vashia goes… Well… She's different. She grew up in a family of samurai, the only speech she understands is that of swordsmanship, you cannot bond with her with your tongue, you need to clash swords with her in order to reach out to her." Tanshu leaped backwards and wiped blood off of his lips. That night he thought a lot about what his sensei had told him, it wasn't common that sensei even spoke to him about such things so every word he was told was precious. Next morning Tanshu showed a sword to Oni Mask sensei, not the one he used to have but another one he claimed from God-Eyes' bandit he had beaten down earlier that day. "Teach me swordsmanship, Demon-sensei, so that I could reach out to Vashia and understand her heart, so that I would think of her as my friend and think more of my katei… So that I would fight more ruthlessly to defend it and become a true demon!" he grunted out. A sound of sword being drawn from the sheath lit up the total darkness. "Defend yourself" was all that Tanshu heard before getting cut. It did not matter – he was learning swordsmanship, one day he would become better than Vashia and clash with her to understand her heart. After that day maybe he'll have family again, maybe his katei will grow, as will his strength!

Tanshu's mind returned back to his body, right on time to deliver a powerful kick to the monk's chest and end their overdrawn clash of fists and kicks. Tanshu's thoughts were now crystal clear and even if he was still waiting for the day when he'd clash with Vashia, now was not the time to think about that day. Remembering that he still had that on the schedule helped him clear his thoughts though, a flurry of punches and kicks sent the monk down again only for him to crawl a bit higher up and stand back up after taking a brief moment to recover. Tanshu bit his finger and slammed his hand to the staircase "Summoning Jutsu: Fighting Dog Pack!" he chanted as three average sized dogs appeared in a cloud of smoke. Tanshu never wasted chakra on summoning dogs unless he planned using THAT later on that day so his companions knew perfectly what to do. Tanshu slammed his hands together as if he was praying, the dogs leaned forward shouted out in unison – "Fire Style: Dog Pack Bark!" letting out three conjoined heat waves at the monk.

Monk slammed his fist to the floor. His body lit up with blue light emanating from behind him "Ninja Monk Style: Ishirrinbu Defense!" powerful tentacle shaped constructs of chakra surrounded the monk in a cocoon like construction as the triple Fire Style hit him blowing the part of staircase up. After a moment the monk's body flew out of the smoke cloud heading head first to the ground floor – his impressive ninja monk technique blocked most of the damage but he still took some as his body was now burned up even more and the force that destroyed the staircase beneath his feet sent him crashing down. The dogs leaped after the monk, the unconscious monk got back into consciousness at the last moment. "Ninja Monk Style: Ishirrinbu Offense!" he chanted as his body lit up again and the same gigantic tentacle constructs pushed his body upward from the ground he would've snapped his neck crashing into. "Water Temple Taijutsu Combo: Rising Tide!" the monk shouted out as his fists dug into the bodies of the dogs and sent the canines flying up in the air where the monk's onslaught of punching the ninja animals continued. After the monk's beatdown reached its highest point the monk his elbows into two of the dogs sending them crashing down instead. The two dogs that slammed into the ground disappeared in a poof of smoke leaving only one dog that landed to Tanshu's side. The man stopped standing in his peculiar stance, his partner turned back and barked out "Already finished?" Tanshu shook his head "No problem, I will need it later on anyways, I wouldn't use that on someone like this monk." Red Dog replied.

The dog barked out and disappeared in a poof of smoke and Tanshu's body lit up in a brief flash of red light. The monk landed on the continuation of the staircase that was not broken, "What did that dog give to you?" he asked before charging forward. "That does not concern you…" Tanshu replied casually and leaped up to clash his own elbow with that of the oversized monk's. The two exchanged some blows before both of them landed on their respective platforms of the staircase that were still hanging and not blown down. The monk slapped his arms together "Ninja Monk Style: Ishirrinbu Onslaught!" he shouted out as his body bulked up, his blood vessels shot out and some must've ruptured – this technique strained his body immensely and Tanshu decided not to risk getting hit by it. An endless swarm of tentacle constructs of chakra rushed at where Tanshu was slamming into the staircase blowing it down, the monk did not end his rampage as more and more tentacles shot out from behind him and blew more and more platforms of the staircase until none of it was intact, only the couple more platforms that lead to the top floor with no way to get to them from below. And yet… Tanshu's body was nowhere to be seen.

"Fire Style: Two Headed Dog Red Bark!" Tanshu chanted shooting off double version of his Red Dog Bark jutsu of Fire Release towards his monk opponent. The ninja monk leaped up dodging it by moving in between the two masses of fire and then sticking to the wall using his ninjutsu and chakra control. Tanshu did the same. The monk roared out and lunged forward slamming his arms together "Ninja Monk Style: Ishirrinbu Drill!" he shouted out thrusting his head together as a shape of a gigantic squid construct formed around him. Tanshu leaped forward to meet the force of his opponent – this fight had gone for long enough and the Red Dog wanted to end it. A silent sound of steel rubbing against Tanshu's sheathe reached the monk's ears and as crimson red flashed in the monk's eyes he knew it was all over! Tanshu's sword re-entered the sheath as the Sannin finished his technique. "Red Dog Twin Slash!" he whispered to himself as an "X" shaped gash opened on the monk's chest and his lifeless body fell to the ground. Tanshu leaped off the wall and landed on what little remained of the staircase sliding down the stone remains and then the wall down to the ground floor.

Howoku had already finished with his wounds, Haoru looked like had done it long ago. The Fourth pouted a little, "You took extra time and you're almost without a scratch, if you had no trouble why did you take so long?" he complained after Tanshu stretched out. "I remembered something I still have to do…" the Sannin replied. Haoru and Howoku stood up from the stone floor and the three picked up their pace heading towards the next hallway. It was entirely possible that this was not the last obstacle that the Mizukage had in their way. They were lucky to avoid significant injuries even if Howoku didn't look like he escaped the battle unscathed, his breathing was more intense. Tanshu considered stopping for some more rest he remembered that he had already given him enough time by taking extra time to dispose of that monk.

Many kilometers away from the temple an intense battle was taking place. One similar to two more battles further to the south. A white haired woman was dashing around the battlefield and cutting cloaked men down, ninja with black shirts and white vests, wearing Kumogakure headbands were accompanying her by facing off against the cloaked men. Many of the ordinary ninja fell, even if the Kirigakure demons were completely out of their comfort zone in an open battlefield they still managed to draw blood from both the Raikage and her most trusted ninja. The woman's body was riddled with small scratches and cuts but it was to be expected when fighting an army of elite assassins. It appeared like the battle was just about reaching its peak though.

To the south a giant set of armor similar to that worn by samurai generals was swinging his gigantic blade around swatting endless hordes of cloaked assassins like insects. It would've been unknown to any ordinary passer by just who this colossal figure of cold steel was and where exactly the Kazekage was hidden seeing how his own men were fighting alongside this giant walking set of armor. The desert warriors of Sunagakure were not entirely in their native field as they were fighting in a rocky wasteland but these assassins they were fighting against weren't even native to any battlefield. Their hands were swift to cut, precise to aim for the vital blood vessels but still they lacked sheer force and battlefield experience. Also the Sunagakure legion had that giant set of armor laying rampage across the unarmored forces of the Kirigakure demons. In addition it had to be noted that Sunagakure forces were excited – they wanted to prove to both Kirigakure and other "Great" ninja villages that the Sand was now back and recovered after the extensive damage done to it after the Second War. Sunagakure wanted to yell out their claim to be declared the next "Great Ninja Village" and no army of cloaked Kirigakure elites was going to stop them!

Further to the south giant earthquakes flipped the tables of the battlefield, the Kirigakure demons were all running for their lives as loud cracks and rumbles intimidated even the most devoted to their cause. Giant boulders were flying around, some white flashes of light lit up and in its wake followed destruction. It was like a God of War had entered the Iwagakure's ranks and assisted the Tsuchikage as that battlefield was an absolute curbstomp. Not even a single scratch was placed on Tsuchikage's bare chest, his white hair flowed like those of a silver haired banshee devouring its victims as none squad of assassins he had set his eyes on survived even a single moment of his rampage. At some point his entire army just stood back as none in their ranks could even properly support such an invulnerable powerhouse monster that was Kaguya Yaban.

The other Kage were just about to begin their final marathon towards the Kage Summit!

A desert lizard crawled by a desolated rocky wasteland path. The little creature sensed loud and strong vibrations of the ground so it decided to get to a cover of some rocky structures on the other side while the large group that was incoming passed by. The creatures that appeared from the horizon and soon flooded the place were ones that the lizard only saw rarely in these parts, they were people. To a more intelligent observer this large party of men may not have appeared to be dressed accordingly to the climate – the men wore long sleeved black tops and wide and loose trousers, they also wore head gears that looked like turbans and some sort of flak jackets. Truly these people with peculiar headbands on their foreheads must've been sweating profusely. Little would the observer have known that these men were quite adapted to desert-like conditions as this party marching on was none other but the Sunagakure delegation moving to the Kage Summit.

It has been a while since Sunagakure took part in any political meeting. The village has been looked down on for a while and no one really bothered to invite their parties to the Kage Summits that had taken place between this one and after the Second Great Ninja War. Naturally as one appointed as the Wind Shadow the Kazekage had the right to appear in the Kage Summits even uninvited, still, since no one ever would have listened to the opinion of a leader of an unimportant in the grand political scheme village the Kazekage did not even bother with it. This time however was different – Hokage Howoku invited leaders of every village and since Howoku was a man who had protected all peace – the state of Sunagakure included, the Kazekage decided to respond in kind. Had it not been for Howoku's excessive worries of countless peace treaties between all of the villages Sunagakure would've been erased from the map, his peaceful lockdown status quo had helped the village recover and regain power which made it much more of a player on the map. Kazekage headed to the Summit to make a statement – he was sick of Kirigakure and their arrogant and elitist behavior for a long time, it was time that those cocky bastards saw that Sunagakure was back in power and was powerful enough to judge the Mist as equals.

A man walked up to the hulking figure of Kazekage, most Sunagakure ninja were rather short, Kazekage was well over two meters tall so the natural shortage of his men stood out in comparison even more. "Kazekage-sama, there are people ahead, I sense a large concentration of humidity increase in the air up ahead." Kazekage stopped and looked up ahead, "You are an Advanced Sensor, correct?" he asked his man, Kazekage already knew the answer but he wanted to be sure. "Yes, Sir!" the man nodded, "I am a sensor with the additional advanced ability to sense humidity of air and sense its alterations – that makes my sensory more acute and lengthens its range!" Kazekage scratched his chin and ordered his men to take a round defensive formation placing his Wind Release users on the outside where they could've crafted powerful gusts to defend everyone on the inside. Sunagakure had very few types of ninja: Wind Release users, Puppet users, Weaponry jutsu users and Sealing jutsu users and Sand Release users. While such unimpressive assortment of skillsets may have made Sunagakure military predictable, it also helped each leader craft battlefield strategies much more successfully and easily.

The party advanced forward, there was no way that the Kazekage would allow an opportunity to declare the rising back of their village be burnt down to nothingness just because he got afraid of an ambush. He'd crush those insolent fools who thought they could bully the Sunagakure around, these fools apparently forgot the times they lived in and had to be educated that this was no longer the post-Second Great War period. Iwagakure and Sunagakure were powerful villages to be placed among the Great Ninja Villages – Kirigakure, Kumogakure and Konohagakure. The Great Three had to move aside and make place for the returning villages or be swept aside by the winds of change. The Kazekage very much planned to make an example out of those men planning to assault him and his men.

"Akasuna Mugao, by the orders of the Mizukage Namikaze Shirona I sentence you to death." a voice spoke right behind the Kazekage. "Shit… How did he get there!?" the large man wondered right before his throat was opened by the assassin. However it was not blood that shot out of his neck – it was sand as the Kazekage's bulking figure collapsed into a vortex of sand that surrounded the assassin. A young man stepped up and thrust his fist forward. "Sand Coffin! Sand Funeral!" the young man chanted energetically as the assassin's body was crushed by the sand and collapsed lifelessly onto the ground in the shape of water. "A water clone trying to assassinate a sand clone… Interesting!" a cloaked figure further back declared out loud as the real Kazekage removed his cloak and threw it aside. "Well done, Guuma, I'll take it from here." The Kazekage observed his attackers – up on the twin rocky fields up ahead stood two squads of cloaked men with blue Oni Masks – the Kirigakure Demon Corps. Most elite assassins throughout the entire Ninja World and yet… The size of the squad suggested to the Kazekage that these men must've not been the most elite Demons, they were but trainees, even more – an assassin had no chance against a warrior on the battlefield. These men came to this wasteland to die!

"Men! What we have here is a free chance to kick some Great Ninja Village butt and be in the right, let us not waste this chance!" the Kazekage shouted out vibrantly as his voice let the men know just how excited their leader was to kill some Kirigakure Demons. Kazekage Mugao removed a large staff from behind his back as the Demons jumped down and attacked his men. The large hulking brute swung it around swatting several men aside – the Demons stood back up and continued attacking him and his men. With a simple flick of his finger the Kazekage transformed his staff into a scythe. Now these Demons would not just ignore his blows, the Kazekage clashed with one of the Demons, the brute just thrust and pulled the scythe to him disarming the assassin and swung his scythe around. The man that Mugao was attacking leaped back into the fray of his folk with a powerful backflip but several more Demons found the battlefield to be too stuffed with men to dodge the wide reaching weapon and fell to the rocky ground to never stand up again.

A painful sensation alerted the Kazekage of an attacker from behind. Several swipes of a knife opened some painful wounds – the assassin then tried to stab the kunai right into the man's neck but the knife got stuck into something metal. Kazekage turned around only for his body to be met by kicks and a backflip hiding the Demon once again in the fray of battle. The man grunted as he felt warm streams of blood run down his back and softly tapping onto the rocky wasteland – these Demons meant business, they were silent, quick and agile. Trained in arts of wielding a kunai and how to remain silent and unnoticed until the knife was already plunged. If Mugao held back or underestimated these men he'd really die in here. "Kazekage-sama!" someone alerted the man of another assassin, Kazekage ducked and saw a knife flash above him aiming for the man's neck. The giant turned around and swiped his scythe upwards cutting one assassin down, another one jumped in out of nowhere and cut Mugao in the leg, slowing the man down. These men were so numerous and so fast that they easily compensated their lack of high hitting destructive power potential. They fought like bees against a hornet – all swarmed up on one, everyone died but left their impact. Kazekage slammed his scythe down and grabbed one man who had injured him by his face, "If you're trying to kill a man, at least have the decency to look him in the eyes, Demon!" he roared as Mugao slammed the man's puny head against his own shattering the demon mask and spilling excessive amounts of assassin blood on his face.

The man then lifted the unconscious but very much alive Demon and showed him to his men. "See, men?! These are not Demons, these are boys who have peed in their beds until yesterday! Let's send them back home to their mothers and their cups of milk!" The Kazekage picked his scythe back up and swung it around, clashing with the demon's knives, defending against the endless onslaughts of the enemy and drastically reducing their rank with each swipe. "This is stupid…" the brute wondered to himself "I only took five hundred men, just enough to demonstrate Sunagakure's rising military potential but… This is a full military squad, Kirigakure intends to destroy us! This is one fourth of an actual army… Wait a second… No… They wouldn't do something like that…" Kazekage wondered to himself as he sent more and more assassins down on the rocky dirt. Two assassins swiped at the Kazekage's eyes trying to blind the man, Mugao dashed by them avoiding the attack and gently tapped their backs. "Human Puppet Jutsu!" he shouted controlling the assassins like his own puppets and sending them after their own.

The Kazekage's puppets cut down several more assassins, someone tried to cut the strings much to the Mugao's enjoyment. One could not cut a puppeteer's strings without a chakra conductive weapon of certain controlled flow. These boys clearly had never faced a puppeteer, it took several dozens of men to finally stop their own human puppets and even then – they only struck down their own comrades! Kazekage tossed his scythe forward and his fingers twitched revealing a slight chakra glow on strings attached to the scythe. "Puppetry Style: Phantom Weapon Jutsu!" he yelled out controlling his scythe as if an invisible ghost was wielding it, as if the scythe had a mind of its own cutting down countless assassins and troubling countless more. Still, this battle was not going well – Mugao kept hearing desperate cries of pain from his own men behind him, occasionally his own body lit up with pain as more of his blood colored the rocks of this cursed wasteland. If he did not end this quick it'd be ended for them! Furiously the giant roared with a battle cry slashing wildly, taking on many assassins and angrily trying to compensate the extreme difference in numbers. He clashed with tens of assassins at the same time by himself, trying desperately to keep these men focused on cutting him down, getting hit many times in the process but saving many times more lives. Mugao's men saw the devotion of their leader and it inspired them to fight that much harder, faced with overwhelming military power they fought back like beasts, no, like true Demons educating these fakes of the true meaning of the word. Even when they fell, each Sunagakure ninja took ten if not more assassins with them. These kids cut to maim – Suna ninja cut to kill.

"End this now!" someone commanded the army as the assassins dashed back forming a large circle and started madly weaving seals. The Sunagakure ninja tried to intercept but as they dropped their guards heading for the distraction they were cut down. The ranks of Mugao's men were now incredibly rare. "DARN IT, THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN!" Mugao roared leaping towards one part of the circle aiming to cut them all down but being confronted by the assassins protecting the circle ninja. "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" each and every assassin in the circle chanted spitting out masses of water that took the shape of dragons and lunged towards Mugao – such an overwhelming combination of Water Dragons would've crushed the man's body and stripped his flesh from bone from the sheer pressure.

The loud roaring water dragons all slammed where Mugao stood forming a powerful flood, violent crashing waves flushed Sungakure ninja away momentarily but the violent water didn't let the Kirigakure Demons proceed to go for the kill, they'd have to pick out the remaining ninja after the water calmed down. Finally the water settled down and ran into fissures and small holes everywhere in the wasteland, washing the bodies of the fallen away. As the battlefield was cleaned up the Demons tried to confirm the death of Akasuna Mugao – the Fourth Kazekage but… There was no body! Where Mugao stood and was supposed to be crushed by the water stood only a giant set of armor – one reminding the samurai of the past, no, reminding a general of those samurai. There was one man in the Iron Country who was like the Kage of the samurai called Iron Shogun. This fancy and edgy colossus of steel reminded most of the armor that the Iron Shogun wore. From inside the puppet a cybernetic voice came, similar to the voice enhancers that the Demons themselves used – maybe even taken from a dead Demon Corps member infiltrating Sunagakure when the armor was built.

"Puppetry Style: Iron Shogun!" the cyber voice of Mugao declared reaching for his back and pulling a giant sword and swinging it around swiping the worn out bodies of the assassins aside. The Kirigakure Demon circle of Water Dragons was no more with a single swipe of Iron Shogun's blade! This was the true power of Akasuna Mugao, the inheritor of the ancient art of puppetry and master of the little known internal puppetry. The art where instead exposing themselves the puppetmaster was hiding inside the puppet they were controlling and so to get to the puppeteer one must have penetrated the alloy of the puppet. Seeing how the Iron Shogun was barely bent by the onslaught of the Water Dragon techniques such penetration was highly unlikely. The assassins all charged at the Iron Shogun at the same time, thrusting their knives and trying to find gaps in the armor but even as they found them their blades could not reach the soft skin of the man inside. With a powerful shake the puppet armor shook all of the assassins aside and with a swipe of his blade finished them off while they were down.

With an excessive attack the likes of which no one had ever seen before the Shogun dashed forward as his feet shot out flames moving the whole giant structure forward. With powerful and fast swings of his sword the shogun finished off the last of the Kirigakure military force sent to dispose of the Kazekage. After the last assassin hit the ground the Iron Shogun's chest opened up and Mugao leaped out of the armor with it transforming into an exoskeleton like construction which the giant put on like a backpack. The man's tired and sad face turned at his men – observing only less than twenty survivors and a clean battlefield. It is unknown where the tide had washed away both the Demons that were treated like throwaway tools and those unfortunate enough to get killed as a result of an order made by a sick tyrant. "Aaaaaaaargh!" Mugao shouted out angrily as he punched the rocky ground opening up wounds in his knuckles. Just like that his country was reminded of the times when they were ravaged down to near-extinction by war.

"I'm sorry, men…" Mugao spoke up to the survivors, "I wanted so hard to enter that league of champions again, to have our village be placed among the Greats but… I think I may have forgotten what that meant. Before we had the benefit of their pity, we were not attacked from behind, we were always protected by those stronger than us but the moment we walked out of Konohagakure's shadow we must fend off by ourselves. You must understand that this will be the norm now, we'll have to fight every enemy dumb enough to wish to bring us down by ourselves with no one to help us." "Kazekage-sama…" some surviving men tried to calm the grieving man down but the giant just looked at them. "You know what? Fuck their pity, they can pity the men we send to the Afterlife and pity their own filthy selves for ever daring to pull sick shit like this. Now let's go to the Summit and kick Mizukage's ass!" the brute yelled out inspiring courage into the hearts of his devoted surviving men.

"Well… I wouldn't be in such a rush, Kazekage." a low pitched husky voice spoke up from the same rock where armies of assassins were located previously, the Kazekage and his men looked up in horror and saw a man in a black jumpsuit and a blue sleeveless ninja outfit like those worn by Kirigakure ninja. And yet the most scary accessory of them all was his white with blue strips Oni Mask. The man jumped down and stared at the Kazekage, only when the hulking brute returned the Demon's stare did he notice the steel leg appendage that the man wore – this must've been a much older and much more experienced Demon. While the Kazekage wondered just how much functionality did the man have with that metallic leg something suggested that he shouldn't have underestimated the man – he must've seen the Iron Shogun and still revealed himself after all. Either this Oni Mask man believed that he could take the Iron Shogun out or he was just devoted to his Mizukage until the end.

"Back up, I have lost enough men today as it is and I am not losing anyone else, if I fall that means I was unworthy of the title of Kazekage – retreat and elect a new one! Remember the meaning of our actions, bring our village forward to the ranks of the Greats!" Kazekage ordered and his men obediently backed up. "Kazekage-sama…" they almost teared up by the devotion to the village that this large man had. "You do not need to bother, Mizukage Shirona will take over as the Ninja Empress, there will be no more meaning to the useless title of Kage." The man wearing the Oni Mask put a lot of faith in his master. Kazekage broke out a grin – "So old man Daikon finally lost his grip, huh? New butt on the chair, same bullshit…" he cursed at the Oni Mask as the men prepared for an inevitable fight that would break out.

The two men continued to stare each other down. Each of them was competent in close range fighting techniques so it was important for them to properly assess the situation, observe the opponent's stance and find any openings they could exploit. A weak breeze sent tumbleweed rolling around but the wandering plant did not distract the two shinobi who continued to stare each other down. Kazekage's eyes were full of determination to destroy this high ranking member of the Kirigakure Demon Corps, a man who was in high position of the order that killed so many of his trusted men that day. It was impossible to clearly say what exactly Oni Mask's eyes looked like, his demonic mask removed any signs of the man being human and with each battle and lost limb he reminded less and less of a man and became much more of a demonic ideal he strived to be.

"I wonder…" one of the ninja who survived the scuffle with the assassins mumbled but only his closest friends heard him. They curiously looked at their troubled comrade with questioning glares.

"This man, he clearly is a high ranking Demon… What if he is THE Demon? Kirigakure's Legendary Demon who survived a battle with Star of Hope Howoku and killed Raijin's Prophet Sorano twenty years ago." The shinobi finished his chain of thought as his comrades looked at the assailant with newly found fear in their eyes.

"You mean the man who then got promoted to Kirigakure Sannin by the Water Lord after a suggestion from Third Mizukage, tyrant Daikon himself?" someone in the group of survivors shouted out in surprise. The fact that all Demons concealed most of their bodies: their faces and every trace of their skin made identifying the specific Demon near impossible. This man could've been whichever one of the Demons, he could've been THE Demon and no one would have known. In some ways the Kirigakure Demons were perfect ninja as no one knew their identities, no one could even pin a specific person to a battle or event because of how secretive and utterly badass these men were.

"Yeah… Rumor says that the particular Demon can only be identified by one feature – he is missing a leg. This man seems to wear some sort of metallic leg which makes one wonder: is he the real deal or if he is just messing with everyone taking other Demons' names…" the Sunagakure ninja concluded as the group continued to stare the nameless Demon down. This man definitely did his homework if he was impersonating the real Oni Mask as his body build and height was identical, he was missing the same leg that Raijin's Prophet Sorano annihilated. It would've taken some effort to properly identify and confirm the man's identity but it didn't appear like the Kazekage even cared about that.

Suddenly the Demon just dashed forward leaning his head up front and shooting at the speed of an arrow cutting through the air. His arm lit up with lightning sparks as the man thrust it forward cutting through air, the Kazekage leaned to the side avoiding the thrust. Oni Mask leaped into the air swinging his metallic leg in an impressive jump kick but Mugao once again outmatched his opponent by leaning below the kick and avoiding it. Utilizing the momentum of his jump kick Oni Mask spun around and thrust his other leg down in a vertical kick. Mugao's iron staff blocked the strike, the man flicked a switch on the weapon and blades shot out of the scythe. A silver flash lit the air up and the Demon leaped backwards covering a wide gash on his chest, Mugao decided to keep going he tossed the scythe forward twitching his fingers to activate his puppetry technique. "Puppetry Style: Phantom Weapon Jutsu!" he chanted sending the scythe cutting like a disc saw. The Demon's speed was impressive as he quickly avoided certain death ranging the puppet strings out but he still got cut in his mask, he had to thrust his metallic leg forward and damage it as well so that his fleshy bits didn't get amputated in an instant.

"Look at his chest! It's burnt up, he has to be THE Demon from twenty years ago! So this bastard survived!" the Sunagakure ninja shouted out having witnessed the man's uniform tear up and reveal his burnt skin underneath.

"So this is the man who worked with two infamous Sunagakure nukenin: Hana and Vashia…" his comrade exclaimed angrily to himself before raising his voice, "Kazekage-sama, let's retreat! Fighting such a man after a lengthy battle may be dangerous, we have no reason to fight a man who has already killed one Sannin and survived the fury of another!"

"Don't make me laugh!" Mugao shouted back at his subordinate. "What we have here is a chance for me to prove to these people that Sunagakure is powerful once again, what is a Kage worth if he cannot best a Sannin?" the puppeteer lashed out.

A loud laughter echoed through the wasteland, one that reached even the dead or still dying bodies washed away from Kirigakure's previous assault. Not that they even understood the significance of this laughter. "It is you who makes me laugh, Kazekage, how dare you even wear that name when Sunagakure had not had a Sannin level ninja recognized by all countries in over twenty years? Yours is an empty title, only a Sannin is worthy of ascending to Kage and you're just mocking your title, you just sit in the big chair because you are the strongest in a country of barely breathing weaklings. You're the strongest of "get-byers", master of the average league." Oni Mask spoke up at last "Shirona-sama is right to eliminate shameful jokers like you."

After finishing his speech Oni Mask once again tensed his muscles up and leaned back making his body shoot forward at incredibly speed, his muscles lit up with passing through lightning sparks and the man thrust his arm forward impaling Mugao through the chest. "Even in her late passing years, way past her prime, Lady Sorano gave me more of a challenge than you, pathetic!" the Demon declared after his eyes opening up wider under the mask in shock. A part of Kazekage's face fell off and slammed onto the rocky floor making a wooden sound, as the impaled man's head lifted up making his black long locks move out of the way of his face the Oni Mask was revealed cartoonish round eyes and a wide clown-like smile on the face of the man he just "killed". A loud wind cutting swipe whistled in the air, blood covered the rocks as the Demon stumbled forward and fell on his knees with another gash on his back.

"It's a shame that my scythe seems to have gotten dull after cutting down so many of you Demons…" Kazekage Mugao taunted his injured opponent from behind. The man replaced his body with one of his puppets and did it so incredibly skillfully and fast that even the extremely powerful and experienced opponent like Oni Mask was fooled by it. "Had it not dulled so much it'd have cut you right in two…" the man finished his thought, however he did not count on his opponent to retaliate so fast.

With a loud deafening roar of anger the Demon jumped up and turned around, it was like pain and bleeding did not even matter to this man. "I seem to have underestimated you, Mugao!" Oni Mask shouted out as his kick from his metallic leg connected to Kazekage's chest making the man spit up blood from somewhere in his chest. A powerful punch dug deep into the Kazekage's face sending the man stumbling back, as large as Mugao was even he felt the damage that Demon's inhuman strength did, or perhaps it was callback from his endless previous battle with the young Demons? No, it was the combination of the two, this strongest of Demons was smart, he purposefully planned all of this, he must've known Mugao's personality and that proving the worth of his village was more important to him than anything.

"Then again… You know as they say, the sharpness of one's weapon only depends on the spirit of the user!" the Demon taunted his opponent as lightning emanated through his body and the man thrust his elbow forward right into Mugao's chest. "Demon Kenpo!" Oni Mask chanted as his gigantic opponent gurgled up blood and fell onto the ground with a giant gaping wound on his chest.

"You bastard!" two Sunagakure ninja shouted out as they charged at the Demon angered by the fact that their opponent held his own against the Kazekage himself. With a simple and effortless move Demon opened up the weapon user's defense and with a pinch at the man's throat the brave Sunagakure shinobi fell down on the floor lifeless. The Demon then leaned to the sides avoiding the onslaught of Sand Release techniques as if they were nothing, as hard as the young Jounin tried to tag the Demon he had no luck.

"Ahh, the famous Sand Release, a combination of Wind and Earth Releases only found in Sunagakure… What a pathetic piece of junk." Oni Mask taunted his younger and inexperienced opponent by thrusting his elbow covered with lightning chakra right through the tightest sand defense that the young Jounin could put up. "Taste the strike that killed your master! Demon Kenpo!" Oni Mask spoke driving his elbow into the young man's chest and almost cutting him in two as well. The arrogant Demon's head cocked back and twisted to the side creepily, the effect and creepiness of the man's twitching motion was only made stronger by his lifeless and scary mask that he wore. The infamous Oni Mask Demon was tough enough to instill fear even in the middle of the day outside his room of darkness.

"Well… Aren't you a medical ninja?" the man addressed a young woman with a ribbon on her right arm. "Go ahead, help your friends. Or do your best trying to avenge them… It'll be fun seeing which one is more important to…"

The man's speech was cut short by a headbutt that sent him flying back, with a powerful roar and a burst of chakra that made the smaller pebbles around the Kazekage spin around in a mad twister Akasuna Mugao was back on his feet ready to rampage again. "I already did help Kazekage-sama!" the lady medical ninja shouted out in desperation hoping her hardest that the flying Demon heard her. Oni Mask's sight quickly focused on the shining trail of sand that the young Sand Release user had set up previously and its slight greenish glow. "So the woman transferred her chakra through the sand that the young Sand Release user missed… No, he was targeting the Kazekage the entire time… I was played." Oni Mask realized as his body hit the ground breaking something out loud.

Demon's body twitched and the man shouted out in pain, but he was still moving, it was only a matter of time before he stood again and killed every single one of these Sunagakure ninja! "Hmph!" the Kazekage grunted arrogantly as he tossed his giant scythe forward. "Puppetry Style: Fisher Combo!" he shouted as the scythe dug deep into Demon's metallic leg, with a powerful pull the Kazekage dragged the Demon up close to him again and then dashed forward pushing his shoulder forward and clotheslining the man right back down.

"Kazekage-sama is winning!" the Sungakure ninja cheered on their leader but Mugao's face remained calm and observed his seemingly lifeless opponent who didn't even more for some time.

"I don't get it, why isn't Kazekage-sama finishing that bastard off? Just stomp his head and crush him into the rocks! He and his men killed so many of ours, he deserves no mercy!" the medical ninja shouted before she herself heard her own words, gently shutting her own mouth and covering it with her palm.

"It isn't that easy…" a fellow Sunagakure ninja spoke occupying the young lady's attention. "You see the Fourth knows that his opponent is still alive and conscious, in fact, it's entirely possible that the Demon is ready to counter attack the moment that Kazekage opens his guard for a finishing blow. Since Mugao-sama is well educated in close range fighting he can see that if he opens up he's as good as dead so he is waiting for his opponent to make a mistake again instead. In this situation being patient is the way to survive." the man explained to his comrade. Mugao's eyes did not move from the seemingly lifeless body of the Demon, desperately waiting for the man's counter attack so that he can drop him again, hopefully this time for good!

Suddenly blinding light flashed making the Kazekage cover his eyes, the unexpected flashbang even forced the Sunagakure ninja cover their eyes as well. "Flashing Demon Kenpo!" a loud triumphant shout reached the ears of all who were covering in fear of the Demon. A terrifying flesh cutting sound alerted everyone that once they opened their eyes a very cruel slap from reality will bring them back from an idealistic dream to the cruel world that they lived in. Kazekage opened his eyes first, he looked at his own bare bulky chest and was surprised that he was OK, the man then turned to his right witnessing the cruel twist – the Demon chose to kill the young medic instead of him.

"W-Why?!" Mugao shouted out, his voice twisted by pain of endless loss and grief. These people here were his most trusted men and women and most of them won't be coming back home. That was the reality of war, no, reality of peace. How could the reality be so cruel when the countries were no longer in war? What was the point of all this meaningless murder in that case? Was this their own fault for dealing peacefully with cruel madmen who only wanted the world to turn back into the primal warring state it was in since its conception? Oni Mask pulled his arm out of the medic's chest as the woman collapsed lifeless. It was clear that she died before realizing what had happened.

"What do you mean? If I chose to kill you she'd have brought you back again, when you punch a barrier and it doesn't break, it's just plain stupid to punch it again, you just kill the person holding the barrier. That is the path of a Demon, the path of an assassin. Shinobi are assassins so if you cannot handle these truths you have no place in this world. The fact that you weep over loss of one ninja just proves to me that Shirona-sama was right, the current generation of Kage have all forgotten the ninja way." Oni Mask spoke as the Sunagakure ninja around him cowered and fell back on their backs, crawling back like worms running for their life. Hiding and squirming so that this man, no, this Demon didn't choose their own life to claim next.

"See? They're all running away. This is the reality that you and Fourth Hokage cannot grasp, no matter how they all talk, no matter what ideals you put in their heads, inside their feeble hearts people will remain people. They will praise and cheer you when you are succeeding but the moment you get stabbed they'll just drive another knife into your back and twist it to stay alive. That is the cruel reality. Peace cannot exist in a world of violence, the very idea of peace is sick in itself. You believe me to be insane? No. It is you who is insane, Kazekage Mugao, you and the other Kage are the real madmen. We are ninja, our function is to kill the people the Lords point at, we have no morals and no place in our hearts for humanity. No. There can be no place for humanity in hearts of killers and deceivers. Humanity needs to be abandoned to leave only a Demon inside. That is how true ninja are made, that is how Demons of the Demon Corps are made."

A man crawled out from the safety of a rock and stood up, his hands were down and his face was covered with tears. "Kazekage-sama!" he cheered out.

A woman walked out from under a rock that was on another rock covering her position and providing shade, she was holding another injured man who thrust his fist into the sky. "Kazekage-sama!" they both cheered at the same time.

A man who remained crying over the young medic's body lifted his bloody forehead, covered with the blood of the young woman who was struck down, the man wiped the blood off his eyes and glared angrily at the Demon, then turned at Kazekage Mugao. "Kazekage-sama!" he spoke quietly with only his shaking pale lips to help put his words together from unintelligible banter of a man taken over by sadness and grief.

"Hm…" the Demon almost broke into a brief laugh as he looked at the injured and saddened ninja who all walked out of their covers and stood back on their feet, no matter in how much pain they were, no matter how injured they were. "KAZEKAGE-SAMA!" they all shouted into the air deafening all other sounds in the wasteland, even the vultures waiting on top of a big rocky mountain until the scuffle ends and their endless feast begins leaped off and flew away. The prophets of death and the cruel reality of a battlefield were scared away by the determination and will of the brave Sunagakure ninja.

"You seem to believe me to be wrong?" the Demon concluded looking at Kazekage's furious and cold eyes. "The truth is that people like these fools exist but they are not an exception to the cruel reality of life. That is because…" another flash blinded the people as the Demon repeated his murderous offense aiming at another brave ninja. "They all die in the end so they cannot be counted as true reflection of people!" the Demon concluded thrusting his arm towards another ninja.

A powerful clang echoed through the wasteland and a shockwave shook the ground below the ground of all the temporarily blinded ninja. After the flash bomb's effect cleared the Oni Mask stood clashing against the Kazekage's scythe, the man's eyes were closed – he moved following his other senses and intercepted Oni Mask's lethal thrust in time with his scythe.

"There are no fools among the people I care about!" Kazekage replied with a cold and angry voice.

The two men continued to push their weapons at each other, it was surprising to see Oni Mask's body holding completely still against a physically superior opponent. Kazekage was a towering and bulky man. He completely blew away the image of all puppet users being puny and having to use puppets to protect themselves. Even so Oni Mask managed to hold his own and not get completely blown away in a struggle of physical strength, this spoke volumes of the physical prowess of Tanshu's sensei. Finally Mugao decided to end this struggle, quickly he cancelled all of his efforts to push the clash of the weapons back at his opponent making Oni Mask slightly stumble forward losing his balance.

The brute then leaped into the air flipping over as if air itself was a surface for him to roll around, his scythe extended forward held by the man's puppet strings and spinning forward in a mad vertical spin. Oni Mask had little time or ability to evade the technique. The man turned around and raised his metallic leg to his chest to block the scythe. Blood shot out of Oni Mask's body covering the cut up rocky floor which now had a giant fissure right in its center where Mugao's spinning technique cut the rock in two. "Puppetry Style: Desert Wind" Kazekage exclaimed calmly pulling his scythe back to his hand. The great weapon had penetrated right through the artificial leg and dug deep into Oni Mask's chest, it didn't seem to have hit any vitals but the man was still kept on his knees and didn't look in much of fighting condition.

"He's won!" someone in the ranks of the Sunagakure ninja cheered out and someone else raised their hand to calm them down.

"It ain't that simple, we've seen this Demon act like dying and counterattack like crazy before. The vitality of those Demons is incredible, unless he quite literally stops breathing it is useless to call it a fight…" the ninja said angrily. He was right, the Demon was halfway down but he was still huffing and if anything his life threatening injury just seemed to piss him off more.

"Give up." Mugao asked his opponent, "This is pointless, even if you do kill me you'll never beat my men in this condition, whatever the outcome of our battle is – it's over for you with that injury." Kazekage grunted out, anger did cloud his judgment, he wanted to just skip the reasoning part and keep pounding the face of this man until that fancy mask he wore was in pieces but… Reason was what made him different from the people he fought, he wasn't a blind murderer who killed everyone in sight. He was not above killing and was capable of murder but that didn't mean that such punishment needed to be abused without reason.

Demon stood back up, he no longer laughed or threatened, he just stood back up and took a fighting stance – now it was serious for him. "Don't joke with me, killing you was always my intention and my orders, even if I kill you and your men kill me afterwards my orders will be fulfilled and that is all that matters." Oni Mask replied. He was quite obviously lying, dying while following orders was never his intention and while he knew that even if he beat the Kazekage he'd never beat the rest of his men afterwards he was confident that he'd manage to escape them. What was another diversion or a smoke bomb if it meant his own escape. They would just all clutch and protect each other and gather around watching the backs of each other, too busy to be worried over their own throats to chase him.

Oni Mask leaped forward, so did Mugao. The Demon put both of his palms together and shaped his hands as if they were a jaw, running lightning chakra through it. Mugao slashed from the side when the Kirigakure Sannin thrust his hands forward. "Demon Kenpo: Nasty Bite!" he named his technique as it clashed with Mugao's long end of the scythe. This did not end this exchange of attacks however as Oni kept pressing harder and pushing his hands forward further. Loud cracks came from the center of Mugao's scythe as the thrust cut it in two leaving the shattered chunks of steel all over the rocky wasteland. His arms also hit Mugao's chest but the Lightning Release chakra had already went out by that time and it barely even affected the Kazekage.

The hulking puppeteer swung both his scythe and its other broken end of it as a blunt weapon, with a leap clenching his bleeding chest wound Oni Mask flipped over his opponent avoiding this attack. Oni Mask then thrust his arms backwards to his sides, "Demon Kenpo Secret Technique…" he chanted striking his opponent in the back as his arms pierced through his opponent's body like butter. "Demon Claw!" the Demon finished naming and casting his technique as the lightning chakra around his body calmed down and settled. Kazekage's body collapsed into wooden pieces and parts, Demon quickly leaped backwards hearing some sort of sizzling sound before the entire puppet replacement exploded with dozens of more explosive tags spilling into the air and exploding in a chain reaction. It was only due to his agility and natural speed that Oni Mask managed to get back. His wound spat up more blood.

"You don't have much time…" Mugao stated standing at the side and declaring his observation nonchalantly. The arms of the Demon once again lit up with Lightning Release chakra. "Demon Kenpo: Nasty Bite" he shouted out thrusting his palms into his own chest. Mugao jumped up and shouted in shock – within moments the bleeding wound cauterized itself even if Demon's body twitched and shook violently – it was clear that such treatment of one's own injuries was painful. An elderly woman shook her head in disbelief, a young man close to her looked at his fellow comrade and asked her what was wrong. The elderly woman pointed at the Demon, her eyes were sad and depressed as if she was… Pitying the man.

"Can't you see it now? The origins of all those burns? His body is the way it is now because he kept cauterizing it himself this same way… With the extent of them he must've been cut and stabbed in every part of his body at some point." The woman explained.

"That's right…" Oni Mask exclaimed grunting out in pain, his voice was twisted and in much higher tone. The pain clearly was too much for him to completely ignore and block out as he was cauterizing an already burnt area of his body. "I was the very first Demon that Kirigakure created. The original program that was supposed to create a Demon was so intense that I needed a technique like this or I would have died instantly, even up to today I am the only survivor of that program and it was heavily modified after that generation all died out. Whatever injuries you inflict on me, I took ten times that during my first day of training… There is nothing you can do to a Demon's body that scares him. After becoming a Demon one is completely immune to torture or fear of injury and death because they've been through it countless times already and left unimpressed."

Mugao's eyes squinted as he looked at the Demon with eyes of sadness and pity as well. "After we take your master out… We'll fix that hellhole of a village, I promise you that much, Demon. No other child will have to go through what you went through." The man spoke in a tone that infuriate Oni Mask. Without replying a word the man jumped forward thrusting his palms behind and getting ready to strike his opponent. This was a total offensive stance – it was near impossible to counter or defend in that manner of attack so his attack must've been something to leave the enemy no chance at striking back, Mugao prepared his response, he thrust his now significantly shorter scythe forward slashing downwards trying to cut the Demon down, timing the attack just right. In an impressive leap over the scythe and his tall opponent Oni Mask landed behind Mugao.

Oni Mask's fingers twitched revealing string wrapped around them, the man violently jerked his hands forward stretching the strings out and revealing a loop on Mugao's neck that now cut tight into it and was strangling the man. Mugao tried to pull the steel string more at his side so that Oni Mask moved in closer and the grip of the wire loosened up a bit, it would've been quite useful in keeping his head on his shoulders too as the steel wire pulled at the extent of strength that Oni Mask did was quite capable of taking an entire limb off – luckily enough Mugao had the strength to keep that from happening.

"What speed… What variety of attacks and ways to kill an opponent. Kirigakure may have created the most dangerous human weapon alive…" the Sunagakure ninja wanted to step in to help but Kazekage's arm shot up to stop them. They were an absolute non-factor in this battle. All the more experienced ninja stood down, a single youngster turned around and started scolding his superiors.

"What are you doing? We must help Kazekage-sama! For how long you think he can keep this up!?" he shouted out when another Sunagakure ninja appeared behind him and placed him in an arm lock.

"It is true that we are all strong ninja, however at some point in one's experience it stops mattering just how many less skilled opponents come at you – it makes no difference. There is a level of experience when only a superior opponent can beat you and no number of even slightly weaker opponents can overcome. Even if we fought together with Kazekage we'd just get in his way – he'd have to incorporate us into his plans and strategies, inform us and coordinate his actions with ours – that'd keep him back. We've trusted Fourth to get this far, let's trust him to finish what he started as well." The shinobi said and released the youngster who looked at the battle taking place.

Blades shot out from under Kazekage's cloak, the blades wrapped around his chest making a skeletal structure – almost like a ribcage, then more and more shot out when one pair of blades cut the steel wire. Oni Mask instantly dashed back making some space. More and more constructions appeared from under Kazekage's cloak, it was like all of his puppets were now disassembled and being reassembled into a combined armor structure. One puppet became sort of like a puppet control panel and stuck onto the front, some more formed platforms that reminded of legs, some more formed into arms, other stretched out into a gigantic sword. With one last puppet forming into a helmet the entire armor construction was complete – a puppet fusion Iron Shogun was once again rebuilt.

"You must've really gotten desperate to use this." Oni Mask spoke up.

"What makes you think I didn't just now stop underestimating you, maybe I could've used this the entire time?" Kazekage taunted his opponent from inside the colossal Iron Shogun that was at least six times the size of the Demon.

"I was wondering why you didn't pull this out from the get-go, I think now that I've seen how it is built I understand…" Oni Mask smiled under his mask making it slightly shift forward and almost slip off by stretching out the rubber that held it tightly on the face.

The Iron Shogun didn't let Oni Mask talk, the giant armor lifted the sword up and thrust it forward cutting into the rock and opening up another fissure, also sending a crashing gust of wind at his opponent that cut through the rocky floor it passed and even cut every rock it passed through, with a roll to the side the Demon avoided it.

"A puppeteer uses chakra to control their puppets, more accurately – controlling each puppet is like a continuous technique of its own. When I saw the sheer number of puppets it took to build this… I'd say you have to strain yourself quite extensively to keep it up, manipulating such a complex structure must be difficult too, it must be a pain in the butt to use. It's not hard to put together that I just have to keep dodging your attacks and eventually you'd die of your own exhaustion, shall we try it, slowpoke?" Oni Mask taunted the giant set of armor, Iron Shogun leaped forward as flames shot out its feet propelling it like small rockets, Oni Mask rolled below the sideways slash of the giant blade and then unleashed his counter attack.

Lightning chakra passed through the man's palms as he bombarded the structure with strikes, using just his two fingers to penetrate the steel armor, the Demon leaped onto the construction and ran up it using chakra to keep his feet stuck on it. The Iron Shogun tried to catch the man but his speed by far surpassed it, Oni Mask got to the helmet, leaped into the air and stomped it a couple of times before landing behind the armor after kicking off of its head. The Demon then backflipped a couple of times in rapid succession to safe distance from the colossal set of moving armor.

"It is true that normally no blunt force could penetrate this chakra infused alloy of yours but… That's how force works – if I hit you strong enough covering a precise small area and don't let the force evenly distribute throughout your armor I can easily cut inside it, too bad my fingers aren't long enough to reach you in there…" Oni Mask spoke up as he stood back up. Iron Shogun also stretched out and took fighting stance. It was quite obvious that the large hulking armor was at a disadvantage – Oni Mask was fast enough to keep the armor in a safe range and just poke it away until he hit something that caused it to stop functioning or Mugao timed out and died of exhaustion.

The Iron Shogun turned his sword around and cut air again sending a projectile of cutting wind, Oni Mask once again avoided it and leaped forward. "Demon Kenpo!" he shouted striking the armor several more times but not even leaving a dent in it. Iron Shogun tried to swat the Demon aside but the Sannin just ran up the Demon's arm and leaped down on the other side over his shoulder within just couple of seconds. "It seems he can reinforce his armor with some additional puppets…" Oni Mask thought to himself leaping back a couple of more meters just to get some more safe distance from the Iron Shogun whom he had clearly underestimated.

A loud clanging echoed through the wasteland as the armor's gears turned again as it slashed to the side once again, this time however some more puppets shot out from the Shogun's back forming into spear-like projectiles handled by bunch of steel wire. Oni Mask was already in the air avoiding the wind projectile, once again having underestimated the Iron Shogun's offensive capabilities. The spears penetrated Oni Mask's body right through and tied him up after leaving it, the Iron Shogun swung his opponent around before slamming him into the rocky ground head first. The body that hit the floor dispersed into a puddle of water making the Iron Shogun angrily trample the ground in frustration.

"I don't think this armor is effective against me, it is a tool of outlasting your opponent, tanking any blow they throw but you are the one short on time. Leave this armor at once and give me an honorable victory, it's not as fun seeing you die slowly of exhaustion nor is it as easy for you as I can make it." Oni Mask suggested but he just heard a brief laughter that sounded so strange coming through the cybernetic voice amplifier. All of a sudden the rock beneath Oni Mask started feeling so light – the man's body started sinking in it as if it was…

"Sand?!" the Demon shouted out in surprise as his body sunk deeper and deeper underground.

"I may have anger issues but I wouldn't have stomped the ground unless I wanted to grind the rock into dust using the pulsing shockwave puppet units in my feet. They generate a chakra shield-like pulse within anything I stomp and utterly crush it, when they are not part of my feet I use them as shields as they can deflect a lot of attacks and break most weapons. If it can smite steel rock is a poor comparison…" the cybernetic voice coming from the Iron Shogun explained as the man once again stomped the ground sending another powerful pulsing shockwave through the rocks turning it into dust and putting tremendous kinetic shock on Oni Mask's body. "If he's hit by it most of his bones should be broken. Capturing someone like him would be pretty cool, I bet no other village has captured a Kirigakure Demon alive yet…" Mugao thought to himself.

All of a sudden an arm burst out of the grinded to dust stone. The Iron Shogun took a couple of steps back in shock. The arm then started digging the dust away and made the body almost swim out of the dust. The Demon couldn't stop shouting as his body stood – he was experiencing immense pain by using bones that were broken and that was pretty much all of them.

"This man can move even with most of his bones broken!? Can nothing stop him!?" one Sunagakure ninja shouted out in fear as he stepped back several steps.

Oni Mask collapsed onto his knees, then hit the ground. His pain ended just as suddenly as it erupted from the ground. Mugao kicked the chest of Iron Shogun out and leaped out from the puppet. He looked at the few of his ninja, one of them closed their eyes and concentrated on the collapsed man. "His chakra is… Weak… He's alive but he's shaving at the edge, if he'd be able to throw a punch at this state I'll eat my own tool pouch" the sensor replied.

Mugao fell onto his back, breathed in and out, he had never believed he'd met an opponent like this. He somehow thought so highly of himself this whole time that he believed that his own power placed Sunagakure among the other villages, after all – how could one best HIM? This fight showed him that the ninja world was vast and that it had all kinds of people. But most of all it made him love his fellow ninja even more. Mugao felt a cold refreshing wave of chakra pass through his body, there was still someone with the ability to heal among the survivors… Good.

"What will we do after this?" the man heard a voice of a friend, "Head straight for the Kage Summit, I want to see the face of this "Shirona" when she sees me bust down the door." Mugao laughed out before clenching to his painful ribs. It'll take an hour or two for this inexperienced medic to heal him at this rate but even the fact that he had someone like that in the first rate made him appreciate his people even more. They trusted him and they assisted him every step of the way – placing their lives on the line when needed, bringing him back from the jaws of death when they were needed, helping him right now. He was the leader of the best village in the world with the kindest and the strongest ninja, no young brat Mizukage has the right to try to take that away from him!

A crushed and grinded in the dust Oni Mask was blown away by a gust of wind, spinning around as the wind carried the dust away and spread it around.

A cold howling breeze picked up a bunch of snowflakes from the ground and mixed them up into the fray of those that were already coming down. The clouds in the sky made the edge of the Land of Snow where the Kumogakure delegation was coming from extremely gloomy and dark. It almost looked like the place was on a completely different time zone, as if it was early morning hours in the Land of Snow where it was actually slightly past the midday. The constant blizzards and snowing that have pelted relentlessly at the faces and the very souls of the travelers have calmed way down compared to the degree they were terrorizing the delegation in the Land of Snow before. Still, the fact that snow was endlessly shaving off the last remnants of the shinobi patience made them happy to finally be close to leaving the accursed desert of endless snow and ice.

It was hard to tell clearly one ninja from another – all of them wore ponchos or hooded cloaks to shield them from both the cold and the snow. One of the hooded figures turned at another – a short feminine figure whose murky blue hair were visible even from the large hood she was wearing. "Raikage-sama, it seems like the worst is over. I still do not understand why we had to travel on foot? Locals make insane profits from caravanning people from one side of the Land of Snow to another. That's pretty much their most profitable profession…"

The woman's fingers emerged from under her poncho and she reached for the veil that protected her face from snow bashing into it. With a graceful movement the woman removed it and took in some fresh winter air and sighed. "Unfortunately you chose to accompany this lowly swordswoman to her goal, that you did. The likes of this lowly swordswoman do not deserve to traverse using the aid of caravans, that they don't. Disgraced swordsmen like this lowly one must walk their own cold broken roads with their own bleeding feet, I am very sorry that you had no choice but to follow me on that journey, that you did." Samaya Imasu was a very attractive young woman, possibly the youngest of all the Raikage and maybe even all Kage in general.

"I still don't quite understand what is so lowly about you, my lady, you are a great hero who was chosen by our people to lead after you took out a truly disgraced and lowly Raikage. Truly you should have more faith in yourself…" the cloaked bodyguard shrugged still looking curiously at Imasu. The woman was only the Raikage for over three months and she already made vast improvements to the way that the previous Raikage ruled. The Fourth Raikage – Afolabi Kimya was a promising leader. The boy was a ninja who basically raced through the ranks and entered the Kumogakure Spec Ops by the time he reached fifteen years of age. However when he was given absolute power he sort of caved in on the pressure and constantly abused his power, Afolabi constantly disappeared from the meetings and Summits only to be found ordering his villagers and entertainers around to "dance" for him or "give him all the food" off of their stalls. He was a boy that had far too much power and thought himself above everyone else because of it. For that reason when he discredited Kumogakure during the greatest Summit of all in recent times, after a blunder that nearly cost the peace of the entire Shinobi World and the unique relationship between Kumo and Land of Snow, Imasu herself drove her blade through the boy's heart.

Many people still felt like Imasu was a very controversial figure to be placed in the big chair but she was the best candidate. Afolabi almost cost the Country their peace openly offending every other Kage in the Summit and he played a dangerous game by outright demanding the friendly objects of peaceful offerings that Kumogakure and Land of Snow exchanged for generations as part of their numerous gentlemen agreements. Behavior like that could've cost far too much, the moment when Mizukage stood up to declare war Imasu plunged her blade through the boy's heart and fell to the ground begging the tyrant of the Mist to reconsider. It was only through sheer luck that blood of Afolabi pleased the tyrannical Daikon and a war was avoided… After that followed multiple years of trying to find the right candidate, while Imasu did the right thing ultimately in the eyes of the world she was very affected by the fact that she betrayed the man she swore to protect by killing him from behind. Her personality would've never allowed herself to become the next Raikage and it took long years of convincing for it to happen. So far the woman had been performing exceptionally well.

"Don't even bother… It's said that Lady Imasu has been raised and trained by Haoru-san of the Iron Country samurai – one of the swordsmen who wield the impossible God Sword jutsu. It is said that the man's training was so rough on the little girl that she grew up into the woman she is today… Just go with it." A man from the side spoke out loud, even Raikage herself heard it and she just giggled to her palm before gently rubbing her hands at each other to warm them up a bit.

"True… Master Haoru was a rather strict man but one has to be strict to educate a lowly loser like this one, that one does." Imasu replied looking at her men that surrounded her shielding the woman with their bodies just in case something went wrong.

Expected by no one white figures burst from the hiding of snow that perfectly concealed their white cloaks, men tossed a flock of kunai at every figure in the delegation which only had about fifty men plus the Raikage herself. Some of the men made it in time to react, some only blinked witnessing the kunai pop right before their faces before the assumed end. A couple of them didn't even notice the attack to begin with but this did not speak of their inexperience – all of these were most trusted men and some of Kumogakure's strongest ninja. If anything it spoke to the credit of the swift and stealthy Kirigakure Demons. They dove out of their holes and fired with pinpoint precision all at the same time – it was a perfect ambush, the infamous Blitzkrieg Assassination plan.

A loud chain of clangs echoed through the fields, then a sound of flapping poncho and light footsteps reaching the ground reached everyone's ears.

"My my… What a lowly failure, that I am…" Raikage spoke up spinning multiple kunai at her fingertips right in front of her men. "This lowly self only managed to pin some of the kunai and had to deflect the others, that she did… To think that this one had a whole second to react, that she had… Master Haoru would hit this lowly swordswoman's head into a tree stump and stomp it a couple of times, that he would." Imasu mumbled out in a tone only intelligible to herself and couple of men close to her. A younger ninja shook so hard in her shoes that her cloak slipped off of her shoulders.

"She caught most of the kunai and deflected all of the others using just her bare hands… I didn't even see her move!" the youngling kept shaking. Another Kumogakure jounin close to her laughed out and gave the young woman a thumb up.

"Never worked with Raikage-sama? This is her not even being serious… I don't know who these guys are but they are in a world of trouble." the man couldn't hide his own excitement. It was almost like he desired to see Raikage fight because it was a sight to behold.

The white cloaked and white masked assassins pulled out their kunai and took an offensive stance. "Fifth Raikage – Samaya Imasu, by the orders of Mizukage Shirona-sama you are to be executed. You may choose to surrender and have your men be spared if they swear loyalty to Shirona-sama – the soon to be Ninja Empress." One of the Demon's spoke up in a cybernetic altered voice which was supposed to further dehumanize the human weapons. The Raikage took several graceful steps forward and pulled her blade out showing her sheathed katana to her enemies by lifting her hand holding it to the eye level.

"There it is, Raikage's true strength!" one of the Kumogakure ninja shook with excitement and tried his best to keep his eyes on his idol, he knew it'd be to no avail – no one could ever see Imasu move, it was said by drunk story weavers that even Haoru blocked her attacks only by predicting them and not actually seeing them coming. Her speed surpassed even the eyes of world's strongest swordsmen. She was the pride of ninja – a kunoichi trained by samurai who surpassed her mentors even though her pride and ambition still needed work. At times it appeared like Imasu couldn't fathom her own strength herself.

Suddenly the woman plunged to the ground dropping her sword in front of her and pounding her head to the snow. "This lowly one surrenders, this one knows the Fourth Raikage had offended Kirigakure and if this lousy loser's life is the price we must pay for peace this one shall gladly surrender it but spare my men, that please do!" the woman kept bashing her head at the snow and ice beneath so strong that blood broke through and covered her lovely face. Ashamed and blushed her guard walked up to her and forcefully put Imaya on her legs and pointed at the assassins

"They're not here for that, Lady Raikage! They are here because Mizukage Daikon was succeeded by some other crazy tyrant! Please defeat them and let us move on to the Summit, Raikage-sama, we're already late because you decided to walk the whole time!" the shinobi pleaded, however as their attention turned to Imaya's blade it was no longer there, the back rows of the Demons were already passing it around. All of a sudden the Demons just leaped forward dashing towards the Raikage and her men. The Kumogakure ninja engaged the Demons and a violent clash erupted. Kumogakure was known for the strongest military in the ninja world but they were severely outnumbered in there. Even if the Kumogakure ninja were all experienced warriors fighting bunch of assassins on a battlefield of warriors, even if a single Kumo jounin surpassed a single Demon in sheer fighting prowess it did not matter having the difference of numbers in mind as none of the Kumo jounin had yet reached the stage where mere numbers didn't matter.

"Keep the sword away from the Raikage – she is a famed swordswoman so she must not get her blade!" the altered voices of the Demons spread throughout the bloody battlefield as the sword was passed backwards again and again.

"I see… So that is your plan then…" Imaya jumped around in place a couple of times as her katana was once again in her hands despite her not even appearing to have moved at all.

The Demons were absolutely stunned and overwhelmed by the woman's speed, "H-How fast… Is she?" one Demon stuttered before being cut down with a powerful gash opening up on his chest. Then another. All of this happened while the Raikage was absolutely invisible, this time it didn't look like she was standing still – she simply disappeared momentarily before a single Demon was effortlessly cut down and colored the snow with their blood.

"All Demons, focus on the Raikage, at this rate she'll pick us off in seconds!" a Demon commanded as all of the men started retreating from their murderous rampage slaughtering the Kumogakure men and all lunged at the Raikage at the same time. A powerful shockwave erupted as a deafening sound of steel clashing took the hearing away from every ninja on the field. Most of the Demons were shouting into their speakers asking what had happened but none of them could hear it. After a brief moment and more cloaked Demons joining the ranks of the beaten down on the snow with a strong beeping noise everyone's hearing returned.

"Was that some sort of a jutsu?!" a shinobi asked his comrade who looked at the cerulean haired swordswoman in a poncho and shook his head.

"No… Imaya-sama just clashed with every single Demon who attacked her and blocked the blows of all of them at the same time…" it looked like his friend struggled with believing such a statement but then after being reminded of just how fast the Raikage leaped around the battlefield dispatching of numerous assassins suddenly he found her clashing with each assassin momentarily after another much easier to believe. The assassins once again switched their targets and tried to cut down as many of the Kumogakure men as possible but… Somehow each time they tried to backstab the ninja their blade just hit an invisible wall – the Raikage made it in time to protect every single one of her subordinates in time. It was like she was omni-present and omniscient. It was like when the Raikage moved the time around her stopped.

That being said – this sort of fighting had its toll on the Raikage as she was seen breathing heavily and barely even lifting her sword off the ground for moments after moving. She barely had the time to counterattack the assassin's advances and only defended her own men. Raikage herself was supporting her men and not taking the center stage which was slowly becoming troublesome as none of her men managed to openly compete with the highly trained elite Demon Corps.

"Damn it, Raikage-sama! Stop protecting us and start cutting those bastards down!" one of the ninja yelled out after seeing what his leader was doing.

"But… This lowly self must protect those that she holds dear, that she does!" Imaya huffed out.

"Then cut all of them down so fast that we don't have time to get hurt!" another jounin challenged the woman, "If you cannot then you are a loser unworthy of your title!" it appeared like the man knew of the woman's personality and played his cards right. It was almost like at the very same moment three streaks of light lit up and set several assassins on fire on their bodies. As the Raikage's figure appeared behind the entire squad of assassins many of them fell down to the ground bleeding and covered with some sort of white fire that was crackling like lightning taking them over. "Light Step Style: Thunder Cat Paw!" Raikage mumbled to herself as she sheathed her sword and turned back seeing a significant majority of the men fall down on the floor covered with glowing white crackling light cuts that burned out like flame without air and left just the cut on the body of the men cut down.

"S-She's moving at lightspeed?" one of the Demon grunted out intimidated by the name of the technique.

"Don't fool around, no ninja can possibly be THAT fast. That is impossible! She's just really damn fast…" another assassin shouted out so most of his comrades could hear.

Imasu smiled, her body flashed almost instantly to the bodies of other Demons and she only appeared for a brief moment before drawing her sword and cutting them down so fast that it was questionable if by the time she appeared she was even there. More and more Demons fell down. "It's true! She does move at lightspeed!" as the ranks of the white cloaked assassins reduced they became visibly more intimidated.

"This? This isn't "Light Step Style", this is just "Quickdraw", this lowly self just runs really fast for a moment, that she does…" Raikage smiled more Demons tried to attack her but only hit an afterimage as the real Raikage barely even had to spend any effort to avoid the attackers' techniques. One by one more Demons fell as Imasu kept showing off what she called her "Quickdraw". Then suddenly she stopped.

"You see, this one trained with Master Haoru her entire life and only managed to master "The Three Steps", that she did. Step one is – Quickdraw Step, that it is." Raikage disappeared again appearing before an assassin momentarily before her hand blurred and the assassin fell down, this repeated in rapid succession multiple times as when the assassins tried to counterattack the woman simply wasn't there anymore. Then the Raikage reappeared where she stood when she explained her First Step.

"When this lowly swordswoman uses the Quickdraw Step, she moves so fast that while most trained ninja can follow her movement no body with some special technique can respond in time, that they cannot. In other words, you see this one but cannot respond. Then, there is Third Step, strangely enough while this one learned last, it is less useful than Second Step – Sound Step, that it is"

After the woman finished her speech the Demons weren't about to take the woman's assault, they quickly formed into a wall and made handseals in fast coordinated fashion "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" all of them shouted out in synchronized fashion sending countless dragon shaped waves of water towards where the Raikage was. The projectiles slammed into the spot completely decimating it and drilling through. All of a sudden the water that was made by the technique froze almost instantly. The assassins believing in their success just stood there and continued to wait to see Raikage's crushed body, their eyes could only feast on an empty decimated block of unsteady ice however.

"At this step as you probably have guessed – this one moves at the speed of light, that she does." A voice reached the Demon Corps as they turned around and it appeared like the embodiments of fear – the Demons were starting to understand fear themselves. Blood freezing screams of pain echoed through the field as numerous assassins fell down on the ground having been cut down in pretty much no time at all.

"It's a very flawed Step, that it is. The way Master Haoru sees it – this lowly loser moves so fast that for a brief moment – time stops, making this one move instantly. However when someone is as lowly as me and moves so fast, they are affected by very large increase of their own body mass which I have to compensate for by spending monstrous amount of chakra to keep my body moving. Also... I just like Second Step better, that I do." The woman kept talking, explaining her entire skillset to bunch of dead men, or at least so the Demons had thought. Imasu was not a woman who cared too greatly of the secret of her ability, she had no problem just telling people how it worked.

"Why! Why would you tell us all this!?" a Demon shouted out angrily, at this point he felt like a cornered animal who was ready to do something stupid because of how hopeless his situation was. Imasu smiled.

"It is simple, this lowly swordswoman has no problem about letting people know of her ability, that she does not. This one feels so miserable for killing one she swore to protect that this one deserves death, please! This one wishes you to challenge me and kill me so this one can die in peace and be redeemed of what this one did, that she does!" Raikage bowed her head slightly as her subordinates started yelling at her that this was not the time for that sort of sentiment.

"Flee!" the Demon grunted out angrily "We did not expect Raikage to be this powerful, if we keep fighting here we'll just die needlessly and if we join Mizukage-sama we can assist her in bringing this woman down!" the man ordered as the squad of Demons started to slowly retreat. Imasu took a Battojutsu stance and dashed forward. "Sound Step Style: Supersonic Draw!" she uttered under her own nose.

A powerful round burst of air roared and exploded violently sending the snow, ice and several trees forward at immense speed and grinding them into dust as the woman's impressive charge and drawing of her blade broke the sound barrier wiping not only the remainder of the Demon Corps out but also decimating the battlefield. Imasu breathed out heavily as she sheathed her blade. "W-What… The…" one Demon was still breathing and talking but it came out of immense effort and willpower. The cerulean haired beauty turned at the man.

"This is the Second Step – Sound Step, that it is!" Imasu smiled.

"She… Moved… At the speed of sound as if it was nothing!" a Kumogakure ninja shouted out in disbelief, another ninja shook his head.

"No. Her body only moved at half the speed of sound, she then suddenly stopped and transferred her force into her dominant drawing hand. It was the speed of her drawing the blade that broke the sound barrier which she further enhanced using chakra – she used a natural occurrence and kicked it up to a different level. It's easy to see why Raikage-sama favors this step – it makes her move much slower but it annihilates everything in her way, she doesn't even have to cut anyone, it's just the sound barrier being busted that crushes everyone close to her. That is the scary woman that is Amaya Imasu, the Fifth Raikage!"

Further away a blond man admired the destruction from afar. He reached for the blade on his back – the Executioner blade and looked at it. "Yes… This woman will do fine, she's just right to challenge us, under this kind of pressure we shall excel!" the man shouted out in excitement. Another Sannin was about to challenge a Kage!

The Fifth Raikage looked around examining the losses. Having the might and numbers of the attacking force in mind they were few, there were several casualties and multiple more injured but the injured ones were being taken care of. From the process of healing it appeared that the medical ninja had started treatment well during the battle – their trust for their Lady Raikage was that great that they were willing to leave their backs exposed. Imasu drew her katana and drove it to the ground kneeling by it as it tore through into the snow and ice. Wet and cold chills passed down the woman's body as the water soaked through her trousers and her poncho.

"This lowly swordswoman is sorry for all the casualties, that she is!" Imasu shouted out. Her heart was quite literally eating itself over every life lost. She was trained by some of the world's most potent masters and there she was letting someone die. That was unacceptable, how could these people even tolerate a woman like her as their leader was a complete mystery for the Raikage. A Kumogakure ninja stood up and walked up to the kneeling woman and patted her on the shoulder, "We'll forgive you this but just this once, now get up and do your job, Raikage-sama!" he gently replied. The man knew well that this woman needed to be spoken with differently, she always degraded herself and needed to be berated even more to get anything done. Such was the trauma on her feeble mind that training with Haoru – one of the four swordsmen wielding the God Sword techniques forged. A lifetime of traumatic experiences was not easily broken, still, seeing how she was the Raikage even as one handled Imasu the way she needed to be handled she still had to be respected which constantly made insults sound rather weird.

"Water Style: Water Trinity Jutsu!" a loud and low pitched strong male voice reached everyone's ears. Those that had enough time to look up and notice a bulky male in the sky falling down with his hands raised and a gigantic sphere of water above his head would've seen one of the three Kirigakure Sannin – Wakashi Moya also known as "Executioner of the Clouds". The man was called that because of his strong lower body and his style of combat which involved high and powerful leaps, acrobatic flips and having his gigantic Executioner's Sword in mind – he always cut people down from high above. The man was a handsome and well-built one – his body perfectly suited his great blade and he was a bit taller than the average individual which helped his muscle even up throughout his body. He had wild blonde hair and wore strange ragged clothes that gave him that certain "bad boy" vibe that most women loved, still, only the dumber and inexperienced ladies messed with this man when they saw him at the bar due to his wild reputation.

As the water sphere slammed into the area it exploded into countless bursting streams of water that soon formed crashing waves and flushed every tree and everything that wasn't deeply rooted into the ground. After the destruction ended the entire battlefield was covered with an even thicker surface of ice once again, this one by far surpassed the previous one that covered the ground due to the collective Water Dragon jutsu hitting the field. Strangely enough not a single person was hurt. All of them were tossed down rather rudely onto a higher hill where the destruction was less severe. It seemed that even the impossibly fast Raikage had trouble this time – while she didn't leave anyone behind she lost her poncho, the people were scattered around suggesting extreme haste and she was not even able to stand tall and was on her knees breathing heavily in front of the attacker.

"Samaya Imasu, I am the Kirigakure Sannin – Wakashi Moya and I intend to destroy you!" the man spoke with serious eyes but his lips couldn't help but twist slightly suggesting that the man was a bit excited.

"Is it because of this woman's – Shirona's orders? May this one perhaps at least know what this one had done to her to deserve her hatred? This one would like to know if there is something this one could do to perhaps fix that, that she would." Imasu asked before she finally broke through the fatigue and stood up clenching the handle of her katana and taking a fighting stance preparing to fight this man.

"Initially my orders were to kill you but even Shirona-sama seemed to have miscalculated your abilities. None of our soldiers even came remotely close to matching you and so the best course of action, having my orders in mind, would've been to rejoin with the Mizukage-sama and assist her in taking you down instead. However after seeing your power, Samaya Imasu… I see that you are an amazing woman and I am one who wanders through the bars every night looking for a good brawl. Not to fight you would be completely dismissing my ideals and that I could not forgive myself, your men can stay calm, I don't give a shit about weaklings like they are, you are all I want and I want you to just focus on me and not bother defending them!" Moya shouted out removing his Executioner's Blade and taking an offensive stance.

"You bastard, you keep talking about pride and wanting to challenge our Raikage but she just fought an entire army of elite Demon assassins!" one of the Kumogakure ninja shouted out waving their fist at the Sannin.

"You retards, those trash weren't the real Demon Corps. Had they been you'd all have been dead, they were normal soldiers dressed as the assassins in order to properly utilize their reputation, to instill fear into your hearts. Kirigakure doesn't throw their Demons around, you know, a single operative is worth more than an entire squad of ordinary ninja." the Executioner replied with a cruel smile.

"This one sees, that she does. Then it is alright. This one shall fight you, that she will!" Imasu responded.

Right as the words left her mouth the Executioner of the Clouds charged forward, swinging his gigantic blade. As fast and powerful as he was, by the time his swing was completed the Raikage was right below him having ducked under his blade and drew her sword cutting deep into the man's flesh and sending him upwards into the air. Just before the man fell down the Raikage sheathed her blade and drew once again from an upwards position slashing in an arc-like motion to crush her opponent's body into the ground. With a powerful shockwave emanating through the ice and the ice shattering making cold water cover the battlefield the Executioner was sent underwater. This must've been some cold shower for the man in both literal and figurative of meanings.

With a wild roar the man burst from the ice and charged at the Raikage kicking off of one of the floating ice platforms – he was incredibly fast for a man wielding the blade of that size. Imasu was completely caught by surprise by how fast the man had recovered and she used some of her speed to try and dodge the attacks but she slipped and fell into the water just barely avoiding getting hit. Moya laughed out and jumped back onto his platform.

"Be careful, Raikage-sama! Your speed might not be suitable for slippy surfaces like solid ice!" he shouted into the depths of cold water. The woman's hand shot out of the water and caught onto the icy platform dragging her tired and freezing body onto the surface. The woman removed her poncho as it slightly got in her way.

"Your skin… What was that when this one cut you? It was like it turned black and spikes emerged from it, that it did?" Imasu asked reminiscing a moment just before when two of her cuts hit the man but his skin hardened making him avoid getting cut and just getting thrown around by the force of the swing.

Moya turned his head to the side and spat out some cold water and then smiled at the Raikage, "That's for you to find out" he added as he leaped at the woman again. This time the Raikage had learned her lesson and didn't use any of her steps, she simply twisted her body sideways to avoid the crashing of the sword and while using the momentum of her movement drew her blade jumping up and cutting all the way from the man's groin through his stomach and deep into his chin. Only sparks flew out as the Kirigakure Sannin's skin once again dyed black and some weird spikes shot out from it, the sheer force of the blow still tossed the man's body up into the air.

The man recovered from the hit faster than the Raikage could follow her attack up as he swung his blade diagonally, the Raikage just barely avoided getting cleaved in half by flipping her body sideways. Then Moya slammed his sword downwards as if he was crushing the woman with a heavy object, while the Raikage's blade lit up with chakra and managed not to break her body was once again sent violently crashing through the ice into the manmade icy lake below. The water started washing the icy platforms away and they started crashing into the shores. The Raikage once again barely dragged her beaten and tired body onto the icy platform and started crawling further where there was no water. She was freezing and was beaten around so hard that it reminded her of the times when she trained with Haoru. While she was fast it didn't matter if she couldn't properly use that speed on ice, while her speed was an amazing way to easily cut people it didn't matter if her cuts didn't count and just slammed into whatever armor that man had on him.

"Step of Sound: Sonic Boom!" the woman shouted out as her voice revealed to anyone that heard it just how hurt and afraid she was. It took her only one strong and impossibly fast step, accelerating from nothing to half the speed of sound and then drawing the blade transferring the force. This technique was different than "Supersonic Draw", it did not involve the breaking of the sound barrier and enhancing that shockwave, instead it focused drawing the sword so fast that the air particles were pushed to fly faster than the speed of sound forming an actual sonic boom projectile – it traveled far and hit hard. The cannon of air shot forward violently tearing through the ice and throwing the water to the side splitting the whole lake and making the water leak outside its borders. Now the whole place again reminded of the desolated wasteland of ice and snow – the water and the solid ice surface was now gone!

Moya covered his body and bent his knees, his body once again dyed black but as the cannon wave of air hit him he realized that it won't help – his armor started cracking, as the air became so think that the armor couldn't even keep him on his feet the man's body was tossed around like a ragdoll and shot into a small hill and bashed into the rock. Any man would've been killed by such brute force, their skin and flesh would've been torn off from their bodies from the intense air pressure and yet… When the smoke and the whirlwinds of snow cleaned up a giant sphere reminding Imasu of a turtle being wrapped in its shell was etched into the icy hill. The woman slowly made her way forward – the strenuous workout from using her technique heated up her muscles a little bit and she could at least act like she's ignoring the effects of the cold.

A large armored tentacle shot out from the armored sphere and bashed into the hill sending the shell forward, in mid-air the shell reformed into the man that made it and that man mercilessly swung his sword – the woman tried to step backwards but the sheer size of the sword left its mark as a giant scratch from her left shoulder to her hip made her white out for a moment. Warm blood shot out from the wound but it somehow felt good, the pain didn't feel nearly as bad as it normally would have but to Imasu… It all just felt nostalgic! The man tried to follow up his attack by swinging again and again but the woman's incredibly agility made her body blur even in his eyes as she near effortlessly evaded every strike while looking the man right into his eyes angrily. Her stare secretly made Moya's heart freeze, it couldn't just have been the cold. Such terrifying killing intent!? Where could this woman have learned something like that?! What sort of monstrous power could those eyes restrain?

The man spun around quickly trying to cut the woman in half at her torso but her blade clashed with that of his own! How was this possible?! How could she so easily compensate the immense strength and size difference? "She leaped back and then charged forward converting her speed into force!" the Sannin realized thinking to himself of the woman's secret as his body was pushed back with immense force and his balance broke, the man's body once again turned into a giant rolling black turtle shell and rolled backwards before another tentacle shot out stopping it instantly in its path further from the woman. The shell reformed into a man and he charged to cut her again but then suddenly the man just stopped and dashed back as his heart filled with doubt – he didn't feel like his full potential was behind that strike! This killing intent of Imasu Samaya was inhuman!

"What's the matter? This one was preparing to respond, that she was, you broke this one's rhythm, that you did." Imasu's cold and bland voice reached the man's ears, it wasn't like before, it now reminded him of THAT man. Haoru of the Iron Country samurai who without breaking a sweat fought off all of the Kirigakure Sannin and proceeded to challenge the Mizukage! What could the Raikage have in common with that man? Wait… He said something back then…

"I don't know who this young chick is, but she is most certainly not Samaya Imasu, I myself taught the young girl swordsmanship and I know her speech mannerism too well. This person is a fraud which makes me assume the rest of you runts are too…"

Moya's memory flashed back to the Kage Summit hall. So this woman was taught by him, he was her sensei? How that possible? Didn't samurai hate ninja and refuse to involve themselves into ninja matters? Why would someone like Haoru even teach this woman? Moya had to know that, he sheathed his sword and straightened his body. "Hey! Please reveal to me why Haoru of the Iron Country samurai trained you? I can see a lot of his dark deadly feeling inside of you. You reek of the same sort of killing intent as he did."

Imasu stood into a drawing stance, her cold eyes looked into those of the Kirigakure Sannin's. "Your power brought back the memories of those days to this lowly swordswoman, that they did! I cannot allow those precious days to sink away so I'll be short. This one's parents died during the Second Great Ninja War, this one left the village to find a death of her own and this one would have since she wondered into the Iron Country by accident, that she did. Master Haoru thought that "this one had balls to waltz into this country" and said that "this one's hairy eyelashes amused him" so Master Haoru took this one under his wing as a student, that he did. This one was an experiment if a ninja could be taught the Bushido ways, that she was. This one has told you all there is to tell, that she has, let us finish this so that this one can settle matters with Shirona-sama and crush her hatred for this one. This one wants to fight her the most, that she does, so draw your sword!" Imasu shouted out.

The tone of this Imasu was different, it was not confident but it was loud, while she still spoke with the same tone and had the same strange speech pattern she had a certain shade of imposed aggression in her voice. Moya smiled and weaved multiple handseals. Suddenly a thick mist started to cover the surrounding. "Hidden Mist Jutsu!" the man's voice reached every ear in the surrounding area. The man's figure completely disappeared into the mist, not even his footsteps could have been heard and having the man's speed in mind he could close distance incredibly fast. A wild swing of the blade appeared right in front of Imasu's eyes but it only hit the mist and then the ground making icy rubble shoot out from where she stood moments ago. The Raikage had dodged the stealthy assault even if she had mere moments to react.

"This is the ancient secret art, a style of combat only taught in Kirigakure called "Silent Killing". It involves the hidden technique of "Hidden Mist Jutsu" as well as strenuous training to make one's footsteps completely disappear into the mist, you cannot hear me, you cannot see me, you cannot feel me or taste me – as far as your perception is concerned I do not exist until I wish for me to exist!" a voice with only an implied owner and no clear direction as to where it came from echoed through the mist inspiring fear in many hearts.

"But you can't see this one either, that you cannot!" Imasu responded to which only a laughter came as a response. The woman instinctively jumped forward avoiding getting cut in two but a wide cut opened in her back tearing through her leather jacket. It appeared that the woman's reaction allowed her to react and dodge while she was hit – the moment that the opponent's blade touched her skin cutting into it she dashed away drastically reducing the degree of injury. This was impossibly not only for ninja, parents never dared even weave stories of such reaction time in their tales but it didn't came easy for the Raikage – she had to stand still and concentrate into her perception completely, center around a single sense of touch and react to the slightest impulse of pain.

"While I do not exist to you, your existence is as clear as if it'd have been mapped out to me: your heartbeats, your breathing, the mist that you disrupt when you move around – a master of "Silent Killing" senses ALL of those things. They manage to focus on the other senses just as you've felt with your skin that my sword was coming from behind. That being said, for how long can you keep yourself from dying, avoiding my blows in the nick of time? Let us see how many times you must be cut before you break!" Moya shouted out, each sentence came from a different place in the mist making Imasu more and more desperate and confused. If she didn't come up with a solution fast she may actually have died in that mist!

The cold winter breeze that was around to deepen the cold and send it seemingly straight into one's soul was no longer around. The nature itself appeared to favor the Silent Killing user by making everything around the battlefield completely calm, not even a single breeze blew their way to assist by dispelling the fog. Imasu however actually preferred the calmer weather – she was soaked right down to her boots in chilling icy water and every breeze only reminded her that she desperately needs to push her muscles to their limits so that the risk of losing her limbs decreased.

"Did you know that one's speed and reaction time decreases when one is freezing? Do you feel it yet? How long do you think it's gonna be until the cold sets in?" Moya taunted the Raikage, the woman tensed her entire body to make the muscles keep the bloodflow going and shouted into the cold winter air. "Shut up and fight, that you must!" Right after loudly exclaiming her anger the woman dashed forward and drew her blade cutting into the fog only to hit absolutely nothing, the only thing that she cut was the mist itself disturbing the air. A loud laughter echoed from the mist.

"This is bad, speed is Raikage-sama's forte, without it she doesn't have much, her body is rather frail for a ninja of her level so if pressed hard she might just go down…" a Kumogakure ninja grunted out preparing a blade.

"Don't" another placed a hand on the shoulder of the other. "This man seems to value his one on one fair matchup, he believes that Raikage-sama can challenge him and he even holds himself back from attacking us so that Raikage-sama focuses on fighting him. If we attack and most likely fail to find him in all that mist… There's no telling what this man will think of, he may start cutting us down, he may feel cheated and just proceed to kill all of us. Let us trust Lady Imasu and stand down until we know that her loss is certain."

The other ninja looked angry that he was calmed down but it was quite apparent that he could see the reasoning behind the man's words and agreed to stand down. The ninja who were moved out of harm's way before and saved many times during the battle against the Kirigakure military force by the Raikage herself decided to place all of their trust in their leader. They knew that she had the means to beat this gust of wind. "What are you waiting for, Raikage-sama!? You're disgracing all of us, step up your lowly swordsmanship at once!" several ninja started hurling insulting cheers but everyone knew that this was the way to inspire their leader.

"This is bad, that it is… I could blow this gust away using the Step of Sound under normal circumstances but my muscles feel stiff from the cold and I'm not sure I can even pull it off…" Imasu thought to herself, suddenly she felt pain in her side, her reaction time and movement speed slowed down, she could no longer avoid strikes while taking minimal damage by moving away when the sword breaks her skin using her Steps. This was different, Raikage drew her blade and tried to push it into the way of the Executioner's blade. While she did take another nasty wound that spilled blood from her back, it also slightly warmed up the area that her blood bathed in. For just a moment Imasu could feel the muscles in her back – this was a chance. The woman dashed forward sheathing her blade and grabbing the handle strongly.

"Quickdraw Step!"

The woman dashed to the place she imagined the Sannin to be right after the strike had concluded, she even saw his figure, his shadow shining through the white mist. Using all of her momentary speed recovery that her own warm blood granted her the woman drew her sword using all of her strength and speed trying to cut the man down. Her body blurred and it would've been impossible for the man to respond even having his own impressive speed and abilities in mind. Useless… Only mist was cut and the smoky gas passed through the woman's katana getting sliced like a piece of paper. Another painful gash, this time in the front of her body – the man's figure was manipulated by the mist. What Imasu saw was just an optical illusion and when she missed her cut the man decided to use all of his power to quickly respond. Injured and breathing heavily Imasu staggered back, the woman moaned in pain and fell onto her knees with only her sword driven into snow holding her frame from falling down.

The young woman desperately clung to the gash that spat out more blood all over her body, her vision was starting to blur but… For this moment she felt warmer than ever before, she had only a couple of seconds before her blood cooled down and started feeling just as freezing as the air around her. She had to utilize it, she had no time to bleed out down on her knees while this man cut her down. Master Haoru would have never accepted such a disgraceful end for his only student. Imasu's leg shot forward, breaking through the snow and ice in sheer force and speed of her step, the woman's brave and powerful voice cut through the mist and reached even the ninja cheering on her from the sidelines.

"Sound Step Style: Supersonic Draw!"

A powerful shockwave blasted through the fog, like a much tinier scaled planetary bubble with lightning crackling all over it as it burst. A grunting shout followed right after the sound barrier was shattered and electrified as a male figure flew out of the mist and slammed into another icy hill busting it down and equaling it to the ground, then flying through multiple other hills. The Raikage sheathed her sword and breathed out, she looked at the man and tried to determine just how far he had been tossed away, she looked back at her comrades.

"This lowly one… Needs help… That she does…" she mumbled out and then fell on her knees, then face into the snow. Multiple medical ninja rushed to the young woman and started treating the cuts on her body. She had lost a lot of blood and had quite nasty injuries.

"Wow… Those wounds aren't even… What are those other scars!? They're horrible!" a medical ninja shouted as his colleague silenced him

"Focus, we may not have much time until that man recovers! The sensor said she could still sense his chakra!" she yelled out.

"Yes, ma'am." The younger medical ninja nodded and his glow intensified. "We need to do something about her hypothermia."

"Please do not bother, that you don't" Raikage grunted out through pain, "This one channeled Lightning Release chakra into that last technique, the sheer intensity of that technique will have to keep this one going for a while, that it will. This one plans to finish it soon before the cold kicks in, that she does. Please be fast and then move away from danger, that please do!" the woman ordered, no, her tone sounded more like a request than an order. Samaya Imasu's ordering tone still needed work. Loud footsteps through cracking ice alerted the medical squad of the Sannin making his way back to the battlefield, each of them reported when they finished their work and bolted before the fight reignited again.

The woman stood up and sheathed her blade, she was far from being completely patched up, this was just the essential field medical work that was needed so that she did not die in the middle of the battle. Imasu had already started to feel her life slowly fading away after that last charge, after her training days with Haoru she had never used so many of her "Steps" in such rapid and constant succession. She was really exhausting herself here, just how much more her body had was unknown. The Raikage pressed harder a black round pill in her hand and tossed it into her mouth chewing it quickly, the bitter and pepper-like taste made her frown but she felt some of her chakra bumping up. The medical ninja used these food pills, apparently a body never used all of the chakra it potentially could, some was still left over in one's system but it was essentially useless. With a little push it could have been expelled to temporarily boost one's chakra reserves. This pill that one of the medical ninja slipped into her palm was a life saver, she could now use her "Steps" several more times and be confident that she won't pass out.

"I see, you're using emergency tactics, medical ninja and food pills…" Moya noted swinging his giant Executioner's blade around his head and placing it on his shoulder.

"You've used help of another this whole fight, this one did nothing that dishonored her, that she did not!" the woman responded by standing in an offensive battojutsu stance.

A loud almost manic laughter echoed through the icy ruined battlefield. "I see, so you've figured me out, huh? Perhaps I shouldn't hold it back in that case?"

Imasu's hand shot forward, her eyes were filled with panic fear, "You fool, stop, that you must! You'll kill everyone, that you will!" she yelled out at Moya who just laughed out.

"Don't worry, I'm not that stupid, although if you kill me you do know what'll happen, right? Even if you knock me unconscious… That thing starts acting up on its own, I swear to God…" Moya laughed out again. He seemed to enjoy the fact that the swordswoman had figured out what he had inside of his body this entire time.

"That is good for this one, that it is. After this one killed the Young Lord this one doesn't like killing all that much, that she does not. This one will just have to take the risk and knock you out, that she will!" Raikage shouted out as she charged forward. "Quickdraw Step!" she chanted out as her sword clashed with that of Moya's but her sheer speed that transferred into the katana at the point of impact made a powerful shockwave that pushed the gigantic blade back, unable to keep its weight the Sannin had to let go of it as his own body slammed into the blunt side of his Executioner's Blade.

"Light Step Style: Instant Murder!" Imasu shouted out as time itself froze for a moment. Moya had nowhere to go – his back was against his blade that was etched into ice and he was open for striking. After just a moment of frozen time the man just coughed up as seven deep gashes opened on his body, his eyes rolled back and the force of Imasu's seven light fast battojutsu slashes, that all happened in an instant while to everyone else the time appeared to have frozen still, sent the Sannin crashing through his own blade that got cut in two. As the man's body lifelessly hit the snow the steel of the blade clung together and repaired his blade.

"S-She… Killed the Sannin…" Kumogakure ninja started mumbling around as Imasu sheathed her sword. "No! Lady Raikage only kills when there is no other choice, I don't really know what they were talking about previously but she clearly didn't want to kill him, she struck all non-vital areas but she still knocked the man out…" another Kumogakure ninja replied as he kept his eyes peeled and watching the battlefield since he himself still could not believe in what was happening.

All of a sudden crimson bubbling chakra started erupting from the man's body, the man's fingers elongated and his skin started darkening, spikes started growing in random spots of his body – the Three Tails inside of him was starting to take control of the man's unconscious body!

"So you decided to come, that you did…" Imasu sighed as she prepared to attempt to fight off the awakened Jinchuuriki who was completely taken over by his beast. "The Three Tailed Turtle... Come." she finished her taunt as the man's long fingers started clawing at his own stomach tearing his leathery outfit apart and leaving the man topless. The red chakra cloak formed into the shape of a round sphere that was surrounded by tentacles, it appeared that despite using partial transformation in a midst of battle this man had not yet mastered his relationship with the beast and after his defeat the beast only awakened halfway.

"This is… An awakened Jinchuuriki!" everyone started panicking and everyone started looking for safe spots, only few remained where they stood and continued to observe the battle below – against a man carrying a Tailed Beast inside of him there was no safe place to hide oneself in. The man roared loudly into the air with a demonic and beastly voice as tight aerial shockwaves ruptured the ice and made the Raikage slide and stumble back shocked by the sheer pressure of the air around the awakened Jinchuuriki. The beast's lifeless white eyes looked at the woman in front of him and… It disappeared.

Within less than a second the Jinchuuriki reappeared right in front of Raikage's face clashing its chakra tentacle with her blade. Had the Raikage not covered her blade with thick and controlled stream of chakra with every cut her katana would've shattered without any contest. This chakra was immense! The awakened cloaked Jinchuuriki disappeared again, with a loud roar it appeared right behind the woman making a giant aerial shockwave that combined the force of its movement after instantly stopping and the force of its roar sending the woman flying. Suddenly the chakra tentacle flew right at Imasu, with a draw of her blade the woman deflected it and pushed it to the side. Then the tentacle hit again, and again, more and more of chakra appendages started erupting from the Jinchuuriki's cloak as they continued to try and break the Raikage's guard and overwhelm her with these intense blasts that started to approach the speed and intensity of an automated weapon.

The woman's hands blurred as well, she was deflecting each and every blow and doing so successfully, skipping none of them because skipping even one may have meant death. The cloaked enemy tired itself out just as suddenly as it exploded into its rampage and the barrage of chakra tentacles stopped, Raikage's body landed on the ice and her hands instantly dropped the blade and weighed her body down. The woman was breathing heavily. The beast roared loudly into the air, now the Raikage's figure completely vanished into thin air and reappeared several meters further from the Jinchuuriki. The woman sheathed her naked blade and turned around, "Light Step Style: Lightray" she chanted right at the same time as the Jinchuuriki's cloak lit up with a powerful shockwave and blood shot out from the Jinchuuriki's body and the entire body got sent down.

It took the beast a couple of moments to stand up and after it did the Raikage witnessed that the giant cut mark that she left on the man's stomach was completely healed up. The healing looked strange, it appeared like the man's injury got burned up as his skin tore off and it looked like it got healed with heat of some sort since the edges of the wound looked burnt up. The cloaked monster roared loud into the air and started thrusting its tentacles once more at the same speed as it did before, now as the tentacles passed through the ground they left awesome craters and completely demolished the icy hills that they hit, however with a flash of bright light the woman avoided each strike, it seemed like the beast was only cutting at an illusion, a figure that burst into blinding light after getting struck. Not a single tentacle once again touched the Raikage. The woman's figure appeared in the air, the beast cocked its hand backwards to crush the woman with another chakra tentacle.

"Light Step Style: Lightray Crash!" the woman's voice shouted out as her body was already behind the monster as another injury lit up and spat out more blood, the force of the impact of the blade passing through was so intense that it not only cut through the chakra cloak and opened a giant gash but also turned the body of the awakened Jinchuuriki around, the beast raised two tentacles and their chakra conjoined together forming a giant mace-like structure of crimson chakra that hit the ground, still it only crushed ice sending shards of ice around but the woman was too fast for the enraged and mindless beast to even land a blow on.

"Light Step Style: Lightray Flicker!" another sword technique came at the Jinchuuriki as the Raikage's body flashed through it flying incredibly low and almost touching the snow on the ground, the intense speed of her movement sent the snow to the sides as the woman dashed through leaving a giant wound in the back of both of the Jinchuuriki's legs. The sheer power of the fast movement also made the beast lift up into the air and spin fast in place. Imasu's body appeared right in front of it in an instant, "Quickdraw!" she chanted again by drawing her blade and crushing the Jinchuuriki's body right back into the snow. The beast only roared out a pitiful cough of pain as blood shot from its mouth and its opened wounds.

The crimson chakra cloak withdrew inside of the Jinchuuriki's body, that must've been all of the power that the Three Tails would bother to lend him in the man's weakened state. Imasu sighed and sheathed her blade collapsing on her back, "That food pill saved my life…" she thought to herself as medical ninja once again flocked around her and started healing her up.

"This one must have words with this Lady Shirona, that she does!" Imasu spoke with a painful tone, several younger ninja laughed out. The incredible strength of this woman prevented many casualties and only several ninja died while facing an entire squad of Kirigakure military. Such outcome was nothing short of miraculous and the amazing skills of this woman were to thank for this miracle!

Powerful and confident steps tore through the overgrown parts of the Kusagakure forests. Men and women of Iwagakure were quite firm, strict and always to the point. Usually they took no luxury of enjoying their surrounding especially now that the surrounding was so completely different from their home. Iwagakure was a place where winds from the mountains carried rains of small rocks, a rocky country founded in a sweet spot surrounded by mountain ranges that provided natural protection. This ancient strategy of finding a safe place to live in an eye of stormy and sky high mountains worked – even the Lightning Lord found his safe-house in the surroundings of the Inari mountain range in the Lightning Country desert.

The lands of the Grass village were completely overgrown, once in a while the thick and endless forests ended but only to reveal a giant ravine. For a first time traveler the entire landscape would've probably started to remind more of "land of ravines" or "land of bridges" as grass was a rather unimpressive detail to make a name out of. The dense forests that one wouldn't have been wrong to call a jungle were unrivaled by any other country. Still, the bare-chested figure of a middle aged man with overflowing white hair and blood red facial tattoos encouraged his men to walk faster and make wider and more confident steps the more the jungles of Kusagakure resisted. It seemed like no tree branches and no insects even hurt the man or bothered him at the very least. His step remained firm and strong no matter for how long he walked.

That would've been the man's downfall as with one loud slurping and breaking sound he stepped into some strange stony construction built from rotten wood. The Kaguya man curiously stared at the round hive that he had stepped into as his men lost all of their cool.

"Oh no, run, Tsuchikage-sama! These are the infamous Kusagakure killer hornets!" the men started shouting as swarms of the insects covered the already brief patches of visible sky and made the entire forest area black. Their buzzing sounded almost like some sort of intricate machinery working at full power. These were the killer insects that a clan of insect using mercenaries had discovered and used to their full extent during the war. While their usage of these hornets was relatively successful the insects were rather uncontrollable even using their own pheromones and were known to rebel and attack even their own masters. Iwagakure had enough trouble in the war as it was, the last thing they needed was a clan of idiots sending hornets that were just as likely to attack their own men as it attacked the enemy… That period was shameful to Iwagakure history as it was back then during the warring days that the country slipped into hardships.

The hornets kept trying to sting the Tsuchikage, thousands of the hand sized insects trying to penetrate his skin. None of them prevailed, with each bite the insect just fell powerless to the ground as their own mandibles gave in and shattered. The man known as the Tsuchikage just arrogantly watched as the problem of the overly aggressive swarm of killer hornets just killed themselves trying to leave a dent in the man's skin. While his clothes did give in and the insects left many holes not even a scratch remained on his skin, it was almost like an autumn leaf had fell on the man's skin – it felt like a tickle if anything else. "Well… I guess the stories of these insects were widely exaggerated, let's go men, it's safe now." the Kaguya turned back at his men who kept staring at the man.

Despite the men having endless opportunities to know the man's seemingly infinite strength and durability they ended up surprised each time. In so many years of this man's presence in the leading position not a single time he felt challenged by anything – the knives of the assassins broke when plunged into his chest, the man won every wrestling tournament of many that he himself organized to improve the bombing Iwagakure economy. At some point those tournaments just ended up being "who can last the longest against the Tsuchikage" sort of competitions as no wanderer from any country managed to challenge the man properly.

Kaguya Yaban seemed to be the perfect leader for the sinking ninja village. During the war Iwagakure initially seemed as sort of a top dog, over the times of peace they have assembled a powerful military and kept sending overpowering numbers of ninja into each battle. They also did not lack skill – their men were toughened by living in the mountains where the air was scarce and rains of rocks were constant. Even the housewives of Iwagakure could've won some of the battles. The problems started when Iwagakure sensed their success – they started overextending and abusing their early successes. The overzealous country sent immense military force to compete for even the least important patches of territory and least strategically important military objects. While Iwagakure scored many successes, the Third Tsuchikage did not put into consideration what toll his extensive military exploits had on the economy.

Iwagakure was a country that lived off of natural resources as the mountains were not the best soil for farming. Their entire income came from what they could find in numerous mines and what they won in the war, also tributes from weaker villages nearby like the Kusagakure where the delegation was now travelling to the Kage Summit. When Iwagakure started to feel arrogant and wanting to feel the thrill of victory in every battle they managed to piss off every country, suddenly Iwagakure troops started appearing even in petty battles against two other villages. The villages started increasing their production of military technology as well and then Iwagakure started struggling to keep up. They also overextended and exhausted their mines draining them empty of iron and other minerals, even more, Iwagakure's infinite supply of gold no longer mattered because no country felt like trading with the arrogant war dog that felt obliged to involve themselves in every battle.

As the war progressed Iwagakure found itself more and more reliant on the gold they mined from their mines, countless accidents made even that exploit increasingly difficult – cave ins happened day after day as with the increasing digging quotas came lack of basic carefulness, endless gas leaks happened choking down every miner in the section, as quotas increased explosives started getting used for mining gold and sadly greedy ninja were not the best handlers of hazardous and subtle tools like explosives. Soon Iwagakure closed off their last veins of gold under endless rocky chambers of gas and vast layers of varied minerals and rocks piled on them. It would've taken too much to dig the obstacles out of the way and Iwagakure lacked both the manpower and resources to fund such a project – the war started choking the village and soon the entire Earth Country down. Not to mention that when devoting one's entire manpower to war not that many miners remained, while Iwagakure treated every loss of countless miners in careless accidents as "nothing to worry about" they started running out of human resources very soon. Luckily the Earth Lord withdrew from the war before the Tsuchikage would employ children and women in the mines. The terms of peace treaties were even crueler, like countless daggers all striking at one's side at once, bleeding the arrogant country out.

After the death of the Third Tsuchikage the current one stepped into his place – a confident young ninja who was too young as a chuunin to be employed in the war so he lead the mines. As the incredibly strong ninja and a great patriot Kaguya Yaban saved many ordinary men from the mines and earned the love and adoration of all: men for being such a great symbol of manliness, women for being such a model beefcake and bringing their husbands home, children for being an icon of heroism and being the man who brought their fathers back home and also worked his oversized muscles off to gather enough gold so that their parents had enough to buy bread for dinner. He was the hero of the people so if the already hated Ninja Council decided to elect another there'd have undoubtedly had been a revolution. Unlike Kumogakure, Iwagakure never had to regret such a hasty decision to choose a young and powerful ninja as the successor of leadership – Kaguya Yaban was the perfect Kage.

"I don't get it… Why didncha cut those buggies down with yer bones, Tsuchikage-sama!?" a chuunin scratched his head making his bandana slip off, the man just cursed and picked it up carelessly slapping it back onto his head.

Yaban started sulking and turned away curling close to the nearby tree. A fellow ninja that knew the Tsuchikage since the mining days punched the back of the chuunin's head making his bandana slip off again and forcing the ninja pick it up and put it on again. "Ye fool, Tsuchikage-sama may be a Kaguya but he doesn't possess the Shikotsumyaku bloodline, that's like… Most of the clan's members that don't, why did you think he had that ability anyways?" the man asked his comrade who just laughed out and scratched the back of his head.

"Oh… Sorry, sorry… I just… You know… Thought since Yaban-sama is the Raikage… And a Kaguya… Well…" the white haired hunk stood up and looked back at his subordinate, he no longer looked that depressed after being reminded that he did not possess the bloodline, he just gestured that the men kept on moving.

"Tsuchikage is a bit depressed about subject, he always felt like he was a loser for not inheriting the bloodline. That's why he worked extra hard, that's why the guys back during the mining days during the Second Great War looked up to him – he had the ancient heritage of the Moon People but he was just the same as you and I and he achieved everything he did not because of some bones shooting outta his body but because he just worked the hardest out of all."

The Tsuchikage looked back angrily and once again encouraged his men to keep on walking. Right after that another ravine opened up – larger than the others before this one. The men couldn't help but sigh as walking over those ancient bridges every time felt like they were gambling with their lives. The men stepped onto the bridge and kept walking – this bridge was also the firmest of all they stepped onto before, probably because it covered the longest ravine so it had to be the greatest and the best in terms of construction. As the men made their way to the halfway of the bridge a loud blast echoed, the ninja looked back to the beginning of the bridge, then to the end and witnessed the most horrific thing – the start and the end of the bridge blew up, with an immense shaking the bridge started plummeting down to the abyssal ravine the end of which was completely invisible from the top.

As the bridge disappeared down into the endless hole, ninja gathered around the each end of the bridge, they wore camouflaging cloaks and Kirigakure headbands and looked down. One of them reached to his ear and contacted someone using his earset, "Please tell Mizukage-sama that it is done – Tsuchikage and his delegation are disposed of! So strange, this was just too easy… Wait a sec." he spoke as a loud rumble alerted the ninja, they looked down into the bottom of the abyss and noticed an unintelligible shadow below that was quickly approaching them. As it quickly dashed through them the men all stumbled backwards, what appeared from the end of the abyssal fall was… The entire bridge that had plummeted down with one man seemingly levitating and holding the bridge with the men from below. "Weightless Boulder Jutsu…" the Tsuchikage spoke as it didn't seem like this bridge at all troubled him, the men all leaped from the bridge to confront their attackers to the other side where the end of the bridge was. As the Iwagakure delegation engaged one half of the military force the Tsuchikage just tossed the entire bridge at the other crushing that entire part and making large chunks of the entire rocky forest to plummet down below. He then turned around and focused his attention on the Kirigakure military.

"Men, scatter! I'll take care of them all." he said as the men all dashed backwards concealing themselves in the forest. The Tsuchikage kicked his body off of the air and dashed forward diving into the entire squad of ninja. One brave Kirigakure shinobi jumped off and decided to punch the Tsuchikage right in the face as he dashed at them seeing how the Kaguya was wide open. As the man's fist collided with the Tsuchikage's face a loud cracking sound made everyone around that area pout in disgust, the man screamed pathetically as he fell to the ground clutching his shattered arm. The Kaguya stomped the ground sending powerful shockwave and making the entire area start slide to the abyss below. Quite a lot of Kirigakure ninja fell to the ground crying out in pain as their leg bones were busted by the impulse that passed through the dirt being transferred into their lower bodies as it passed through. Those ninja all started falling into the abyss below, many others retreated further into the forest.

The Tsuchikage moved incredibly fast dashing through the forest and appearing near several ninja running in pairs and knocking them out just by slamming into them. Then the white haired hero slammed the ground a couple of more times sending shockwaves and opening up fissures that swallowed smaller squads whole and knocked even more ninja down busting their legs. Two powerhouses of the Kirigakure military dashed up to the Kaguya who avoided their punches and then grabbed their arms lifting the men into the air as if they weighed nothing, he then swung them around as he jumped up and drove his knees into both of their backs finishing the men off instantly as they fell lifeless to the ground.

"What incredible strength!" a Tsuchigakure ninja gulped in awe, "So this is the strength that Tsuchikage acquired mining in the great gold mines?" he asked a fellow shinobi who just shook his head.

"What you see here isn't just physical strength. Yaban-sama was not only missing his clan's signature bloodline, he was also very bad at ninjutsu. That did not stop him though, he trained hard and increased his chakra pushing his body and powering his physical state as well." The man began explaining, as he did the Tsuchikage kept flashing through the battlefield knocking out one small squad of Kirigakure ninja after the other without even breaking a sweat just by dashing into them.

"So Tsuchikage-sama is like Chestnut Hanasaku of Konoha then? Has he somehow figured out her secret? After all even if one enhances one's physical attributes by just increasing their chakra level there's a heavy limit to everything, one that uses a jutsu to enhance their physical abilities will always best one that strengthened them naturally by increasing their overall chakra levels, right?" the first one asked still cheering on his Kage who got hit to the face with a katana only for the chakra enhanced blade to shatter into smallest bits. Many more ninja tried to punch and kick Yaban but all of them collapsed to the ground rolling on the floor with broken bones. Even those that became powerful taijutsu specialists by training their chakra and increasing their physical limits to new heights couldn't handle hitting Yaban, leave alone being hit by him.

"No… Yaban-sama realized that this method that is common among taijutsu users will only take him this far. He went against his genes and started busting his body by training the secret Tsuchikage technique of boulder weight manipulation. All the leaders of the village were masters of this technique, all of them brought something new to the mix, Yaban-sama didn't want to become the leader – he just wanted to master the technique because it was in his way. After all, if he mastered what he was born without the ability to use that meant he could also break the known limits of the primitive strength boosting methods… While he did not realize his goals and break the chakra level strength boosting limits, he did raise the Weightless Boulder Technique to new heights. What you see before you is… A man who had combined natural strength and the ability to change an object's mass in mere moments. He can fly by making himself weightless, he can lift a mountain if he wants to by making the mountain weigh nothing and then undo his own technique after tossing it. It is safe to say that Kaguya Yaban became the strongest man alive…"

As the two ninja exchanged their admiration for the Tsuchikage the man just about finished up with the entire squadron of Kirigakure shinobi. The man dashed around the battlefield beating the men up, sending them flying with mere flicks and sometimes restraining his punches and just unleashing flurries of blurring punching combinations onto one man completely overwhelming them. The man's strength was not what was impressive, it was his perfect absolute control over his ability – one moment he could punch as strong as a hammer, the next one he could punch the man so high that he reached the sky and disappeared in the clouds. The Kirigakure ninja started retreating but none of them really stood a chance, Kaguya Yaban was just faster, stronger and in control of the battle the entire time. Had Mizukage Shirona decided to send the entire Kirigakure military at him he'd have likely destroyed it all. And yet still, as completely overwhelming as Kaguya Yaban was… He was holding back and it was evident.

Finally with the final dash close to the last enemy shinobi the Kaguya left the man spinning around from the intense speed that the Tsuchikage used to fly past him. Then the man simply landed from above pounding the man into the head and driving him deep into the Kusagakure soil leaving just a black hole as no one really knew where the shinobi ended up in. The entire Kirigakure military force sent after the Tsuchikage was destroyed! Suddenly a brown and golden flash blurred through the dark thickness of the Kusagakure forests. A man in a brown trenchcoat and shoulderlength golden hair appeared right in front of Kaguya Yaban cocking his hand backwards for a punch.

"I've got you, Tsuchikage bastard!" the man with a black watch cap yelled out enthusiastically thrusting his powerful hand forward aiming right at Tsuchikage's face.

As fist of the mysterious attacked collided with Yaban’s forehead a powerful shockwave made the grass bend down and tore leaves off of the trees around, any Iwagakure ninja that were close to the vicinity of the impact were tossed backwards from the sheer force of impact. The others nearby just stood there shocked and overtaken by awe, both feeling threatened by the unexpected appearance and incredible power of this man and also shocked that the Tsuchikage was hit point blank with such an impact. This was no sword or an assassin’s knife, this hit would’ve made a small mountain crumble, it was enough to crush rocks with.

The man who threw the awesome punch just stood there and laughed at himself, his strange cocky facial expression combined with his somewhat rugged and bratty attire and haircut as well as his lazy stubble made the man look like some sort of village drunkard. As the man opened his mouth it still sort of reeked of alcohol but it felt more like an after effect which only made it smell a thousand times worse. Only after a couple of moments did the man’s coat finally catch up to his static state and the back end of it finally touched the ground. The blond haired assailant just kept staring at the Tsuchikage waiting for the man to flip over and die from getting his by his fist right at the center of his skull.

“Well…” suddenly the Tsuchikage spoke up, his tone implied that he was questioning the man’s actions, “I keep waiting for you to finish your attack but you’re just standing there and laughing like an idiot… Am I to take this is it then?” Yaban asked politely wiping the cocky smile off of the assailant’s face as he dashed backwards and cracked his knuckles.

“Darn it! I thought I had you this time…” the Kirigakure attacked smiled and wiped his nose playfully with his thumb.

“I must say your punch improved in those four years, perhaps now I can attack you without feeling bad. You look like you’ve toughened up, I’m sure you can take it…” Yaban replied straightening his body up and answering the assailant’s cocky stare with a cold one of his own.

“This will be nothing like back then during my Ninja Tribunal! This time I’ll leave you beaten up and bruised in a pool of your own slobber!” the man shouted out thrusting his fist at the Tsuchikage who did not even honor this claim with a reply.

“Am I missing something? Who is this man?” an Iwagakure ninja asked his colleague who just raised his finger up to his lips and silenced his friend whispering back his answer.

“This is Namikaze Joki, a Kirigakure Sannin, the only Sannin in the history to have a Ninja Tribunal case against him during his time as a Sannin and the only one to have spent time in prison. Tsuchikage-sama took part in his Tribunal session himself and Joki tried to escape the Tribunal by attacking the Council of Ninja that were judging him, Tsuchikage-sama brutally beat the man down and left him completely broken. Still, for someone to survive being punched and tossed around by Tsuchikage is an impressive feat.”

A black flash blurred as the Tsuchikage lunged forward at his opponent having decreased his weight to make it easier for him to move faster. The man threw a punch only for the Sannin to dodge it completely, then the Tsuchikage followed up with another blurred combination of punches and kicks, each of them packed so much force that even as they missed the air that Yaban’s attacks split hit the Sannin’s clothes and pushed him backwards, only because of his strong body did the blonde manage to stay on his feet during this attack. Joki never even tried to block a single hit, he knew better than that, must’ve been experience speaking.

“You picked up your speed as well old man… Gonna teach me how to do that?” Joki taunted his opponent as he threw another powerful and focused punch. Tsuchikage did not even try to move out of its way and let it just hit his nose. The man’s feet dug deep into the dirt as Yaban’s body got buried into the soil halfway throwing dirt and tree roots away as rubble. A slight stream of blood ran down Yaban’s nose – this man managed to somehow pass through Tsuchikage’s impenetrable body. The white haired powerhouse just grinned with half of his lips.

“It’s simple, speed increases your weight – the faster you move the more your body technically weighs, some ninja compensate this by intensifying the flow of their chakra to “armor up” their bodies and protect their bones from being crushed, I just decrease my own weight using the “Lightweight Boulder Technique”.” Tsuchikage’s legs burst out of the dirt as the man dragged himself out from the ground and landed further away. He still had that confident smile that his opponent had as well, at that early point of their meeting both combatants equally believed in their chances of success.

“Quid pro quo, could you tell me how exactly you’ve powered up this much? Last time we “fought” you were just slightly stronger than your usual Jounin and to top it off you had no ninjutsu potential whatsoever. Now you’re like a completely different person, I actually felt that punch, then again, I only barely boosted my own weight.” Tsuchikage asked. His opponent took off his cap and tossed it aside letting his shoulder-length golden hair flow freely.

“When you left me I was battered and broken, I had more bones that were grinded to dust than solid ones and that was just from one thrust of your palm. Naturally that was not a good state to be sent to prison in… You’ve no idea how much I suffered. I was beaten and kicked around many more times in there. I saw the lowest of the low, the worst of the worst and had to get my feet deep into shit to finally kick myself off and start swimming up. You ask me how I managed this? Simple. Kirigakure Correctional Facility is called “The Zone”, it has that certain tradition – inmates fight until the warden says he’s satisfied. For exchange they lose some time off of their punishments.”

Tsuchikage closed his eyes and turned away, then breathed in heavily and opened his eyes, “Don’t they seal your chakra in prisons?” he asked. Joki’s fist shot out in front of the man’s ripped black shirt.

“That’s right, they do. That’s the catch – no one can keep a streak going, the one who loses gets the years that are “shaved off” of the winner. Since no one can use chakra it’s just pure fisticuffs where only talent and skill matters.”

“In other words, not a world you would do well in…” Tsuchikage smiled.

“Yeah, that’s right, laugh it up! Then again, you’re right. I got my butt kicked over and over again, I got sent into that joint for four years and I ended up accumulating sixteen hundred years in total. I couldn’t believe it, I was a shinobi, a Sannin! And there they were, those mercenaries and bandits were constantly kicking my butt… Do you know why? Because they live like that, that’s just the way they fight in freedom as well! They’re trained to fight ninja using just their bare hands and they can take a ninja without chakra manipulation ability down easily. It’s incredible how rusty chakra makes one in hand to hand, who cares if you’re a master martial artist if your punch can bust mountains, right? Well in “The Zone” no one can punch through mountains, it took me weeks to learn how to punch a man and not break my own hand.”

Tsuchikage looked around, “That is something that your comrades here could’ve benefited from, so were you able to master it?”

Joki nodded “Yeah, after every battle I trained, studied how to fight from my cellmates in exchange for my food, when I won I lifted my weights five hundred times, when I lost I lifted them five thousand times. I became stronger than I have ever been and beat every dog in the house using my own prowess. Then the warden gave me an offer I could not refuse – fight him in exchange for complete freedom, if I lost I would’ve stayed there forever – become the “Scapegoat”. Scapegoats get half of the punishments of every loser, if a loser gets two extra years, he actually gets one while his scapegoat gets one. I would’ve been the Scapegoat not of one person but of the entire prison… It’s basically life sentence with no hope for escape. Warden was actually a ninja, a Special Jounin, he also tried to cheat by bringing weapons into the fight but I busted his face in. Left him for the other inmates to deal with like they deal with all cheaters while I walked out through the gates. I thought that I’d never get work but things changed – Shirona-sama took me in, unlocked my chakra again and made me more powerful than I’ve ever been, she also returned my position back. All just for killing you… I told her… “Lady, I’d do it for fun.”…”

After Joki finished his story and awkward silence set in. Every Iwagakure ninja looked at him with different eyes – they felt bad for the man. This young man was not a villain, he was a victim of the village that gave birth to him. A baby born in the family of killers and deceivers who was told that killing and deceiving was a way to be successful. A boy who rose through the ranks by killing those that thought similarly to him but were slightly weaker, slower, less intelligent or even a bit less lucky. A ninja who followed every dirty order he was given to the final letter and got in trouble because of it taking the arrow for his village and being the scapegoat of the tyrannical Daikon’s reputation. A Sannin who lose his entire lifetime of achievements and was continuously beaten and kicked around by everyone else. A free man who was given a chance to redeem himself and stay relevant in his shithole of a village if he agreed to fight Kaguya Yaban, one of the strongest ninja alive. Namikaze Joki was just a plaything of his superiors, always a scapegoat his entire life…

“Well, I’m glad it all worked out for you in the end… Anyways, if this is your solution you stand no chance at all, leave and become a Missing Nin or just disappear and return once I kick your Lady out of her seat and reform her village with my own bare hands. Kirigakure is crying the same bloody tears that my own village once shed, if you stand in my way I shall crush you with my full force and flush you aside, the way you are you cannot beat me…” Yaban finally spoke after the long silence and started calmly walking forward. The ground beneath his feet and the light footsteps suggested that he didn’t even bump up his weight and just decided to ignore and pass through Joki.

“DON’T IGNORE ME AGAIN, YABAAAAAN!!!” Joki shouted out like a lunatic into the sky raising his fists up and tensing his body up, his pupils completely faded and slobber started shooting out from the man’s mouth as four years of channeled rage and suffering converted into strength made its release making a powerful crater and pushing the Tsuchikage back with just the force of Joki’s chakra bursting from his body. Whoever this man standing against the Tsuchikage was it was no longer a man who listened to reason or could properly evaluate difference in strength, the man jumped forward and threw a fist right into Yaban’s face, as hard as the Tsuchikage tensed his jaw his head was still turned to the side but quickly recovered.

Joki threw a punch after another with each punch making thundering and deafening boom and sending blasts of air from the point of impact but they barely even hurt the Tsuchikage. “You were just a man who brawled your entire life, you just fought everyone all the time and increased your physical strength that way – by increasing your chakra level and becoming strong. Eventually you hit the same limit everyone else hits and you thought that was it, then your chakra was taken away and you felt again what it meant to be weak. You worked hard to regain that power and in the end your power doubled with the power of your suffering adding to that of your success… But Joki-san… MY HARD WORK EXCEEDS YOURS!” Tsuchikage shouted throwing a powerful punch right into the young man’s chest and sending him up into the sky crashing through the thick tree branches above.

Yaban released his weight and jumped up soaring through the sky, as he dashed up to his insane opponent he once again bumped up his weight at the last second before his fist collided with the man’s chest sending him further up, then he lightened himself and dashed to the man again, punch from the side sending him soaring forward through the sky. Tsuchikage kept dashing to his helpless opponent and kept punching him sending him flying beyond his vision again and again with every punch Joki screamed and spat out blood – his defenses were destroyed after the first punch thrown. After one dash up to the golden haired rebel Tsuchikage concentrated even more into his fist and dug it deep into the man’s back sending him all the way back, right to where he weightlessly dashed through the air and hit the flying by figure of the Sannin with his elbow sending him crashing down into the forest ground shattering it and sending the entire forest platform down into the abyss that ended with a river below. Just barely did the Iwagakure ninja manage to avoid this absolute destruction by dashing through the trees further away than the destruction could reach.

Yaban breathed out and descended onto the edge of the stable platform. He felt sorry for this man, he was just a puppet of all the right emotions and feelings who was used by the world’s craftiest puppet master. The Kaguya had never met this woman, this Shirona but… He already didn’t like her at all. He intended to kick her butt and demote her from her position as Mizukage, then reform her village himself. Luckily enough a Kage Summit was already called – a perfect opportunity for this decision and now he will have proof to the other Kage that this needs to be done.

Joki’s mad face appeared again in front of Yaban, a powerful fist hit the Tsuchikage into his chest when the man was unprepared busting some ribs. Luckily enough the man managed to harden up just in time for the following combination. “Kirigakure Taijutsu Style: Jailbreaker!” the man yelled out sending sixteen full powered fists right into Tsuchikage’s chest. Yaban lifted off the ground and fell onto the ground, this was the first time that his men saw their leader get knocked off his feet. Joki’s face was bleeding, it was cracked open in multiple places, his chest was torn as well, his coat was torn off and now his injured chest and arms were revealed, his jeans were ripped up from falling down and hitting the rocks as he was going down. His nails were bleeding from climbing all the way back up through solid rock. Yaban stood back on his feet and wiped the blood from his nose and his mouth.

Yaban charged up to his opponent to finish this, just stop holding back and start taking it easy on his opponent. First punch missed, Joki just leaned out of it and followed it up with a blow of his own that Yaban caught. With a confident smile Yaban crushed the man’s fist and pushed his opponent onto his knees. The loud cracking sound of the man’s knuckle and splashing blood from his bones emerging from under the skin made the ninja observing the battle clench and turn away from the cruel sight of the battle. Tsuchikage threw another punch at his kneeling opponent but Yaban jumped backwards kicking out of the Kaguya’s hold of his fist. Then the golden haired brawler dove forward trying to tackle the Tsuchikage with his shoulder and send him down, the Kaguya remained standing still, the shoulder that dug into his stomach barely even pushed him back.

“Weightless Boulder Style: Stratosphere Punch!” Kaguya yelled throwing an upwards fist, Joki responded with two handed slam that clashed with the Tsuchikage’s fist and was blown backwards from the force of impact. Tsuchikage charged up to his opponent and started punching again and again, shoving his opponent through the soil, the rocky lower layers of dirt, at some point the Kaguya punched his opponent through into the water below and continued to punch sending Joki further and deeper until he hit the bottom, even then the Kaguya continued to punch again and again digging his mad opponent even deeper into the dirt until something hot shot out at which point the Kaguya dashed madly up to his platform. At this point he had widened the ravine several tens of times over its previous state.

Joki’s arm burst through and grabbed onto the edge of the dirty platform and dragged his tired burnt up body that still had leaking masses of hot red mass on his shoulders. The man’s chakra burst tossing the heated red mass aside, after this however his defense lowered. It was evident that the man was at his last breaths. Yaban crossed his hands on his chest.

“You’ve done well to use your chakra to avoid significant injury this far, intensifying your flow to harden your body and all that but to withstand my punches takes a lot more chakra than you can spend. You’re just about to bleed dry out of it. Accept the truth, I am the strongest ninja alive, Raikage Imasu is the fastest ninja alive, Kazekage Mugao is the craftiest, Hokage Howoku is the smartest and the best diplomat. We are the Strongest Generation of Ninja and all of us are in our prime. With us training and working as hard as we can you will never catch up.”

“Shut uuuup!” Joki yelled out charging up to Yaban and punching him in the face with the punch bouncing off, the man continued to punch again and again until both of his knuckles dyed red and started pulsing with pain and spitting out blood. “Your chakra is at its lowest, your punches no longer bother me, if I hit you you’d probably explode. Surrender now, please, return and challenge me again when you grow even stronger. This is over…” the Tsuchikage repeated again. “The man who… Lifted a mountain… My ass…” Joki started spitting out some mad words in a creepy tone and ran away, for a moment there the Tsuchikage thought this was over, the man relaxed and turned back but then he saw…

Joki leaped over the divide and grabbed hold of the entire forest island that was floating on the ocean below, trying to rip it all out of the water and fling it at the Tsuchikage. The man wanted to prove to Yaban that he could lift something greater than a mountain but… The man’s nails started to bleed, the blood vessels in Joki’s eyes burst as he desperately tried to lift the island but it didn’t even budge, he just ripped chunks of rocks and dirt. It was then that the Tsuchikage realized – this man was manipulated to such extent that he would never stop! He was torturing and injuring himself trying to match to an unmatchable ideal. He wasn’t like Yaban, he didn’t just work hard, he tossed himself at the hardest challenges hoping to survive them and when he lost he kept killing himself trying to do it again. The Mizukage implanted the belief that this man could win and by doing that with such success she destined this man to suffering and death.

“Give up!” Yaban yelled out and without waiting for an answer jumped down into the abyss below. The Iwagakure shinobi continued to watch and wait, did the Tsuchikage kill himself? Did he realize that his opponent would never give up until he was dead and wanted to finish this by committing suicide? That was impossible, that was not the kind of man that Tsuchikage was…

Suddenly Joki shook in his boots, he fell onto the ground and grabbed hold to a barely intact tree. The entire island shot up into the air right in front of the unbelieving eyes of the Iwagakure ninja.

“I can lift… Any weight… I need to… To help my people… I can make any hardship weigh nothing.”

With those words the Tsuchikage hurled the island to the side having it slam into the abyss of water below upside down. It wouldn’t have taken long before the island crushed Joki to the bottom of the ocean. Yaban descended onto the ground and started walking to the Summit again. Everyone knew even someone as tenacious as Joki would never return after having an entire island thrown at them…

“Are you alright, Tsuchikage-sama?” one ninja asked rushing up closer to his leader.

“Let’s just get to the Summit, there are words I need to have with this new Mizukage…” Yaban replied.

Tanshu, Howoku and Haoru were dashing through numerous halls trying to catch up with the Mizukage who had gained significant distance over them. Each of them had different thoughts on the matter, each of them harboured quite different feelings but were somewhat unified with the desire to stop that woman and while none of them exactly knew what she had planned, having her goals in mind it couldn't have been good. A hall just like countless others flashed through the eyes of the rushing men, they took no time to examine those halls or marvel at their well-preserved beauty having the age of the structure in mind.

Howoku was kept moving just by his desire to eliminate Mizukage Shirona. She was a woman who not only threatened his established status quo of peace between the five villages but also she loved the idea that she did. She was a woman who thought that nations were supposed to be fighting and that such was their natural state as villages training ninja. Howoku had met many people like that, people who thought that the only way for ninja villages to stay relevant was to stay in warring state with all the other villages. Those people had an ounce of truth in their beliefs, ninja were warriors, assassins who should have always stayed ready for combat. Still, these people sentenced many young and unprepared ninja to death, ninja who could've grown up and excelled in their fields. Flowers that had not yet bloomed had no meaning in their wilting.

Tanshu wanted to stop Shirona but he had quite different much more simpler motives. She was a woman who stepped out of line, she dragged all of the other ninja villages by their hair and pissed them off. If she did not bite the dust that meant that any arrogant idiot with followers could do as they pleased. Shirona was a lot like God-Eyes, a figure from his past. A person who had a lot of influence and power that they couldn't really back up, pathetic figures of war who were just icons and had no purpose or right to exist. Even more, she had indirectly hurt his friend who was also a parent of his student's. Tanshu owed it to Mana and her father to stick it to the lady. Also he had to admit, he was a bit worried for the well-being of Misu. He just upped and disappeared in the middle of the Summit, guys like him couldn't have died against just Barrier Corps, what was he doing? Where was he?

To Haoru this was as simple as it ever got – he just had a justification to break lose and kill some ninja and be in the right. The old man never really liked the kind, they acted like they were all that just because they had no moral codes and because the Lords liked them more. Of course Lords would have preferred ninja over samurai, samurai had rules, they had standards and principles. Samurai would've never stricken down a child, an unarmed person or a woman who was not a warrior, they would've never raised their swords against anyone who was not a threat to their Lord. Ninja were beyond all that and Shirona of all people was a living embodiment of that. She was a woman who knew what she wanted and had the nerve to step over everyone else and reach out for it. Warriors had no right to be ambitious, they surrendered their ambition to their Lords after accepting servitude. Haoru just wanted to cut that bitch down. It may have been a brutal and rude way of saying it but that was the kind of man Haoru was – primal and rude but to the point.

Finally they entered the hall where on a platform on the third floor stood their blond, well-endowed nemesis. The woman spread her arms and smiled arrogantly, her face did not twitch nor did it display any emotion or fear. She just merely welcomed them in catching up to her.

"Let's get her talking, catch our breaths before we engage her, survey our surroundings. She lured us into here so she has an ace she is willing to throw down at the last second." Tanshu whispered and the two men to the side nodded.

"We're here, Shirona-san, there's no need to run, there's no need for any more words. We shall settle it all here but before we do I want to know… What did you do it for and was it worth it? You killed many men in preparation for this, you had to piss all of us off to have this Summit called, you played all of us making us think we were in control, you killed even more in this Summit, good men and women and good ninja. Good and loyal ninja you as potential Ninja Empress lost. So I ask you, Shirona, was it worth it?" Howoku started his attempt to get Shirona talking. The woman crossed her arms around her chest.

"Was it worth it…?" as she opened her mouth to speak Haoru was already up in her face with a wide smile that almost looked like it was about to tear his face apart. He thrusted his sword forward only for it to freeze up and slam into a barrier halfway. Haoru's eyes twitched in surprise as a large man appeared in front of him and drove his palm right into Haoru, a palm that managed to cover the entire body of the samurai and send him crashing back into the mossy rock below. Four ninja stood nearby Shirona, four ninja with Kirigakure headbands and vests. The Mizukage laughed out and spread her arms wide again as if showing her men off.

"These are the four currently active Jounin of Kirigakure, the strongest I must add. Once you die here or beat them while barely breathing you can advance, I shall be waiting." Shirona spoke with an arrogant tone and turned around, Howoku yelled out in frustration.

"Damn it, Shirona! How many people will have to fight and spill their blood for you? How many lives will we have to end? Just come and fight us now yourself! Spare yourself and your men the trouble!" he shouted out. Tanshu looked at his friend and he started to feel a bit worried. Howoku was getting emotional, he was ready to break loose and wasn't completely objective in this situation. He was more likely to make a mistake – overuse his Starlight release and exhaust himself, kill people he didn't have to kill or the other way around – leave alive and kicking people that were indoctrinated too deeply. Shirona just turned her head back and glanced at the Hokage for just a second, just enough to reply and then left as the rocky door slammed behind her.

"Make no mistake, Howoku, my game is to kill you and I will use as many loyal ninja as it takes to kill you or wear you out and then I'll finish you myself."

"SHIRONA!" Howoku yelled out with his powerful enraged voice penetrating the rocky door and briefly making the Mizukage glance at the door and shiver. The woman had to double check that it closed and that she was alone in the corridor. With a loud clacking of her sandals the blonde quickly made her way along the corridor as a blue shining oni mask appeared out of nowhere and the blue on the mask lit up. The mask was busted up, cracked and dirtied. From the looks of it the Sunagakure front didn't go too well.

"I'm sorry, Mizukage-sama, Kazekage beat through our troops and beat me. I managed to give him the slip though at the last moment using Demon Body Replacement Jutsu." The man reported, small torrents of blood flooded from the location of the mask and dripping noises suggested that he just barely escaped with his life and yet he was reporting it like it was just another day on the watch. Shirona's face disappeared in her wild blond hair, the woman was thinking, Kazekage's survival was unexpected and very troublesome. Based on her information Mugao was the weakest of the Kage who was famous not for his strength but his craftiness, if he survived it was likely that the others would too.

"I'd appreciate if you did not kill me for my failure. I believe I can still be of use." Oni Mask added as the emotional weight of the operation on the woman's shoulders became apparent.

"Just because I am Daikon's successor does not mean I use his idiotic methods. I am glad that you survived, please return to the village and recover, before that, however I'd like to know a couple of things: who did you use as your replacement, what state is the Kazekage in, have you any news from the other battlefields, how long until Kazekage delegation gets here?" she replied with a shaking tone. This was the first sign of things not going as planned and having the grandeur of the operation it was of no surprise. Oni Mask would hate it to be in this woman's shoes, she now had the crosshairs of the entire world aimed at her head after the brave actions she pulled off and all with "patriotism" in mind. Oni Mask himself did not believe in those pathetic things, that was why he was still alive and he suspected that these feelings for her village may just end up being Shirona's downfall.

"My substitute is of no importance, just a victim on the battlefield though I believe they may be onto me at the moment. I placed a Transformation Seal on him, I didn't have too much chakra to use so it lasted about an hour. I moved using a Transportation Jutsu used by someone from Barrier Corps here who got my message, I'd say the delegation is about an hour and a bit away from here. So far I've got no messages from the other Sannin, they are all likely either still fighting or all dead. Kazekage is injured and exhausted, the military force managed to kill off majority of his men and injure him, I put even more work on him. If you fought him it'd take you approximately four to six minutes to finish the job. He uses Puppetry techniques on his scythe and then has some sort of "puppet armor", I poked it for weak spots, the only ones I could find are around the shoulders, still, it'd be best to time it out as using that armor costs Mugao chakra. That is all I discovered." Oni Mask concluded his report.

"Thank you, you are the best subordinate one could have," Shirona gently stroke Oni Mask's mask telling him to stand up as the mask's glowing eyes evened up with those of the woman. "Now, please come with me so that I can have one of my Barrier Corps transport you home and you can recover. It goes without saying that once our plan is completed I'll give you full control over the Water Lord's region, you'll have all the children for your "Demon Programme" you'll want."

Oni Mask did not say anything, just bowed his head and followed Lady Mizukage to where she meant to go. He could've sworn that he heard loud incomprehensible sounds from the room behind blocked by thick stone blocks that were supposed to act as door.

Inside a wild battle was raging. A silver haired woman threw a punch aiming at Haoru's chest, her hand had that strange near invisible mist like aura around it. Right at the same moment that Haoru dodged the first blow an obese ninja appeared behind him with the speed matching that of a significantly more athletic ninja. The man thrust his arm forward slamming it into the rock making the rocky floor crumble and shoot out debris of rocks to the side. Haoru took couple of faster than eye can follow swings of his katana to block each and every stone tossed at him, differently from most swordsmen of his level he did not rely so much on drawing techniques but instead chose the "naked blade" approach where his blade usually only entered the sheath when he meant to use a drawing technique or when the battle was over.

The obese Kirigakure ninja leaped forward thrusting his palms in a mad flurry of strikes reminding of a sumo wrestler, Haoru leaped backwards just the right length to avoid his strikes but also just close enough to make the sumo ninja believe that he was going to hit the man. Suddenly water shot out from two smaller gourds around the sumo ninja's side and coated his palms as upon touching the ninja's palms the water expanded in size as well. "Water Style: Ogre Push!" the man chanted driving his watery palm forward and shooting a mad vortex of water as the masses of water around his palms exploded into wild whirlwinds. After the water calmed down the sumo ninja took a moment to locate Haoru sticking himself onto the ceiling and the other two jumping onto walls.

"I shall take the silver haired Yuki lady and the Onimoui sumo-bastard, split the others and move them away from here, I'm gonna break loose and I don't wanna cut you hatchlings!" Haorus laughed out madly as he took his wide spread legs and sword over his head stance while upside down and prepared to attack. The silver haired woman toyed with her hair.

"Oh, impressive, you analysed our clans and abilities with just one attack." the Yuki woman commended the elder samurai who just spat to the side forgetting that he was hanging upside down which caused a very strange trajectory of his spit making him have to lean his own head to avoid spitting on his own head. The sumo ninja rubbed the back of his head with his finger.

"Is this guy really the Haoru with the God Sword technique?" he mumbled out.

Without replying Haoru jumped down appearing close to the sumo ninja and slashing at his general direction. The sword just bounced off of the man's skin as the samurai laughed out even louder from the depth of his lungs and then took his defensive stance again. "Just as I suspected - an Onimoui, most of your kin wear thick armor to strengthen their natural impenetrable skin, you on the other hand wear nothing but your trousers."

The sumo ninja slapped his cheeks making his tattooed face flab around for a moment before the flesh settled down. "Yes, my weakling kin wear armor on top of their stone hard skins, I however chose to abandon armor, I trained at the Water Temple, slapping tsunami waves to the side like water spouts, toughening my skin to the point where armor is of no use to me – the person with chakra control and precision to enhance their weapon to be sharp enough to cut me will never be born. Even the great God Sword Jutsu users cannot cut my skin!" the sumo chubby slapped his belly again making it flab around for a while. Haoru laughed out from the depth of his lungs. This elder was having a time of his life.

"I dunno, chubby, with my last cut I haven't enhanced my blade with chakra at all…" he added ominously. The Onimoui clansman swiped his arm to the side and shouted out "Liar, no one can cut that strong and deep without any chakra at all." Haoru's blade flashed through the air, the chubby ninja stumbled back a couple of steps and clenched a shallow cut on the thickest spot of his belly. He was too surprised to even talk properly. "T-This is… It… Can't… Be… What kind… of a… Monster… Are you?!" the chubby yelled out, his partner clenched her fists tighter making small blinking snowflakes fly out.

"Don't underestimate your enemy, you fool" she taunted her partner who got back up on his feet. "Right" the sumo ninja just added and wiped his running nose and stood back into an offensive stance.

"Don't feel discouraged, I aimed to cut you in two…" Haoru laughed with a demonic look in his eyes that made the two Jounin sweat. Such was the intimidation and power of presence of one of the most powerful samurai in the world. This man wasn't the one overestimating himself when he took on two of the Kirigakure jounin, it was them who were unlucky to face off against him. The woman leapt forward, Haoru's blade didn't even more, or at least it didn't appear to move but her body separated into two parts and fell to the floor. Instead of blood however water burst out as her water clone collapsed.

The silver haired Yuki appeared from behind the swordsman thrusting her palms with sharp icicles on her lower parts of the palms. Blood squirt out but the samurai barely even let the woman know that he felt the hit, her body just split into twelve parts again as if it went through some shredding machine but it once again collapsed into a dissolving water clone. The woman was just poking at him, seeing the way he fought and how he dealt with attackers. So far the results were scary – he was able to cut anything or anyone into dozens of pieces without even a sign that his blade moved. It would've taken the eye of a master swordsman to properly even see the blur, it would've taken an equally as skilled swordsman to be able to block these attacks, not by reaction but by instinct – the only way to defend against such an offensive.

From nowhere combinations of blows pummelled Haoru and with a crushing strike of water enhanced palm strike he was sent back and slammed into the rocky walls, bouncing off of the first and hitting the wall on the other side. Anyone would have long since died after being hit by such an attack but Haoru stood up and dusted off his torn trousers and his muscular chest and once again took his famous defensive stance. This was Haoru – the user of one of the four God Sword techniques, a man whom even a battlefield of the war could not claim, how were young children of peaceful times ever hope to step up to the challenge?

Further away, one hall back Howoku was fighting his opponent on one side of the hall and Tanshu was facing off against his on the other. Such splitting of the teams was so that neither of the trio got into the way of the other, apparently the Kirigakure jounin did not care how they would fight – all that mattered to them was that they killed or wore out their opponents for their beloved Mizukage Shirona – the mistress of manipulation and intrigue to take down. The two halls were divided into three battlefields and a fierce scuffle was about to begin, the last obstacle in the way of the trio before they face Shirona, the penultimate step of the ladder!

P.S: Credit for the Onimoui clan goes to Jordan Patterson, a reader who was kind enough to give some suggestions and ideas about characters and clans I can use in future stories.

The man in front of Tanshu wore a dark cloak and a white mask with black lenses. It reminded the Sannin a lot of the attire that the Kirigakure Barrier Corps wore but this mask looked a bit fancier, this man must’ve been a captain of a Barrier Corps squad or something like that, Jounin usually didn’t make commanders of the entire Corps, that seat was usually reserved for Sannin or Kage themselves. Tanshu pulled out a kunai and twisted it around his finger then snapped his hand lock shut and placed the kunai in front of his body raising it up to the face level, he was ready to defend himself against this man.

The cloaked figure leaped forward throwing a fist with glowing yellow chakra emanating faintly around it. Tanshu swiped his kunai at the man’s mask but he did not move. The kunai made sparks burst as it collided with the steel mask and sent it off of the man’s face clanging further to the side into the darker areas of the room. The man’s fist hit Tanshu right into the chest knocking the Sannin back. Grunting from the pain the Red Dog quickly got back on his feet coughing up blood. The taste of blood in his mouth was something that brought the mindless instinctual fighter in him but it was something he didn’t want right now. Howoku was going to make a mistake, Shirona was working her magic on him and Tanshu needed to be there and make sure that his Hokage didn’t mess up, he needed all of his brain in the game.

The cloaked figure quickly advanced to press his advantage, the cloak rustled as the man moved revealing his rather ordinary looking face, if it wasn’t for the diagonal scar spanning from forehead to chin, that is. The yellow chakra started glowing yet again from the man’s arms as he slammed both of them from the side trying to crush Tanshu’s skull but the Sannin ducked under it and with the aid of his arm pushed his body off of the ground thrusting both of his feet into the man’s body, sending him tumbling back and shouting in pain. Tanshu straightened out and spat some blood out, the fact that a punch from a ninja made him bleed that badly alerted him, it was certainly unusual as he trained his body to the peak that training one’s chakra might result in. He was at the peak ninja limit of physicality and no Barrier Corps punch could bust through his tough muscles that easily.

“What the hell was that?” Tanshu asked observing his opponent as he stood up, it was obvious that his opponent had taken some damage as it took him some time to get back on his feet. “I thought you Barrier Corps folk actually bothered to block attacks, I wasn’t really hitting you at my top speed and yet you took it. Are you just a weakling or was there a reason for that?”

“I’m not a Barrier Ninja.” The scarred man replied with a low and husky voice. Judging from how growling he sounded it was quite obvious that he did not speak often, when people don’t speak a lot their voices grow husky and they need to clean their throats to speak more clearly. Tanshu’s eyebrow shot up, this man clearly wore a Barrier Corps outfit, why would he do so if he wasn’t a barrier ninja? Even more, Tanshu clearly saw the man conjuring a barrier to protect the Mizukage before. Truth be told, Haoru’s sword was frozen before it was blocked which meant that the barrier wouldn’t have blocked it as it was coated with chakra. That Yuki woman coated Haoru’s blade in Ice Release chakra so that the basic barrier could block it as the ice reduced its sharpness and focus of the chakra. That meant that the man’s barriers were not all that much more than those of normal Barrier Corps ninja.

“I am a Barrier Buster” the man concluded as his fist lit up with yellow chakra again. So that was it? In the Barrier Corps there were not only ninja that could create barrier using barrier ninjutsu but also ninja who could break through most common barriers by using some sort of special combination of ninjutsu and taijutsu. Barrier ninja would’ve worked well as a defensive force while Barrier Busters would’ve fit for the offensive – just to break the defensive of the enemy. Konohagakure didn’t really have an official Barrier Corps for a while, most of their ninja capable of barrier ninjutsu just worked in the village’s Protective Service which was an order of ninja loyal only to the Hokage who did their best to contain, dismantle and crush any threats to the village with little to no villager casualties. Tanshu took his offensive stance again and prepared an attack.

The man’s body just leaned forward with all of his muscles tensing before it lost balance and slammed into the ground like a bag of potatoes. This was an impressive display of muscle mastery with the ninja being able to relax and tense their muscles with great ease making them incredibly aware of their body and able to utilize their own natural speed and strength perfectly. Tanshu covered the small distance between the fighters within mere moments throwing multiple punches, the man shot his hands forward with the yellow glow of his chakra forming an improvised barrier but Tanshu’s strength tore right through them. The first batch of blows stopped right after breaking the barrier but the Red Dog soon adjusted to the strength and kept on his barrage of blows breaking more and more of the man’s bones. After his hands grew weaker, the Sannin switched to his legs but that let the Barrier Buster adjust his strategy and strengthen his barriers – it was like Tanshu hit rocky walls as his legs busted through the strengthened barriers but stopped right afterwards.

Tanshu breathed in and out heavily as he used a couple of back handspring jumps to gain some distance. His maximum force could bust this man’s barriers but did nothing more, he needed more than just brute force to get him out of that one…

*******

Howoku continued to stare at the middle aged woman he was supposed to beat to advance to where the Mizukage decided to hide. This woman wore several steel belts wrapped around her body as armor and had flexible shoulder armor. Such protective attire was not really common for ninja as they strived to be as quick and as stealthy as possible. Even more, the woman’s goofy smile continued to throw Howoku a bit off balance as she seemed to be enjoying the fact that she’ll be fighting against the Fourth Hokage. All of her armor mostly appeared to protect her upper body as she wore baggy trousers with knee pads below so Howoku questioned the effectiveness of half-baked armor approach.

Such goofiness and carefree approach annoyed him, Howoku had no time to waste on henchmen! The man shot forward with a charge, he did not even use his Starlight Release as he intended to save his chakra for when he needed it – against Shirona. The woman leaned backwards and jumped back, using her hands to spring her body back forward and thrusting her legs into Howoku’s chest making the man tumble back, she then bit her finger and made a couple of handseals summoning a large iron staff. “Tee hee…” she laughed out goofily making Howoku even more annoyed. He was not a taijutsu prodigy and this woman seemed to be quite flexible and strong, from her choice of weapon one would’ve assumed she knew how to handle her staff too. It couldn’t have been helped – Howoku needed his Starlight Release to win.

“May I ask you to step aside, there is no need for us to fight, you are in the way of me taking out a threat to my village and that is something I punish with death. I know Shirona indoctrinated you deep and that you are most likely not a bad person, please reconsider this fight, lady.” Howoku angrily spoke up to which the woman just smiled and rubbed her nose.

“Ease up a bit, stiffypants. I just wanna fight, I don’t care bout that politics thing. That’s what Shirona told me she’d give and that’s what she gave me so let’s not bother about our villages and just fight.” The woman spoke in a very strange manner and she used no honorifics when talking about her Kage. This one seemed much more like the “Hanasaku-type” to Howoku, a lovable idiot who only had their own motivations and were mostly harmless.

“I’m sorry, I cannot do that when people I strive to protect are in danger. I see now that you wish my village no ill and are just acting upon your instinct to fight, I shall not kill you but I will not hold back.” Howoku replied.

Suddenly the woman appeared right behind him with a crazy smile, “Why would you do THAT, silly?” was all that Howoku heard before her heavy staff drove into his back sending forward. Had Howoku not broken his flight by thrusting his arms to the floor and flipping himself on his feet he’d have slammed into the wall. That impact… Howoku felt his chakra straining and fading inside. Chakra worked in a rotation-like process – like a high intensity engine. It flowed inside one’s body and could be borrowed for various techniques and ways of use. Most skilled ninja however could manipulate not only chakra itself but its flow process, make it more intense to withstand blows that would kill normal people, temporarily increase their strength to punch out trained warriors with one blow. The likes of Tanshu could intensify it to such extent that it made his chakra leak out creating that “killing intent-like” aura around him sensible even to non-sensor ninja.

Such use of chakra was dangerous – there was a reason why a body had a slow and steady chakra flow. Intensifying it just for a moment would’ve meant that for that brief moment one stressed their body out making it use up much more chakra. Normally just going around normal everyday activities cost inconsequential amounts of chakra but boosting the flow to extreme extents like needed in order not to die after being hit like that made that inconsequential amount feel almost like one used a jutsu of some sort. The body just burned up chakra for that one moment and the natural loss of chakra from the chakra flow going its way had to be readjusted in time, messing with the body’s natural processes was not something one should have abused. Howoku decided to try and avoid getting hit by such an impact again and not lose such amounts of chakra and stress his body out too much.

The woman appeared behind him again but this time Howoku predicted her attack, his body dropped down to the floor and flipped over on his back. The Hokage’s hands stretched to the side of his head and thrust his feet up shooting his body upwards and kicking the woman in the chin. Howoku made a handseal and made a shadow clone that leaped up and stroke her in the chin again before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Howoku tossed a couple of kunai at the woman trying to utilize that brief instant of smoke cloud, he heard a couple of clangs and saw the kunai fall down. Howoku cursed, that armor deflected basic ninja tools apparently. Finally the woman landed from the cloud and laughed out with a wild grin.

“I initially thought you were just a weakling, I guess a Hokage can’t really be a weakling, huh? Sorry for looking down on you.” Her laugh and mannerism seemed almost monkey-like. The woman’s eyes blinked and when they opened again her pupils had changed into a much more wild state. It was then that Howoku realized what was going on – this woman was the Four Tails Jinchuuriki. Seeing how she was a Jounin it was quite likely that she was able to use Chakra Cloak Awakening if needed and that was something that Howoku didn’t really need. The decision to not kill her was also the correct one – the thing he needed the least was a Tailed Beast rampaging in this place.

*****

Haoru’s wild smile intimidated the Onimoui sumo ninja, the silver haired Yuki seemed to be quite content and cool with her approach to the battle. The elder samurai himself decided to finally show these ninja just a tiny fraction of his strength. He leaned on his right leg harder and twisted his left foot to the side as the grip around his sword visibly hardened. Suddenly the chakra and air pressure around him became more intense and even the non-sensor ninja could see the fluctuations of transparent air around him. The man’s right foot lifted off as he thrust his sword cutting down through the air.

“Windcutter Style: Sword Gust Jutsu”

He chanted sending an invisible vortex of air that quickly gathered dust and became a larger and grey twister. The Yuki woman disappeared in an icy mist while the chubby ninja leaped to the side at the last moment avoiding the wild gust of wind. The icy mist intensified at a certain area from which the Ice Release user appeared again, “For a moment there I thought we were screwed…” she mumbled to herself.

“A sword slash so intense and powerful that it can create small vortexes of air. Impressive, samurai!” the Onimoui laughed out. The Yuki lunged at him with icicles once again shooting out from her palm trying to slash at Haoru’s eyes, the samurai leaned backwards, a crimson stream of blood shot out of the woman’s chest and she quickly dashed back clenching the open wound on her chest.

“What the hell was that!?” the sumo ninja shouted out at his partner. “I thought we already established that this guy’s sword moves faster than we can see!? Did you really expect to get him with a simple attack like that?” he scolded the woman.

“I tried to use my Frost Armor Jutsu to protect myself, I thought I could initiate it in an instant so his sword would’ve slid away from my body and crashed into the floor instead but… He cut even faster than that…” she explained her mistake.

“You’re next, Sumo-Ninja!” Haoru laughed out and charged at the obese Onimoui slashing his sword upwards while leaping into the air himself. The sumo couldn’t react in time, he just stepped backwards as another shallow cut appeared on his body, it was strange how the Onimoui skin which was one of the toughest defenses in the Shinobi World was penetrated by Haoru’s near lethal slashes even if the cuts he left were quite shallow and unimpressive. The samurai quickly followed up on his slash by cutting from the air at the tumbling giant chubby hitting various areas of his body and opening more and more shallow cuts all over. The samurai sheathed his blade and then drew it all in one instant, by that time he was way too high in the air to even hit the sumo ninja with his drawing slash which confused the chubby shinobi.

“Windcutter Style: Heavenly Wind Draw!” Haoru chanted as he drew his blade and stopped it dead center aiming at the chubby, there were good two or three meters between the two. All of the sudden three vortexes of air shout out of the man’s blade and collided into one large one that crashed into the sumo ninja driving him into the ground as the super vortex mercilessly kept drilling through the sumo’s body. For a moment it appeared like that would have been enough to kill the man outright. The Yuki woman leaped back in time to avoid being too close to the impact point, by that point she must’ve already seen just how hard they would have to work to win this battle.

Surprisingly enough the Onimoui chubby leaped up quite fast and jumped into the air to hit his opponent before he could even land. The sumo ninja launched a flurry of hand thrusts “Water Thrust Barrage!” he yelled out as his palms got covered in water that gathered from the previous water that he had used around his palms in small tunnel-like streams. One could not even see Haoru’s blade move as it near effortlessly kept up with the strikes of the sumo ninja however with each deflected thrust slowed down a little to the point where his defenses became blurry but visible at the end. “Water Shotgun Thrust!” the sumo ninja shouted thrusting both of his palms coated with water forward, however as he cocked his hands back to prepare the thrust Haoru was already behind him and landed on the ground taking his defensive stance. “Windcutter Style: Spring Breeze Cut!” he mumbled as sumo ninja’s offensive was broken and the chubby’s body flipped over in the air several times before slamming hard into the rocky floor.

This time the large frame of the Kirigakure Jounin took significantly longer to stand up – his body was covered with shallow cuts as if he ran through a very thick spiky bush and cut himself all over with the spikes. He was breathing heavily and it barely looked like Haoru even broke a sweat while taking on two of the Jounin.

“This is ridiculous… We can’t possibly win against this guy…” the Onimoui grunted out rudely looking at his injured partner who shook her head.

“No. He is definitely tired and injured, his body just does not show it. He is the kind of ninja who just goes at full strength and then when his body hits the limit he just dies. I’ve seen many ninja like that, most of them are old timers of war. They don’t really communicate with their bodies, they have no alarm signals that they are injured which works both to their favor and their disadvantage. I think if we press him hard enough he’ll fold with time.” The woman concluded, the sumo just slammed his fist into his other hand and then raised it to his face yelling at Haoru.

“Alright you samurai-bastard, here we come then!” Haoru just leaned back harder, never dropping his smile of excitement.

“Well, come at me then!” he replied vibrantly.

Tanshu stayed still, analyzing his situation and the possible options he had. Truth be told, this battle didn't really trouble or confuse him. The Red Dog was quite certain that if he stopped holding back for just a moment he'd destroy this Barrier Buster in one attack, the problem was the future battles. If he used too much chakra in this battle can he be counted on in the future, for example if Howoku lost to Shirona? Tanshu was certain he had seen Oni Mask previously, what if Tanshu had to fight his old sensei at some point? There were just too many questions, too many dangers in the future and all of those factors needed to be considered and properly analyzed. The Barrier Buster had no such problem, sadly.

The man lunged forward, Tanshu tried to intercept the lackluster offensive with a straight punch but the man flipped over and rolled on the Sannin's arm, kicking off in the air with another flip and driving his glowing with golden chakra arms right into Tanshu's skull. The man's reddish brown hair flowed wildly all over Sannin's face covering up the blood that shot out from Tanshu's nose and mouth from the sheer pressure his skull was hit by. Barrier Buster's legs locked onto Tanshu's neck and slammed the man into the ground, the jounin stood up and examined the Sannin's neck. The Kirigakure jounin had snapped many necks with this drop, there was no way that the famous Konoha's Red Dog – Uzumaki Tanshu was still alive. He turned around and started walking at his female partner, who was busy with the Fourth Hokage, with the intention of supporting her.

"Is that it? Are you giving up already?"

The Barrier Buster shinobi stopped in his tracks as a creepy but firm and manly voice alerted him of his opponent's survival. Tanshu stood back on his feet wiping his hair to the side and the blood off of his nose and his mouth. The Barrier Ninja shook once in a wild uncontrollable signal of fear. "I have to say, your Barrier Busting Jutsu packs a punch, then again, that's the only way for me to even feel your puny blows. If you don't want to embarrass yourself I suggest you keep em coming…" Tanshu grunted out with a rough tone, almost like a bulldog intimidating a traveler who was passing by his master's yard with a bark.

"Who do you think you're kidding? You're intensifying your chakra flow for just a second when you're hit, that's why your body manages to withstand these blows, it's a textbook technique. You're wasting your chakra, when do you think you'll run out of steam, Konoha's Red Dog?" Tanshu's opponent taunted to which only a calm laugh intimidated the man even more. Tanshu's finger rose up to the man's mouth and the Sannin sunk his teeth into his own finger, then he flashed some hand seals and slammed his palm into the ground making a wild circle of seals appear and a powerful cloud of smoke appear with a loud poof.

"Summoning Jutsu: Red Poochy"

A small dog with red colored fur, not taller than one's knees as hard as it tried to stand on two appeared in front of the man as the smoke cleared. The little dog barked up with a high pitched bark more common among the younger dogs. "I've got no need to preserve chakra, I've got another trick up my sleeve for your mistress, not that it's any business of a pitiful lapdog like you." Tanshu replied pointing at the man with his arm as the dog leaped at his opponent with a violent growl and a very underwhelming bark of a young small dog. The Barrier Buster's leg shot up into the air kicking the dog away and preventing it from biting him. The dog lit up with reddish chakra as it landed on its feet and shook on its tiny little legs to recover itself from the impact.

"You know what to do, Poochy" Tanshu mumbled silently so that only the dog and he could hear it. The young dog nodded and the red glow of chakra around him intensified. This barely visible red glow interested the Barrier Buster ninja, most of all it intimidated him because he had no idea what sort of technique it was. From the report of the Barrier Corps ninja that placed special recording barriers in the room where Tanshu fought the monks the Sannin also used something similar letting his dogs charge some sort of mysterious chakra and then disappear transferring it all to Tanshu. Just what sort of technique was it? As famous as the Red Dog was he had never demonstrated this technique before in any high profile battles which meant that either it was something he kept at great secrecy or it killed literally everyone who saw the technique, leaving no one to tell the tale.

The Barrier Ninja bit his finger and made some handseals swinging his bleeding finger around in the air and leaving a small trail of blood from the squirt of blood that came out. It appeared that the Barrier Buster's technique kept it afloat and stuck in the air. "There is a downside to any technique, no matter how powerful. One of the more popular downsides is that it is very easily avoidable, after all – most jutsu are just projectiles of chakra that can be leaped over or stepped aside from. That is why the most elite Barrier Ninja and Barrier Busters can do this!" the Barrier Buster slammed his hands together forming transparent barriers around Tanshu. They formed and stuck together so that they formed a tunnel-like structure.

"Now you can't avoid my technique! Lightning Style: Restriction Beam Jutsu!" the Barrier Ninja shouted out as a powerful and incredibly loud beam of lightning chakra erupted from his handseal filling the entire barrier tunnel and slamming into Tanshu. Only as the technique exploded did the tunnel of barriers break. The explosion and the intensity of the beam looked like it was a thousand times hotter and more intense than a bolt of lightning, there would have been absolutely no way for a normal man or even a normal ninja to survive. The Barrier Buster breathed heavily with his hands weighed down and shaking from the strain that the technique placed on his body, the Red Poochy stood calmly besides the barrier as he was not included in the narrow target zone of the barrier tunnel.

"Why on Earth would anyone waste their time dodging this?" a loud and rudely toned reply came from still clearing smoke and rubble. The Barrier Ninja jumped up and rubbed his eyes, he started grinding his teeth in frustration. He knew of two ways for a ninja to survive a hit like that, one was to use the textbook technique of spending immense amounts of chakra and interrupting one's own natural flow by kickstarting it and intensifying it to incredible rate – such technique would've provided a natural "armor" for the user but in cost of a disrupted chakra flow until the natural flow returned. One would've only used anything like that in an emergency, when no other way to survive was possible. Especially someone like Red Dog Tanshu – someone who took great pride in their physical strength which, if it was achieved with chakra level being increased would've made his physical stats plummet.

The other way was to counteract it with a Lightning Release technique of same or greater strength. This was a common way for one Lightning Release user to counteract and redirect powerful Lightning Release jutsu by grounding them, because one's own body was using the technique and immune from being shocked one could easily have absorbed the weaker charge and redirected it to the ground or even back at the opponent. Thing was that based on the information that floated around it was unlikely that Tanshu was a Lightning Release user. Based on the most common information Tanshu only used Fire Release and while a previously undiscovered secondary nature was possible something made the Barrier Buster suspect that the Red Dog actually used the first way.

"What's your game, Red Dog? Why are you interrupting your own chakra flow so wildly? Why do you care so little of your own chakra right after telling me how important the future battles are for you?" the Barrier Ninja yelled out thrusting his fist at Tanshu and waving it wildly to which the Sannin only laughed. The man enjoyed seeing his opponent grind their teeth in frustration as they struggled to wrap their heads around his plans that weren't even meant for them anyways. With a careless glance Tanshu looked at his summoned partner who looked back at Tanshu and nodded. The dog then wildly charged forward, as the dog jumped up to dig its teeth into the Barrier Buster's face the jounin tried to move back.

The image of the dog that leaped for the face blurred and disappeared, the Barrier Buster felt sharp pain in his leg as he saw the little dog digging his teeth into the lower parts of his leg with blood squirting out from the pressure that the little bugger managed to put out. The jounin tried to shake the little pest off but then an elbow dug deep into his chest breaking multiple ribs in the process. The little dog working together with his owner leaped and dug its fangs deep into the Barrier Buster's face and while the jounin tried shaking it off Tanshu's strike hit him deep into his solar plexus making the jounin drop like a sack. With his face and his leg bleeding the Barrier Buster rolled around on the floor writhing in pain before standing up. He then charged with a kunai at the little dog before stopping in mid charge – the little pet was no longer glowing, it was just a little dog with a red fur and no more chakra glow… What did that mean? Did Tanshu cancel his strange technique? The man restarted his assault and lunged at the little dog kicking him up to stab it but after a single kick it poofed into smoke.

The Barrier Buster was absolutely stunned. Nothing annoyed him more than his opponent being steps ahead of him and him being absolutely oblivious to it with no way of pinning down just what the hell it was.

Not too further away Haoru was still entertaining himself with two Kirigakure jounin. The enraged but re-inspired with fake hope sumo ninja leaped at him, coating his palms with water that seeped up to his hand off of the floor and formed a water padding the man started thrusting his palms fast and strong. The impact of the thrusts must've been immense as only thrusting the palms above the rocky floor made the rocks below crumble and rise up being flung in the general direction of the sumo ninja's attack with each thrust making that cruel water splashing sound, sort of like that when one jumps off of a bridge into the water landing on their belly just multiplied numerous times. Both Haoru's chakra coated blade and the Onimoui's palm thrusts clashed with each other and while the sumo ninja appeared to have some trouble keeping his attacks up, Haoru's smile made it look all too easy.

All of a sudden the silver haired Yuki woman appeared behind Haoru driving her leg right into the elder samurai's back. Haoru stumbled forward but still kept up with his clash with the woman's partner. In fact, the sumo gave in first as his hands just weighed down pulsing with blood passing through the vessels inside his palms as if he was slapping a brick wall for the past minute. The Yuki woman kept kicking the stumbling samurai's back, she had caught him unprepared and his blade was busy elsewhere, now she had to exploit the advantage! Suddenly after a combination of kicks the woman's body split in two and collapsed in pieces onto the ground only for it to dissolve into snow. With a wild breeze the woman's remains were carried in front of the samurai and she thrust two spikes of ice right into Haoru's shoulders. Then with she planted the heel of her sandal right into the man's face making him tumble back.

The woman laughed out triumphantly and her partner joined her after a brief moment of heavy panting. Much to their surprise Haoru rose from the floor momentarily. "I see, so this was all a genjutsu, huh? You activated it and then leaped onto your partner's back, the genjutsu rendered the real you invisible replacing you with a snow clone of sorts while my body believed me to be hit from behind…" The Yuki woman thrust her index finger forward arrogantly as if signaling the samurai to bow to her to earn her mercy.

"That's right, samurai, and now as you have these icicles in your shoulder blood vessels you need my mercy to keep them from melting and opening the blood flow. If those blood vessels open up – you'll die in seconds!" the woman replied with a high and mighty tone to which she was only replied with laughter.

"Well… I would've been done in, had I not tensed my muscles up and blocked your stab." the samurai laughed out, the Yuki woman squinted in suspicion, "What do you mean? I stabbed you in the shoulders, I know my anatomy just fine, don't play games with me, old man!"

The samurai laughed again, "Go ahead then, young lady, melt your ice toothpicks, the moment that you do, however, my arms are free to move three hundred and sixty degrees, you better believe I'll be hungry for blood!" the man shouted out swinging his sword and then comically jumping up in pain as with the icicles stuck in his body the man had trouble properly moving his hand around. The sumo ninja looked at his partner with a worried look.

"Umm… Maybe you should… You know… Keep the icicles solid… I mean… Just in case…" he started uttering words one after another trying to calm his partner down. The woman started grinding her teeth heavily trying to decide on her course of actions. Seeing his partner's hesitation and realizing the fact that it meant great restriction of movement to his opponent the sumo ninja leaped forward grabbing the samurai by the face and slamming him into the floor and then leaping up and landing with his bottom straight onto the man's face. As blood started leaking from the cracked forehead of the elder samurai the woman finally braved up and made a handseal dissolving the icicles.

That same moment that the icicles disappeared a powerful shock hit the sumo ninja right into the center of his belly sending the chubby shinobi rolling back. Just like that Haoru was back onto his feet with his sword raised above his head. "I must thank you for calling my bluff, the cold from your ice allowed my injured blood vessels to heal up. After a lifetime of battlefield experience one finds their body healing up quite fast and if you'd have dissolved them earlier I'd have been in quite some trouble." Haoru smiled with a cruel twist of his lips.

The Yuki woman pouted as her body started sweating in fear – she wasted her chance to kill this man and this was all because of this godly intimidation that this man kept up. She believed his every lie just because he threatened her life and with that impossibly thick murdering atmosphere coming off of the samurai warrior she had no choice but to let him control the battlefield. To think that the man played her like that – made her make her icicles freeze the same wounds that she opened while his body's own natural freak battlefield regeneration ability allowed his vessels to heal within just several minutes. Even with his life in danger this man's face did not change, so this was what it meant to be a veteran of countless wars and claiming the heads of many times more ninja.

The woman just let her intimidated and afraid voice run wild. "Aren't you at all worried if you live or die? I could've easily killed you then and there!" she yelled out, her voice was flooded with fear over her own life and regret that she let him recover. Haoru's sword swung through the empty air, cutting so fast that one moment it was above his head while another it was already touching the floor. "Windcutter Style: Sword Gust Jutsu!" the samurai chanted as a powerful vortex of wind from the air literally being cut apart picked the giant sumo ninja up and tossed him around in the air leaving countless scratches and cuts as well. Within literally moments after the previous technique concluded Haoru appeared in front of the man jumping into the air with an upwards slash making the sumo ninja's body fly up stuck onto the blade that cut him. After reaching the highest point up in the air the samurai slashed downwards sending the chubby's body slamming into the ground while he himself landed gracefully nearby. The Onimoui ninja just laid there with his eyes rolled back with no signs of life.

"It is the first lesson a samurai learns during their young days: "Go to a battle afraid of dying and definitely you will die, go there with a clear mind and maybe you will live!" that is how a true samurai fights, that is why a samurai will always best a ninja in a fight!" Haoru shouted out madly finally dropping his smile. As the woman stumbled back, trying her best to fight the instinct to run for her life the samurai slowly walked towards her. The eyes of the Yuki that previously were so cold and analytical and so recently had the shade of victory and arrogance were now terrified of the concept of her own death. The woman stepped back and tripped over a rock, she fell onto the ground and tore her dress. As the pain revived her brain reminding it that this was real and actually happening she jumped up. "Stay back!" she screamed out.

Haoru didn't even stop for a moment, his pace didn't even slow down. The Yuki thrust her palms forward as cold winter winds howled around her picking up snow "I said stay back! Icicle Barrage Jutsu!" she screamed out again shooting a mad flurry of icicle projectiles all of which bounced off Haoru's blade that moved in a blur deflecting each and every projectile. It was like this samurai didn't even try to deflect the projectiles of such speed, his hand worked almost entirely out of instinct and muscle memory. Such was the strength of one possessing a God Sword technique in their arsenal. The Yuki woman's hands shot forward as the winds howled again. "STAY BAAAACK!" she screamed as Haoru's chest thumped right into her thrust forward hands that finished their handseals just at the same moment.

"Ice Style: Absolute Zero Storm Jutsu!" the woman screamed in panic as the winds focused into a single direction blowing straight into Haoru and pelting him with snow at such speed that the snowflakes managed to cut into his skin and leave cuts. Within mere moments the man disappeared in a wild and uncontrollable mess of snow, howling winter winds and ice. The technique was so immense that Howoku and Tanshu stopped for a moment to look at it and even had to evaluate if it won't be a threat to them. Fortunately for them the technique was very contained, that was why it was so powerful. The Yuki woman dashed back, her shaking knees finally gave in as the woman collapsed onto the ground and grabbed her head with her shaking hands. "I hit him… I hit him head on… He's got to be dead… Frozen still and torn apart… One with the snowflakes… He is now just a bunch of snowflakes… Then why… WHY DO I STILL FEEL THIS PRESSURE!?" she screamed out into the air absolutely terrified of the terrible atmosphere around the samurai that didn't waver for a moment.

"That was some technique, Yuki-ninja." The voice echoed from the large pillar of freezing and rampaging blizzard. "Had I not used my sword to make a vortex of wind equally as strong to contain the blizzard within it I would've actually died…" a wild laughter came out of the tornado of blizzard that then wildly split in half at the center and ended just as suddenly as it started, the wild but static snowflakes now fell from the air as it started to snow around the area where Haoru, the one with God Sword, stood. He was no longer smiling however, maybe because he felt the strain on his body from all this mad fighting he had done that day, maybe because he stopped enjoying himself and grew bored, wishing instead to end it all with one strike!

Howoku tried to come up with a proper plan to respond to pretty much any attack, any possible outcome. The Four Tails Jinchuuriki were known for their Lava Release ability, Howoku already knew that his Starlight Release could most likely properly counteract it, then again, he still didn’t know the amount of mastery that this woman had over her beast. Was she able to awaken it? Was she able to use the chakra cloak at the very least? So far she barely even mentioned it, it was only due to the immense chakra burst and the wild change in her eyes that Howoku even got the clue of her ability.

The woman leaped forward with a wild slam of her iron staff, Howoku stepped to the side but the rubble that the slam raised hit him in the face opening minor bruises and making him flinch. The woman flipped back with a kick at Howoku’s chest, after landing on her feet she charged forward with her staff resting on her back, the woman’s fists hurt immensely. Howoku was forced to once again interrupt and boost his chakra flow just so she didn’t do too much damage on him. Fighting with the idea of an upcoming much larger fight was troublesome indeed. The woman’s elbow sent Howoku flying a couple of meters forward. There was no grace or fanciness in him getting up, just a man picking his injured body and peeling it off the floor.

“My name is Howoku, the Fourth Hokage, may I know your name and also just how much mastery you have over the Four Tails? Do you plan on bringing it out at any point?” Howoku roughed out after picking himself up and wiping the blood off of his nose. The woman just smiled back playfully, while her eyes still looked like those of a mad wild monkey and her chakra leaked so intensely that the red glow was visible even to the human eye she appeared to be in complete control.

“Why would I let Son Goku have all the fun? We had a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors to decide who would get this fight, he looked a bit upset that he won’t have a go so I let him boost my abilities but if he ever tried to slip out he’d be grounded for a year! This is my fight, Goku doesn’t interrupt my fights, I don’t interrupt his. Also, my name is Surawu” the woman explained calmly, Howoku looked surprised. This Jinchuuriki was in complete control of her Tailed Beast! She could even keep it down and restrained if she needed to and gambled by playing games with it, games rules of which the beast upheld. This woman was dangerous!

The extensive mastery over her beast brought another problem to Howoku, he had to decide if he wanted to let the woman live. She was a dangerous asset for Kirigakure and if he was to take Shirona down and place a replacement in her place, the loyalists of the woman could always use this Jinchuuriki by tricking her and promising her awesome fights. Someone with so much power but little restraint of her actions had no place in a world of intrigue, if one was stupid enough to become this strong they had to have the brain to use that power responsibly and at the very least the judgment who to lend it to. It would not have been too tough for Howoku to defeat a Tailed Beast if he just let all of his power out in one burst, he’d be exhausted but… Tanshu could beat Shirona, could he not? There were so many questions that kept the Hokage from fighting at full strength.

“No! If I let this continue I’ll get killed, I need to beat this woman first, then to consider all the moral implications!” Howoku thought to himself as he charged forward, kicking with a spinning kick right into the woman’s block, then repositioning his weight and leaping up to kick with the other foot pushing her block away. Howoku’s punches then had an open hunting season all over the woman’s dropped defenses and he decided to exploit it. He was not the best of taijutsu users but he knew enough. He just kept punching with the hope that one of those punches would take her down, he did not stop for a moment because stopping would have meant her having a chance to respond. Howoku leaped onto her shoulders, then over her and kicked off the back of her head. The man slammed his hands forward shooting off shimmering Starlight Release chakra out of his body.

“Starlight Style: Nova Rush!” Howoku shouted leaping with a tackle at the woman as the chakra around his body expanded into an ellipse making Howoku’s body appear like a comet shooting horizontally right at his target. A deafening explosion echoed and wild shrapnel of heated and molten rock from both the collapsing roof and the floor started shooting off at random directions making everyone put a temporary stop in their fights and worry about avoiding this immense backlash of a jutsu. The area where the explosion went off around the centre was completely obliterated, there was a huge crater that reached well into the soil completely disintegrating even the ancient mossy rock that covered the floor, the entire roof construction was completely blown off and disintegrated into dust. Only Howoku stood in the centre of the explosion right in the crater breathing heavily standing by the unconscious body of Surawu – the Four Tails Jinchuuriki.

“Now… I can think what to do…” he thought to himself stroking his own hair to put out a small tongue of flame on his head. This was a bit excessive, he once destroyed an entire assaulting party that tried to invade his village with this technique and he held it back a bit this time, he was using it on a single target in an area where his allies still were after all. Still, Howoku was a bit surprised that the woman only suffered slight burns in some areas and while her armor got completely annihilated, she was supposed to be disintegrated but the Hokage knew that the woman would’ve done something to survive. He actually counted on her tagging out and letting the Tailed Beast take the blast, in that case he would’ve let it have it all and taken it down. Nova Rush Jutsu was powerful enough to severely kick the Tailed Beast in the teeth, it was made for inhuman encounters, those like ones with a Tailed Beast or a Lesser Demon.

A powerful shock caught Howoku unprepared, something steel hard drove into his face in an instant – it was the woman’s staff! The woman’s injured body leaped up so fast that he couldn’t even track her movements, she spun the staff around wildly letting its weight pummel Howoku, the hits were not as focused and crushing as single strikes but the numbers of impacts let her really get into it. Howoku was completely at her mercy for those several combinations of blows. She hit with spins, both left and right, lower and higher areas finishing the combination with a powerful slam into his face sending Howoku out of the crater and onto the floor. The man’s glasses were shattered all over the area from the damage they took.

Clumsily the woman climbed out of the crater, huffing and panting, murmuring something under her own nose. “Wow that attack was amazing! I really felt that!” she complimented the downed opponent of hers by patting her torn up clothes and examining the burns all over her body. Howoku raised his head and started slowly getting up, his vision was blurry and the sides of his body started aching, this degree of damage was something that even Vashia’s ointment would not have completely helped with. He sustained permanent damage in this battle, something he wouldn’t be able to completely heal even in the future, and that was something that severely lowered his chances against Shirona. Howoku felt warm torrents of blood running down all over his body in multiple areas. If this woman focused her strength into a single strike she may even have killed him!

“You mean… You took all of it?!” Howoku asked wiping the blood out of his eyes and tearing off the sleeve of his jumpsuit. The man tied it onto his forehead to stop the bleeding all over his face, that would have gotten into his way. “I actually counted that you would bring your Beast out, I planned for it to take the blast and get taken out…” the man admitted to which Surawu really got mad.

“I told you this was MY fight! Don’t fight Son Goku you stupid twit! Fight ME! Get serious or I’ll pummel you real bad! Well… Then again, we sort of shared chakra in that moment, I wouldn’t have taken the blast if he didn’t help me, heh heh…” her emotions switched completely erratically. One moment this woman was furious that she was not the main target, the next she laughed herself off just because she used the chakra of the Tailed Beast to survive the impact. So these two had perfect coordination – the beast could lend his chakra instantly without questioning his Jinchuuriki’s judgment, she could incorporate the Beast’s chakra into her flow and use it as her own effortlessly. These two worked in perfect sync.

Howoku had to stall, he needed time to start regaining full control of his body as his ribs and his chest hurt too much to keep fighting. He coughed heavily from some sort of liquid in his lungs – he may have been bleeding internally. “This sync… You also named your Tailed Beast… Just what sort of relationship do the two of you have with each other?” Howoku wondered out loud. Surawu stood straight, her eyes changed into more serious eyes and they wondered down onto the ravaged rocky floor.

“I didn’t name Son Goku, that’s his real name. That’s what he told me when we became good friends. That wasn’t the case initially. When I was a little girl I hated him, he made me stronger, more durable and he indirectly helped me to train harder. The stamina of a Jinchuuriki is fifty times that of a ninja without one, even when the two have had no contact with each other. I always thought I was some sort of a freak – I could’ve trained for weeks without rest and so I’ve become really strong unaware of his existence. Other kids thought of me as a freak, so did the grown-ups but they didn’t hate me because of Son Goku, they hated me because I was strong, because I made it all look too easy and because that made them look bad. When a kid appears to barely be trying to complete the tasks that they would fail at even if they trained for a hundred years… People say “Thank you” but they actually hate you deep inside because you illustrate their flaws, you remind them that they are flawed themselves. They think that you’re full of yourself even if you never take pride in your strength. Honestly they didn’t really care about Son Goku, they only hated me because I was better than them while still being innocent and stupid – they thought it all came on a platter for me and that became my curse. I dealt with that hate and cruelty by transferring all of it on Son Goku…”

The woman’s eyes suddenly became sad as she looked down. Howoku’s body started feeling better, he once again felt his arms and legs, some of his wounds didn’t appear to bleed remotely as profusely as he applied other pieces of his jumpsuit as bandage on the wounds that needed attention. All of a sudden Howoku didn’t want to kill this woman at all, even more, he could identify some of himself in her, empathize with her. He knew the social rejection of a genius, he knew all too well of the hatred that people had for people that were inherently better than them. They never even bothered to see these geniuses being arrogant, they never bothered to even question if their skill was even the point of the conversation – a genius was better than them, he illustrated all the flaws they had by contrast and so they had to disappear. They had to be punished for being so good at something somehow, by rejecting a genius people executed their own “social justice”.

Howoku’s eyes raised up and met those of the monkey woman. He saw from her own eyes that she noticed Howoku’s own experience being related to hers, she knew that he understood her own pain perfectly.

“It’s funny, usually the one who doesn’t want to communicate is the Tailed Beast, I’ve met some other Jinchuuriki as they were supposed to tutor me of the easier ways to master one’s abilities as well as teach me responsibility of having a Tailed Beast inside. Son Goku wanted to play with me and talk from the very beginning, it was my own hatred that rejected him. Son Goku kept asking me to play with him, talk to him and I yelled at him that I hated him. Told him that if I ever played with him I’d vomit until I died and if I died I’d be happy because I would no longer have to share a body with him, Goku was really crushed by those words. He stopped talking to me, stopped lending me his chakra. I was happy for a year or two, tried to gain friends, I thought that if I changed for my friends that they’d accept me but while I changed for them they couldn’t have cared less. It’s actually ironic that I wanted recognition, I wanted friends when I had one all along and I pushed him away by being mean to him for people who weren’t even friendly but recognition of which I craved most of all… It was then that I felt truly alone for the first time.”

The story of the woman he never asked for but just couldn’t force himself to tell her to stop reminded Howoku of his own past. With him bearing the heritage of the Moon People, being a descendant of a descendant of some other line of descendants, and possessing their unparalleled power he also was rejected as a child. He was smart because he worked hard, he was strong because he obliterated every obstacle in his way by disintegrating them, he possessed Fire and Lightning Releases from his earliest days surpassing the other genin who barely could use one. To him things always came easy but he never wanted strength, he never wanted to beat his enemies – he wanted to make them understand him, he wanted for everyone in the world to just get along. Ironically enough no one ever bothered to empathize with him or get along with him so how could a man with no friends or empathizers make the entire world feel for itself? It only changed for the better after he met Misu and Hanasaku, Hanasaku was a bit like him – she was crazy strong and always took all the punches smiling but she didn’t care about anything. She taught him that ignorance was bliss, she taught him that the last thing he should cry about was how everyone else perceived him, that he shouldn’t change for their approval, he should reveal his true colours and have people either approve of him or go to hell. Misu showed Howoku that peace and friendship wasn’t always going to cut it, that sometimes one needed to get their hands into the mess, that turning the other cheek after getting slapped only lead to being slapped again, sometimes peace needed to be forced… The three of them were the best of friends and nothing else mattered, meeting them helped Howoku bloom into the man he was today – the Fourth Hokage!

“So how did you two make up?” Howoku asked Surawu encouraging her to finish the story. This was a unique experience, two opponents of each other feeling for one another, being opponents but not enemies. Fighting only because they ended up on the two sides of the same bridge and one of them had to get wet so that the other could pass.

“I always thought that Son Goku was angry at me and that he hated me after I lashed out at him. Turns out that was not the case – he was just hiding because he wanted me to be happy. He thought that maybe once I was happy that I would stop being so angry and hating the world and him by extension. He is a weird creature, he isn’t violent or inherently evil like people portray the Tailed Beasts to be. He’s actually a lot like me – simple minded. He just wants to play around but sometimes he gets a bit destructive with his games so over the years he started to feel really happy being sealed into a human – where his games hurt no one else, there are no villages to destroy in one’s body, no volcanoes there to erupt, just a black void to play with one’s friend until one gets bored. I confronted him after realizing that, it took me some time but… When I did, I’ve never seen anyone be as happy as Son Goku was at that moment. My inhuman strength and endurance returned after he started sharing chakra again but it didn’t matter, instead of supressing myself I let myself bloom and I couldn’t have cared less about what other people thought, I had the only friend I would ever need inside my own body, as close as close gets…”

Surawu gently touched her exposed belly where a complicated sign of a seal was. That gentle touch must’ve meant a lot, it communicated so many feelings at once. While Howoku was not a Jinchuuriki but he could understand the woman perfectly. “Very well, Surawu-san. I shall honor you by going all out and fighting you without thinking of Fou… Son Goku, or the Mizukage. Initially I was afraid of your mastery and coordination with Son Goku but… I guess I’m getting old and soft, I really have no wish to kill you now so you better find an answer to every attack I throw because if you die on me I won’t forgive you!” Howoku explained taking an offensive stance. The two charged at each other and Howoku’s body lit up with Starlight Release chakra as the two started exchanging punches. Even without using the Tailed Beast chakra Surawu was incredibly strong and fast and a very skilled taijutsu user. If it was not for Howoku’s Starlight chakra that made his body much hotter leaving severe burns on any area he touched and burning the fist or knee that hit him slightly, this woman wouldn’t have fought him on such equal scales as she did now.

The two leaped around each other, Surawu avoided every blow, she couldn’t block any attacks without taking some damage and now her body was already battered by Howoku’s previous explosion of excess. The woman made quick and lacking force strikes to hit the man, just land a quick jab, just to leave a mark but not put too much force so that she didn’t contact the heated up chakra for too long. The man’s glowing bursts of chakra were so hot that they didn’t even feel hot – they just burned whatever they touched so Surawu had additional trouble avoiding taking more damage than she would have liked taking. Eventually the woman just flipped over Howoku and kicked off of his shoulders to make some distance between the two – fighting him up close was too much trouble for her.

“Not that I’m complaining but… Aren’t Son Goku’s Jinchuuriki supposed to be able to use Lava Release? Why aren’t you using it?” Howoku asked politely panting after this intense exchange of blows with the woman.

“Well, technically Son Goku can teach you that and while one has him in them they have the capacity but… I’m sort of really bad at it so I stopped bothering with it, is there a problem with that?” Surawu replied.

Howoku laughed out loud from the bottom of his heart. “No. Your reply reminds me of a friend I know though.”

The two prepared to settle their fight finally.

Surawu leaped forward winding up with her staff for a hit. Howoku swiped both of his hands to the side forming a rod out of Starlight chakra that blocked the blow. The slam of her staff only seemed to be the distraction for her main attack as the Jinchuuriki of the Four Tails backflipped and drove her fingers together into a clone technique seal.

“Shadow Clone Jutsu!” she said as a loud poof with a cloud of smoke silenced any words she may have said afterwards. Five clones of the woman leaped out of the smoke cloud, Howoku stepped to the side to avoid the blow aimed by one of them and thrust his knee into her stomach making the clone poof away. The second clone’s staff drove into Howoku’s back but it didn’t hurt like the real thing, the Hokage soon recovered from the shock and the pain and thrust his right leg backwards into the clone’s chest dispelling it as well. Noticing the black staff of the third clone Howoku rolled forward stopping his body with his arm and pushing it off the ground while thrusting both of his feet at the clone kicking her in the chin and sending her into the air where it dispelled as well.

With a powerful swing of his elbow Howoku dispatched of the other clone and then leaped into the air and dispelled the last one with his kick. All of this seemed weird, Shadow Clone technique was an incredibly costly technique, a young genin in Tanshu’s team was mentioned to have used the technique and passed out, this woman split her chakra into five parts essentially. Only then did the Fourth notice Surawu rapidly spinning her staff around her head and standing further away. “Sorry, Fourth, this is my special technique and it needs time to charge up, I had to throw those weaklings at you…” the woman giggled with a weird smile reminding that of a playful monkey.

The staff started glowing with reddish glow before red lightning started bursting out of it covering the entire staff in a cloak of red chakra that shot off violent lightning-like bursts. Surawu then placed the staff in front of her holding it on one end while she pointed the other end at Howoku as if she was wielding a katana. The chakra around the staff intensified and the strain on the woman’s body was evident as she started shouting out of pain and exhaustion, “Monkey Destruction Cannon Jutsu!” she yelled out as the violent burst of chakra separated into a wide and swift beam of destructive chakra attack. Just barely did Howoku manage to leap to the side and avoid the beam, Surawu tried to hit him with it again by adjusting her staff and turning herself with the beam around but Howoku managed to vault over the beam every time. It was unfortunate that this frantic dodging tired him out too much to exploit the moment of weakness after the woman’s technique ended.

“Wow… You’re pretty good, from the rumors people say that physical stuff comes hard for you but you matched me hand to hand and managed to dodge my beam as well as kept up with my clones, even if they were severely weaker versions of me… I’m really impressed.” Surawu showed Howoku her tongue and laughed out like a monkey again, it seemed like the beast that she carried within somewhat affected her personality and mannerisms.

Howoku wanted to adjust his glasses that he still believed to be there but then his fingers only touched thin air and his own nose, his vision blurred again for a moment as he remembered losing them. “Truth be told, Surawu-san, it is my weakest side by far. That is simply the real difference between us, the wedge between a Jounin and a Hokage that separates us. I felt like I really connected with you, now I cannot kill you even if I wanted to. That being said I have responsibilities and I can entertain you and Son Goku no longer. I shall end it all with this final attack, when you train and grow stronger and when your connection with Son Goku grows to be even more powerful I’d gladly fight you again…”

Surawu furiously shook her head. “What are you talking about!? Do you mean you’ve been holding back this whole time!? Well… That makes me really pissed, you know! Stop playing around and show me this “wedge” of which you speak of!” the woman shouted out and leaped forward with a strike of her staff that burst with the reddish lightning chakra. It appeared that Son Goku was lending the woman chakra which she used to enhance her strength and endurance by injecting it forcefully into her chakra flow and accelerating it. While Howoku understood the basic concept because of his vast experience on the battlefield he could not understand why would the woman have chosen to do so – it basically had the same effects as the casual textbook chakra flow manipulation.

The staff, bursting with crackling red lightning chakra, flew through the air cutting through it but then it stopped after hitting something really hard and strong. Surawu’s head peeked to the side and then her mouth shot open in surprise as well as her eyes that widened to almost comedic extent. Howoku had raised his hand into the air and held it as if he had a sword in his hand and then a burst of Starlight Release formed a blade in his hands that was several times larger than her staff.

“Starlight Release: Pleiades!” he mumbled under his own nose as he pushed her staff back effortlessly by swinging his Starlight blade of chakra. Two wide slashes that formed an X shape covered Surawu’s body before her gentle and swift feet even touched the ground making the woman lose her balance and stagger back, wild bursts of burning-like reaction to the chakra cut was glowing out of her wounds. On one hand it cauterized all of her burns but it also incinerated the areas around the cuts as well as deeper inside her body, Surawu coughed up blood but then regained her balance, her wild monkey-like eyes returned and dyed red, they were now enraged to the point where she now reminded more of a monkey than a human.

The Jinchuuriki’s fist tightened as she cocked it back preparing a powerful punch, a cloak of red chakra covered her entire body with three tails growing out of her bottom shaped out of chakra. She was letting Son Goku give her more and more chakra to the point where his chakra dwarfed that of her own. Suddenly the woman’s fist shot out that very same crimson lightning that her staff was emanating before, just incalculably more dense and concentrated and supersized, her fist reminded more of a large ball similar to those that children played on the streets. Howoku’s hand changed from a clenched hand that held his Starlight Blade to an open palm as the Starlight Chakra got reabsorbed into his body – while the man could not refund his own chakra that he had spent on his Starlight techniques he could change one to another quickly if he needed to. The concept was similar to reaching for water from a pond – one reached down and took some water in their hands and then raised it intending to wash their face. In the middle of that action they may have realized they were pretty thirsty so they completed the action by drinking the water instead of washing their face, that being said the amount of water in the pond was still reduced.

As Surawu prepared to charge at Howoku the gigantic ball of chakra around her arm that was an even more intense shade of crimson red that the cloak of chakra around her shaped into a gigantic fist. The Jinchuuriki roared wildly, reminding more of a roar of a wild ape than a roar of a furious woman which was troubling to hear. A powerful light emanated from Howoku’s chest as he leaped forward to meet the woman’s attack. Surawu roared again after thrusting her wild construct of crimson lightning chakra forward.

“Monkey Fist Jutsu!” she shouted out in a voice that barely reminded that of her own, all of a sudden, before the fist construct collided with his body Howoku’s lips moved just barely – “Starlight Nova!” he uttered as the small ball of Starlight glow in his chest expanded into a gigantic all covering sphere that disintegrated the entire half of the room that those two were, deepening the crater that his previous outburst of power had made. Now the wing of the temple that the Hokage’s group was in was no longer even connected to the main building. Howoku looked into the sky only to see wild raindrops falling onto his face, the man observed the dark clouds in the sky before his eyes briefly slipped onto burnt up and unconscious young woman beside him. The Fourth took a couple of deep breaths before falling onto his knees and having to stop for a moment. This was getting out of control, he was tired and wanted to stop all this fighting.

“Just one more fight… One more fight to end them all.” Howoku whispered to himself as he decided to get out of the crater where the water was filling up moving his beaten opponent out of the crater as well.


*****

Meanwhile slightly further down the room in the part that was yet undestroyed by Howoku’s Starlight techniques Tanshu continuously tried to break through the barriers of the Barrier Buster of the Kirigakure Barrier Corps. Breaking a barrier was simple, the Sannin could bust a barrier with a single punch but his opponent kept crafting more and more endlessly, with each swipe of his arm while his other arm held the hand seal another barrier rose up.

“Your punches are weaker, you’re getting slower, finally your own stupidity is catching up to you! Your chakra is slowly fading away, soon you won’t even be able to punch through a single barrier!” the Barrier Buster laughed out as he started to believe in his hopes of victory. However no matter how the man tried to taunt the Konohagakure Sannin it invited no reaction. The man just leaped backwards and then lunged forward, his intense chakra started building up – something big was coming and it didn’t took a sensor to feel it. The Barrier Buster thrust both of his hands forward forming as powerful of a barrier as he could but Tanshu’s kick just kicked him up into the air as no barrier formed.

“Grgh… Impossible…” the Barrier Buster grunted in pain as Tanshu confidently wiped his nose with flick and jumped up.

“Leaf Whirlwind!” the Sannin yelled out as his continuous kicks bombarded the man’s chest sending him crashing into the ground. It was not a powerful technique but when performed by a powerful ninja the power of the taijutsu technique mattered little, only the strength and speed of the user.

The Barrier Buster tried to form more barriers around him madly inside the cloud of dust that his body formed when it slammed into the ground but unsuccessfully – Tanshu’s knee collided with the man’s belly making him throw up blood. With a calm dash backwards Tanshu built up some space between the two and gave the opponent some time to recover.

“I can negate any ninjutsu or genjutsu technique you can throw at me, it’s a combination of a sealing technique and genjutsu that enters your body like an illusion but then instead of putting you in a genjutsu places a seal that stops your technique by messing up your chakra flow. Stop even bothering with your stupid barriers…” Tanshu replied as he breathed out, he had to admit – the man was right, his strange strategy of wasting chakra really was getting the better of him at the moment but he was preparing his body for something special, to use THAT he needed to get rid of as much of his own chakra as he could because he hasn’t mastered that technique that well, normally it was a combination of chakra collected by one’s summoned animals and one’s own but Tanshu just couldn’t do it, he had to get rid of as much of his chakra as possible without passing out so that the process came easier…

The man jumped up on his feet and thrust his arm forward shooting off a wild and weak barrier that pushed Tanshu away slightly, the man then started thrusting his arms forward wildly reminding, ironically enough, of a sumo wrestler.

“Barrier Style: Thousand Barrier Barrage!” he shouted as his barriers started flying at Tanshu at great speed intending to crash into him and possibly leave some broken bones. The Sannin flashed through his handseals after biting his thumb and slammed his palm to the ground, a powerful explosion sent multiple mad clouds of smoke all around and then the barriers crashed into his location. After the technique ended and the Barrier Buster lowered his fatigued hands he could only curse – a giant three headed dog stood where Tanshu once was with the Sannin standing on the nose of the central head. Seeing how Howoku had blown the roof off before this at least fifty feet tall dog could fit easily inside the building seeing as the hall was quite wide but only couple of floors tall. Tanshu looked at the dog’s eyes as the central head nodded letting the Sannin slip off of its nose.

“You know what to do!” Tanshu ordered as the giant Cerberus lit up with crimson glow of chakra just like the little pooch did before. Tanshu, however, had other plans. He charged right at his opponent attacking the man with a quick and powerful punch to the face, as the Barrier Buster tried to counterattack with his own glowing with chakra fist the Tanshu only dissolved into harmless red flames. The man then grunted in pain as the real Tanshu appeared behind him and drove his elbow right into the Barrier Buster’s spine. The Kirigakure Jounin thrust his elbow hitting Tanshu right in the face but the Sannin recovered quickly and started punching madly with incredible speed. The Barrier Buster did his best to block as many blows as he could but he only blocked some of them – Tanshu’s offensive was ruthless and brutal and would soon tear him down if this went on like that. Another “Leaf Whirlwind” sent the Kirigakure Jounin down only for him to barely pick himself up again.

The man then turned at the dog who despite his threatening size only stood there gathering some strange sort of chakra. The Barrier Buster thrust his arms forward attempting to form barriers around the dog and blow him away. “I don’t know what your game is but I’m not letting it happen!” the man mumbled out through blood and slobber than was running down his mouth and nose as the battle had taken an incredible toll on him and his wearing down was quite visible. “Lightning Style: Restriction Beam Jutsu!” he shouted out but neither his barriers nor his beam shot out. The Cerberus thrust his giant claws at the man who just barely managed to leap aside and avoid being cut to shreds, the left head then leaned forward to get a good bite out of the man but he managed to leap aside and avoid that as well.

“You bloody fool, Tanshu-san just explained it all to you! Your stupid tricks won’t work, if you want me gone you’ll have to do it with your own two hands!” the dog growled angrily as the three heads spoke at the same time with its incredibly loud voice reaching even the farthest corners of the temple. Tanshu’s body dove down from above with an elbow strike that connected right with the Barrier Buster’s head, a mad flurry of punches sent the man down. Tanshu glared at the Red Cerberus angrily with a squint, “Is it done yet!? This one’s just about reached his limit…” the man asked his summon angrily. The Red Cerberus visibly got scared of his master’s fury and started explaining itself in a hilarious fashion where each head started telling a different excuse making none of them intelligible in the end.

“Whatever, hurry up, I’m just about done with this weakling.” Tanshu replied angrily. He leaped back onto the head of the dog and pointed at the direction of the Barrier Buster who was writhing on the ground. It was then that a powerful explosion shook the ground directing the Cerberus’ attention and cancelling its charge up of chakra. The Red Dog glared angrily at his partner again to which the giant dog only barked an apology. “It appears that Howoku’s already done with his fight, let’s wrap this up too.” The Sannin encouraged his dog again and all the three heads spat out a mad jet of flames that united in a colossal fireball in the center of where they crossed right on top of the Barrier Buster ninja. The wild firestorm raged for a moment before Tanshu threw an explosive kunai at the explosion to reignite it and make the total explosion destroy the second half of the hall they were in.

“Are the two of ye crazy!?” Haoru’s mad voice shouted through the blazing inferno as the man’s mad and muscular body broke through the raging flames as if they were nothing. “This is a protected cultural treasure, some idiots worshipped their deadbeat gods here!” the elder samurai shouted out. The head of the sumo ninja he was facing off against dug deep into Haoru’s side sending him crashing into a wall to the side.

“Focus your attention on our fight, damn it!” the sumo ninja shouted out. The attention of the Sannin and the Cerberus turned at the smoldering cloak that once belonged to the Barrier Buster. Before the two of them could breathe easier a powerful impact sent the Red Cerberus to the ground, Tanshu had to leap off of the dog because of how violently the dog’s body was shaken and crushed to the ground. Burnt up and injured Barrier Buster was still alive, he must’ve avoided the firestorm because no one could’ve survived something like that.

“You thought that was it? Mizukage Shirona entrusted to us the glorious mission, this majestic purpose of…” a powerful and loud splat echoed through the hall as the Cerberus’ paw crushed the little yelling man to the floor. Tanshu angrily stared at his partner. The arm of the Jounin just twitched from under the furry paw that slammed him to the ground.

“I was hoping to finish charging it up before the next fight, you know… Whatever, give me however much you’ve got.” The man grunted out angrily making his summon look at him with the sorry eyes that only a canine was able to make. The dog Cerberus barked angrily and disappeared in a loud poof of smoke making the blood red chakra that it had gathered cover Tanshu’s body and be absorbed by the man. Tanshu stretched out a bit and smiled. “Heh, almost done… Not bad.”


*****

Haoru rolled out of the hole in the wall that he had left as the entire construction went down. His sides were actually starting to ache, it was entirely possible that even his monstrous body was reaching its limits. Then again, he was fooling around far too much, it was just about time he showed these two twerps why he was such a legend. Haoru’s body leaned back and his muscles tensed up to the point where his blood vessels shot out madly, small pebbles and slightly larger rubble around the man started moving around frantically and shaking as the immense gusts of wind gathered around his body blowing even large chunks of debris away. Haoru expelled a powerful kiai shout as mad projectiles of wind shot out cutting up the rubble around him, even the largest stones fell to pieces like falling leaves.

“Godly Sword: Susanoo!” he chanted out leaping forward in a flash appearing right beside the incredibly obese sumo ninja. For a moment the Onimoui ninja wondered what sort of technique this famous “Godly Sword” was – Haoru’s sword was not sheathed but close to the sheath so it wasn’t a sword drawing technique. With a swift and blurry motion Haoru’s arm sheathed his blade, as the blade entered the sheathe inhumanly fast it generated powerful gusts of wind that blew from behind the sumo ninja drawing him in at Haoru, the elder samurai shot his foot forward and turned his entire body around a full circle while drawing his sword. The gusts of wind blowing at the samurai made it impossible to dodge the drawing slash, the sword of the famous “God Sword” Haoru passed even through the immensely hard Onimoui skin and flesh like butter. The poor chubby met the ground in two pieces.

The Yuki woman stood there speechless for a moment before trying to utter a statement of the fact that her comrade was dead. Haoru leaped around and stretched his tired muscles out, using the Godly Sword technique tired his muscles out a lot.

“Y-You… K-Killed him… W-With one cut…” the woman still couldn’t believe it, she raised her hands and placed them on her chest as if they could’ve shielded her from the wrath of the rampaging war hero samurai. The woman fell onto the ground hopelessly, it was very clear – that exact moment when all hope left her and she accepted her own death. Instead of a sword severing her lowered head however a mad laugh met her still stunned and unbelieving ears.

“I dunno, I can still hear his heart pounding, those Onimoui sure are lively… A medical ninja could still put him together.” he laughed out looking at the unconscious chubby. Hearing the man’s words the Yuki woman’s eyes quickly lifted up and met the top piece of her comrade, madly she crawled up to her friend and went through a series of handseals placing her arms in front. “Ice Style: Jack Frost Jutsu!” she uttered as a stream of ice shot out from her hands covering the wound of the chubby and closing it from bleeding. The woman was shaking in rage.

“Y-You bastard! Toying around with us like this… Unforgivable!” she yelled out forming some more handseals and pointing her hands at the samurai. A mad barrage of icicles shot out all of which bounced off of the samurai’s body as they were deflected by his sword that moved faster than the eye could see.

“Didn’t your mommy tell you a lousy ninja can never face a samurai in an open battle? Honestly, what sort of outcome did you expect?” Haoru shrugged, the Yuki woman grabbed her partner and started running to the stone door through which the Mizukage left. Haoru’s blurry sword swung a circle in the air that made a tunnel of howling winds.

“Wind Cutter Style: Vacuum Prison” he chanted as a bubble of air formed around the woman and her unconscious chubby friend. The samurai’s blade lit up with blinding white chakra and he made a handseal slashing with the other hand madly. “Wind Cutter Style: Wind Blade Barrage!” he shouted out as each slash fired off a projectile of wind chakra that cut the woman and her friend down bursting the bubble of air they were incased in and making them fall lifelessly onto the ground.

“Weren’t you too cruel, Haoru-san? The woman was running, she was no longer fighting.” He asked. Haoru just laughed and sheathed his sword.

“Actually I feel sort of soft right now, had I let her escape her mistress would’ve killed her without a doubt for abandoning her post. I on the other hand just injured her severely, it is more than likely that someone will tend to her wounds, also even if Mizukage wins she has no reason to punish any of those two – they fought till the end for all she knows.” Haoru sat on the floor and covered his face. Tanshu and Howoku started walking forward to the stone door, with a single kick the Red Dog sent the stone door crumbling down.

“It’d be better if you stayed here, samurai.” Tanshu said with a rude tone, “The fatso and the woman were right – your own body doesn’t know how severely it’s wounded, you’ve been fighting whole day today, even fought the Mizukage herself and on top of that you just used a God Sword technique, if you just died on the battlefield you’d get in our way.”

Haoru laughed out madly and sat to the wall in a meditating position. “You ungrateful little runt! You think I don’t know my own limits? Mizukage-ninja’s technique hit me pretty hard, plus my body ain’t what it was in the war. Even in this state I could sever her head with a single swipe… I’ll just choose not to cause she is a problem for you ninja, if you guys win she’ll get hers, if you guys die to her she’ll kill more ninja than I could’ve ever hoped to so in the end I’ll win either way. Her puny men bore me anyways. Just make sure someone tells me when either she or you guys are dead, I’d hate to sit here forever.” the elder samurai grunted and crossed his bulky arms on his buff chest relaxing and closing his eyes.

As Howoku and Tanshu made their way through the corridor rushing for whichever room Shirona ended up in the Sannin looked at his partner, “You think Haoru’s full of shit or is he actually that weird?” Howoku laughed, “Honestly, both are quite likely, I’ve never met a man who hates ninja quite like he does but he has taken a lot of damage. He may be too worn out to move but it’s equally as likely that he actually intended to let us kill each other in the end like he said he did…” Howoku saw the blonde hair of the Mizukage flow far away in the distance and her black dress. The two men burst into a square room with a platform up where observers would have stood and watched whatever insane ancient rituals transpired below. Behind Shirona stood a bare chested statue of a bearded old man with a staff that had several oak leaves on it from the side. The great divinity crafted out of bronze stood there with a bolt of lightning in one hand aiming to smite those that stood below it – this place was likely a sacrificial altar.

“I’ve been waiting for you two, it’s sad that Haoru couldn’t join us, I would’ve loved to kill all three of you off, I’m a busy woman after all, about to get much busier. I’ll have little time to chase timed samurai around.” Shirona smiled welcoming the two who have come to their final goal. This was the end of both of their paths – Tanshu and Howoku wanted to apprehend or kill Shirona, Shirona wanted them dead so this was their final trial. No more lapdogs, no more traps or games, just ninja doing what ninja were always meant to do. Ambition for endless war clashing with the ambition of endless world peace.

Tanshu and Howoku continued to stare their opponent down, the two men had worked alongside each other before so it would’ve taken them little trouble to crush even a Kage level opponent. Then again, Shirona was someone who had faced off against Haoru and survived which was not something easily dismissed. The woman gently raised her hand into the air and swiped it back down, Tanshu’s body instinctively turned to the side. A powerful noise of rumbling greet the three as the stone structures behind the Sannin separated after being cut in two by an edge of a barrier sent by the woman, she was someone who has managed to make barriers into a tool of both perfect offense and defense.

Tanshu’s body disappeared and in a blink appeared right in front of Shirona, a powerful punch flew her way that collided with a barrier in mid-flight. The Sannin’s punch didn’t even inflict that much damage upon the woman and it could’ve been said judging from her face that blocking his blows didn’t come too hard for the Mizukage or strained her at all as she was just playfully smiling behind the barrier. “You’ll have to forgive me, it’s an old habit to dispatch of irrelevant dogs early. I suppose we’ve both underestimated each other…” the woman shrugged acting like the situation at hand was not at all troubling her. What truly transpired in the heart of the world’s most ambitious lady was a mystery as it often is with women.

“You should hurry back to your master, dog, he may need your help soon.” Shirona laughed out when Howoku dashed sideways tossing some kunai and shuriken her way when Tanshu was attacking from another side. The Hokage tried to test a theory that Shirona could only place a barrier at one place at once, something that was quickly ruined when she managed to make a bent barrier that blocked both corners. Tanshu looked at Howoku questioningly wondering what the woman may have meant, Howoku just shrugged. What transpired next took only a couple of blinks for it to be missed: a white flash flew straight at the Fourth Hokage only for the figure’s blade to collide with that of Tanshu’s. When the dust settled down the Konohagakure Sannin found himself staring at Misu of the Vapor – his brother in arms.

“I always thought you were an idiot but I’ve never taken your aim to be that far off!” Tanshu cracked a grin as he struggled to keep the hold, he couldn’t have been too forceful with his clash as his kunai when blocking Misu’s blade could’ve cracked and broken off quite easily if too much force was placed on it.

“I’ll leave you two to catch up, leave mommy and daddy to their differences alone, boys…” Shirona yawned by raising her arm that caused the ground beneath the two Sannin to shift – a barrier of solid chakra below the rocks acted like a platform that lifted the entire floor beneath the two and shot it up to the ceiling. Tanshu and Misu held their clash to the final moment, they only parted and leaped to the sides right before the rock slammed into the ceiling, something that would’ve crushed them and grinded them with the rocks above. The Red Dog and Misu landed on the opposite sides of the observer’s area.

“I’ll give you until I go for the kill to explain yourself, if you die before you prove your point it’ll be on you!” Tanshu angrily yelled out going through a couple of handseals and spitting out a bursting wave of flames at his friend. Misu went through a bunch of his own seals and spat out a dragon shaped water projectile to counteract Tanshu’s jutsu. The Red Dog’s injured and tired body burst from the smoke with a roaring fist that was just barely blocked in time with Misu’s blade, Tanshu angrily breathed in and thrust his fist forward breaking Misu’s steel and making his fist collide with the body of his friend that then burst into white vapor. Knowing full well about how his friend could use that vapor by heating it up Tanshu leaped back out of it. The fight between Howoku and Shirona below no longer mattered to those two.

“I don’t need to explain anything, I have my own views about how the world of shinobi should be and the lady is just a better leader in such a world than Howoku, it’s simple politics, he may still be my friend but he no longer has my vote.” Misu replied drawing another katana out of his set of two tied to his waist. The last one was cracked and worn down even before he confronted one of the strongest ninja alive so it was of no surprise that it cracked under pressure.

“You’ve cut down so many that your own sword was weeping to be broken, whatever vision of the world you have doesn’t interest me, I’ll just get you out of my way and go crush Shirona to rub salt onto your bleeding wounds!” Tanshu shouted out enraged as he thrust his fist forward, Misu’s body once again dissolved into vapor. Tanshu had seen the Vapor Mode used a lot during his times working with the other Sannin, he had never seen the mystery of it cracked nor has he wondered about it himself, the idea of fighting a friend had just never dawned on him. Not that it mattered or Tanshu was afraid of it.

Misu’s blade cut through the vapor that he had made, a blinding cloud of smoke-like substance that was deadly similar to the infamous “Hidden Mist Technique” of the Kirigakure ninja. The blade was caught by Tanshu’s arms and pushed to the side, as the Sannin tried to capitalize on the opening he himself made the figure of the man only faded back into the cloud of vapor around him. “Stop running and fight me!” Tanshu yelled out angrily taken by the ridiculousness of the situation of having to fight a friend he was worrying over for so long when it turned out that his friend was busy cutting down his other friends.

“Oh you’d love that huh? You made the enemy out of me so easily, perhaps Shirona’s views are also more fitting for you than Howoku’s delusions of peace amongst countries of warriors and killers?” Misu’s voice echoed from everywhere, it was almost like his voice separated and came from multiple areas inside the fog at once.

“There’s nothing complicated about me kicking your ass, you’ve sold out for the enemy, it’s as easy as that.” Tanshu shouted out again blocking swings of Misu’s blade that seemed to come from random directions. The bastard was utilizing the cloud of vapor that he was continuously emitting to deceive Tanshu and try and land a cut on him from somewhere he didn’t see it coming from. Luckily enough Tanshu’s sharpened senses allowed him to hear the blade cut through the vapor just in time for him to react, it was a superhuman feat all by itself but such was simply Tanshu’s life. He broke the conventional rules of how ninja worked to do his job properly.

“The world where one country is the enemy and another one is a friend, the ideal world where you know who your enemies are… Such a delusional world doesn’t exist, Tanshu, you’re just as naïve as you was to leave the faith of your little wet dream to a man you just met!” Misu’s voice came from various directions again. “Do you think Shirona is an enemy because she is from Kirigakure? Do you think Kirigakure is an enemy? Do you think Shirona is your enemy? False knowledge of who is an enemy and who is your friend leads to generalization which leads to death of innocents. For all the bullshit talk Howoku spouts out about peace he doesn’t know crap about it, he thinks that just pointing at one country and blaming it for the world’s problems will solve everything, he just mistakes it to be that easy and that’s why he isn’t fit to be in charge. Truth be told, he never was…”

Tanshu closed his eyes and avoided several more strikes, sharp pain and warm sensation of blood squirting onto his back alerted him that he may not have been as perfect at avoiding all of the slashes as he may have thought. The Red Dog had spent so long getting rid of his chakra and exhausting himself, charging up the chakra that his summons gave him instead, he planned to use THAT on Shirona but… He will have to dispatch of Misu with it. For that to happen he still would need some more time however, some more time when he couldn’t afford to die!

“Wait… Wet dream? Do you mean Vashia? What do you mean by that?” Tanshu caught onto a detail in all that manifesto of madness that Misu was spitting out. He was just an apologist of Shirona’s actions because those actions allowed him to be a wild animal and kill whoever he wanted to kill. Misu always was a little bit scary and ruthless, they should’ve gotten the clue when he started leaving for missions in Water Country a bit too often…

“What do you think I did? She was a Hyuuga with those cursed eyes, she saw through my Vapor Mode, she had the information about my abilities which she could sell to the enemy at any moment – I killed her!” Misu replied cold and simple as if he was describing a meal that he had yesterday. Tanshu’s teeth dug deep into his own lip making blood squirt out, his hands furiously flashed through some handseals and slammed into the platform they were standing on.

“Double Summoning Jutsu: Baby Heaven and Earth!” Tanshu chanted out as the two dogs burst with the same crimson chakra that the Red Cerberus and the Poochy before charged up for him. The two leaped inside the vapor using their incredibly sensitive noses to sniff the bastard out. The two dogs weren’t too large or powerful, they were just a duo of shepherd-like dogs with black uniforms that had two symbols on their backs reading “Heaven” and “Earth” respectively. The two dogs whined in pain telling Tanshu of the location of the man he was gunning for, without second questioning his thoughts the man burst forward with all of his speed. As the two dogs whined again in pain Tanshu felt their chakra enter his system – they were dispatched off.

The man leaped into the cloud where Misu was supposed to be and started attacking in wide swings and kicks trying desperately to hit the man. He wanted to punch him until only a stain remained, no more respect, no more kinship, no more tolerance for the life of this man remained – he killed Vashia! Truth be told he may have had his reasons, his responsibility altering reasons to justify him but to Tanshu it didn’t matter, for the death of the young woman he wanted to know, to clash blades with to understand her heart, Misu of the Vapor had to die.

Tanshu’s wide swings only hit vapor, the man felt the gas heating up around him and he leaped up sticking onto the wall and ran up to the ceiling. Tanshu leaped down with a straight kick that separated the vapor mist in two from the intensity of it, it crashed through the platform sending debris crashing below, making the Sannin backflip to land on more solid ground.

“Oh? Did that hit a nerve? I didn’t know if she was actually a sweetheart of yours, or what, you were always so silent about her and so shy, like a schoolboy, honestly.” Misu taunted once again from the cloud of vapor. “Maybe had you told me back then that you loved her, had the almighty icon of coolness “Red Dog Tanshu” acted like a man around the woman he loved, I would’ve had a clue and wouldn’t have killed her… Although not quite, you were still a criminal back then after all, what did it matter who you loved or hated?”

Tanshu roared madly into the air with a proud shout that was just supposed to let his emotions out. Wild fiery chakra shot out from his body pushing the cloud of vapor away, the fire started enveloping his entire body, Tanshu stood in a wild rotating and rampaging firestorm of wildfire and he didn’t even shake. Misu stepped back intimidated by the display of Tanshu’s fury, he questioned just what exactly this new technique was, the color of the flame reminded him of the color of chakra that burst from those dogs, could this have been the true purpose of Tanshu’s strange way of fighting using his summons as martyrs? Misu let more vapor gas shoot out from under his sleeves as he hid inside the cloud, the ongoing mad outburst of chakra and flames and Tanshu’s relative calmness made him very careful about his approach.

“Y-You should just give up, whatever you do is pointless, you’ll never even land a single hit in my mist, I guess you could say Vashia’s death wasn’t pointless, my secret was preserved and came to bite you in the ass. She is the one you should blame for your own death by my hands, it’s because she wasn’t strong enough to live and tell you my secret that you die today!” Misu tried to taunt Tanshu, the wild burst of flaming chakra formed a sphere of wild flames around Tanshu, the figure that emerged from inside those wild flames was something else. It was a combination of a man and a dog – a bipedal figure with dog’s paws and feet, body half covered with red fur with the muscles breaking through the fur and being just pale skin, the man’s face had the typical snout of a dog and Tanshu’s pupils looked like there was still some of the literal fire inside of them as they blazed around the minus shaped iris. Erect canine ears broke through from Tanshu’s wild shoulder-length locks and powerful and threatening fangs were shown when the man growled angrily, ready to tear into the man who had killed the woman wanted to meet again at some point, the man who had betrayed his friends and his country for his own desire to kill anyone he pleased at any time. Fangs piercing the throat of such a man brought no blame onto their owner!

“What the… Is that?” Misu shook lowering his blade inside the vapor mist.

“It’s the ultimate combination of a summoner and trust of his partners – the perfect coordination technique between man and animal, had you not been so happy to take life you’d have known that each life form has vastly different kinds of chakra. This is the result of training that combines the unique chakra of two vastly different beings, the symphony of trust between a beast and a man, originally aimed to crush Shirona but I guess you will have to do. My rage of loss combined with burning passion to kill you creating a technique previously unheard of - Sage Mode!” Tanshu growled out in a voice that belonged more to an animal than to a man.

*****

“What did you do, Shirona?” Howoku grunted out leaping towards the woman kicking at her only for his blow to be blocked by her. “What did you do to Misu, why is he fighting against us!?” the man lost any semblance of control. When faced with a woman who manipulated people and wasted their lives to satisfy her goals, someone who has turned one of his best friends into someone that wanted to kill him into his enemy, could he truly be blamed for loss of any remnants of composure he may have had previously. This battle was the culmination of this entire day, the most insane day of his life, he had no composure to spare for this woman.

“Ah, yes, isn’t it so easy to think that I did something to him? Sure, blame me, hate me and never for a moment wonder that perhaps you never truly knew the man you called your best friend. With all your mad barrage of peace treaties, tangling the world around you in strings you thought you were pulling but actually were tangled in yourself, have you ever consulted with your friends? Because when I first met a young Sannin walking around my village I sure did, I took my time getting to know him, without the labels of villages, we weren’t a Kirigakure ninja talking with a Konoha ninja. We were a man and a woman exchanging ideals and dreams, coincidentally enough our visions for this world were similar and while our means of achieving it were different with a little… Convincing, he decided that means did not matter, only the point they were leading to.” Shirona answered, she was no longer smiling, no longer making fun of Howoku or shoving her superiority in his face, she was looking with those angry and burning eyes that looked almost like she was blaming him.


“Shironaaaa!” Howoku yelled out madly punching and kicking, losing any semblance of cool he may have once had with the woman stopping to even use barriers, she simply leaned to the sides, ducked and leaped over his attacks. This blonde was not a physically dominating ninja but at that moment in time she was physically dominating Howoku. The woman leaped into the air and kicked off of the Hokage’s chest backflipping gracefully further away, gaining some distance.

“Oh, so we’ve moved past the “village” part, Kirigakure no longer equals evil in your eyes? You seem to now think it’s not Kirigakure that’s a “nest of tripping snakes, etching to swallow one another” but you think me to be mad? That’s an improvement, yes, Hokage, it’s not countries that are evil, or rather, different from your point of view, but people. Do not blame my village for my actions, one of us shall live, it is important that he or she does not hold any grudge towards those that were not involved.” Shirona’s eyes looked completely different, almost… Worried. Almost… Afraid. Finally the woman behind the manipulative façade appeared, or at least another mask changed its predecessor.

“I will not let you twist this world again, perversely crush the legacy of me and my predecessors! I won’t let you twist this world into war!” Howoku spoke, calmly this time as he started regaining his composure, started dealing with the situation where one of his best friends was a traitor who just tried to cut him down from behind working with the woman who stood against everything he stood for.

“It is you who twists the world, war is its natural state, it can be no other way when warriors and assassins are who inhabit it. You are just an actor with a mask, forcing same masks onto the entire world to wear.” Shirona replied sending a straight barrier at Howoku that crashed into the man shattering upon impact, the woman turned around herself and sent some more barriers his way from which Howoku rolled to the side. The man was breathing rapidly on his knees, desperately trying to regain his fighting condition which he wasted on the woman’s minions and puppets she used as means to her end.

Shocked by this new technique that Tanshu had displayed Misu clenched his blade harder. He never was too fond of this youngster, he always thought that everyone was too soft on this kid who spent almost half his life as a criminal. He couldn't stand his stupid act of a tortured soul. Still, he had to hand it to the fool that he was skilled, had Misu not had his Vapor mode at his disposal the Red Dog would have required some additional planning to take out. Misu wouldn't have felt nearly as brave just jumping into the fight with him, he would've asked someone to assist him or that the Mizukage spared him some secret weapon in Kirigakure's disposal. The country spent the better part of its history plotting destruction of Konoha, surely they must have had something to take this cocky idiot down.

"Calm down, this changes nothing – it must be just a combination transformation of some sort, there is absolutely no way that he can sense the secret of my Vapor mode. He may be faster, stronger or whatever but it doesn't matter if he can't get his hands on me…" the Sannin kept calming his racing heart down. The world as he saw it – enveloped in war, a cruel vortex of flames and death, the state that keeps the skill of every ninja sharp, makes them grow and evolve constantly or get swiped aside by the twister of history was at the palm of his hand. No man-dog creature could stop that.

Tanshu's hand reached to the side and grabbed a handle of a staircase, the Sage Mode user gripped the handle tighter and it melted where his grip was situated leaving a spiky iron bar in the man's hand. The flow of chakra from the body of Tanshu was so immense that when it touched any other substance it rubbed against it so hard that it heated it up. It may have taken the Red Dog the better part of the day to charge up this technique for use but it seemed to be quite the ace in his sleeve. Misu leaped forward winding his sword backwards and then thrusting its point at the Sage. "Vapor Style: Vapor Dragon Jutsu!" Misu roared out as a powerful gust of wind forced the wild and constant flow of water vapor from his body accumulate into a giant shape of the gapping jaws of a gigantic dragon. Tanshu's arms lifted up and got placed into a handseal.

"Sage Art: Cerberus Howl!" the man growled out sending a powerful heating shockwave at the concentration of the vapor dragon tearing it to bits and proceeding to incinerate and utterly disintegrate the man in the center of the cloud using the technique. Sage chakra completely dominated any other kind of chakra, Vapor Dragon Jutsu was supposed to be the perfect clashing technique – stand still and absorb any answers that the opponent throws and then lash out violently devouring the target in a wild rush of vapor that simultaneously and wildly changed its temperature and density constantly. It was a living hell for those that got hit by it, still it was absolutely no match for the Sage chakra of Tanshu.

"You fool!" Misu's voice yelled laughing maniacally from the shooting cloud of vapor as his fist appeared out of nowhere aimed right at Tanshu's face. The Sage just leaned his head to the side effortlessly avoiding the blow as if he was expecting it, no, as if he knew where it was coming from perfectly. Tanshu's fist tore through the Vapor clone and disintegrated Misu's shape once again. The flaring eyes turned and stared at a random point in the cloud of vapor that constantly grew, no, the point was anything but random – the eyes were staring right into the eyes of the real Misu.

"NO! Impossible! How could he know!? Tanshu isn't a sensor nor does he possess Byakugan or a similar technique!" Misu thought to himself as he quickly leaped to the side to relocate. His feet moved quietly but swiftly, the Sannin couldn't believe that Tanshu saw through it all. How could he have known that the Vapor mode was a simple use of Vapor clones combined with the Substitution Jutsu, using the constant upkeep of the Vapor mist that helped him confuse his enemies and conceal the trickery. Obviously someone who could track chakra would see right through it but… Tanshu wasn't supposed to be able to do that!

Sage Tanshu appeared right in front of where Misu was headed – his speed was incredible, incomparable not only to that of a normal ninja but even to his own. Even Tanshu's own league was completely outclassed by this display. The dog-man figure just growled angrily.

"Sage Art Taijutsu: Dog Bullet" he chanted out as his wild barrage of punches bombarded Misu's body tearing through it like hot steel cutting through butter, still, instead of blood and guts only more vapor shot out from the Sannin's body. Tanshu's eyes took only mere moments to track the real Misu again.

"This was the last clone, you've got no one to substitute with anymore, run, make more clones, embarrass yourself more." Tanshu almost barked out as the wild transformation that the technique brought caused his voice to be a combination of both man and a beast. Misu shouted out angrily into the air lunging at Tanshu and drawing his sword, Tanshu leaped forward slashing with his bar of iron that he held in his hand, a deafening clang echoed as Misu's sword cut right through the iron bar but met Tanshu's wild heated up hand that caught the blade right up to his chest.

"You can't melt my blade, no matter how much you focus your chakra, it's chakra conductive you fool!" Misu grunted. Tanshu smiled. "I wonder about that…" as the flow of Sage chakra from his hand intensified a bright flash covered the top floor of the temple, swallowing both men in it.

"This is stupid. I don't need summons!" a much younger Tanshu yelled out after Hanasaku showed him the forest where the ninja hounds resided in. After the young woman helped him in the Tower of Bones and they all kicked God-Eyes' ass he had great respect for her and her level of strength but still he felt like she underestimated him all the time. He had to listen to her, he had to do everything she did and train with her like her apprentice, those were the conditions upon which Howoku and he agreed to. Tanshu trained with Hanasaku and in return he will climb through the ranks accordingly to his level of promise and strength that he showed.

Hanasaku pounded Tanshu into the ground, as violent as that looked she held back the greater part of her wild strength. "Yes you do! You can't just dismiss an entire field of expertise just because you're good at another. If you had the ability to summon back when you fought God-Eyes the first time you may have beaten him. Ninja dogs can be used for displacing your opponent, damaging them, they're also loyal companions and friends." Tanshu pulled his head out of the dirt and locked his hands around his chest while pouting and looking away. He had nothing against training with Hanasaku but having to train with and acquire trust of someone else was stupid, especially if this someone was someone of no use to him. Why would he kneel for an animal that was weaker to him?

"Alpha-san!" Hanasaku kneeled on her right knee and placed her palm on her right shoulder, bowing her head. She then angrily dragged the young companion of her down with her as well. The giant dog growled and upon being given a signal Hanasaku stood up.

"This young man wants to train with you guys and acquire your trust, he's a great pain in the butt but I hope that having in mind that he is my friend you will find it in you to forgive his great stupidity." the gigantic white shepherd, covered with black stripes in some areas of his body lowered its head to the level of the little man and sniffed him.

"Fine" Tanshu murmured under his nose, "This big guy looks like I could maybe use him to dispatch of any underlings of my enemies… I guess I'll let you be my comrade." The boy angrily spoke, the in front of him barked angrily sending a powerful shockwave that pushed the youth back several dozens of meters making him clench and cover his head to stay on his feet. Hanasaku sighed, she gently touched the forehead of the colossal dog and let his silver colored glowing chakra flow through her until her body went through a transformation, the woman changed right in front of the eyes of the young man. Her body then flashed in an instant implanting her elbow into his belly. Tanshu fell unconscious in a single hit.

When the young man woke up it was a late evening, Hanasaku was right by his side, the woman noticed him waking up almost immediately. She sighed and leaned up to him checking his body for any greater injuries. "What was that, back then?" Tanshu asked. Hanasaku smiled.

"Ninja dogs are a very special sort of species of ninja animals. They take great amount of loyalty and respect towards a ninja to become partners, it took me almost ten years to gain enough mutual respect for them to even let me sign their contract and let me use them in battle. However that is great because in this world there is a technique that requires a summon and a ninja to be in perfect harmony – Sage Mode. Usually one acquires summons easily and then after gaining several members of their species completely forgets about it, focuses on other skills. Very few have ever achieved this jutsu, no one had ever mastered it. The thing is that once dogs finally trust and respect you – you're incredibly close to that bond being strong enough to learn this technique. Ninja hounds are the best species to train this technique with as you will learn it the most easily with them. I'll leave you here and come back once in a while to oversee your progress, your training will move on once you

learn this technique or if I'll see there's no hope for you to learn it."

Hanasaku stood up and moved towards the door silently, she barely even looked back at the boy. Tanshu clenched his fists together and yelled out angrily, his bandaged head that he hurt when he fell after passing out started pulsing with pain almost instantly. "That power you had, it was amazing! I'll bend my knee as many times as I need, I'll eat shit if I have to but I'll learn this technique! I need it! I need it to protect my Katei!" Hanasaku turned her head back at him, just half of her face was seen in the moonlight as she showed him a thumb up and disappeared into the night. Tanshu got up and started moving towards the light in the distance, where bunch of ninja dogs were playing cards by the fire. They carried their cards in their teeth and just flipped them face down, pushing them around using their paws.

"Hey look, it's the human. Sorry, we ate everything, Alpha-san eats like a beast, we eat what's left. You eat what's left after us."

"Hey… You got thumbs, can you maybe hold our cards and play them as we tell you? Tell you what, you play my cards and scratch my back and I'll let you play with me in the morning." A tiny dog mumbled out in a drunk tone, accelerating the flow of his words and slowing it down to a crawl at random intervals.

"Yeah, I can do that." Tanshu sat down and took the wet and covered in slobber cards from the dog's teeth, then picked some up from the ground and showed them to him, letting the dog pick the cards to be played. The game went on great, soon every dog playing wanted Tanshu's help and started offering him things for the use of his thumbs to play card games. Still, Tanshu remembered what Hanasaku had told him – dogs were a species that valued loyalty and respect so he never switched his "card master", he let the tiny dog use him every time.

"You're alright, Tanshu. Tell ya what, I'll arrange it with Alpha-san that you get to sign the contract with us, I'll lend you my fangs just like you lend me your thumbs every evening. Name's Poochy by the way."

Several years later a much older Tanshu stood by a pack of crimson dogs, all of whom he had trained with, respect and loyalty of whom he had earned over the years by hunting with them like an animal. Using his own punches and kicks and teeth to take down the prey to honor their ways. It was a real bummer that Alpha, the leader of the Ninja hounds had sworn loyalty to Hanasaku, had it not been so he may have even snagged the big guy's services at some point as the two often sparred just for fun and over the several years have learned to respect one another a great deal. Hanasaku came every three months to observe his progress, by the time she came the first time he already had the contract signed and several dogs he had befriended and able to summon in a fight. Now she was standing proudly and observing his final steps towards becoming a true Sage.

"So did you get that, Tanshu-san? That's how it's done, each species on Earth has a different kind of chakra and when they mix it up it usually ain't too good, you need great mastery over your own body and your own chakra control to pull it off. You let your summon concentrate all of their chakra, build up insane amounts of it and transfer it to you, then you adapt it and match your own chakra up to it, you don't let it take over yours nor do you let yours take it over – you create a unique mixture of the two that is neither human nor animal. That is how a Sage is born – it's the ultimate combination of trust and respect between the summoned and the summoner."

Tanshu slapped his hands together and started building his chakra up, the four dogs around him also started howling as their chakra flows intensified and they started glow blood red from the immense chakra that they emanated from their bodies. The strands of chakra from Tanshu touched up with the chakras of the summoned dogs and as each dog collapsed they transferred great amounts of their chakra to Tanshu. The young man's chakra changed colors a couple of times, the crimson chakra that the dogs sent over mixing with the brownish color of his own to create the vibrant orange glow. A wild burst of flames emanated through the grasslands setting the patches of grass on fire, in the center of the mad burst of chakra stood Tanshu – now a combination of a dog and a man.

Hanasaku slapped her face with her palm. "What's wrong?" Tanshu growled out, "I feel amazing, with this technique I feel like I could beat anyone alive!" Hanasaku shrugged and crossed her arms around her chest.

"You're just as bad as I am at this. Normally the true Sage Mode shows no physical signs of transformation except the vibrant changes in chakra color and the blazing chakra nature colored eyes with the weird pupils. In your case you've failed to properly balance out the chakra, you've made it more dog than man and so you've went through a physical transformation. That is what Alpha-san called "the Imperfect Sage Mode" when he saw me doing it."

Tanshu sighed, he leaped around a couple of times and threw a couple of lightning fast punches. "Alright, so how does it work? What are the drawbacks and how do I make it end?" he asked.

Hanasaku chuckled, "In theory you could just rebuild your chakra by expelling all the traces of the Sage chakra you've formed, however I've never successfully done it. The technique ends when you use out all of the Sage chakra you've made using the transformation." In a wild blaze of orange flames the technique ended and Tanshu returned to normal. "Usually the first time your Sage chakra is impure and sloppily made, also you make very small quantities of it so it ends fast. The quality of the chakra and the amount you can generate will improve with each transformation."

Tanshu stretched out, he looked really pleased with this amazing new technique but it appeared like Hanasaku had not finished talking yet. "Before you go out there you have to know something. Because we are able of only achieving Imperfect Sage Mode it'll take great amounts of time to achieve the amount of Sage chakra needed to transform. Look at it like this, let's say you need a glass of concentrated orange juice to make you strong, thing is that you can't make concentrated orange juice and you can only make about 20-30%, which means you'll need four or five glasses of it, identically you'll need four or five times more time to reach the amount you need to use the Sage Mode, also you'll use up that many times more of it when using Sage techniques. At least that's how Howoku explained it to me after seeing it… The good part of it is that your physical attributes, depending on the species of the summon that grants you their chakra, will be enhanced beyond belief, you'll be able to sense all non-Sage chakra around you as long as you're transformed and you will also be able to put the Sage chakra into your ordinary jutsu to make unique Sage Style techniques, since the Sage chakra is so special they ignore any chakra nature comparisons and they beat any other chakra nature."

"I may have trained with you for too long as I care little for your explanations and just want to use it soon!" Tanshu laughed out, Hanasaku shook her head, "Don't rely on it too much, if your mixture of summon chakra and your own chakra is not pitch perfect, even for your Imperfect version, you can become the animal you're trying to sync with. That happened to me once, it takes a ritual of the contract species to reverse and it's not guaranteed to work, if you mess it up you may stay as a dog for the rest of your life." Tanshu scratched his head, he just realized he spent several years of his life perfecting a technique like this, a technique he could only use at a wildly imperfect version and could only use in a pinch. Still, the rush of feeling in complete sync with the Ninja Dogs was incredible. The amount at which it increased his strength and his speed was beyond astonishing.

"You said that each species have their own unique Sage Mode, what does that mean?" Tanshu asked as the thought just popped into his head. Hanasaku went through some handseals and summoned a dog and asked him to start channeling chakra. She gently tapped the head of her partner and then looked Tanshu in the eyes and nodded. "Yes, that is true, while each Sage Mode enhances one's physical abilities it does so to a certain extent. For example the speed of a Ninja Turtle Sage Mode user might even be less than that of the user before they went through the transformation, on the other hand their physical endurance would be incredibly high. As far as Dog Sage Mode is concerned, you get a vast increase in speed and a slight increase in physical strength, it isn't too much but you also get another ability, just like a dog can bite…" finally Hanasaku's partner finished channeling its chakra and in a flash of white flames the woman transformed as well, looking more like a dog on two feet than a woman.

Hanasaku leaned her arm back and then thrusted it to the earth opening up a fissure that quickly split the field in two, she Sannin then raised her hand and showed her palm to Tanshu. There was some sort of wild flow of chakra from her palm and her fingers that all came together, almost like… Jaws of a dog. "That's right, you can destroy things with your grip like a dog can tear them to shreds with its bite. While Dog Sage has only slight increase in physical strength, its grip strength is boosted to ridiculous extent, you can press things so hard that their particles get rubbed so hard that they melt. You can tear even ground itself to shreds with it.

As powerful as the transformation was Tanshu could still see its downsides, he needed to use as much of his own chakra as possible for the transformation to be easier. Which meant that once the Sage Mode ended he was left tired and completely beaten, able to only use his own natural physical strength. It was a last resort technique, plus his partners probably didn't like being used as chakra channelers, that would've also hurt their mutual trust and respect which meant that if he used them as tools to acquire Sage Mode it could've been locked down from him as his trust would've soon become not nearly as strong as it once was, as it was needed to sync up with his partners perfectly…

"I know your secret, Misu. Just try and kill me like you killed Vashia… Just TRY IT!" Tanshu roared out loud into the air sending powerful heated shockwaves as his Sage chakra flowed freely from his body, his enraged state no longer controlled the flow of chakra which meant he lost more and more Sage chakra with each second, it didn't matter, Tanshu didn't need that much time to end the killer of the woman he wanted to get to know.

P.S. I know that my version of Sage Mode differs from the original one but it was an intentional change. I just liked this idea better so I decided to change it up a bit. Sorry if you were a fan of the original "nature chakra" thing :)

Even though their encounter and scuffle had been quite brief up to that moment in time, Howoku was a bit intimidated by Shirona’s abilities so far. Despite her general skillset and her managing position in the Barrier Corps making her a Barrier Ninja she was not to be written down as just that. When she moved and when she weaved hand seals, whenever a barrier ninjutsu technique was made, it came with such mastery and effortless finesse that the Hokage instantly understood that what most Barrier Ninja defined as their limits in the field was only the cover page for Shirona. It was just her opening hand, a ruler for measuring her opponent’s abilities, a shoto to measure the distance between her and the enemy before she drew her real blade.

The woman cocked her head back letting her messy blonde hair fall gracefully behind her back, she also stroked them with her hand putting them in order. They did not seem to get in her way at all, or rather she had chosen a fighting style that did not really make the hair getting in her way a major flaw as it offered few openings if any. Her barriers were built effortlessly and were quite capable of walling any ability, even that on Howoku’s level, even if Howoku had not used any of his strongest techniques on the woman yet, he had no doubt she could stone wall them.

Then there was the fatigue and injury from his previous fights. At his current stage which was just the opening steps of their dance Howoku was already feeling at his limit, every step of the way further down the line, every technique and every punch he threw in this fight was only done so because Howoku’s mind commanded his beaten and exhausted body. This woman was so cunning, planning this entire day like this… Howoku hoped that Tanshu could handle himself but honestly he wasn’t sure if he could handle Shirona all by himself. Then again, if there ever was a person who could figure out Misu’s fearsome ability or take him out – it was Tanshu. Even with his title as the Fourth Hokage, Howoku always knew Tanshu was the strongest ninja in the village, if not one of the strongest in the entire world…

“Well, now that we have our attention set on each other, perhaps I can proceed with a more intricate number?” Shirona smiled as her hands quickly moved through hand seals, Howoku just continued to analyze and observe. The speed of her seals was certainly impressive but Howoku was sure he could match that, even when tired and when every ounce of air in his lungs counted he could keep up with her in terms of hand seals. The man slapped his hands together trying to make a hand seal of his own when Shirona’s palm shot forward.

“Too late!” she exclaimed as Tanshu’s figure became just a reflection on the barrier she formed around him. With a slow and sultry walk Shirona walked up to the barrier. “Isn’t it a wonderful technique? Ability to seal a person into the barrier that they touch, forever kept in a static reflection, until of course…” Shirona’s arm burst with golden coloured chakra as she shoved her barrier busting technique enhanced fist through the barrier crushing it into pieces. “I break it!” she finished the train of thought seeing bits and pieces of the barrier shattering on the ground before disappearing, disintegrating into the air like dust, just like snowflakes that get into a warm home. Just like that whatever was sealed into the barrier would’ve disappeared in time and space forever.

A powerful explosion blew from above as Howoku crashed into the ground, having successfully replaced himself with his own clone he made above himself at the last moment. That barrier sealing technique without a doubt was impressive but it was not something that one catches a Kage off guard with. It was more something that a ninja uses on an insolent and inferior opponent, like a lowlife bandit challenging them to a battle. Howoku’s own arm burst with Starlight chakra creating “Starlight Sphere” technique, a miniature version of his massive “Overhope” jutsu, this one was much more compact but also much weaker. Shirona slid away from the cloud of dust and smoke and stopped herself by driving a kunai into the ground, for a barrier ninja she had the reflexes of a taijutsu expert even if her dodging could’ve used a bit more technical skill.

Shirona patted the lower areas of her impressive black dress that was torn up by rocky shrapnel that Howoku’s brutal technique threw away, just being close to the technique burnt some areas of Shirona’s dress and some of her skin, her body had several minor cuts and bruises. Such was the price of just narrowly avoiding Howoku’s technique, normally this would mean a shift in momentum of the battle but now it meant literally nothing. Not with Howoku’s exhausted state, not killing Shirona with this technique was not worth the chakra it cost him. Even the weakest of his Starlight techniques taxed his body, soon he’d be entering the emergency supplies of his chakra and at some point, if it goes on as it has up to now he may enter even his vital supply. The Fourth had to hope it wouldn’t come to that though…

“It’s so like you, Mizukage, toying with people’s lives.” Howoku leaped forward with a fist, he already knew that a barrier would be placed in front of him, Starlight chakra burst from his body as the man was already behind his opponent before the barrier was even placed. His fist hit the woman straight in the face, she stumbled back and swiped her hair away from her face, grinning with a full teeth smile. Howoku’s burst of Starlight chakra became gigantic, it expanded into a sphere and the Fourth Hokage went through several hand seals thrusting his hands forward after it. “I will make you disappear so that you cannot use people as your pawns ever again. Starlight Style: Bifrost” Howoku shouted out as a wild beam of energy, spanning entire meters in its covering radius blasted through the temple room.

Stone and steel offered no resistance and the woman’s frail physique paled in comparison with the destruction that went on, soon her black shade faded in the overpowering white that blinded temporarily all that would’ve looked at it. Howoku closed and covered up his eyes knowing this blinding effect full well, his eyes bled for five minutes and he thought he’d gone blind the first time he used the technique. The Hokage’s technique tore through the entire building, it was impossible to tell just how far it went but there was a great hole in the interior and the other halls, the beam just entered and left the appropriate halls and corridors disintegrating all matter it came in contact with up until an unconfirmed point in the horizon.

After the destruction finally settled down Howoku’s eyes shot wide in surprise, a single mirror like barrier was right in front of him with Shirona’s arrogant posture engraved in it – she sealed herself into her own barrier as she had done with his clone previously. The barrier then burst with Shirona’s figure being the only thing that left it, while the woman’s body was hunched over and her hands were weighed down and she was hyperventilating, the fact that she didn’t take any damage at all just put the D in the “Doom” that Howoku was spelling out for himself in his mind. He could not afford just miss his moves like that, not the moves that cost him so dearly! Not the moves that were literally chipping away at his own life force. Powerful black bags appeared below Howoku’s eyes and the man’s vision blurred – he knew the symptoms, he was overusing his chakra reserves by a wide margin.

It was only due to sheer luck alone that Shirona seemed to also be worn out by her solution to the predicament, the barrier somehow managed to withstand all of Howoku’s blast and to make such a powerful wall Shirona must’ve spent a great deal of chakra as well, now with her being tired and stressed from the strain, Howoku had some brief moments to deal with his own exhaustion. It was like mana from the Heavens to have this moment of short bliss, Howoku could feel his body thanking him for not moving even if something told him that his body would’ve refused to move in those brief moments even if he commanded it to anyways…

“What you see as “using”, I see as “ruling”, we are the people put in power by the trust of our own people. They gave us their permission to rule over them, they gave us their trust to do with them as we see fit as long as we fix the pathetic state they were in before us. If you cannot see that I pity your people. You are no leader, you’ve not transcended the “ninja” part, even as the head of your village you remain a servant. Just a servant of a nonexistent master, the most pathetic kind of servant there can be.” The woman shouted out swiping away with her hand in anger as her body stood straight and proud, this alerted Howoku that she had recovered from her situation and that he needed to prepare for a fight soon. Howoku’s arm shot to the side as his “Starlight Sphere” technique formed in his left hand.

“I see it clearly now, Shirona, you are not a woman plagued by her own ambition, you are a woman plagued by the pressure of ruling. Your people imposed unfair expectations putting you there to fix what Daikon had done, then they criticized you when you did not deliver immediate results so you decided to do something drastic, something to prove you can be an effective leader, one who brings results. While I do pity you, I still have to take you down, I guess in that you shall find freedom from your duty…” Howoku spoke up, his voice no longer had traces of anger, for the first time in this battle he was controlling his actions and chakra clearly, using none more than it was needed to. He just prayed to whatever was listening that it would be enough not to die of exhaustion…

Howoku’s body shot forward, he charged at the woman driving his hand forward attempting to slam his Starlight Sphere into her central body area but Shirona shoved her own hand forward with a powerful barrier. A violent explosion erupted throwing both Kage aside, both Howoku and Shirona thrown off their feet and dragged through the rocky ground but their bodies were not like those of Haoru or Tanshu, they were quite human and so were their wounds. Painful gashing bruises that left blood all over the floor, cuts and burning pain was all they could feel for a moment before the two leaped up on their feet. Howoku’s eye bags got deeper, his tense muscle tonus now changed out for a flabby and forcefully dead muscle. Pain and fatigue met his every move.

Another “Starlight Sphere” formed in Howoku’s arm, this time the man drove all of his chakra into it. All of his desire to free his comrade from the responsibility that dragged her into the grave, the pressure of being the Kage she could not handle. The delusion that she could abuse her own people for her own purposes, this cruel idiocy of exacting revenge upon the people that gave her their trust but then disregarded her by using them as her pawns in her own attempt to pull something drastic. “Tell me one thing, Shirona. How will you manage the entire world as the “Ninja Empress” if you struggle so with the pressure of being just Mizukage? Do you not see you’re trying to shoulder too much responsibility and hate?” The blonde stayed quiet, she just moved her hands to her chest focusing them into four interconnected barriers that she then let go off, the barriers expanded tremendously after leaving her hands but them contracted again and started pulsing with chakra.

“This is it then? The “infinite mass technique” that Haoru was talking about? Well it’s do or die then…” Howoku thought as his body just drove him forward at the expanding cube that was starting to gain so much mass that it started attracting nearby objects. Shirona thrust her hands again.

“It seems it will be you who shall disappear, your people will have to suffer your delusions of peace and shackles of treaties no more. Barrier Style Combo Technique! Infinite Mass Configuration!” she yelled out as the shriek coming from the barrier gaining mass by multiplying the number of barriers several times every moment became too loud for comfort. Howoku didn’t care about if he was doing a sound thing, he was faced with a jutsu that tore through reality itself, he just flung his arm forward chanting out the name of the jutsu that had triumphed against odds of similar caliber. Truth be told he was a bit worried about if he could handle something reality itself couldn’t. Strange things started happening, rocks both large and small started flying at him but they didn’t smash into him, not yet anyways. Howoku realized that all time had slowed down to a crawl.

The Fourth wondered if that was how Haoru felt as well, how exactly did he fight against that technique? How in the world is anyone supposed to fight it? Howoku force shoved his hand with the sphere of bursting Starlight chakra into the cube and it just disappeared, together with Howoku’s arm, for a moment there the Hokage felt terrified, did his entire arm just got transported into a tear of fabric of reality? The stones started flying at him at higher speeds and then it happened – a violent explosion as the Hokage’s voice finally pronounced “Overhope” in the real world time, not the one diluted by the technique. The violent expanding sphere of explosion of Starlight chakra tossed Howoku aside, away from the crushing void of the tear of reality itself, the man’s body got shot through every single rock, and wall that was attracted to it, pieces of metal and bronze, even the statue in the room got torn to shreds and attracted to the cube in bits, the shards of the statue cut Howoku’s body as it was tossed through them. As the Starlight chakra expanded, desperately trying to catch Howoku but failing to incinerate him, it took all of the debris and destroyed it instead.

Shirona was breathing heavily, she was tired and she had just destroyed the icon of historic legacy. She made her place in history by utterly disintegrating the historic temple of gatherings of many generations of Kage and the Lords. The place of many Summits was now just a pile of rubble, most of it stuck in an undetermined void in between reality and everything that was not it. Shirona kept looking at Howoku’s unconscious body, or at least she took it for an unconscious body but she was too tired to check. Also the Hokage may as well have been toying with her, luring her in to exploit the opening.

Shirona glanced above, observing as the fight between Tanshu and Misu had moved from taking place on the higher floor platforms meant for observers of the rituals that used to transpire in this room, chanting religious babble as blood was spilt without a doubt, as was the case with those ancient religions, to the treetops and what remained of the rubble forming artificial tall platforms that stood alongside the trees around the temple. The woman reached for her backpack and removed a kunai, playing with it in her hands before starting to slowly and carefully approach her knocked out opponent. The Fourth looked so beaten and powerless, he was completely at her mercy. Still… Something felt wrong with just driving the knife in between his eyes or ribs like this. No. She wanted to beat him clean, actually crush him and his ideals because she wanted clarification that her ideals were right.

After all only in a battle can a matter be solved, there were no truths, only artificial delusions of truth based upon one’s own individual understanding of things. One person experienced one thing one way, the other could’ve had completely different experiences and understandings of the very same thing as each person had different backgrounds. There was no one absolute truth, no catharsis of justice being served, just an ideal triumphing over another as natural selection deemed one person survivor and another a fatality of war. Such was the cruel inescapable law of this time and world. In a world of liars and killers, there was no truth or justice, the only truth and justice was what the strongest believed in. The will of the strongest was the only absolute.

“You were a remarkable ninja, Howoku. Descendant of the Moon People, God of whom were praised in this very temple. As ironic it would be for your life to crumble together with the temple which was the legacy of the foolish praise of some beast sealed in the Moon… This cannot be it, you cannot be dead, right? I wondered why the mass of the technique didn’t just crush you outright, it was because you used that bloody technique to create a tunnel in the crushing weight of the mass. Your Starlight chakra, no, your conviction in your belief drove through infinite mass, you drove away the point upon only the monsters aren’t crushed to but dust by just moving on, thrusting your heart and ideals that your “Overheart” symbolized forward, caring not of the end.”

Shirona kicked Howoku’s body so that it flipped over and leaned over his neck with her knife in her hand, placing it to his throat. “So hear this, Howoku, the Fourth Hokage. If you do not stand now and fight me to the end I shall deem myself the victor, I, Shirona, the Fourth Mizukage will have triumphed over you. My ideals will be deemed superior by natural selection. What say you, Fourth? Speak now or stay forever silenced!” the woman yelled out. A powerful punch silenced her sending her body rolling forward, with a proud roar Howoku’s injured and barechested figure jumped up, his pupils were completely white and it appeared that the man now fought completely out of instinct.

Howoku’s shouting body leaped forward, kicking the Mizukage to keep rolling on the dirt and stone rubble before weaving a hand seal and making a shadow clone appear that punched the woman up in the air with an uppercut. The Hokage’s mindless body leaped into the air and together with his clone the two kicked the woman in the head sending her crashing down. The clone then disappeared in a poof of smoke as Howoku’s eyes once again returned to normal after his feet touched the ground.

“It appears you’ve been right, Shirona. My Starlight chakra made a tunnel of air that was free of crushing might upon which reality itself folded. Rest assure, all of that power, the strength and ability to drive through the force that bends reality itself will now come right at you!”

A cruel smile dyed Shirona’s face as she stood up placing her torn dress back on her shoulder and wiping the hair off her face and the blood off of her lip. “Come!” she shouted out. This was what she wanted – fate itself deciding over which Kage was right.

A powerful shock shook the platform on which Tanshu and Misu were fighting. Misu managed to realize what was going on after he noticed the black cube below that was sucking in chunks of rock and debris and reducing the entire room to rubble, increasing in size and strength with each passing moment. “Damn, Shirona must be pushed really hard to use that on such a scale, she’s gonna blow the whole place to bits
” the Sannin thought to himself as he gracefully leaped from one chunk of rocky wall and ceiling to another as they were rotating and being pulled towards the cube.

Tanshu seemed to also realize the danger of Shirona’s technique, unlike Misu however he didn’t trouble himself with the thoughts of how his partner was doing. The Sannin knew full well of Howoku’s abilities, the man was not put onto his seat of Hokage for nothing. Then there was the fact that Tanshu’s Sage Mode sensory allowed him to track not only Misu’s movements but also the battle below. While Howoku’s chakra was in the red zone for certain, Tanshu was confident that the man could pull it out in the end. Howoku was a man who lived his life holding himself back, restraining his abilities from incinerating and disintegrating everything around him. If anyone knew how to restrain and control the level of strength he puts out – it was the Fourth.

Tanshu could feel the immense power of the cube dragging him towards it as well, Misu happened to avoid that power by hiding behind the surface of the rubble he leaped on, he always stuck to the side that was not exposed to the cube’s gravity and so overcoming the pressure and great attraction came easier for the man. Still, it was not enough even for him, Tanshu could feel the Sannin’s chakra decreasing rapidly as Misu kept making new clones further away and replacing himself with them, letting the clones get dispelled and leave a cloud of vapor that also got caught in the gravitational pull. It formed an impressive twister of a black cube in the center, vapor clouds around it and large chunks of the torn apart temple rotating around the cube. The construction was almost poetic in its beauty.

And then it all just blew up, luckily enough Tanshu and Misu had moved up onto the cover of trees above, they were quite far away from the battle between the Kage and the Sage could no longer sense Howoku’s or Shirona’s chakra. It could’ve meant a great many things. It could’ve meant that both of them died in that violent explosion, it could’ve meant that their chakra were so weak now that even Tanshu’s Sage Mode couldn’t pick them up, the simplest and by far the most positive explanation was that Tanshu simply leaped out of the range of his sensory. After a brief look back at the decimated temple Misu grinned and clenched his sword more tightly letting his chakra flow through it.

“So
 How long does your mode last? I bet you can’t just use it as often as you want, having in mind that we worked plenty of times together and I never saw you use it.” Vashia’s killer tried to keep Tanshu talking. The Sage spread his legs and evened his balance slowly positioning his arms in a jaw-like position up front. A wild burst of the Sage chakra concentrated on the center, lighting up both hands and forming a more clear jaw-shaped construct out of pure chakra.

“I never found a situation where I would need it. Make no mistake you’re not a special case, Shirona should’ve been, I just spent so much chakra preparing it that now I’ll just have to crush you with it instead. Don’t get delusional and think for a moment that you can just stall the battle and have my Sage Mode time out. I have more than enough time I’ll need to beat you.” Tanshu’s chakra burst more violently as rage itself made the Sannin force his chakra out in much larger quantities and higher density than it needed to be. Tanshu purposefully supercharged his technique.

“Sage Art: Hellhound Crunch Jutsu” Tanshu mumbled to himself as his body simply disappeared, aiming not for the Misu’s figure that was standing right in front of him but instead at the one above and behind him – the real Misu, not one of his Vapor clones. Tanshu moved faster than Misu could even perceive him and replace himself with the clone, or maybe the Sannin just used too much chakra making the clones and having his body replace itself with them, spreading those vapor clouds and all that and now his tired body could no longer keep up with the reflexes.

The Red Dog’s tight grip locked into Misu’s shoulder making blood shoot out from the wound. The overflowing with chakra grip tore right through bone and flesh with no resistance at all, it tore the chunk of flesh and cauterized the wound with intense flow of Tanshu’s Sage Chakra so fast that Misu didn’t even feel the pain, he just lost his balance and tumbled down with his right shoulder looking like a mashed mess – his flesh was torn out and then molten into some sort of mass that stuck back to the spot where it was torn from. It was usually a wound that’d kill a person outright, even if there was no bleeding – a major blood vessel was now missing from the vital circle of blood flow. Misu however defined reason and stood back up, spitting out blood from his mouth signaling some sort of irregularity in the way his blood flowed.

Blood broke through Misu’s nasty wound and started dripping onto the grass, that shouldn’t have happened – the place hit by Tanshu’s technique was completely dead meat. He wasn’t supposed to be able to bleed from it or even stand back up or live for that matter. Within seconds the Red Dog realized the solution. Chakra was a combination of a person’s physical and spiritual sides, its flow could’ve been used for various purposes – to strengthen one’s physical abilities or make one survive blows one shouldn’t have. Misu’s chakra control went a bit beyond that – the Sannin was temporarily sustaining himself by using chakra to redirect his blood flow. It was a pathetic final solution but it kept Misu alive at least, it was killing him but much slower than it should’ve. It was a desperation move.

Three Misu vapor clones appeared out of nowhere swinging their copied swords at Tanshu trying to cut him down. The real Misu below also weaved a hand seal. “Vapor Style: Deceitful Blade Jutsu!” he shouted out in pain with more blood shooting out from his mouth as he forced air out of his lungs. Misu’s body dissolved into a figure of gaseous state water and shot towards Tanshu, the Red Dog knew that technique well, he had seen Misu use it plenty of times. The Sannin would harden his body and normalize it right at the last moment to deliver the cut, then quickly replace himself with one of the clones to avoid a counterattack. Tanshu leaped forward standing up upside down using one of his hand and spreading and twisting his body to avoid every single cut from Misu’s clones. The Sage then pushed his body up using all of his strength in that one hand making the branch break off and crumble down but also propelling himself upwards and landing on a higher branch.

The Sage then leaped forward diving down and landing onto the solid branch where the clones were at striking rapidly and precisely to dispatch of them, they may have dissolved into move vapor upon being taken down but at least Misu would have to trouble himself making more clones and using chakra if he wanted to replace himself with them using his Vapor Mode. A painful shock woke Tanshu up out of his fit of rage he was fighting in – Misu managed to land a cut onto his back, instinctively the Sage leaned forward and avoided what would’ve been a beheading blow and then tried to roll to the side but got another deep cut right on his back. Tanshu had to hand it, Misu was giving him a fight, while on a one on one fight Sage Mode would blow the Sannin away, his opponent was playing it smart – using cheap hit and run tactics to wear him down. While Tanshu still had plenty of Sage Chakra in his system those injuries made him worry about his physical state. If he gets hurt too much he’ll need to start spending chakra to keep himself standing and if that happened
 Senjutsu chakra was the only kind of chakra he had to spend.

Tanshu leaped forward cutting through the vapor with his right hook, connecting to Misu’s painful messed up wound and making the man shout in pain with the most horrible voice that Tanshu had ever heard. Even having the fact that Misu was the man who killed Vashia in mind – that shout almost made him feel sorry for the man
 Almost. Another punch missed its mark but the Red Dog saw that his opponent was opened, he was dodging out of sheer instinct and not plan. With a powerful uppercut he sent his opponent flying, Tanshu hoped that Misu would hit a really thick branch and open his skull killing him instantly, sadly he only flew through smaller branches and eventually landed on one of them that stopped his fall.

“Got no more clones to substitute with? So now perhaps you realize how Vashia felt? Overwhelmed, fighting an opponent she had no chance to beat but having pissed that opponent off to the point where they would have never let her go alive. Do you feel it now? The kind of fear of inevitable doom, the kind of helplessness that she felt at her last moments?!” Tanshu shouted it out. Misu stood up, he was huffing and grunting, throwing up blood but for some reason he still stood up. The Sage smiled as he realized what it was that kept the man standing up.

“I know what your game is, why you told me what you’ve done to Vashia. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, Misu. You were fighting one of the most powerful ninja in the world so why tell him something like that? Why piss them off? Now I know, you wanted for it to be personal, you wanted it because you knew that if this was strictly business I’d kill you in a couple of seconds and never worry about it. You made sure that I’d do everything in my power to prolong your death, this way you’ll get maximum chances to outlast me seeing how I’ve already fought several powerful ninja today. You always were a snake, Misu, but to me snakes are just pests, things to crush with my boot!” Tanshu’s half canine form growled out angrily.

Even when his strategy was revealed to be known Misu didn’t react significantly, his eyes did display a certain distaste of his plan being known but he just gulped that despair down and kept fighting. He must’ve known that the fact that Tanshu finally caught up to what Misu had been doing meant nothing. Just acknowledging someone’s feelings didn’t make one feel differently, even if Tanshu knew of Misu’s strategy he’d still try and make the Sannin die as painfully as possible. Even with the Red Dog’s knowledge being there – ultimately nothing changed.

Misu sheathed his blade and focused immense amounts of chakra into his feet, vapor shot out from below and formed streams of gas that rotated around the man. The ninja swordsman leaped at Tanshu diving at the Sage with great speed, the Sannin shot his strongest stream of vapor through his sword right at the bottom of his sheath that added to his natural strength and speed of the draw propelling the sword from his sheath. With a powerful drawing and swinging motion Misu intended to cut his Sage opponent down. “Vapor Style Secret Technique: Misty Flash Murder!” the Sannin grunted out through sheer pain and exhaustion. Overpowering death just to kill his opponent before he eventually kicks it himself.

Tanshu looked at his opponent triumphantly from the side – he had dodged the swing and the compressed jet of vapor that shot out after it was over. With a strong punch the Sannin sent his opponent down. The Red Dog thrust his arm forward slamming his palm into Misu’s stomach making the man shout in pain once again as his palm drove deep into Misu’s body. Something was wrong, that punch should’ve definitely killed him
 Unless Tanshu’s Sage chakra was actually weakening, could he have been spending it in his blows unintentionally this whole time? Enhancing his every blow without his mind agreeing to it? In that case Tanshu needed to end it all, the Sage let his Sage chakra burst wild and slammed the branch with his palm again making the entire tree fall down cut in half.

Misu managed to slip off of the branch and swing onto another tree. The Sage tried to balance out his breathing, he was starting to feel the pain in his back from before, he was starting to feel the edge of his abilities – the limit of his Sage chakra that he spent so much time storing up. Even after all this time he couldn’t properly control this state, he couldn’t fully control how much chakra he was spending, or maybe this was just his unstable emotional state? Rage dictating his actions and making him foolishly enhance every strike. Make every blow hit like it was meant to move the world and crumble mountains. Misu jumped up from below with an upwards slash, Tanshu stepped back losing his balance and backflipping onto another branch. The Sage felt a warm drop of blood run down his forehead as Misu’s hit didn’t entirely miss its mark.

There he was – Misu dove right after Tanshu, the Sannin made a couple of hand seals and shot his arms forward channelling his chakra through them. “Sage Art: Cerberus Howl!” Tanshu shouted as his body got enveloped in a powerful stream of chakra that quickly shaped a sphere around him that dissolved blowing Misu away. This wasn’t Tanshu’s technique however, this was the natural occurrence of his Sage Mode ending. The last of his Sage chakra left his body in a blast of force that wasn’t that powerful but at least it kept Misu off his back.

Misu laughed out loudly landing on a branch and wiping blood off of his face. “All this arrogance, all those big words and swearing you’d avenge your sweetheart!” he yelled out. The bastard couldn’t stop laughing his ass off. “I guess you really did love her, how else could you have gotten played like that? Even after realizing my game you kept on doing it, getting angry and empowering your strikes. All it took was conserving my chakra at the last moments, using it to withstand your onslaughts and then see your beloved Sage Mode end. That’s why I always hated you, it’s only fitting that your cockiness made you fall hard. Well, on the plus side – you’ll get to meet your Vashia pretty soon!”

Tanshu stretched his neck out. This really did suck, how could he have overlooked something like that? Of course ninja’s emotional state influenced how they used their chakra, an angry ninja worried less about conserving it, their chakra mastery was impaired and imperfect. Imperfection of his chakra mastery added to his already imperfect Sage Mode made it all just a one big balloon that couldn’t wait to blow up in his face. An angry ninja unintentionally enhances their blows with chakra, Tanshu got played like a fool. Had he known how to simultaneously control both his Sage chakra and his own chakra, using his own chakra for enhancement of his blows and using his Sage chakra for blowing Misu away
 Oh well, it was too late for that. That darned back hurt so much!

Misu leaned forward and once again sheathed his sword. Jets of vapor once again shot out from his body and started rotating around in a wild twister as Misu prepared to use his ultimate killing technique. “Or maybe
 You won’t. She was so young and innocent that she couldn’t have went to the same afterlife we’ll go. After all, skilled ninja like you and me have so many dark spots in their files that they couldn’t possible go anywhere else but hell. It’s going to suck having to share an afterlife with a cocky bastard like you but if that’s the price of Shirona’s plan coming to fruition and her perfect world being born, I suppose it’d be worth it.”

Tanshu sighed and stood tall. Almost like he wasn’t going to even fight it anymore. His chakra was at an alarming state and he probably didn’t have it in him for any jutsu. He made sure to use all of his own chakra that he didn’t need to stay alive before using his Sage Mode so that he didn’t mess it up and now he’ll pay the price for it. “Well you’re right about one thing, sharing an afterlife with you really would suck. But the thing you’re wrong about is that you’re forgetting one thing
” Misu’s body leaped forward, closing the distance between Tanshu and Misu almost instantly and drawing his sword using jets of vapor that shot right at the end of his scabbard driving his sword out of the sheath.

That nasty flesh cutting sound echoed through the forests around what used to be the temple where the Summit was supposed to be taking place. A loud sound of dripping blood, hitting the wood like raindrops from the sky could’ve been picked up by anyone close by, the crimson fluid of life flowed freely through the branches, down onto the leaves and then hit the floor below colouring the puddles of water blood red. A sound of flesh hitting the ground and tumbling to the ground below right into one of those puddles followed, the man that fell down had their life leave their eyes long before hitting the ground below. Even Shirona and Howoku must’ve felt that wild burst of chakra, that fateful moment that decided the man chosen for victory by fate itself, leaving the other one in pieces. Then again, in a battle between monsters like that there could’ve been no victor. The sky itself started to cry, rain broke out with a strong gust of wind driving it into the faces of whoever was still alive to feel its cold embrace.

The bloody puddles coloured with the blood and guts of the loser were quickly about to be washed away by a wild flow of water. The fresh tears of mother nature were about to clean the impure signs of death and destruction that man had created that day.

Howoku’s eyes were wild, the man felt blood pumping into the bags below them, his entire body has been pushed now more than it had ever been. Judging from the state of his opponent it was evident that challenging another Kage after previous great fights that tired him out was a foolish move. Shirona’s body also displayed some signs of fatigue and injury but it was more on the level of someone being after a bothersome jog, she wasn’t really struggling with just standing upright. Howoku clenched his fist feeling blood dripping from his fist, his body was now so tired that an entirely different effect from chakra enhancement of durability was evident.

Enhancing one’s body was almost like making it like stone, when one used chakra to augment their physical abilities or to improve their chances of surviving one or another attack it interfered with the flow. When one did so many times during a short period of time it was entirely possible to not only mess up one’s chakra flow but achieve an opposite effect – body started breaking down. Puniest of blows opened up wounds, scratches felt like slashes from a sword, getting punched felt like an elephant stepped on you. To Howoku this had never happened but he heard from both Hanasaku and Tanshu that such effect was quite possible.

Tanshu’s palm opened up as Starlight chakra erupted from it, the Starlight Sphere jutsu that he formed now was different, smaller, blinking in and out of existence constantly. It wasn’t even perfectly shaped like a sphere too, the shape was imperfect suggesting that troubles with chakra control made Howoku struggle with shape manipulation. The man leaped forward trying to punch Shirona with his fist, then open it up and slam the Starlight Sphere right into her face. The Mizukage gracefully leaped back slamming her palms together. “Barrier Style: Barrier Multi-Image Mirage!” she chanted as countless barriers appeared around her and then within moments shuffled all around the area. Howoku’s fist drove into a barrier image busting it down. The Hokage roared out of wild outburst of pain as the bones in his knuckles cracked loud and blood splattered onto the ruined barrier.

In a fit of rage and desperation Howoku leaped forward driving the Starlight Sphere into another barrier making it blow into bits. “Overhope!” Howoku yelled out shooting a wild burst of chakra into his technique that erupted into a powerful sphere that started tearing trees down and drilling into the stone forming a powerful crater. Now Howoku was tapping into his vital supply of chakra, he wasn’t sure just how much more he could last, he wasn’t sure of the effects of such desperation but he didn’t care. He was fighting for his ideals, fighting to protect his village and nothing more mattered. If Shirona survived now she could’ve easily torn Konoha and the other villages down, even if Konoha was the only village to fall to her hands it’d disrupt the sensitive power balance making Kirigakure the most capable force in an all-out war.

Barriers burst into shatters one by one, all and every one of them, even Shirona’s incredibly hard barriers got crushed when hit by the strength of Howoku’s own life force. Shirona shrieked in pain as the barrier she was hiding behind burst sending her crashing into a tree, the woman just barely managed to roll to the side in time. Her hair, skin and dress were burnt up severely, Shirona’s pale skin now had numerous patches of pink burns that needed attention, face had streams of blood that spread from the wound on her head caused by the impact into the tree. Her dress only held on a pathetic rag, she had pieces of tree still sticking out of her, the heat of battle made her not even feel the pain of having those enter her body, they were just bleeding, weakly but relentlessly chipping away at the woman’s life. This was no longer a battle of care and planning, this was one ambition crashing into another, only the final person standing mattered in the waves of history. Whoever would have stood would’ve been seen as right, whoever would’ve went down would’ve been the final relic of the old order.

Shirona and Howoku leaped at each other shouting wildly. At this point even the Mizukage used no barriers, the two were so wildly taken over by their berserk rage of battle that they just dove into one another swinging with fists and kicks. To an eye that would’ve observed the two from afar, if said eye had the capacity to ignore the vast amounts of blood, devastation and moans of pain, it may have appeared that the two were engaged into some sort of sick and twisted dance. A tango of pain, a polka of devastation, a flamenco of cold and absolute death. These two were not physical combatants, weren’t known for it anyways, despite that fact their bodies disappeared in a flurry of Howoku’s bleeding fists and his feet, Shirona’s palm or two finger point strikes and broken heels swinging around. Each strike was blocked by another point of another’s body, punches and kicks were blocked by shins, blocks from elbows and knees. Almost like in a lethal game of twister. The bodies of two contorted in manners that ordinary people would have never thought being possible. With a double punch out the two backed away, staggering from one another but still holding on their feet.

Having exhausted the supply of punches, kicks, lunges and thrusts from her elbows and knees, Shirona decided to attack using her tongue instead. “I heard Hanasaku and her team of genin are currently in Water Country? Are you worried that if I survive I’ll place bounties on their heads? Imagine the kind of sick and twisted bastards roaming this world that would go after your precious childhood friend and her little kids. Is that how you imagine me and my country?”

Howoku wiped blood and slobber off of his mouth and stared back at Shirona trying desperately to get back some air into his aching lungs. “You’re a woman of plans and endless ambition, the only reason you’d be telling me that would be if you have an ace on your sleeve. So tell me, are they here? Do you plan to shield yourself with their bodies sealed into barriers at the last second? Both of us know that Chestnut Hanasaku is beyond the mettle of any Hunter ninja, Land of Fire or Water
”

Shirona straightened her body out, her muscles were twitching as they have been pushed and exhausted to an enormous extent. Wiping her hair out of her face the woman calmly breathed out, she seemed to have gotten the hang of her breathing. “No. I thought about it for a moment there but
 They have been spotted in an island in Land of Water. It would’ve been really easy to declare open season on them or maybe try and capture them myself but that’s beyond the point. I just wanted to know if you’re worried about them, if ever during that Summit you figured to ask me. Were you worried that I may not already know of their presence close to my own village? Perhaps you were conflicted between asking me to leave them alone, maybe even threatening me and just staying silent and trusting your lifelong friend. She’s an idiot, it isn’t in her capacity to stay hidden. She drowned an island sending it to the bottom of the ocean the first day in Water Country, sensor ninja tend to notice an entire island disappearing off the map.”

Howoku stretched out and took his fighting stance, “It’s indeed unfortunate that they left to that mission before all this mess started, we tried to contact her informing her of the new conditions but
 Either she chose to ignore our messages or she was too thick to even notice them. To answer your question – yes, yes I cared about the lives of Hanasaku and her students greatly. I was in the predicament like the one you described. Although I don’t see the point in your question.”

Shirona smugly grinned, “Can’t you? Allow me to reveal it to you, you were worried about tools of your Lord. The only one with the use in such feelings is the Fire Lord for he is the one losing worthy assets, to you they are just numbers on a paper, should be anyways. Can’t you see how unfit and twisted this world is to maintain ninja? It needs another war, it needs people living in fear, I want people dying less than you do but I want what makes people into people and what makes ninja into ninja preserved. Right now we are hugging our neighbor without a worry if he is armed or not, often times we embrace them even if they ARE armed. Response of kindness to violence is not healthy human behavior, we’ve long since lost our way.”

Howoku leaped forward with a punch, “I thought we’ve established that we will disagree with each other for as long as we draw breath.” The punch missed Shirona who thrust her palm into Howoku’s arm making something snap, she then punched him in the face a couple of times. Howoku regained his consciousness from fading away quickly, “Why should I care of how you justify your delusion?” he finished his thought trying desperately to land a punch but failing. His chakra no longer could augment his physical abilities as that would’ve literally killed him. Shirona still had some chakra to spare for augmentation of her reaction time and her agility so she gracefully and easily leaned out of the way thrusting a knee into Howoku’s stomach. She then weaved a handseal and spread her arms as four barriers formed around Howoku with the fifth forming right above him.

“Barrier Style: Empress’ Embrace!” she mumbled as the barriers slammed together breaking multiple of Howoku’s bones as they busted out of sheer pressure of the woman’s push. She realized how much weaker her barriers had gotten since the beginning of battle, had she caught the Fourth with such a jutsu early on she’d have crushed him into a red minced mass, now the barriers folded and shattered from their own force. Howoku’s lifeless body slammed to the center of the crater his own technique dug up. For a moment Shirona had to regain her freedom of movement as her fatigue was making her more and more tired but she’d do so in a moment – the important fact was that she finally did it, she won a satisfying one on one fight against her nemesis – fate justified her actions at last!


Further away, in the thickness of the woods Tanshu’s tired body slammed against the tree bark and slid down. The rough surface of the bark rubbed against his skin leaving gashing bruises. Blood shot out from the man’s gut which was quickly but momentarily contained by Tanshu tying a cloth around it and pressing against it hard. “You forgot one thing, Misu
 That Sage Mode or not
 I am still Red Dog Tanshu – Konohagakure Sannin
” he heavily mumbled out seemingly to himself as he remembered that fateful fraction of a second that determined which one of them fell down below in pieces and which one was left to reminisce about the experience.

Howling sound of vapor hitting the scabbard, Misu’s hand gripping the hilt and drawing it from the sheath enhancing the driving force and speed of the technique. Tanshu’s own iron grip locking around Misu’s hand right before the blade contacted with the Sannin’s body with the other hand pushing his body up in the air from Misu’s own shoulder. The hand that managed to grab hold of Misu’s slashing hand wasn’t foolish enough to try and resist it but instead kept on driving the cut forward, full circle around the spot where he intended to cut – right through its master’s own body making the real Misu hit the dirt below in two. It was pretty dumb of Tanshu to land so soon onto the other side – the compressed vapor shooting off of Misu’s blade cut him in the gut pretty deep. Now he had to force his consciousness to stay intact, to literally keep himself from dying.

“Who could’ve thought that a weak little fucker like Misu would’ve
 Driven me to this
” Tanshu coughed up some blood. His eyes were starting to feel really heavy, the Sannin almost considered singing with that legendary voice of a Sannin that couldn’t sing to save a life. His voice was said by many Jounin and his Sannin peers to be so horrible that it would’ve kept a dying man awake. “Time to test that theory, huh? Nah, it ain’t worth it
 Shit
 Bet those three are gonna slack off while I’ll be away.” Tanshu thought to himself. The dying man looked up into the sky, feeling the cold and cleansing droplets of rain running down his own face. Now that the man recalled on his life it sort of sucked: his parents died early, he was lost and controlled by any idiot with enough force to impress him for so long, his first love died by his friend’s hand before the young Tanshu even fully realized what love for a woman meant. Although now that he tried to generalize it all – it didn’t feel that bad. There were some fun moments that made the general disaster that was his life feel great


A voice of a young girl echoed in his ears, Tanshu could’ve sworn he was delusional at this point: “If I can get stronger
 I can stop this from happening, I can protect my teammates and my enemies, defeat my enemies without killing them, no matter the means
". Suddenly Tanshu remembered the team of brats he left in the village with instructions on how to further train their abilities before his return. Yes, Mana – the dumb young idealist who thought that world was something she could fix without killing, Shimo the one of hundreds young brats that dreamed to be Hokage, Sugemi, the rivaling Mana in dumbness kid who didn’t care about anything else but getting his non-existing feats recorded and acknowledged in a manga.

Tanshu’s lazy hand wiped rain off of his face, his shoulder length hair started sticking to his face and feel real sticky. If it just wasn’t for that head splitting migraine that getting cut up like this called up he could’ve at least thought straight
 “Shimo
 You weren’t that bad, you just really hated that bastard Mizukage Daikon and you wanted to make it so that no one would have to live in a village controlled by a guy like that. Nothing really wrong with that, I guess. Just keep training that sword hand, keep making your chakra control better, if you need it ask Mana to teach you how to use it better
 I wonder what you would’ve said if you met that bitch Shirona, which one would’ve seemed worse to you, heh?” Tanshu thought to himself scratching the back of his head. The rain started soaking his clothes, the fresh cold made his wound hurt less, or maybe it was just his impending loss of consciousness.

“Sugemi
 I’ve just no words bout you. You’re a lot like my idiot sister, I guess, too dumb to know where your limits are. A young stud like you learning the Gates
 Maybe sister will see your potential and train you, she’d see a lot of herself in you, kid. And for God’s sake find a better goal than having a fucking manga written about you
” Tanshu growled, at this point he almost believed that his students back home could hear him somehow. Maybe they really could, maybe the world really was as dumb and pink and magical as Mana wanted to make it out to be, maybe some magical force would transfer his words to the ears of his students so that they didn’t have to be completely lost and useless.

Sugemi’s dumb face popped into Tanshu’s memory, his soapy dumb face yelling loudly that he’d beat everyone else at doing dishes. Tanshu’s body twitched in laughter. “This ain’t tears runnin down
 It’s this stupid rain
” the man grunted out to himself as his tired hand covered up his wet eyes. It wasn’t that the total mass of his life was that worth living or that good, his life was so depressing that instead of living it he endlessly pursued strength. Almost became Oni Mask’s Demon apprentice, trained with Hanasaku, killed countless of bandits and ninja roaming the wilderness that were looking for either him or a free buck. However there were those few in between moments that somehow reminded him what it was to actually live


“Mana
” Tanshu mumbled, “I was the strictest on you, partly because you were stupid and childish and naïve but
 I guess partly also because you reminded me of Vashia and because somewhere deep I knew she may have died somewhere, else she’d have contacted me, I would’ve heard from her, at least one word about her from someone
 I knew that she was shy and kind and honor driven and I saw some of that in you. This world is cruel for people like you two, it takes lives way too quickly and because of that people stop appreciating just how precious hopeful and childish people like you two are. Everyone forgets how much we need them in this gloomy world of fear and conflict. Just as I have forgotten and so you probably thought I was just being mean to you for the kicks. Truth be told that’s how people will treat you, that is the life of being an idealist, people will make fun of you, call you out forgetting that ideas inspire change
”

The Sannin wiped his tears off using his wet sleeve, blood started breaking through his cheap attempt at containing his wound. At least he was spared from the fate of having his guts fall out. “I wish you were never told about the real world, the world that showed itself right here. I wish no one told you I died fighting a man I always thought of as a douchebag but my friend, who turns out killed a friend, whom I, it turns out, loved. I wish you didn’t have to know that friends can turn on you, that your hope and happiness can be snuffed out as easily as snapping a finger. Strong and weak both are equal in front of death, no one is strong enough to eliminate it or defy it. Stop chasing strength to protect the people you love, you’ll just kill yourself in the process and make those people sad, failing your mission in the end. I don’t really know what kind of person Vashia was, understanding her was something I wanted to do before I died, I just feel like she was so similar to you and for that I’ve been unfair towards you, for that I apologize, Mana
 There, I’m not apologizing to anyone else!” Tanshu grunted out angrily as his body no longer responded to commands and just laid down on the branch he was on.

“We’ve tore through every bastard in our way, punched every bad guy in the face once or twice, some of them quite a lot of times
 Ain’t too bad of a way to go, I suppose
” Tanshu’s eyes weighed down and closed. It did not move until twenty minutes later when a party of people in hoods found the man’s body and after examining it moved on forward. One of the cloaked white haired figures that had their silver locks flow wildly in and out their hood stopped and summoned a pigeon, quickly scribbled a message finishing it with a line “
To Guru Ayushi” and let the pigeon fly free towards Konoha where the recipient of this message was going.

“Who’s this “Mana” and those other names you’ve mentioned?” another hooded figure asked to which the man just firmly replied, “I’ve managed to hear this man’s speech from a long enough distance, I’ve been living and working in the mines for a long time where hearing is essential, mine has improved beyond that of even the most acute ninja. This man’s final words must not be lost, he is a damn hero. Now let’s move on, I’ve words for this Shirona.”

A bulkier figure just laughed out, “Heh, I have more than words for her!” he added as the shadowy figures departed, any clearer details were hidden from any observers that may have seen them by the setting Sun. The white haired hooded figure sealed Tanshu’s body into a large scroll and put it onto his belt, the three then departed heading towards the ruins of the temple.

Howoku’s body just rose from the floor, it lacked any pupils or signs of life, it appeared to move just out of sheer combat instinct and a wild desire to win. The man lunged forward with a punch, hitting the female opponent of his who was really surprised by her opponent’s miraculous revival onto their feet. “Curse you, Howoku, you and your inhuman Moon people heritage!” she shouted out as she gracefully leaped out of the way of each and every following blow of the Kage, she tried to respond with one of her own but her opponent managed to jump back, had he not planned this movement beforehand he’d not have been fast enough as indeed he could no longer augment his speed and strength using chakra.

The man’s arm rose to the side with an open palm, a reddish almost fiery like Starlight chakra burst from his body forming a chakra sword. This was it – this was Howoku’s lifeline as he was giving his core and his very being away, all throughout his life he cared little of what he inherited from his elders. Now he was thankful for that heritage, he was glad that his distant relatives gave him enough inhuman endurance and this amazing chakra to save the world once more. “Nova Style: Pleiades!” Howoku shouted out as his Pleiades started looking more and more like just a blade of pure flames. This was Starlight Release in its purest form, this was the essence of Howoku’s life imbued into a jutsu. Howoku swung the sword sending a shockwave with a heating projectile forward.

Shirona leaped out of its path and lunged forward, avoiding another blow with a spinning sidestep the woman planted her kick into Howoku’s side. Even if she heard something crack and her boot dug deep into the man’s flesh he didn’t even budge, just the force of her chakra augmented impact pushed him backwards slightly but it was almost like Howoku had no more pain to feel, on this day he had experienced all pain he was given to feel throughout his life and now he only lived to save his world. Howoku charged at his nemesis swinging his blade wildly, each strike sent a shockwave that incinerated and destroyed whatever it hit in its path, Shirona was too busy using all of her chakra to enhance her speed and not get hit, at this point even her barriers were far too weak to stop this rampage.

A flash of red! Shirona staggered back spitting out blood as a deep gash opened all over her body. The woman managed to spend more than half of her supply of chakra not to get cleaved in half but the wound was still emanating heat. Howoku started wildly swinging his great sword comprised completely out of chakra. With a final swing he put extra effort into he sent Shirona, who had coated herself in an immense amount of multiplying barriers back into the depth of the forest where Tanshu and Misu had been last seen clashing. The mindless shell of Howoku charged after his opponent, desperate to kill her before his own life faded away. Wild all incinerating slashes started carving the entire forest up, immense forest fires rose up and disappeared just as quickly as they started as the flame of the man’s life was a dying one.

Finally Shirona’s agility ended, one slash after another started cutting her body into countless pieces, there was no blood at all, just a white glow from where blood was supposed to spill from. It was almost like with this final technique, this final kill for peace Howoku had surpassed reality, as if he wasn’t killing Shirona but
 Erasing her. With a wild shout the man thrust his immense blade of chakra into the woman’s cut up body and let it all go with a beam of chakra as the sword was dispelled. There it was. Howoku’s eyes closed, his mind would’ve faded away had that not happened a while ago, his body hit the floor lifeless having no more pain to torment him, no more blood to bleed, nothing more to worry about. But this stalemated photo-finish was not how it was meant to be. A gravely silence took over what used to be a wild battlefield – a peaceful silence.

Then white cracks colored thin air, as if reality itself was just a sheet of paper, an image, a mirror that was now cracking. With a powerful explosion of sheer force of the chakra contained within Shirona erupted from the break within the tear in the reality that she had made, Howoku’s body faded from the floor and then his still alive body reappeared before the reborn Shirona, still mindless but now more confused than enraged – his victory was stolen away from him, he was denied a triumphant death and the satisfaction of his world being saved. “Barrier Ninjutsu: Reality Break!”

“H
How!?” the mindless shell of Howoku spoke, “World’s most powerful Barrier Buster ninja can break through any barrier, any limit, even that of reality itself
” Shirona huffed heavily. Something was wrong, her eyes were completely black and instead of her pupils there were just red spheres rotating in the black void of her gaze. “For a moment reality is in complete fritz before it rebuilds itself. It is up to the possessor of the power to break it to reshape it as they see fit, a dying body only has one desire – to live and so it happened. The fabric of reality somehow reversed your triumphant assault however I have now several more moments to make it all right before the reality returns to normal.” Shirona extended her arm forward as Howoku realized that his own body was slowly disappearing, matter itself was detaching off of him in small chunks and fading into even smaller chunks.

“NO!” Howoku yelled out lunging forward with a powerful sphere in his arm. “Nova Style: Overhope!” he yelled out as his technique faded away and his body just collapsed. Shirona’s eyes returned to normal. “So you chose to instead repeat your mistake and kill yourself again by using the last of your chakra then? Well whatever works for you
” she uttered to herself locking her arms around her aching chest. Now that reality had fixed itself Shirona was stuck living her life with all the pain that came after such a battle. To think that she had to damage the fabric of reality so extensively, she tore holes in it twice that day and once completely restarted it by shattering it to pieces. Just as the staggering tired figure of Shirona tried to find a quiet place to relax three hooded figures descended from above removing their clothes.

“I don’t believe we’ve met, Mizukage Shirona, I am Akasuna Mugao the Fourth Kazekage. You’ve killed countless of my men today, for that, prepare to die!” a hulking giant removed his hood revealing his face and his dark red hair that had two long braids that flowed freely with the rest being trimmed to just rest on the man’s shoulders.

“The man you’ve just killed is Howoku of Konoha – the Fourth Hokage, that he is! Following the ninja code any Kage who kills another Kage is demoted therefore there will be no punishment or demotion if this lowly one kills you, that there won’t be.” A woman also removed her cloak revealing her tanned skin and murky cerulean colored hair, this was Samaya Imasu – the Fifth Raikage.

“Your predecessor was a horrible man, Shirona, but even a tyrant like Daikon had lines that he would not cross. He may have entertained himself with his own cruelties but he would have never openly invoked war, not in his later years when he was shown his place. It appears that Kirigakure is beyond its own salvation. I – Kaguya Yaban therefore call for the decision of this Summit, one that shall elect a Mizukage who will rule under close watch of combined forces of all the other ninja villages. For a while he will be a puppet ruler but once Kirigakure proves to us that they can play by the rules and that Bloody Mist is out with its roots they can have their autonomy back.” Yaban spoke up also removing his cloak, his eyes looked like they were ready to completely incinerate Shirona who was still shaking in front of the arrival of the other Kage.

The other Kage only slightly nodded expressing their agreement to the terms that Yaban set out. And so the Kage Summit was over – even with all the interruptions the proceedings transpired anyways and the fate of Kirigakure was decided.

“I disagree with that decision!” Shirona shouted out biting her thumb and summoning bunch of ninja in front of her: Oni Mask and the other Sannin of Kirigakure.

Imasu clenched her sheathed sword placing it up on the eye level of the summoned Sannin and the Mizukage. “It seems you didn’t hear me the first time, that you did not. This lowly one said you were demoted from your status and no longer hold any power, we shall decide how to deal with you soon, that we will.”

The Kage stared at the Sannin with enraged looks, each and every one of the Sannin had been beaten down by the Kage with the third Sannin still being missing, likely dead after Yaban threw an island at him. The Sannin looked hesitant to start the fighting again. Shirona stepped backwards as her voice suddenly got full of fear. “What are you doing!? Protect your Kage, hold them off while I regain my strength and crush all of them
 “, her voice was silenced by a sound of steel piercing flesh. Shirona’s shaking face stared down at her own chest witnessing a katana piercing through her from behind. Shirona’s vision became blurry as she fell down and died on the spot.

As the woman’s figure collapsed her killer was finally revealed – Haoru of the God Sword stood behind her looking over his cracked and damaged katana. “You bastards seem to have forgotten who the moderator of this Summit is. With this final judgment I deem Kirigakure guilty and Yaban’s assessment of the situation fair. Now you can scatter, I believe this fateful day left us with a lot of corpses and even more paperwork, the balance of the world will change and all you idiots do is bicker. At least now you’ve seen that there are true warriors that are willing to clean out your mess if you find it too hard. Class dismissed, you petty ninja.”

Imasu blushed and fell on her back with streams of blood shooting of her nose. “Senseeeei” she yelled out almost unintelligibly. The other Kage seemed confused but Haoru only graced his past pupil with one petty stare before setting out on his way back to Iron Country.


Far, far away Sun finally set, right before the cloudy skies cleared after the intense rain for the couple of final moments of shining Sun’s embrace, sadly that embrace only lasted for several moments. And so the fateful Kage Summit was finally over! A couple of days later the entire delegation of living Kage and the current Sannin as well as the entire delegations of each Kage together with Shirona’s few surviving ninja returned to the misty streets of Kirigakure. As the procession continued to walk down the fancy, combining both modern and the exquisite classic architecture, full of advertisements and various colorful posters and filled with palaces Kirigakure’s central “Royal” district, a small young blond girl ran around peeking into the procession shouting “Mommy” once in a while. As her efforts proved fruitless the girl just fell on her knees and started to cry. At that moment Oni Mask happened to pass by the girl, he looked at her and while it was impossible to tell what exactly his lifeless eyes were saying to the kid as he wore a new mask, the villagers moved the girl away from him trying desperately to calm her cries.

“Come, Little Princess, let’s take you back to the Mizukage Estate, shall we?” an elderly lady tried to fake a smile through her terrified of this procession face.

“But Mommy was the Queen, without her they won’t let me in
 I’ve got nowhere to go!” the kid kept on crying.

The old lady had no idea what to do with the child. Streets of Kirigakure were incredibly dangerous for a villager who had never wandered away from the “Royal” districts into the poor ones. One thing was for certain, change was in the air, both for this girl and the rest of Kirigakure


Troubled eyes were running over a short message. One that came right after the other one, it had reached its reader from a nearby corner of the world where the first one was sent from. The content of the two messages couldn't have been more different from one another. Even the technical level of encryption of the message used on both messages was like day and night different from each other. One came from one of Konohagakure's Sannin – Chestnut Hanasaku, the other one was from the Kage Summit and signed by all three remaining Kage. The first one was informing that all was going well, the other one informed of an event that changed everything, as the young folk often put events like this – "shit went down".

The reason for such a specific expression of words was selected for the reader of the messages to form the general image in his mind because the message from Hanasaku literally had that combination of words in it, which was in no way at all surprising having in mind the person who sent the message. Despite the fact that Hanasaku was a woman whose external image displayed great maturity as she reminded of a matured middle aged woman of great stature and presence, her behavior was that of a child and her intellect was literally that of a chestnut upon which her nickname was aptly chosen. That cover of the color of her hair being the reason must've just been what her friends told the silly minded Sannin.

The content of the message displayed a clear image that the woman was proceeding with her mission together with her squad of some of the village's most potent and experienced genin. Somehow the woman managed to so far avoid noticing the fact that Kirigakure's patrol forces increased tenfold and avoiding suspicion and being noticed had literally become impossible, somehow she had managed to avoid the fact that she may have been wanted with a bounty on her head for a while, she even managed to avoid the knowledge of the Kage Summit or the events that transpired there. That devilish woman just tore through everything in her sight, every single Kirigakure ninja, unable to destroy the bunker with the secret information before it was teleported to Kirigakure by a trap seal the woman just sunk the entire island. Such obvious denial of ninja tradition of subtlety and secrecy would've without a doubt invited an international scandal if one wouldn't have transpired right after, one to dwarf the other in its entirety.

The man reading the letter rubbed his tired eyes, the assistant of the man leaned up to receive instructions for his further course of actions. "Chestnut Hanasaku has informed us that she had destroyed the bunker and retrieved the information she needs and is returning home, one of her genin was severely injured and she admitted that she did not dare attempt treatment instead leaving it to her pupils." The chubby little man spoke to his assistant. The butler-like looking gentleman fixed his vest and cleared his throat.

"Perhaps lady Hanasaku is growing in wisdom? I'd assume knowing her impatient and
 Highly destructive personality in mind it'd be very bad for her to attempt and perform basic first aid."

The chubby little man slapped his own bald forehead and moved his palm down accidentally striking his grey hair bun and then covered his mouth, then proceeded to rub his beard. "She's the only viable candidate for Kage at the moment, sadly we don't have any Jounin that are on the level of competence to just skip her. She may be an utter pain to manage but we'll have to put her on that chair if we want the village to be safe. Order the message to be sent to her informing her to accelerate her return and do it safely. Her return to the village is now another A-Rank mission for both her and her students. Those genin of hers will need to suffer her no longer, unbeknownst to them they have a future Kage in their care. Let's just hope she doesn't kill herself in her imbecile rampage."

The assistant wrote everything down, it proved slightly more difficult as the illumination was severely lacking, having to do everything under candlelight was quite difficult but the man was very skilled in the craft of simple butler work. Once the order was recorded the man's eyes lifted to the fancy dressed councilman again. "Anything else?" he asked the man.

"I'm afraid so, Assistant, I wouldn't have moved you from Kirigakure to Konoha if I didn't intend to use your skills. I'd like you to contact all the councilmembers and hold a meeting tomorrow evening, if possible we'll appoint Hanasaku as the new leader of our village as fast as possible. Some serious political balance shifting is about to take place and we have no luxury to be picky or to wait until Dorimi or Shibari reach the appropriate level of strength." The councilman rubbed his tired eyes continuously, he then stood up and moved to the door, leaving the room in a hurry. Assistant just appeared right beside him as if he had moved in an instant.

"Are you quite sure about your decision, Sir? You are aware of the technical level of Hanasaku-sama's letter?"

The councilman nodded "Yes, I know that Chestnut probably doesn't even know how to cypher the letter, she most likely gave it for her students to properly cypher, that's why it has several mistakes and was so tough to decode. Those kids had grown quite strong and competent having to put up with that woman's silliness."

Assistant's shadowy figure disappeared in a turn of a corridor, the councilman knew that the man would do his job. He'd be damned if the Assistant was not the best lapdog to bark orders at. An order from Kirigakure, custom bred and trained to follow orders and be the perfect assistants, that Kirigakure loyal elitist culture of their central districts really spoiled themselves but that trip to the Mist and the enormous pay to keep the Assistant around was worth it just for one of those guys all by itself
 As the door leading the councilman to the outside of the Administration building opened up the man looked at the red sky and the departing signs of the setting Sun.

"The day we all have been afraid of, the day no one thought was possible had come
 Chestnut Hanasaku will be in charge of us all, the era of the Star of Hope is over. Truly the end of days must be upon us. Still, we need a leader to call our shots for some parts of Kirigakure's autonomy, we need to establish connections, gain valuable intelligence on the village's deepest secrets. For that opportunity even handing HER the hat is worth the potential gain
 I hope." The councilman pondered to himself thinking if he had just doomed everyone or just did the only reasonable thing to do.

A large foot of a middle aged man was set on the Land of Fire soil. Konohagakure was just about one day of travelling away, since the man did not intend to sleep the night but keep moving instead he'll be reaching it by early tomorrow morning. The man had been waiting for this trip for quite some time, recently he was spending a lot of time in various countries and so it had been a while since he visited his country of origin. The man's dark brown eyebrow raised curiously as he observed the newly built pathways and new erected vendors selling snacks and some emergency supplies any traveler might need having just crossed the country borders.

His presence without a doubt had been picked up by the ninja surveilling the area. His iconic monk outfit, his powerful build and status as a legendary ninja makes even the newbies recognize the man instantly. Upon picking up as much as a sight of the man's intricate and youthful bald head and his rock hard muscles the ninja would've dashed back to the village at the best of their ability. The man's eyes closed and the area around his eyes dyed in purple, he sensed so many youthful chakra, burning vibrantly, firing up in excitement and moving around like rabbits being disturbed by a passing by bear.

In his youth, and even now it'd be only a matter of time for him to catch up to those younglings. He may not have exactly felt like in his prime and he had abandoned the life of a ninja, that is to say the life of fighting, violence and murder, but Guru Ayushi still felt like he could keep up with the young ones. It was true that the current generation has bred some amazing ninja, just one sniff of Kaguya Yaban's chakra or that of Samaya Imasu of Kumogakure and even the peaceful Guru remembered the youthful days of excitement when faced against an overwhelming opponent on a battlefield. Finally the ninja monk's eyes had opened back up and all supernatural signs around them disappeared just as mysteriously as they've appeared.

A pigeon started slowly landing by the ninja making the man who was well familiar with the ninja equipment notice that he was carrying a message for him. It was quite strange, only the most important figures in the world dared contact him by pigeons, most ordinary people just waited for Gury Ayushi's arrival to their village, there were few ordinary villager pigeons that reached him but those were the exception and a rare one at that. For someone to use the ninja method of communication this must've been important, after all Guru Ayushi thought he'd made it clear that the topic of his days as a ninja was something he had left behind and only liked to reminisce in moderation. He had become an icon of peace now, he would not trouble himself with matters of ninja normally.

Guru picked up the message and read it, he placed two of his fingers on the sheet of paper and they lit up with his chakra, leaving a sign on the paper which was soon put back on the pigeon's leg and the bird was let free to return to his master. The request made by the Tsuchikage was something the great Guru couldn't deny, it didn't really deal with the life of ninja, it was a desire for a man's final will to be delivered to his pupils. Man's final words must never be lost, especially not those of a man like Red Dog Tanshu. Even the usually detached of all earthly matters heart of Ayushi was moved by the death of the young boy he had witnessed in his last visit in the Leaf. That young soul that was so tortured throughout his life and was quite fitting to become a wandering monk sharing his knowledge upon his retirement just like Ayushi, those that transcend all others in their generation often either follow Ayushi's path or continue doing their thing until they grow old and face against promising younglings passing on their status as the strongest as their bodies are left in their final battlefield.

Even now, with all that head start and all of the incredible speed of those Special Jounin watching the borders granted to their mastery over chakra augmenting their natural abilities Ayushi could catch them. But if that was the case he should've answered positively to the request of that young girl to kill Daikon back when he visited Kirigakure many years ago. What people failed to understand was that he moved on, left his old life behind. Helping ninja on one side would've made the other angry, violence upon one side does not eliminate the problem. Tyranny and conflict was like a static wheel, when a force like Guru Ayushi pushed the wheel by crushing the tyrant the wheel did not dissolve, it just turned again and again, it kept on turning, dropping off many pieces off of it until it settled down again. It might have settled down on another side, it might have settled on the same one but in the end – what difference did it make if the wheel remained the same.

Just like that if Ayushi would've chosen to interfere with any of those problems he was constantly begged to magically solve, another problem, with the added horror of angry vengeance for what happened to the first, would take over. From what little had Ayushi heard of the Kage Summit he was right – Daikon was just replaced by another tyrant, strangest part was that Ayushi had never seen the side of a tyrant in the young lady with the long curly blond hair he had seen in Kirigakure. It just showed him how little still he understood about this world despite wandering it for about a hundred years even after retiring his life as a ninja. Guru's sharp eyes pierced through the thick cover of the forest, he was moving to Konohagakure and while he was sorry for the events that took place in the Kage Summit, in one way such tragedy only made his presence more needed. He had to rid the people of their impure thoughts of revenge and war.

War was Shirona's agenda, if after Howoku's passing and stop of Shirona's plan his village would have only devolved into war anyways that would've completely ruined that man's peaceful and noble sacrifice. Even more, it'd have crushed the final will of the Red Dog as well. Ayushi's powerful bare feet continued to step over the hot gravel of the newly made pathway through the forest. He travelled the world giving lectures and teaching people, however it was during special times like this – after great battles or wars or political assassinations most heinous that he was needed the most. Guru observed the figure of the pigeon fly off into the sky above the forest, oh that wonderful illusion of the bird's freedom. Free to soar the sky, free to breathe the mystical air above but still being burdened by the duty to deliver the vital messages


Mana moaned rising from bed. She had to grip tightly into the crutches to even stand straight. She was officially the dumbest girl ever – no one in the history of the world had ever trained so hard that they literally tore their body apart. Desperate to become stronger, to strengthen her body, her resolve and invent her own martial art based on kicking to keep her opponents at a distance Mana made her leg muscles ache so much that she couldn't walk for the whole week. It's only been a couple of months since the night when she and her team confronted the agent of Kirigakure who only identified himself as "the Demon". She only heard bits and pieces from his interrogation, just as much as all ninja in the village were allowed to know. Besides babble of his "Oni-sensei" and how he had failed him and brags of how his escape will be grand the youth offered few words.

Part of why Mana pushed herself so was because she was ashamed of herself, she felt bad that she was taken out so easily fighting him, that she'd have died and never had a shot at changing the world back then. That "Demon" boy from Kirigakure was just slightly older than she was as it turned out but he managed to resist torture from even the village's Yoruma ninja. The Yoruma clan was a nasty group of expert assassins, apart from slitting throats they also knew the human anatomy quite well and some of them were decent military strategists. Their knowledge of anatomy and sadistic nature made them unparalleled at the art of torture, they were so good in fact that the village purposefully kept them away from it usually. This time even their efforts proved to be vain – the young Demon resisted it all. What sort of training bred warriors like that?!

In a way Mana was jealous of that youth's skill, he was powerful enough to be on the level of a Chuunin, folding relatively easily only to Jounin taking him on. Also he had the skill to infiltrate another village and operate within it, he was not a man but a true shinobi, someone she was not. A real shinobi was not the person that they were, they were a tool, they didn't think of what to eat, where to sleep while in another village – they thought of whom they needed to talk to if they wanted this or that, they thought where they needed to poke to kill this person or that so that no one even noticed. Mana hated that concept but that one young man who followed it was so incredibly strong – one would say that the girl was intrigued by that strength and wanted an audience with him. Obviously such a thing was impossible, the young man was locked down in the Police Force headquarters


The young magician crept downstairs and grabbed a couple of gyoza dumplings stuffing them into her mouth and then washing her hands. "You're leaving your hat at home?" father asked reading the paper. Mana sighed, "If that thing falls off again I'll never pick it up, not until my legs feel better
" the girl expressed her worry over her current state. She's been out of order for quite a long time and the village apparently needed the aid of Team Oak even with her impaired and
 Sensei


So far the village had no idea of what was going on. At least the ordinary villagers and the lower ranking ninja didn't. As far as Mana could've known the village may have known and have been discussing the results of that Summit behind everyone's backs. That vacation actually took a bit longer than Mana had predicted, it may take a week or so to travel to the location of the Summit if one moved really slowly, why would it have just went silent like that? Everyone felt a bit uneasy about that, everyone felt like there had been something that was going on and being hidden behind everyone's backs. The magician just sighed and kissed her father in the forehead slowly moving towards the door.

"Be careful, although I'm pretty sure the Administration has your health record, they wouldn't send you out in action. It's probably something you can do while sitting or just something simple
" father shared his worries. Or at least what Mana took as his worries, after his injury on the field he had trouble expressing his feelings, pain made people angry but over time both father started to better coping with the pain and Mana and mother learned to deal with his pain outrages. Maybe as time passes all will be alright
 Maybe


This would've finally been the day when Mana would've tried to instead of being totally locked down by her crutches moving with a cane. So far it seemed to work, her muscles still hurt with each step so she had to take it a bit slow but at least she wasn't completely off her feet. With a shamefully loud clacking of her steel cane the magician left out to the streets of her village. Her injury made her postpone countless magic shows, strangely enough the villagers treated her just the same – they came up to her with worried faces and kept asking her what happened. She lied to them. Mana didn't like to nor was she too good at it but
 She didn't want to hear all those same morals all over again: "Don't overstretch yourself now!", "Be careful next time", "Well I suppose the art of knowing how to train comes with experience. Don't worry you'll get it soon!" Mana kept telling everyone she fell and got hurt like that. She had no bandages or anything like that so everyone must've known she was hiding something – her wounds were internal. Her muscles were burning up from being exhausted to the point where using them felt like being set on fire below the waist. It was getting better with every day but the process of recovery was slow, especially with Mana doing mental training while her physical body was injured


Ironically enough she advanced much further in mental arts than she had in the physical. Mana started grasping the basic concept of her own martial art made of kicks, long reaching and stretched out ones to keep her opponent's at distance where she could dictate the terms of battle using ninjutsu and genjutsu
 However after her injury made it quite impossible to train she started working on her chakra capacity and making advancement in her understanding of the human brain which helped her start working on improving her genjutsu. New concepts of new rough drafts of powerful techniques started appearing in the girl's mind but nothing specific was mastered yet. It was all just sharp blades that still needed hilts to be used properly


Why was she so much weaker than everyone else? Even Shimo put up a fight, at least so she heard from all the official stories of the events. After she passed out the Demon proceeded to kill her but Shimo interrupted him and fought him valiantly, they were quite even as father's higher ranking ninja friends recounted. Why was she dispatched off so quickly and easily? She worked hard, she had a goal that kept her fighting, why was she neither on the league of Sugemi or Shimo nor the league of that Demon from Kirigakure? Mana desperately wanted to talk to that young man from the Mist in the darkest corners of her heart, know how true strength like his is acquired – strength to protect her friends and change the world.

Tanshu-sensei will hate her even more than he always did when he comes back knowing she went down so easily back then


A loud clang scared some birds that almost instantly darted off above the tree line. Another one soon followed. A blond girl sighed looking back at her sensei pulling out a kunai from her body. Sometimes it felt like her sensei was straight out immortal but she knew that the woman just had insane durability and a monstrous amount of chakra to heal herself up when she’s been injured. Unless something killed Hanasaku instantly, chances were it barely even bothered the woman. Kiyomi had seen countless battles where sensei’s body was completely riddled with injuries, swords and knives sticking out of her body, trying to just hit Hanasaku until she fell was a stupid idea.



“Sensei
 I’ve been thinking
” a young male spoke up from behind Hanasaku, he was a young Inuzuka who had been assigned to Hanasaku’s squad because of his bad grades. As per the usual tradition each squad had one member with some of the worst grades, then one with average and at least one with above average. Obviously not every squad could have a stellar performer but the better they chose the good grade ninja, the worse the fluke one was. For example the team that got the best grades having ninja also had to foster the one with the absolute worst. After being alerted to her pupil’s words Hanasaku looked back at the boy after removing another knife and healing up her injury using medical ninjutsu.



“All of this
 This mission, Yamashiro getting injured
 I don’t think I want to do this anymore. I mean
 We could have died out there, I thought I could handle it but
 I don’t think I actually can, there’s nothing like a guy sticking a knife into your friend’s eye to alert you of that
” the experienced genin spoke of his troubles. That last mission was technically a success. The information was retrieved, all copies of it were destroyed. The enemy tried to prevent that extraction by setting off a bunch of timed teleportation seals that most scrolls with sensitive information had but Hanasaku sunk the entire island to prevent those seals from activating and salvaged them from the bottom of the ocean, withstanding even the water pressure of the deepest parts of the ocean that hosted the Water Country islands.



Training under Hanasaku was a unique experience. On one hand the woman was a Konohagakure Sannin so it was already a precious opportunity to learn from the best but
 She was just so thick skulled and battle hungry, the woman never remembered any passwords she herself set up for the meetings to sniff out infiltrators, she never even bothered to learn message encryption and Kiyomi and Tetsuzuki had to do it all for her, message encryption was not something genin did, it was entirely possible that their messages weren’t even properly understood. While there was always the idea that one of the strongest ninja in the world, one bested only by Red Dog Tanshu long ago in the post-Second Great War days, would always protect one in a mission, that was not always the case, apparently. This ninja deal always seemed so innocent, just bunch of kids and their teacher who slowly became their maternal figure making a difference in the world in the most dangerous missions that genin could even be let out on. The four of them had been at it for years and they even skipped a Chuunin Exam just because they were away on a big mission at that time, which also happened because Hanasaku didn’t understand calendar properly and sometimes confused the dates.



Still, even with their unparalleled experience they were just children, the three got completely sure of that when they were captured after Hanasaku disappeared in the abyss of the ocean with that island. One thing one had to have mind was that not knowing Hanasaku’s limits, the three students always believed that their sensei died whenever she dove into a volcano or was flung into space or crushed beneath the ocean floor by bunch of broken land mass. Every time she was stabbed through the heart the three always were worried that their sensei, who was almost like a member of their family now, had died. Yet she always just came back after a couple of minutes when all hope seemed lost and kicked everyone’s butts. Not this time, this time sensei disappeared for quite a while and the three got captured, they were scared for information just because no one even bothered to torture bunch of “kids”. Yamashiro was injured in the eye during their escape, added to that were many more injuries he’d sustained getting captured and while escaping and it was unclear if he’d even survive. Having a teammate lingering on the verge of death made one reconsider their life choices. Hanasaku used her medical skills to stabilize the boy’s condition but he still remained unconscious and looked only barely alive.



Tetsuzuki’s dog barked out loudly, the little pup had grown significantly throughout the years. Not that it even mattered. The young Inuzuka kneeled down and scratched the canine’s neck. “I wonder what you’ll do after we’re done with this
” the boy gently whispered to his dog. “Don’t start with that shit, Tetsu!” Kiyomi the young Yamanaka prodigy of the group shouted out. She was losing another teammate now, right after Yamashiro got injured, that day the entire status of the team flipped over. With that strange reply they’ve received that demanded the team to return and to protect Hanasaku’s life at all costs
 Kiyomi just sensed that her life was about to change and that she might be left all alone, for two years the three of them studied under Hanasaku surviving situations that would have qualified as battles of a war. For her friends to pull this on her with Yamashiro getting hurt, Tetsuzuki leaving and God knows what the deal with Hanasaku was.



Tetsuzuki placed the unconscious body of his friend onto his dog’s back and secured it tightly, the dog was more than capable of carrying it. “It’s just that, I’ve seen plenty of shit already, this life isn’t what I signed up for. I’ve had more experience than I even need to be respected in my clan and I’ve got a royal position. If this happened to me my father would consider my claim at leadership of the clan hindered. Coma isn’t the best status to add to royalty’s life summary, you know
 I decided that logistics and managing the clan might be for the best for me, what about you, Kiyomi? You’re on a pretty high position too, right? Is ending up like Yamashiro even worth it?”



Kiyomi’s eyes almost started filling with tears of rage, she was visibly getting angry that her teammates were scattering and that the team was falling apart. “Yamashiro was too arrogant, he thought that just because he’s a fucking Uchiha he was entitled to win every fight, he thought that running away wasn’t honorable enough. He got sloppy, we never did. You have no idea how much this stupid “royalty” bullshit is making me want to smack you right now!” the girl yelled out angrily, she ran up to Hanasaku who was ignoring the squabble and yelled it out into the woman’s face. “SAY SOMETHING! Your team is falling apart!” Hanasaku sighed.



“It’s fine, Yamashiro’s injury is on me, if Tetsuzuki feels like I can no longer protect him under my wing, if he wants to be a leader of his clan at the end of the road then being taught by me is the wrong place to start from. Sannin are always sent on the most dangerous missions, I always long for a good fight so I ask for them to be even bigger. Just serving in my team for a while is a good thing to have in a clan leader’s record, there’s no need for him to end up like Yamashiro.” Kiyomi jumped into the air with a kick that Hanasaku evaded, the girl followed it up with a straight jab that just bounced off the woman’s thick skull, Kiyomi removed her aching knuckle that felt like she had hit a stone wall.



Hanasaku placed a hand on Kiyomi’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I know that your friends and your team and this life means a lot to you, more than anything. The two of us can still work as usual, for the two of us nothing changes. If you ever want to see your friends at least you’ll know they’re safe in the village, isn’t that what you want? For them to be happy and safe? This way everyone will be happy, sure I don’t like losing students I’ve trained for years, you two were almost like my own family but
 Times change. Ninja have to learn how to let people go, us most of all people, people die on every mission. I don’t because I don’t want to disappoint anyone, that’s where I draw my strength from but if Tetsuzuki doesn’t have that thing to draw inspiration from – he’ll die on another mission like this. I’d rather lose him as a student than have him lose his life.”



Tetsuzuki walked up in front and glared at Hanasaku’s eyes angrily, inside of his heart he didn’t like the woman too much. Despite her being incredibly powerful and seeming impossible to kill, he still blamed her for a lot of things going wrong, for selling their map for bunch of dumplings during their first mission, for breaking his arm during their first survival training, for accidentally splashing acid on his back when the idiot dove into an acidic lake that one time. She was a danger to society, usually natural selection makes people like this woman disappear but
 Apparently some people just manage to evade fate by being really persistent. “Don’t get me wrong, sensei, I do treasure all the memories but
 I can’t wait to sign those resignation papers and start working on another team until I get my promotion to Chuunin. From there on I can start taking the control of my clan over from my father. You’ve made us grow really strong, it was inevitable to survive your incompetence and even if we entered the Chuunin Exams last year we would’ve blown everyone away. At least for that much, I am grateful.”



The team moved in close to Konohagakure gate, bunch of guards started swarming the area which alerted Kiyomi. Apparently Hanasaku’s return was a huge deal, the blonde turned at her sensei “Sensei, what if we messed up and you’re gonna get reported and they’ll call the Ninja Tribunal on you again, last time you were just barely acquitted, just because the politican you killed turned out to be a leader of a criminal syndicate.” Hanasaku shook her head. “No, if that was the case we’d have gotten arrested, the guards are keeping their distance as if
 They’re protecting us.” Tetsuzuki smiled angrily, “Don’t stretch your brain on this one, sensei, let’s just move in and find out from the Administration what exactly do they want with you.”



*****



Mana’s shoulder started to feel really numb, she wasn’t used to using a cane to walk around, using a cane which supported just one side of her body when both of her legs were hurt wasn’t the best of ideas but she at least could move around with minimal pain in her muscles. Was she never going to become strong? If she didn’t overtrain she’d have fallen behind, if she did push her body to the limit she went overboard and burnt it up. Perhaps greatness wasn’t her destiny, maybe fate told Mana to stay a nobody with the unimpressive legacy of not being a member of any clan that made a difference in the village. The closest resemblance of a clan was from her mother’s side of the family and those guys weren’t even ninja, just a bunch of greedy con artists that danced and pulled tricks off for food and payment. Traveling artists weren’t known for their impressive combat capabilities.



“That’s the most retarded thing I’ve heard ever!” a familiar voice reached Mana’s ear coming from the street to the right that connected to the central street that lead right to the Administration building.



“Oh, excuse me, and what would YOUR plan be in case of the dead ninja rising from their graves to eat the living?” another familiar voice made the girl magician turn around and see her friends walking towards the Administration and quarreling. They seemed to be so consumed by their discussion that they didn’t even notice Mana walking in front of them, even with her strange choice of apparel.



“I don’t know, probably burning them to bits. That or chopping their legs off so that they can’t move”



“That’s even MORE retarded than my idea and my idea, I will remind you, was to breed a special breed of killer dolphins with chakra cannons on their back trained to track the dead and shoot them from the seas with tracking blasts of chakra lasers.”



“Why is that? Your idea was right out of a manga book!”



“Well for one dead ninja can’t die, loser, so you’ll just have a burning zombie rampaging in the battlefield setting things on fire. Before you know it you’re on fire and there you go, you’re dead too!”



“Well dolphins aren’t even land mammals, you twit!”



“That’s why you’d make their chakra cannons track their targets from long distance so they can fire from the sea where the dead can’t even hurt them
 Mana?!” finally her teammate noticed the magician staring at them awkwardly right when they almost bumped into her.



Shimo rushed in to hug the girl to which Mana just grunted in pain as her leg muscle acted up again. “It’s been so long, Mana-chan, where have you been!? We haven’t seen you much around the training grounds and when we did you were just meditating on a log.” Sugemi butted in “Well yeah and Shimo didn’t know that you can’t really move a person who is meditating or else they’ll mind will become trapped in their own mind and they will always remain sleeping like that.”



Mana blinked rapidly a couple of times. “That’s
 Not really true, you can talk to a meditating person, my parents often do alert me when the food is ready and all that. But yeah, I was training alone, got a bit overly invested into it too
” the girl nodded pointing at her cane. The two boys started asking questions which made Mana have to explain the entire situation in detail.



“A kick based martial art to keep opponents at range? That’s a pretty good idea, did Tanshu-sensei suggest you that?” Shimo asked rubbing his chin after hearing the idea.



Mana shook her head. Sugemi yawned, “Yeah, we pretty much mastered his tips he gave us already, those two months that he had been gone were pretty useless, I mean we did make some progress initially but we sort of hit a wall. Progress without a mentor just becomes so slow and tedious, there has to be a special training method that helps you boost your progress, what’s your secret?” he asked.



Mana got deep into thoughts observing the Administration building coming up in their sights. “Well there’s this training drill that lets you increase your chakra. There is this stage of meditation called “Ego”, it basically grants you total awareness of your own body, it shows the chakra nodes that are clogged up with unused chakra masses so with a burst of chakra to those spots you can unleash them and then adapt your flow to the larger mass of chakra being in your body which grows your chakra capacity in total. Then I’ve started to find this other stage of meditation entirely, you can learn to create scenarios in your mind and convince yourself that they are real, you can go through entire training regiments in your mind within just minutes and then convince your body it’s real, the best part is that when you wake up, in an hour or two your body realizes it was all fake but you still keep the gain where your exhaustion is suddenly gone and the body realizes that it didn’t even spend any chakra for real.



Shimo looked really impressed by Mana’s methods but Sugemi looked pretty annoyed. “Darn it, it sounds pretty cool but
 I’d never manage to learn meditation. It’s too boring and weird for me.” Shimo laughed out, “Yeah, Tanshu-sensei tried teaching it to me unsuccessfully too, it’s useful for a swordsman to learn to adapt and change up their style and mental simulation is the best method for that, still, Mana-chan, Tanshu-sensei said it was a pretty advanced method and you’ve already reached that level of meditation mastery? That’s pretty badass!” The magician just looked away, she was a little humbled by the compliment but there was that knowledge that despite her breakthrough in training methods she still considered her teammates above her. Shimo struggled against the Demon but he at least gave the youth a good fight, Sugemi fought an undercover Jounin and didn’t get immediately taken out.



Finally the three entered the Administration building, it seemed to be especially buzzing and no one bothered to inform them of what exactly was going on. Everyone was just so angry and busy, almost like some big event was about to take place. Some people almost tripped Mana over and it took the attempts from both of the boys to catch her and keep her from falling down as smallest tension to her thighs made her muscles burn up and the pain made them to just give in to the pressure. “You sure you can do this, Mana-chan? I mean I am still on my training vacation and they called me so it seemed weird but you’re straight out injured. Why would they pull something like this on us? They don’t pull ninja out of their training vacation or injury unless it’s a war situation or something, even then why would a challenge like that need the desperate aid of an injured genin and one that’s not finished with their training yet?” Shimo wondered.



“Well a lot of my favorite manga are on break now so I actually enjoyed a little challenge.” Sugemi cracked his fist in excitement. This was a strange change as usually it was the Nara who was the least excited about missions unless they sounded like good chapters for his imaginary future manga. “I’m fine, as long as I don’t have to fight someone or move around a lot, I can probably even make hand seals if I really need to. I’ll probably be a burden for your guys though, I’m sorry.” The girl smiled with an apologetic smile, she really felt bad about this. Shimo laughed back at her, “You a burden? Forget it, you beat that Ooguchi guy into a pulp and wrecked that Demon’s armor! I wouldn’t have matched up to him as well as I had if it weren’t for you. I bet even injured you could kick bunch of butt!” While his optimism was appreciated and recorded, Mana would’ve really enjoyed some more realism out of her friend right about now.



Finally the busy assistant of whoever was in charge now that the Fourth was out to the Summit invited the bunch of them inside. It was none other than one of the Councilmen inside! These guys were really important, they were high ranking politicans who were always included in all of the Ninja Tribunal sessions and their opinions were always consulted whenever Hokage made any important decisions. His presence only made this occasion more intimidating and the young magician found herself subconsciously stroking her aching thigh in worry. “Well, Team Oak, I assume. No offense but Mana is quite easy to recognize with her
 Public status. Sometimes I call you guys “the Sorceress’ team” because of how well known the girl is for her artistic activities
” the councilman finally addressed the three with a pleasant tone but his eyes looked tired and sad.



“Personally I’d have never allowed a girl with such a celebrity status in our village on the team but as long as her “fame” is contained within the village walls, I suppose she can play ninja for a while.” Despite councilman’s words stinging quite a bit, his tone sounded like his words weren’t supposed to be taken as offensive, still, those politicans had a way with words. That was basically their entire job so who was Mana to judge them? Shimo cleared his throat, “While Mana-chan is the de facto leader of our team it’s only because me and Sugemi butt heads too often for any of us to make a productive leader. What bothers us is that you called us in a middle of my training vacation and Mana’s injury, each ninja is guaranteed at least three months of time to train each year to improve their overall condition and potency. It’s a very desperate decision to call for a ninja during that time, the tradition forbids it.”



The councilman fixed the messy collar of his kimono and tightened his fancy silk belt on his waist. Took a couple of deep breaths and finally opened his troubled eyes. “I am fully aware of your and Mana’s condition, in fact, I was personally advised to NOT call Mana out of her resting time by the medical ninja who supervised her recovery. That being said there are some very
 Troubling news I must deliver to you three, also there is a simple but important job I want you three to take care of. It will take only a day or two and the chance of a fighting scenario is almost zero. Despite that it’s still a B-rank mission at least as it’s quite iconic and very important to the village, I thought quite long about which team should get this “freebie” in their record and
 Well since I had news for you three anyways and since you did exceptional work with that Kirigakure spy, I suppose you guys are granted that opportunity.”



Sugemi raised an eyebrow, “What “troubling news” are we talking about? That “Demon” guy didn’t escape, did he?!” he asked.



The councilman sighed. “There is no easy way of telling you this so I’ll just break it down to you guys – the Fourth and Red Dog Tanshu, the Konohagakure Sannin and the supervisor of Team Oak were killed in action during the Kage Summit!”



P.S. Yamanaka Kiyomi is an OC made by Jordan Patterson, one of the readers of the story who was added to the story with his permission. All credit for that character goes to him, I just adapted the character to my story

As the councilman spoke those words it was almost like the world started shifting beneath Mana’s feet. The young genin even took a small half of a step back right after the news were delivered. Her first reaction was to deny it all, just yell from the top of her lungs that this must’ve been a stupid joke or that the councilman didn’t have all of the information. Who could ever have killed sensei? Even if sensei had his arms tied down he still could’ve competed with the best of the best, he did so even as a teen, didn’t he? He was the strongest Konoha had to offer, he was immune to death, wasn’t he!?

Sugemi beat Mana to her first sensitive and sentimental reaction. “How do you know that? Sensei was the strongest ninja I’ve ever known so unless you’ve got a solid reason as to why he could’ve died I’m gonna pound you hard, just know that before you answer!” fist of the Nara shot forward and then up trying to touch the ceiling, sadly the boy lacked the needed height by a wide margin. The councilman was obviously prepared for all those inevitable questions, he looked tired and quite busy but he still took the time to reply the questions replies to which he’d been working out since he first read those fateful two letters.

“Another Sannin – Misu of the Vapor had betrayed the Hokage and Tanshu, we don’t know much details but apparently Tanshu killed Misu but collapsed to his own injuries, the Hokage was killed in a battle with the Mizukage. That is all I can comment on those news for now, at least for you, please understand - children have no place in these matters even if they are ninja.”

Shimo’s stare dug down into the ground, he also looked like he was going through the denial stage, Mana wanted to comfort him but
 She kind of was a mess herself. An ally died and she not only wasn’t strong enough – she had absolutely no chance of stopping it. She lacked the age, rank, strength so that she would have been there. It was safe to say that there was no conceivable way for her to prevent those deaths from happening. Lacking strength was not the painful part, one could always have grown stronger and smarter. Inevitability, being unable to change anything because things just happened sometimes was the most painful part. Even if she could travel at the speed of light and make the most powerful ninja explode upon impact she’d have been unable to save her sensei.

Mana turned around and started stumbling out of the office, she leaned onto her cane with all of her weight to the point where her shoulder just burnt up and her hand quickly started feeling numb. The emotional and psychological pain, combined with her own impairment almost made her let go of her cane, just slip and fall down, what did it even matter? If one was powerless to change all things, if one was unable to save their treasured ones from dying what did it matter? What was her life to the Universe if she just exploded right then and there into a wild mash of blood and guts? Tears started running down Mana’s cheeks, the girl was afraid to admit it but those were very selfish tears.

This pain and misery in her heart was not because her sensei had died, it was because she just found out that her lifelong goal was pointless and completely out of reach, not only for her, it was out of bounds for anyone. Tanshu spent so much time telling Mana that it was all so pointless, that she could have never saved everyone and that heroes were just in fairytales, then perhaps this death of his was his final lesson – saving everyone was impossible, to have such a goal is to be doomed to fail. Now Mana finally realized that her nindo was literally rigged to blow up in her face upon her own death. Her entire life would just be hearing about people close to her slipping away without her having any chance to change anything. It would hurt even more since she had made it her lifelong goal to change something about that.

Mana carelessly wiped her premature tear away and postponed her mental breakdown, she was in a middle of a mission briefing after all, the magician turned around and crept back into the office. She noticed that Sugemi and Shimo were pretty angry about it too and that the councilman was waiting for the three of them to get over their first instincts. Apparently Mana’s first instinct was grief and depression, her teammates had a shared one of anger. Almost instantly when Mana entered the office again the councilman jumped up from his chair gesturing that they can carry on. Obviously this was not over, the balance of power has shifted and people lost precious and loved icons. Why was no one informed of this? Why did people cheer on Mana passing by instead of crying that the Hokage has died?

Shimo interrupted that train of thought, his lowered and husky tone managed to slip in a question. “Can we know for certain that the information is correct? I mean it’s Star of Hope, the Fourth Hokage and Tanshu-sensei we’re talking about.” Councilman nodded as he was stroking his beard, his eyes suggested genuine sadness, something very few politicians managed to convey in such situations.

“Sadly so. We’ve been informed by a signed letter from all the other Kage, we’ve lost not only Tanshu and the Fourth but also a lot of Fourth’s trusted men he took to the Summit. Very few have survived and those few will undoubtedly be unable to fight or perform in missions. What nails the final nail into the coffin is the date of the letter – the other Kage would’ve wanted for Konoha to know of this as late as possible so that they cut the juiciest pieces of Kirigakure
 Don’t ask about that
 It just makes all the sense. Too much so to doubt it.”

Sugemi’s fists tightened and as pieces of his sleeves got caught in his crushing grip a strange tearing sound came from his side. The boy’s face was turned and twisted with his teeth in a wide grinding mimic of sadness and his hair covering his enraged eyes. “W-What’s our mission about?” Mana asked the councilman trying to get this over with as fast as possible, the less time spent here and less time given for Sugemi to lash out the better. She was in no condition to get the Nara under control if he broke out and if Shimo clashed with him the rivalry of the two would fuel their fire into an endless twisting inferno.

The councilman cleared his throat, he visibly appreciated that the girl had changed the subject making him speak less and less about things he didn’t want the kids to know. Based from what he said an intelligent listener would’ve already guessed that Mizukage had also perished in the Summit and now the dominating forces were cutting the village into pieces and while the concrete picture was still unknown it was likely that even more horrors would follow. A village which was ruled by tyrants, one worse than another, wouldn’t have responded kindly to being split like a pie amongst the world’s strongest. Which would of course lead to violence
 At least war was postponed for several more years, Mana had some time to grow and develop and become strong enough to change it all one day or die trying. Knowing the inevitability of her failure did not shy her away from living that way, even if she would die failing to save her friends or even people she didn’t know, such was the only way of life worth living.

The councilman confidently handed Mana the file which Shimo took from his hands because the girl was visibly struggling with maintaining her balance and reading the file. The councilman then decided to also talk about the mission out loud. “As you may know the famous Guru Ayushi will be finally arriving to Konoha, by our estimation he will reach the gates at least tomorrow morning. He is a famous ninja from a past era, some rumors claim that he had served our village under the Senju name long before the Second Great Ninja War, maybe even during the First one. He was the most famous medical ninja of his time, he could literally bring people back to life and he himself was considered to be immortal. Needless to say such a shinobi reached twice the age upon which ninja retire and decided to leave the life of a ninja behind.”

Shimo quickly skimmed over the file, offering it to Mana after finishing it but when the girl gently shook her head in shame that it would’ve been too hard to read it by herself he kept it. “So why is protecting him a task for three genin, two of which shouldn’t be on active duty?” the Yuki prodigy asked. He was glancing at Sugemi’s raging and shaking figure with a corner of his eye, visibly he was as worried about his friend as Mana was before. Knowing Sugemi, if he didn’t explode in a fit of rage instantly, he probably won’t at all. He was just that kind of guy. The councilman sighed.

“I know you three are young and don’t know much about someone like Guru Ayushi but he is a hero of even my grandparents. After saving many lives during the war and helping establish Konoha as one of the dominant powers in the Ninja World, he decided to leave his life as a ninja behind. He now travels the world giving seminars of peace and wisdom to the villages and smaller settlements in need. That being said, he is still an unparalleled icon in the world. Despite him refusing to fight, even his presence in a settlement scares bandits and nukenin away. Some things just aren’t questioned, everyone’s grandparents either idolized Ayushi and his teachings or owe him for saving their entire families during the war. There is no one dumb enough on this Earth to lay a hand on that man. For that reason protecting him is mostly a symbolic duty, but that of great honor. Despite him never needing actual protection, his protectors are usually graced with a great honor of having a record of having protected the great Guru Ayushi at some point in their lives.”

As Mana’s heart started jumping more intensely, namely because meeting this Guru Ayushi would’ve lead to saving her father from his pain, if only she can ask him nicely enough for the man to provide his cells for her father’s treatment, she was soon beaten out of these happy thoughts. Sugemi walked up to Shimo and violently took the file from him flipping through it. He then tossed it onto the office table and turned around. “Fine, we’ll protect your old man.” his eyes then turned back and stared straight into those of the councilman right before he left the office. “I hope “great honor” includes being signed up for the Chuunin Exams, right?” The councilman slapped his forehead, he looked relieved as he thought that for a moment this child would have said something stupid and problematic. “Ah
 I assume one of your clan is included in organizing that and spilled the beans, right? Well, yes, I suppose even if your sensei spot is currently
 Vacant
 I could in theory sign you guys up acting as a higher power to those in charge of the exam. Until this evening I can still do that sort of thing and something tells me that even after, the Fifth won’t give a crap about who signs what under her nose
”

The three were completely silent their entire trip down the stairs. Just as they nearly approached the exit of the building they saw a very special trio entering the Administration building. One of them was a woman of average height, looking in her mid-thirties and wearing a tight murky orange jumpsuit with an unzipped jounin west. Her jumpsuit was torn and burnt off in places, her body still had signs of exhaustion and immense bruising and her arms below elbows were completely bandaged with her knuckles still soaking the bandage in red. The woman’s wild brown hair, reminding almost of an autumnal chestnut was by far the most impressive feature of the woman, the flow of the brown ocean was only restrained by her blue forehead protector which she wore on the top of her head as a hairband.

Together with her came two teens that were visibly older than the three of Team Oak but not by that much, still their mental and physical maturity as well as their puberty having started and done their work on the teens it was quite apparent that the duo had seen much more in life than Mana, Shimo and Sugemi. The three just walked right up to the Hokage’s office without registering or letting anyone know anything. The boy with the strange face markings and sharp fangs sticking from his mouth bumped his shoulder to Shimo, at least fate didn’t make him bump into Sugemi. At this point the Nara would’ve picked a fight for sure.

“So
 Chuunin Exams, huh?” Shimo tried to spark up a conversation, the three of them had a free midday to morning until they had to go greet Guru Ayushi by the village gates. Sugemi nodded and looked at his shaking clenched fist. “Yeah. We’ve had enough of this dish washing shit, maybe if we were given the real missions to start with we may have stood up to that Demon guy, maybe we would’ve been trustworthy enough to be by Hokage’s side when he got murdered
 We can pull it off, we’re all strong enough. Those damn Kirigakure jerks. I hate them
 As long as I remember all they did was abuse their people and pick on us, now this. Shimo was right all along, that shit can’t be allowed to continue. Come on, you two, we’ve got business to take care of until the morning.”

Shimo nodded, “I’m going to go keep my training up, you should go home and rest, Mana-chan, you’ve trained plenty already. What are you going to do, Sugemi?” The Nara looked at the Administration building and then at some unspecified point of the village. He could’ve been looking at the bakery that stood right where he was looking at but Mana could’ve sworn that it was more like some building further that direction. “Probably the same, for now.” Sugemi added. Just like that the Nara just split off and started walking, not to the direction he was staring so intensely at but where his home was. Shimo started walking on forward but then looked back at Mana and walked back placing his hand onto hers on the cane.

“You gonna be OK?” he asked, “Maybe you want me to walk you home?”

“Nah, I’m fine” Mana looked somewhere to the side worried, “I’m just not sure about this whole Chuunin Exam thing. I mean are we really ready? We’ve trained plenty alone but we had very little team experience, Tanshu-sensei always split us up and tried to raise each of us individually. Honestly, it feels like there has never been a time when there was NOT a hedge between the three of us.”

Shimo smiled and rushed back to where he was before he rushed back to Mana, he then turned back and showed her a thumb up with a confident smile. “You worry too much about too many things. I fought a giant tiger, Sugemi fought a snake, you beat not one but two giant centipedes and we all had our butts kicked by a spy, except Sugemi who got his beat by a guy with glasses. What is there for us to fear?” The genin’s confident reply really did break a smile on Mana’s face. Perhaps she was developing fears and worries far too fast. They may have never had real teamwork training but they were friends who knew each other for quite some time now, right?


*****

Hanasaku and her two students entered the office without even knocking, the councilman stood up and walked up to the door leading the three to a hall much further down the corridor. He then looked at the woman’s students and shook his head. “Oh, come on!” Kiyomi pouted but for the first time ever Hanasaku nodded and played by the rules, something in her guts told her that she may have known what all of this was about. “Kiyomi, Tetsuzuki, please go home now and rest. This meeting isn’t for you.” Tetsuzuki pouted a bit and acted up. “I still want to leave the team, you know!”

The councilman cleared his throat, “Well the meeting of village’s officials and the entire council is no place to do that. Please file your papers on the first floor.” The man’s voice was clearly irritated, even the noisy Inuzuka decided to obey the man’s will and he turned around and started quickly marching downstairs. Hanasaku gently stroke Kiyomi’s head and then poked the girl’s forehead, “Go home, I can handle this.” Kiyomi still continued to be worried.

“You always fall asleep during meetings of politics and briefings” she exclaimed.

“That’s exactly why I can handle this, what I can’t hear doesn’t bother me” Hanasaku smiled with a confident full grin. Finally even the second student relented and the girl turned around moving downstairs and passing through her teammate who was filing papers of his departure from the team. With a worried and sorry look she tried to give him one final reason to reconsider but her eyes did not meet a reply. Just like that, Team Petal was dissolved completely!

*****

The councilman stood up and showed for Hanasaku where to sit, the woman just sat down and crossed her legs and arms closing her eyes. It wasn’t that she was ignorant, it wasn’t that she was disrespectful towards her basic suspicions. Howoku and Tanshu were dead, most likely Misu too. Only if all the other candidates for Kage would’ve died had the council approached her with this. She was pretty much the last person to be considered for this position. The councilman looked at her and asked for Hanasaku to pay attention but the woman kept her eyes closed, this time applying tension to that eye-lock. She somehow had to keep her tears inside, didn’t she?

So what if that was Hanasaku’s way of coping with loss? So what if she always made fun out of everything, so what if she always acted dumb and silly. So what if she always made people she liked hurt because she was clumsy and not too bright. But why did Howoku and Misu deserve to die? Why did her two brothers deserve to die alongside her younger brother? Why was her family now all alone again? Just like that time when her parents died, she’s all alone. The more things change the more they stay the same. It’s a definition of insanity to do the same thing again, expecting things to change and while Hanasaku was stupid and clumsy, insane was one thing she was not. Family was something she could not have. The greatest curse of surviving everything was that you got to see everyone you love die before you


“And that is why we need a Hokage suddenly. There is hope that a new leader can perhaps still salvage the situation, obtain more reliable information on what happened in the Kage Summit and maybe even still get some good puppet politicians of ours into the newly elected Kirigakure council. Maybe we can still push some of our candidates for Mizukage as well, as dickish as the late news were, I’m sure that the other Kage wouldn’t have elected another Kage without our knowledge
” the councilman went on and on. Hanasaku’s eyes shot wide open letting her tears run free. Her body leaped up making all the ignorant councilmen shouting that this was insanity itself sit back down in fear. After all, whenever Chestnut Hanasaku did something, everything fell apart


“Silence! I, Hanasaku Senju, otherwise known as Chestnut Hanasaku, using my Sannin priority status accept the suggested title as the Fifth Hokage until the situation is stable and a viable substitute can be placed in my seat.” she spoke, for the first time what she said were not words that revealed her clumsiness of her foolishness. Those were words of a woman ready to accept power. Power of being able to find out what happened to her brothers and power to prevent something like that from happening again. Also possibly punching people responsible in the face
 Preferably the last one.

Even the councilmen who were opposed to Hanasaku’s candidature initially started hesitantly nodding their heads. They then caught themselves agreeing to Hanasaku being chosen as the next Hokage, successor to one titled the “Star of Hope” no less. One of the most questionable leaders in history following undoubtedly the greatest. One that made economy blossom from peace and peace from economy, one who found balance and coexistence in those things. It could all either go very well, or terribly wrong. Such decisions were best made when one had nothing at all to lose


Mana's slower pace did not reduce that feeling of ground shifting beneath her feet. Such feelings were natural after such an event, every time a great clash between two sides occurred there was to be a great aftereffect of that encounter. People crying and lamenting the deaths of their beloved, children left without homes and families, entire settlements and villages thinking how things would be now that their leaders had passed away. It is just human nature when all is perfectly well to expect that this would never change. Such was the case when the Star of Hope became Hokage. People just took that bliss of having such a competent and powerful iconic leader for granted expecting that this state would never change.

This time on her way back Mana noticed a significant change in people's moods. Women had teary eyes everywhere, the men looked like they've been told the worst news. Mana assumed that the news had already reached the public. After all, if the councilman thought bunch of kids should know it already that meant it was already on the papers that day. What some people couldn't find out about from the news, they heard about through hearsay or from their neighbors, nothing spreads quite like crushing news like those. In one violent swoop of history Konoha lost two of their Sannin and a Hokage with no known replacements for the Sannin lost and a very questionable choice for a Hokage.

Mana thought back on seeing that woman in the Administration, her brown hair
 She must've been Chestnut Hanasaku, after all, as secretive as the council tried to be with their meeting to elect the new Hokage, their choice was made for them. There was really no one else there to choose. It was either choose Chestnut Hanasaku, the only surviving Sannin, or wait until a more appropriate candidate rises up to the occasion. It all depended on the situation the village was in and by seeing how rushed the decision to select the new Kage was Mana was starting to feel uneasy. Were things so bad that they needed the succeeding Kage right after the last one died? It was fruitless to think too hard about it without knowing much more, she was just a kid after all and didn't get much information about the more intricate village affairs.

Right after returning home Mana realized that her parents had already found out about the news. Father approached Mana and wanted to comfort her as he was comforting mother who was crying her heart out but he saw that his daughter was in a much calmer state. Mana was not crying or shaking or displaying any signs of losing her mind but
 Father knew she was suffering inside, in fact, the invisible sadness was often the most dangerous. It was obvious that the man didn't really know how to help his kid. He just reached out and gently tapped her shoulder then drew Mana in for a hug.

"So you've heard, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah, the councilman told us
" was all that Mana could reply, her voice was deep but silent, her tone sounded so distant.

"Well they're really rushing this thing, they're having the funeral this evening and then the Fifth is going to be nominated tomorrow. Doesn't really help that they're rushing it so much
" father started babbling, trying to find a note that would open Mana up a bit so that she could let her feelings go and stop sealing them away. Having lived for so long as a ninja and lost many comrades father must've known that it wasn't really healthy to deal with it the way in which Mana was doing it.

"I'm
 I'm probably gonna go to bed early today, I've got a mission tomorrow, it's nothing too big." Mana replied trying to free herself from father's arms. While she successfully escaped his embrace his hands held her by her arms quite firmly, having father's injury in mind.

"You should go to the funeral, death is something you want let out of your system and deal with immediately. Death is like an infestation of darkness, if you let it stick around for too long it'll grow out of control until no one will be able to tell the moss from the stone. You might not want to say goodbye just yet but
 You'll feel better later if you do it now." Father explained letting go of the little magician right afterwards. Mana quietly stumbled back to her room, walking upstairs with a cane was a great pain in the butt.

Father was right, she kept telling herself internally that if she never saw Tanshu-sensei's body and never confronted the problem it just wouldn't exist anymore. Sure she'd never see or hear about Tanshu-sensei again but at least she'd never have to deal with the problem. For all the talk about being a hero and a savior and one who'd change the world, being an icon of hope for others to draw courage from she was a big coward. Slowly and having to force her body to move every inch Mana stood up from the bed and crept to the wardrobe pulling out her black dress. It was safe to say that neither Mana nor her parents ever hoped that the girl would ever have to wear that, it'd have been for the best if the girl just grew out of it and tossed it away without ever getting to put it on. Such was the case with most clothes meant specifically to be worn during a funeral.

Mana just laid back down and kept looking through the window at the Sun as it circled through the sky, hiding behind the dark clouds that were starting to accumulate. Autumn was a season of rain, while it wasn't really uncommon for it to rain during this time of the year, the girl wanted to believe that it was the Universe itself that was gifting this expression of sadness as if it was an apology of the sort. That was being hopeful, that's how Mana was ever since she was a kid, believing in nonsense like that
 As the Sun finally started to set the girl changed into her dress, it felt so cold and uncomfortable, must've just been her mind associating the soft fabric with what it symbolized that made it so. Looking through the window Mana then took a black sweater with her in case if it started to rain. Mana loved the rain but she just wasn't in the mood to enjoy it now, she wasn't in the mood to enjoy anything really. While it sounded stupid for the girl, she felt like she'd never be able to enjoy anything ever again.

Mana looked around, pretty much everyone had gathered around the Hokage's grave. She was too far to see if there was even a body in the coffin. There was something of the sort, perhaps whoever was in the Summit managed to get Tanshu-sensei's and Fourth's bodies sealed and then sent the scroll to Konoha. There were just so many bodies piling up in these times that by now moving them was quite a simple deal, there must've been entire industries around it, people who specialized in sealing dead bodies. Mana turned at father, seeing her sad eyes father's arm wrapped around her shoulder as the head of the family gently hugged both Mana and mother.

"Dad, is there a special kind of ninja that deal with sealing bodies?" she asked.

"Yeah, several specializations actually. There are the ninja called "Shinigami", those guys seal the bodies into scrolls and have multitude of techniques related to protecting those scrolls and quickly transferring them. Bodies are a treasured thing for a village for a multitude of reasons so "Shinigami" are usually quite potent ninja capable of protecting them. Then there are "Sin Eaters", usually the bodies of a ninja contain various traces of how they died, sometimes seals that work like traps when allied ninja recover the body, it's the job of a "Sin Eater" to remove those or recover all they can about the death of a ninja. They're both investigators for hidden messages and signs but also supportive ninja, while both are quite powerful ordinary ninja don't really like them."

"Why not?" Mana asked slightly confused.

"Because of what they represent, they deal with dead bodies which means that they always follow death. It's not really their fault but
 It can't be helped. That's why their kind is quite rare and not many younger ninja know about them, people tend not to talk about them too much except during occasions like this
" father replied trying to silence his voice a bit to the point where those around the family couldn't hear them.

"This is horrible
 Howoku was the one who gave me the permission to stay in the village. He also was one of the only opponents of the council's decision to assassinate my tribe
" mother wept. Mana wanted to hear more about that but she figured that this may not have been the best occasion to do so. She'd have to just keep that in her mind and ask about it some other time. The girl's eyes unintentionally slipped onto Sugemi and Shimo, these two were standing on separate corners of the crowd, Shimo was surrounded by his family as well but Sugemi was standing further away from his. Also their emotions couldn't have differed more, Shimo was sad beyond comprehension – the Fourth was his hero, whereas Sugemi was
 Angry. Mana couldn't really understand what her teammate was so furious about, maybe he still blamed himself for what happened, maybe he blamed someone else. Blame often sparks anger.

Mana slowly slipped out from her father's arm and then crept carefully to the young Nara. She tried to talk to him, greet him and ask if there was something on his mind but her teammate stayed quiet.

"You know, I wasn't originally going to come here, I thought to run away from it all and deal with it alone, or better yet not deal with it at all. If you have something weighing you down it'd be best if you shared it" she said trying to open her friend up a bit. Sugemi clenched his fists.

"They're all just crying, acting like this is no one's fault. We have the guy in our cells, we've got that "Demon", that Kirigakure scumbag. He should get the shit beaten out of him every day, I should've been there when you two fought him and beaten the shit out of him to begin with. Now I'm one beating behind schedule!" Sugemi shouted out, the surrounding people looked at the two youngsters and started slowly moving back forming a small circle around them. Mana slowly breathed in and out, this was a dangerous mindset that her friend had, he was about to do something stupid and she had to stop that. It was her responsibility as a friend.

"It's not "Demon's" fault, he didn't even see Tanshu or the Fourth, the three never even met for a moment. You're just pointing arrows because you're feeling dark and sad inside. I know that feeling because I have it in my heart as well, I don't know the good way to deal with it yet but
 I know that yours is wrong." Mana scolded herself almost instantly after finishing her reply, she came off too hard on him. She should've said something else but
 How was she supposed to react, her teammate was itching to hurt someone completely innocent just because he came from a country responsible for taking a life of their treasured teacher.

"No. You're the wrong one, that's what Tanshu-sensei kept telling you, even after his death you can't respect his will. Even after his death you keep on disappointing him. People like you always confuse everyone else with their stupid speeches, "It's not that guy's fault, it's nobody's fault". Nobody's fault my ass. It's Kirigakure's fault, we've been warring for years and Fourth was a fool to think for a moment that those deaths were forgotten, that this violence could ever be left behind. The Mizukage wanted war, well we should give him that."

"Sugemi, it's not Kirigakure or Kumogakure or whatever, it's a person that killed the Fourth and it's a completely another person who killed Tanshu-sensei. Didn't you hear it? Tanshu-sensei was killed by Misu-san – a Konohagakure Sannin. You can't just lash out and start beating up and killing people from another country because they hurt you, it wasn't Kirigakure's will this happened, it was the Mizukage's." Mana almost started shouting, the circle around the two grew wider with each passing moment.

Sugemi turned around and started walking away, bumping into Mana's shoulder. The girl moaned in pain and almost collapsed, just barely did she manage to keep on one knee when gripping her cane with all of her strength. "That's what I thought, you keep trying to make it more difficult than it actually is. We are allies, they are enemies. It's as simple as that. To them we are enemies as well so they'd do the same to us as they did to sensei and Hokage without blinking twice. I thought of you as a friend, Mana, I still do. I'll walk away before you tarnish that belief of mine by siding with them."

Some people came to help Mana get back on her feet, they kept cursing at Sugemi and his words but some actually agreed with him. There were too many voices for Mana to hear them all but
 Some of them really did want war with Kirigakure, probably the majority of people around her wanted to start that cursed circle of violence all over again. Father helped Mana up and examined her. "Is everything OK? What happened?"

Mana forced a fake smile and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, just got dirt all over my dress. I uh, I felt a bit weak there for a moment and fell
" Mana heard Shimo behind her. She looked back and saw that same emotion in his eyes – rage. He must've seen everything that happened, he probably heard some of it. This wasn't good, right when Mana started dealing with one loss her life was starting to spiral down even more threatening to shake the balance of her team even more. With all of her speed that the girl could muster up she walked up to Shimo trying to catch up to him, he was slowly leaving the crowd.

"That bastard, I'm gonna kick his ass hard! He's got no right to act like a fucking drama queen here, we're all suffering!" Shimo was cursing really badly, Mana shouted for him to wait and her teammate listened stopping for a moment and waiting for her to catch up to him.

"Stop, it wasn't his fault, he always was the weird one and
 It just hit him harder than everyone else. Although I do think he's about to pull something really stupid." Mana said.

"He knew that you would stand by your beliefs, he knew that people around him were easy to sway to the violent side. He made fun of you and publically mocked you. I'm gonna kick that fucker's ass, no matter what he decided to pull here!" Shimo shouted, he wasn't going to be reasoned with. Mana knew that the two were looking for an excuse to jump at each other for quite some time.

"Shimo, there's no time for your rivalry and stupid macho nonsense! I think Sugemi is going to break into the Police Force HQ and try to kill the "Demon". If he's caught we'll all be in trouble. We owe it to him to stop him as his friends." She explained. Shimo nodded.

"Fine but I won't do it softly, I'm still gonna kick his ass when we stop him." He pouted. "I think he went to his home, if he's going for it like you think he is, he'll need to gear up. I'm heading home as fast as I can and I'll pick up my blade and my tools, you go change too. Hopefully you won't need to jump in but
 At least be there to stop me from beating him too hard."

After clearing things up and putting the plan together the two split and head back home. Sugemi was never the overly subtle one so if he decided to break into the Police Force building he'd either be found out or he'd leave way too many clues to suggest a break in. Mana tried to desperately race home, she was moving at a turtle's pace and her thighs hurt with each step more and more. A couple of times the girl almost fell down from her muscles just giving in and feeling weak almost making the entire leg give in. Luckily Mana managed to make it home and to the second floor where she changed into her uniform and filled all the hidden pockets with kunai and shuriken and her sleeves with knives. For some using a magician's uniform during battle would've sounded like a bad idea, truth was Mana knew that outfit inside out, she knew every hidden pocket and could slip knives out of her sleeve effortlessly and faster than even her peers that specialized in weaponry. That beat feeling slightly uncomfortably during sudden movements.

Mana met up with Shimo who was now wielding a katana, having finally acquired the skill to switch from a wakizashi to a longer blade, custom made no doubt. His family could definitely afford a custom order from one of the several blacksmith clans of the village. The magician nodded gesturing that she was ready and the two set out. Truth be told Mana felt really bad inside. Her friend was spiraling into madness and she couldn't help him. She'd probably mess things up even at her full strength and here she was injured and unable to move around fast. She'd just get in Shimo's way. Still, as a friend she owed it to Sugemi to be there, to try and talk him down from committing a professional suicide. If he was found sneaking into the Police Force it'd be Ninja Tribunal for him, if he gave up the part during torture where he intended to kill a treasured prisoner, a source of information he could be accused of treason even. That would mean crushed dreams of ever being a ninja or having his own manga, maybe even death. This was no longer a game or a joke.

The two stopped before the Police Force building. Shimo peeked from the corner. "The two guards are taken out. This is bad" he whispered. Mana couldn't believe it, "Wait, how did Sugemi took two Police Force guards out?"

Shimo grunted and shook in his hiding spot uncomfortably. "All the good ones must've left to the funeral, it's the really influential and powerful ones that knew Tanshu-sensei and the Fourth the best. They left the youngsters in charge for just one evening
 Still, these might be genin level ninja, each and every one of them would be troublesome to face directly. Let's try to be sneaky, even Sugemi thought he should sneak around which means while he is a dick, he's not insane"

Mana and Shimo snuck up to the entry, the lock was still there, for some reason it wasn't a seal lock that needed injection of the right kind of chakra to be unlocked, it was just a good old steel lock. Mana bent over almost crying out in pain from her legs and pulled a pin from her hair letting it loose. She bent the pin and worked the lock. Shimo looked amazed. "Holy shit, where did you learn that? More so that fast!?" Mana blinked, trying to smile but unsuccessfully due to the severity of the situation. "I'm a stage magician, remember. I break locks before the coffin fills with water for fun. I could've broken it five different ways with no tools on me, it'd have taken me longer though."

"And everyone says being a famous magician is a bad career choice for a ninja
" Shimo smiled as the two snuck in leaving the door unlocked. They may need to quickly escape and hide, even if such was unlikely for Mana. If shit hit the fan she'd probably be captured as she was unable to move around too fast. Shimo looked around, the two could hear footsteps all around – Sugemi somehow snuck through these floors without alerting or taking out any guards. Mana took off her hat and made a hand seal, she then pushed her cane into her hat and it disappeared in a bright glow as the magician sealed the cane into the hat. It took some amount of chakra but finally Mana became skilled enough to use her father's seal.

"It'd make too much noise if I walked around with that
" the girl explained in whisper, weaving some more hand seals and using a small vortex of wind to elevate her several feet into the air. "Mystical Wings Jutsu" she whispered again as the air managed to hold her, she'd not be completely invisible with the gusts setting off dust but it's still more silent than cursing in pain with every step. Shimo nodded and started leading the way, Mana wasn't the best in ways of stealth so her friend had to guide her, tell her when to move and when to stop. Her technique improved from being just a gust of wind to propel her upwards though, still it wasn't by any means fast or efficient, this situation was just exceptional enough to make it look useful. Sneaking was a painful and scary process, it seemed as if it took the two hours to get to the third level where the "Demon" was kept. There it was
 Traces with lying knocked out guards and a guard standing near a cell looking at the young man inside.

"Sugemi!" Mana shouted out, the "guard's" concentration broke and the transformation jutsu ended revealing Sugemi standing at the end of the hall. The boy looked even more furious than before, "Don't get in my way you two! I'm gonna kill this bastard for what his kind did to Tanshu-sensei." It was safe to say that things could no longer be taken under control.

"We'll take too much time trying to talk this drama queen down. I'll just quickly cut him down and we'll get him out of here where we can kick his butt for being such an idiot and talk him over. I'm sorry, Mana-chan" Shimo quickly mumbled out and leaped forward drawing his sword and trying to cut Sugemi down but the Nara just rolled over Shimo's shoulder and kicked off his back making the Yuki swordsman lose balance and fall on his knees. Sugemi then lunged at Mana but stopped at the final step with his fist right at her face. Having realized that Mana wasn't fighting him but just here to try and control the situation Sugemi stepped back and looked her in the eyes. His eyes weren't angry or sad or
 There wasn't anything in them, his stare was just blank and emotionless. Sugemi then turned back at Shimo who was standing up looking pretty angry and ready to beat his friend down senseless.

Shimo and Sugemi kept looking at each other, trying to determine which one should make the first move. This was a complicated fight, they couldn't go too flashy or else the guards would pick up on the trouble brewing in the lower levels, at the same time they were each a capable genin able to provide a decent challenge for one another. Shimo may have expected an easy knockout but this first exchange of attacks proved to him that such would never happen. Sugemi was not only ready to fight his friends for this blind quest of vengeance but he also was well able to deliver on his big talk.

Shimo started the brawl, he kicked off of the ground leaping forward, one of his arms held his drawn blade whereas the other one was ready to defend against any counterattacks which the sword may not have been fast enough to intercept. This time Shimo invested far less weight into his attack, he learned of Sugemi's style and decided that if he got his attack redirected again he'd be wide open for a takedown and this time the Nara wouldn't fool around. This was a real fight with real stakes, in fact, when a life of a friend was at stake the stakes couldn't have been more real.

With a sharp and quick but unfocused kick Shimo tried to weigh and measure his opponent, see how he dealt with simple quick jabs, Sugemi's knee shot up kicking Shimo's leg way up where the Nara then swept the other leg. Shimo's body hit the ground hard but Sugemi wasn't done, he turned his body around with a second sweep to send Shimo's body slamming into the cell. A dirty and bruised arm grabbed Shimo's neck and started choking the boy out. The Yuki swordsman whispered something to his assailant and his grip loosened. The Demon must've been told that he was attacking his own saviour, without his tools, broken, tired and hungry even the Demon could not escape from this HQ at that moment.

Sugemi turned back at Mana with the same blank stare. "Well? Aren't you going to fight? If you're here you must support a side, with me or against me. There are no neutral grounds in life, all must pick a side, those that do not are treated as enemies to both sides." A handle of Shimo's sword silenced Sugemi as it drove deep into the boy's jaw sending the boy crashing into the stone wall picking up dust and cracking some bricks in it. Mana just barely managed to lean out of the way of her friend crashing into the wall, she couldn't keep her balance but at least she didn't get knocked out by her own friend crashing into her.

"Don't listen to him, Mana-chan. You don't have to pick any side, I'm sorry for doing this to you, I'm sorry that I forced you to watch friends fight but
 Please just endure it a little bit longer. We'll go back home again and be friends, we'll be Team Oak like the old times. Isn't that right Sugemi? What happened to the Chuunin Exams? What happened to your manga?! Are you just spitting at all of your dreams just to express your feelings of anger towards an unarmed man?" Shimo yelled at Sugemi who picked himself back up and spat out some blood to the side.

Mana's body was almost shaking, she couldn't believe that she was seeing her friends fight like that, her best friends. When coming here she expected that they would be able to stop Sugemi by either talking him down or he'd get his mind back in order when the first blow would be thrown, seeing the madness behind it all. Now she witnessed that the boy wasn't like that at all, with each fist thrown his mind devolved more and more to the mad fighting animal which he held inside. "They don't write manga about spineless fools like Mana. They write them about brave and strong men who know where they stand and act upon their feelings. That is what it means to be a ninja and that is how I'll make my own history. If you feel obliged to fight me, I'll gladly kick your butt before I kick that of that Kirigakure bastard in the cell." Sugemi shouted out, his tone finally made it clear – he lost it completely.

"So you think you can take me?" Demon's confident and husky tone echoed through the entire room from his cell. "Come on, big guy, I'm right here. Open the cell door and we can go for it."

Shimo gave the inmate an angry stare, he was just making this whole madness worse. "Guys. Please. Stop!" Mana shouted out standing back up and using her "Mystical Wings" jutsu again to make her slightly levitate as she moved in closer to the two. A blow sent her back into the wall of the room, it wasn't a chakra augmented blow so Sugemi was holding back but he showed clearly that he was going to have none of it. He was so far beyond being talked down that Mana could barely believe it. If this was a mercenary or another ninja or some giant animal from the Forest of Death she'd have had no second thought about taking them out but
 This was Sugemi. How could things have gone so far out of control?

Sugemi shouted out madly, such loud cries of battle must've been heard above but the guards probably just took it for normal shouts of desperate or drunk inmates. Sometimes when a ninja has had too many drinks they may have ended up contained in the Police Force HQ as well until the morning so some unusual noises wouldn't have been out of the ordinary in the slightest. The Nara leaped forward slamming his palms together as the shadows shot from the ground forming into fists, each of them started relentlessly striking at Shimo in a powerful barrage of strikes. "Shadow Tendril Barrage!" Sugemi yelled out.

Shimo's body moved to the side and dodged each of the strikes, Mana saw that his body moved far too fast, he must've been using chakra to make his movements faster. A genin may not have been able to augment their bodies' natural abilities too much but somehow Shimo managed to avoid each and every strike, with a graceful spin the swordsman appeared behind Sugemi and drove his sheathe right into the Nara's back sending him almost crashing into the cell. The bars of the Demon's cell were bent up, the inmate moved back because he believed that the strength upon which Sugemi was thrown into his cell would blow them out completely. The Demon just laughed out in amusement.

"This is great, you Konoha brats are so soft. Afraid to draw your blade against your own brother, I've been killing Kirigakure ninja since I was in the Academy. Your pitiful games bring shame to the craft of ninja."

Sugemi's body picked itself up and wiped slobber and blood that shot from his mouth from having a pointy end of the sheathe driven into his spine with all of Shimo's strength. Even now when their encounter had well kicked off they were playing with kid gloves. Even when it seemed apparent that they were fighting both Shimo and Sugemi held back significantly and that's why they were different from the Demon. "If you toy around I'm just gonna take you and Mana out and then proceed with my plan. Draw your damn sword when you hit me, Shimo!" Sugemi yelled out angrily. Truth being told even to Mana Shimo's approach of sheathing his sword when attacking and unsheathing it when the attack was over seemed silly. And yet
 She was powerless to stop her friends from killing one another.

Shimo stood silently, his eyes were completely covered up by his hair that were greasy and covered with sweat from this encounter and all the previous months he had spent training. Sugemi angrily spat out some blood to the side, "Suit yourself!" he exclaimed as chakra erupted from his body and he lunged at Mana. The girl couldn't stop him, not in her injured state at least, her body was frozen, she was completely disabled by the thought of fighting her best friend. Her best friend wanted to harm her! Before Sugemi's fist drove into the girl's stomach punching her out of her consciousness however Shimo's naked blade shot up and to the side right across Sugemi's body, from one shoulder to his thigh.

"LEAVE MANA-CHAN OUT OF THIS!" Shimo roared out like a wild animal as he moved his arm making the blade cut instead of just pressing against Sugemi's body. The Nara's eyes whited out, overwhelmed by pain pulsing through his entire body, blood shot out from the wound splashing all over the walls of the room. The magician felt a warm splash of blood landing on her cheek, her body still shook in disbelief of what was happening, with each passing moment the situation was getting worse. At this point almost everything bad that could've happened did happen. Sugemi's body slammed onto the edgy stone floor, blood still ran wildly from the wound on his chest, his eyes now looked so innocent as the boy was temporarily cut down out of his consciousness. Moments later the boy's consciousness returned, he started writhing on the ground in pain.

"What
 The
" a weak voice echoed to the side of where the girl was floating a foot into the air. One of the guards was getting over being knocked out. The girl didn't have time to think, her hands quickly went through some hand seals and activated a genjutsu. The guard's eyes opened wide in surprise, he started rolling around and scratching all over his body believing to be covered in cockroaches. He started writhing around, bashing his body into the stone walls until he hit his head and got back to being knocked out cold. Just great. Now Mana messed up too, now she's just as much of a criminal as Shimo and Sugemi were. The Demon just laughed out amused in his cell.

"Well well, I guess this girl isn't completely toothless
"

Shimo looked back with sorry eyes. "Mana
" he uttered. It was clear that he felt sorry that he dragged her into this with his aggressive approach. Sugemi got back onto his knees wiping the blood that he was throwing up. It appeared that the wound on his chest wasn't too deep or didn't cut through the bone. It must've been really painful to keep a fighting maniac like Sugemi down for so long. "Yeah
 Be a dear and knock out everyone who gets in our way" the Nara huffed out. Shimo's hand rose up showing the edge of his sword to Sugemi.

"I'll take you out quick, we've already hurt Mana-chan enough by fighting, now because of my inaction she got involved into this
 It's my mess to clean up!" he spoke quietly but firmly and with much confidence. Shimo then sheathed his sword and his hands went through three or four hand seals as a powerful gust of wind picked up, suddenly the humidity in the air was transformed into a strong blizzard and it was made even stronger by the fact that it was raging indoors in a contained environment. Mana shrieked out in pain as the force of the wind overwhelmed her levitation technique and she was sent back down to the ground. The Demon laughed out, his voice was muffled by the raging winds. "I see your chakra control improved while I was sitting here" he yelled out.

Shimo's body disappeared, flashing in on Sugemi as he drew his sword slicing at the center of the whirlwind that was throwing the pelting snow and icicles around. "Blizzard Cut – Three Slashes!" Shimo yelled out as a white blur flashed through the center of the blizzard cutting the whirlwind into four parts separating it in three spots where his blade cut through the whirlwind. Because of the overwhelming cold and strength of the wind there was no way for Sugemi to avoid it but the Nara kept on his feet, stumbling around as new deep wounds opened on his body but not once letting a part of his body above the knees hit the ground. Then the storm stopped as quickly as it began.

Shimo was not done, he saw that Sugemi was taking every blow so he continued his ruthless onslaught. After stopping from the last slash he made more hand seals and pointed his hands at his friend and rival. The storm picked up again right around Sugemi slamming powerful and large chunks of ice made from the humidity in the air right at the genin. Encasing Sugemi into a mausoleum of ice made out of huge messy blocks. Shimo breathed out and leaped forward, drawing his sword with all of his might. "Ice Style: Ice Cutter!" he shouted trying to cut the pile of ice blocks on top of Sugemi in half and taking the genin out with it. A powerful flash of chakra sent Shimo away slamming again into the Demon's cell, bending the bars furthermore. The chunks of ice got blown away, forming into smaller shrapnel that would've easily shred through the flesh of anyone who got too close.

"First Gate: Gate of Opening! OPEN!" Sugemi shouted out releasing a powerful burst of chakra from the opening gate which blew away Shimo's jutsu. Without hesitating even for a moment the Nara jumped at his friend. No. These two were no longer friends, they were two people trying to genuinely kill each other. They may have been friends at some point but now there was nothing but their battle. Shimo leaped forward, cutting madly with his sword, Sugemi pulled out a kunai as the two started to blur. Clashing with each other sending sparks and shockwaves, leaping on the walls, kicking off of the ceiling. Their eyes were completely white, absent were any traces of emotion or feeling. Just an automated bombardment of loud clangs and booms when these two clashed with one another trying to take each other down. This mad explosion of fury and killing intent must've alerted someone above, soundproofing could only protect from this much noise escaping


Then in an instant the blurs appeared in their human shapes again, wild Nara shadows surrounded Sugemi as powerful tendrils shot from the ground trying to whip at Shimo "Shadow Tendril Jutsu!" Sugemi yelled out. The swordsman vaulted over them moving in to strike at the Nara from behind but the Nara was facing Shimo again by predicting the swordsman trying to move in from behind. "Shadow Push Jutsu!" Sugemi chanted out again as the shadows formed a big palm that slammed into Shimo's chest sending him rolling back and slamming into the wall. Shimo grunted out and quickly got back on his feet. His body was trembling in pain and exhaustion was starting to kick in. Shimo's breathing was irregular, that slamming shadow technique must've broken some ribs which made breathing difficult. Without his ability to breathe properly Shimo may not have had what it took to keep up with Sugemi's "First Gate".

First flock of guards broke in, these were the four that were supposed to check the situation. Mana realized that if the scouting party did not return the ones staying above were supposed to call for reinforcements, the problem was that in their maddened states Shimo and Sugemi may not have realized it. Both Shimo and Sugemi leaped at the guards. Sugemi moved so fast in his "First Gate" that he quickly took them out with strong strikes directed at the vital areas. Shimo was slightly softer with his strikes but he hit with every intention to knock them out instantly. If these guards were given proper chance to fight they may have proven troublesome to Shimo and Sugemi, the thing was that the two genin were already warmed up and in their most potent stages of combat, they also caught the guards unprepared and utilized the shock factor. Now it was just a matter of time before the guards return with reinforcements after the scouting party does not return. It didn't matter, Mana would stay with her friends, she'd stand with them even if now they were trying to kill each other.

After the final guard hit the floor after a mad blurring combination of blows from Sugemi his "First Gate" disappeared with a loud popping sound as the chakra bursting from his body dissolved. Almost at the same moment Sugemi collapsed onto his knees breathing heavily, this "First Gate" must've been really wearing his body out. Now was Shimo's chance to take his friend out cold and get the hell out of there. There was a slim chance that the three could still escape without being recognized, it was dark in the cellar and Shimo with Sugemi moved really fast, maybe their faces still weren't seen? Even Mana with her optimistic and naĂŻve attitude realized she was being too hopeful.

Shimo rushed at Sugemi who was struggling to breathe properly, his arms decisively flashed driving the sword down and leaving a wide cut on Sugemi's chest. The heat emanating from Sugemi's body from the effort he had to put in to use the "First Gate" had already cauterized the previous cuts, this one was fresh, this one wasn't defended against in any way. It was a clean knockout slash. And yet
 Sugemi stood up, stumbling back but he stood. Shimo shouted out like a madman, slicing right and left, waving his sword around in a mad fit of rage, opening new wounds, shallow but numerous, desperate to take his friend down but not out for good. Sugemi shouted in pain, he stumbled back with each successful strike but he didn't go down. He always jumped up from his knees to greet each successive strike. Then the unbelievable happened, Sugemi clenched his fist and shouted out "First Gate: OPEN!" again sending a powerful punch Shimo's way. It only dispelled an afterimage. The real Shimo was somewhere in the darkness of the room.

"Ice Style: Cold Air Mirage" a voice came from somewhere deeper in the room, somewhere in the darker corners.

"Ninja Style: Elimination Cut!" Shimo's voice came from right above Sugemi whose face shot up in disbelief, he was too late to stop it. Shimo's body dove down from the ceiling cutting Sugemi through the chest. A powerful finishing cut like that was supposed to end it all but Sugemi only stumbled back again. The bursting chakra which his Gate of Opening emitted protected him slightly making the cut just a little bit short from cutting through bone and into the vital organs. Still, it was apparent now that Shimo was no longer cutting to hurt, he was cutting to kill confident that his friend would survive his meanest kill-shots.

Once again Sugemi's body blurred and disappeared, so did Shimo. A multitude of exploding aerial shockwaves almost blew Mana off her feet again, she was now sitting with her back against the wall, her body and mind were completely broken to the point where she was just observing this madness which was happening there. Friend trying to kill another friend, when did her life end up like this, where was this all leading up to? If these two people fighting were anyone else
 If only these weren't Sugemi and Shimo fighting. The gentleman who thought it was his noble duty to let each girl in the Academy into the canteen first and the otaku who brought a bag full of manga into the graduation exam instead his tools.

The two just kicked off of various surfaces: walls, ceiling, floor, passing through each other and clashing using their weapons. Sugemi's kunai got cut in two after two or three swipes but he quickly replaced them. Then it happened – Shimo's feet kicked strongly off of Demon's cell breaking the bars and blowing the door down. The Demon was unleashed again onto Konohagakure, the slow and hesitant steps tapped against the sharp edges of the rocky floor, an exhausted, tortured and broken youth walked out from his cell laughing madly. "Finally
 I have escaped from my shackles
 Oni-sensei, I've not disappointed you, I've obtained all the information I need and now I'll
" two fists silenced the tired, sick and delusional inmate. Sugemi's "First Gate" must've hit like a truck, that combined with Shimo's fist and then a follow up strike from the sword handle sent the Demon back into the cell passing out instantly.

"There
 We've hurt him plenty. Let's go now
" Shimo huffed heavily looking at the unconscious inmate they've just punched out. Obviously had the Demon been anywhere close to his prime he'd have been much more troublesome to take out, still, Shimo and Sugemi were stronger than they were before when they investigated him and it showed. Sugemi's "First Gate" ended again, the boy fell onto his knee and started huffing grabbing his chest in pain. His entire body must've been shutting down from being pushed so much.

"No! This isn't enough. He deserves more for what they did to sensei and the Fourth! I need to punch him more, I need to crush his arms and legs and punch him until he's just a stain but still barely alive!" Sugemi yelled out. "Don't you think for a moment that I didn't notice what you did, you're still thinking about Mana, aren't you? You did this on purpose trying to calm me down, I'm not some idiot you can play with!" the Nara followed up as his body stood back up and straightened for the continuation of the battle.

Shimo looked at Mana with a sorry glare, "I'm sorry, Mana-chan, I did everything I can to do it peacefully, I restrained my cuts enough, I even appealed to his intentions and freed the damned prisoner. That's it, now I'm hitting you with my full strength!" the boy leaned forward widening his legs and bending them, taking a sword drawing stance and preparing to devastating his opponent with his secret technique. Sugemi's arms shot to his sides and then he also took his taijutsu stance preparing to continue the battle with all of the training wheels being off.

"Good. I also haven't showed you all results of my training as well
" Sugemi's arms once again moved to the side as he started to channel his chakra intensely, driving it all from his body in mad bursts. Sugemi's skin started blushing, dyeing in a shade of red and blood vessels started shooting out on his forehead. The chakra rushing from his body was no longer crystal clear, it was now completely blue and red with rotating streams and a green aura started briefly emanating from his body, present but still weak and transparent.

"Second Gate: Gate of Healing! OPEN!"

Shimo leaned back taking a stance that he favored when using quick sword drawing techniques. He planned to very much finish this fight with this technique, he had already gotten hit by a First Gate shadow ninjutsu technique and he undoubtedly could not keep up with First Gate for too long as a result, let alone the Second. Mana stood up and got back onto her air current, she wanted to interfere, this was clearly too much. Sugemi was using Second Gate which, based on the damage on his own body from the First was quite as likely to kill him as it could have killed Shimo. Shimo was clearly setting something big up too.

As a drop of sweat fell from Shimo’s chin hitting the small puddle on the damp rocky floor the Yuki swordsman kicked off the ground sending his body to crash against his opponent who was still standing in his Second Gate opening stance, completely open to attacks. Shimo’s hands went through a set of handseals sending a small scale twister of snow that formed an incomplete figure of a large wolf. The snowy avatar of Shimo’s started to catch the gust of the blizzard winds and moved behind the Yuki who at that moment dashed forward using all of his speed and overflowing the chakra to augment his movement speed flashing right to Sugemi. The wolf of snow and ice swung his long reaching paw which was made of snow and sharp icicles made out of chakra. At the same moment Shimo drew his long sword to cut his opponent down on two fronts making a singular defensive tactic pointless.

“Ice Style: Wolf Blade Draw!” Shimo shouted out as his sword cut through the air, freezing small particles as it went along cutting the air, showing off the intensity, power and speed of the technique.

Sugemi’s arms shot forward, an immense shockwave shielded him from Shimo’s sword blowing Shimo back and disintegrating his ice wolf construct. Sugemi’s irises were completely whited out from the intense pain and stress to his body that the technique provided, the body was stressing out so much that the heat from his muscles working overtime cauterized smaller wounds instantly and while that would’ve looked like a positive in the short run, it was hard to say what such abuse would do to one’s body if used for a bit longer.

Sugemi’s body disappeared, appearing right in front of Shimo and punching with such speed that his hand never even appeared to have moved. A powerful force sent Shimo right through the stone wall into another corridor of the lower levels. The entire building could not contain a battle of these two enraged genin who were now way past their friendship and just wanted to straight out murder one another. The only clear thing in this insanity was that if Shimo had not used chakra to augment his body’s endurance his bones would’ve been grinded to dust in an instant. Now the Yuki managed to roll back and get back into the battle, letting his feet touch against the wall at the end of the other room.

Sugemi’s body blurred and moved in an instant right into the next room, Mana followed levitating through the gap in the wall that was breaking down further. These two didn’t even seem to be worried about being quiet, nothing but their fight made sense to them anymore. Sugemi jumped up in the air and flashed right up to Shimo who leaped at his opponent as the two passed one another. A small wound opened up on Sugemi’s body as he got cut by the swordsman passing by whereas the taijutsu user slammed the ground with all of his Second Gate force opening up a great crater in the lowest level of the Police Force HQ causing the whole building to shake and rumble. The two were flashing around, trying to beat one another down, Mana couldn’t even see them move most of the time as they moved in an instant, only returning to visible state as they wind up for a punch of a slash. Sugemi clearly had an upper hand.

Shimo’s body was flung around, busted through the ceilings and walls blowing the stone away as if it was cardboard and it was apparent that the swordsman was taking damage even through his chakra augmentation. Using an intensified chakra flow as an armor was just that – an armor which was dependent on the level and size of one’s total chakra level and the level of chakra invested into withstanding the blow. Shimo was putting everything he had into it, also speed to be able to at least fail keeping up with Sugemi by an acceptable margin, even more, he still returned some blows but his sword appeared to have gone dull as hits no longer cut Sugemi but hit him bluntly tossing the taijutsu user aside momentarily before he recovered to resume his rampage. Mana would’ve never imagined that her friends were capable of fighting on such a level even if such a battle was shaving at their own lives with each passing moment.

The young magician kept following the battle as it moved, with each floor it ascended or descended, to the southern wings and to the western. She could’ve tried to concentrate, control her chakra flow to see their movements more clearly and not just bunch of blurs and shockwaves busting down walls and destroying public property in their wake. But Mana didn’t even want that, she didn’t want to see her friends killing one another. “Stop it now!” she yelled out but no one heard it, maybe just a cowering guard who hid under a table as things started to blow up and bust around him.

“Don’t you guys see it? It’s no longer about saving Sugemi or avenging Tanshu-sensei. You’re fighting because of your stupid pride, because you want to beat the other one who feels just the same and so you just
 Won’t
 Stop
 Fighting
” Mana tried to tell them as she followed the battle but she just couldn’t. Finally the pace slowed up, Shimo’s body was covered with bumps, bruises and his clothes were torn up from his body rubbing against rock. He had bleeding nasty gashes all over, his forehead had an especially nasty wound which he quickly temporarily mended by tying up his torn up sleeve as a headband as his own got lost somewhere in the debris of this battle.

“You can’t fight me anymore” Sugemi spoke for the first time after opening his gates, it was the first intelligent sound he let, everything else was just cries of battle, grunts and shouts.

“It’s true I cannot compete with your Second Gate. Regardless I’ve won already. If I get a lucky shot in and beat you quick you’ll go down, if I drag this out you’ll still go down because you cannot fight your own body for much longer either. It’s only been a couple of minutes and you’re already losing flare, you’re barely keeping up with the demand of the technique. Show me your last flares before you pass out.” Shimo grunted out angrily as blood made it impossible to see his enraged eyes from further away. “Don’t worry, Mana-chan, I’ll beat this fool senseless and we’ll go back to being how we were
”

It looked like whatever damage Shimo’s head took was getting to him, he clearly didn’t see the damage he had caused to the building, he didn’t see the damage the two have caused to one another and so he still believe there was a point of friendship that they could return to. In fact, getting imprisoned for this and having their ninja status taken away was the best option, them outright murdering one another was by far the worst but at the moment the most likely. If this didn’t stop
 Mana was desperate and prepared to stop them, she’ll throw herself into this battle, maybe once they severely injure or kill her they’ll snap the hell out of this.

“If only I had perfected that technique
 I could stop them from right here
” the girl lamented that she invested so much time in training her physical stats instead of focusing on things she was actually good at like Tanshu-sensei suggested.

Sugemi’s body disappeared, his fist shot right through Shimo’s figure as the shockwave of drilling air currents around his immensely fast fist tore through the cold air mirage that the genin actually hit.

“Ice Style: Cold Mirage Double Team Jutsu!” Shimo’s voice echoed through the wrecked office as a bunch of Shimo’s mirages started floating around faking out an attack. Sugemi stood still, he must’ve believed that they were all fakes because he had already seen the technique twice now. If he opened himself up hitting a fake, he’d give Shimo a chance at a freebie and the Nara must’ve known that he could probably only take one or two blows at best without passing out. A loud bumping sound emanated from Sugemi’s body as it was hit by two solid Shimo figures with his body being trapped in between two mad sword swings. Sugemi was lucky that Shimo’s sword had dulled up and didn’t outright slice him into pieces.

“These were
 Real?” Sugemi coughed out some blood mumbling pathetically as his figure collapsed like a sack of potatoes on the ground with the jets of blue chakra ended. The second real Shimo collapsed into a puddle of water, it appeared that the Yuki had learned to make at least one Water Clone which he shuffled in with the mirages. Shimo looked below at the level in which they were supposed to be fighting in, the one where the Demon was still unconscious but free. He looked at Mana. “We need to get down there, I’m not confident about his containment with that guy being unshackled
” he said.

Mana smiled for the first time in a while, she was glad that the battle had concluded not in the way where it was heading to and that a decisive victor was found. She was starting to believe that without her sacrifice these two would never get back to reality. Mana could hear guards rushing in, she leaped into the large hole, letting the air currents soften her landing and keep her slightly afloat, upkeeping this continuous jutsu was strenuous, but not nearly so as these two had strained each other. Shimo picked Sugemi’s unconscious body up and landed below with a jump as well.

“Oh
 Good, he’s still here, I thought he’d escape
” Shimo smiled looking at the unconscious frame of the Kirigakure prisoner.

“If he had
” Sugemi’s barely recognizable voice echoed through the darkness of the room as he grabbed hold of Shimo’s back and slipped from his grip, flipping his friend over his own shoulder and slamming him into the ground face first. “I’D HAVE KILLED YOU!” he shouted out madly looking at the pool of blood gathering on the stone floor from Shimo’s broken nose and wounds on his face that were now open again. Any of those would’ve been a life ruining injury had Konoha not had the aid of medical ninjutsu and the ability to heal such battlefield injuries in mere hours. Still, if these two showed up in a hospital questions would’ve been asked and they’ve been recognized already. There’s no escape from being prosecuted in the Ninja Tribunal for the three of them now. Mana started to feel more and more hopeless. Her hand slipped to behind her and into the tool pouch, Sugemi’s body shot off mad jets of chakra rotating around his body and the green aura once again started glowing around his blushed skin.

“Stop it, Mana. You’d be able to take me out with your genjutsu in full strength but
 I don’t want to hurt you. Stay out of this.” Sugemi’s voice finally sounded somewhat intelligible and devoid of any anger or hatred. That was the worst part of this day – Mana finally realized that Sugemi wasn’t just following his emotions blindly, this was his conscious decision to hurt or kill this prisoner for what happened to the Hokage and Tanshu.

“What choice do you leave
” Mana started talking when Sugemi instantly flashed up to her slamming her into a wall and driving his elbow at her neck. The sudden force of impact made the magician lose her kunai and her pouch. Mana’s vision started to blur, she couldn’t use her legs or float any longer because of the pain in her thigh muscles and she was slowly being choked out. Shimo was out cold. She had to make a decision, she wore that fancy uniform for moments like this
 Mana moved her palm away from trying to force Sugemi’s elbow from her throat and flicked her palm moving a steel edged card out of her sleeve. Mana swiftly swung her palm by Sugemi’s eyes, she didn’t intend to blind him but she’d have been able to if she wanted it – just leave a shallow cut and move him further from her.

Sugemi shouted out in pain as a mad torrent of blood ran down his face leaving a scar on his face going just a tip above his nose. She must’ve damaged one of his eyes at least as he was clenching it this whole time and yelling out like a madman. Shimo’s elbow to the back sent Sugemi stumbling forward, Mana could’ve finished it all with a punch or a slash with her card again but she just moved to the side and let Sugemi hit the wall. Shaking the girl collapsed on her knees, losing all of her will to fight. She’d just hit her friend, probably blinded him in one eye
 The magician just fell down on the floor and decided to stay down until a guard picked her up or if Sugemi decided he wanted to kill her as well.

A mad burst of chakra busted the wall where Sugemi slammed into, the Nara activated his Second Gate again and lunged right at Shimo.

“You bastard! Look at what you’ve done, you forced Mana-chan to hurt you!” Shimo yelled out when Sugemi’s shadowy construct decked the swordsman right in the face, several teeth flew out and for a moment there Shimo lost consciousness – Second Gate seemed to enhance the strength of Sugemi’s technique since they drew their strength from the willpower and concentration of the user. First Gate unlocked the complete control over one’s body, 100% of muscular potential was used which meant that the Second Gate enhanced that furthermore, closing the strength to somewhere 120% percent of the body’s potential.

“Shadow Tendril!” Sugemi yelled out following up his attack, then he made that same hand seal letting a second one shoot out, whipping Shimo at the chest and making his body bounce off the floor from the sheer force of it. “Shadow Tendril Jutsu!” he repeated as the tendril wrapped around Shimo’s neck and then swung the boy’s body around throwing him into the air. Sugemi used his shadow tendrils to throw his body up as well, the giant shadow construct wrapped around his entire body, hundreds of fists started forming as the entire construct now reminded of a tree of sorts.

“Nara Hijutsu Secret Technique: Shadow Yggdrasil Jutsu!” Sugemi yelled out as the fists started hammering at Shimo’s general direction. Shimo regained his consciousness just in time, drawing his blade and drawing a circle with freezing blue circle forming around the area of the air that he had cut. “Ice Style: Cold Air Pillow!” Shimo chanted out as the fists started pounding on the pillow of air that worked almost like an invisible shield that softened up the blows. The Yuki’s body was still sent up through multiple floors landing right on the first. The fists kept pounding relentlessly at the pillow of air making it lose air with each hit. Such a technique would’ve broken many bones undoubtedly, added bonus with Shimo’s body being flung through multiple thin stone ceiling tiles would’ve broken his spine as well.

Finally Shimo’s body landed on the first floor ground with the technique finally ending. Shimo was breathing heavily with his eyes closed, painful needles were emanating all through his body. Powerful flashes of light were popping in and out even if he had closed his eyes. Stupid Sugemi
 Making such a huge deal from it all, now they’re all screwed and will have their ninja licenses taken away, they’ll be lucky if they avoid imprisonment in the Correctional Facility. That stupid bastard. Sugemi’s loud roars of pain and him writhing around could’ve been heard further away. The boy kept rolling around on the floor in pain – this Second Gate must’ve really hurt for him plus a technique like that


Countless guards started flooding the floor, this must’ve been every guard present at the HQ at that time, they kept asking those two questions. They must’ve still assumed that the two were on a mission just because they recognized the two. They saw these kids in the files when the Demon of Kirigakure was brought in for containment and daily interrogation attempts. That obviously meant Konohagakure Interrogation squad did their thing on the prisoner giving him minimal amounts of food and water, sometimes beating him up for refusing to cooperate. “What could’ve those kids been doing here”, that’s what must’ve been on all of those people’s minds.

“Where’s the Demon? What have you guys been doing?”
“Wait, I don’t think these guys are supposed to be here now
”
“I’ve sent people to go check at the Administration, we’ll get our response soon, for now let’s just take these guys in, assuming they’re going rogue on us.”
“Guys, there’s a girl on the third level, she’s mostly OK but her eyes don’t respond to stimuli, I think she’s just really shocked or something”
“I think these three are the Sorceress’ team that means all three of them are here. What were the three of you doing here!?”

The guards kept shooting questions at the two of them. A guard ran up the stairs with Mana in his arms. Some guards started trying to ask her some questions but Mana remained silent, her eyes still stared at some point of the room, completely distant from everything that was happening. Sensei was dead, the Fourth was dead, Shimo and Sugemi were just trying to kill each other. The world had gone insane and Mana was struggling to keep up with it. She had been insane once in her childhood and her mind was now wondering if she had not returned to that insanity. Her state was no different from when she failed to understand facts and relate them to specific things, she now failed to understand the world just the same.

A loud shout of four guards hitting the floor alerted everyone and the guard that carried her to the top level placed Mana by the wooden wall, her eyes sunk to the floor as her hair covered up her depressed and blank face. “What the
 The Nara is resisting!” a guard yelled out when Sugemi’s Second Gate shot open again. “Hold back, this is Konoha ninja, he might be on a mission we don’t know about! Talk to us, Nara, damn it!” the guards stood no chance, they were almost equal if not stronger than Sugemi but they were confused, they were holding back and oblivious to Sugemi’s killing intent. Police Force weren’t ninja who fought ninja too often, they mostly dealt with either captured or contained ninja or just common villagers who were misbehaving. Fighting rampaging avengers was beyond their paygrade or experience.

Powerful currents of air and shockwaves from Sugemi’s punches aimed at just blank air sent the guards down and crawling to cover. Further aside Shimo got back onto his feet, stumbled down onto his knees and then stood back up. Shimo took his sword drawing stance, making the hand seals for his “Ice Wolf Jutsu” as well forming a construct of ice shaped as a wolf behind the Yuki. Sugemi’s shadows went mad forming countless tendrils and whipping the knocked out and injured guards out of the way.

“Everyone, hold them off for just a moment longer, Jounin are on route right now!” a guard read a note from a pigeon that was dropped as the bird flew by through a hole in the roof.

“They won’t be here in time
” Mana realized as she finally had a first conscious and material thought about something in a while. Her blank eyes looked at her friends, they were struggling to even draw breath and they were preparing their strongest techniques. Ice Style: Wolf Blade Draw was about to clash against Sugemi’s Shadow Yggdrasil and whoever lost would undoubtedly die. Mana stood back onto her feet, no air currents or anything, just her own burning feet. Every step made her want to shout in pain but the lives of her friends were in danger.

“It hurts. Hurts to walk!” Mana thought.

“Can I afford to stop? Stopping means one of them will die, no. No I cannot stop!” a thought followed.

“What will I do? I’m hurt, I can’t fight them! No
 I have to use that
” the girl desperately tried to come up with a proper response for the situation.

“But
 It’s incomplete, I can use too much chakra and die
 What other choice do I have?” it was almost like Mana was fighting against her own instincts, her mind told the girl to just stay down, she had no obligation to kill herself to stop this madness but then a part of Mana realized that this was a moment like those she had been thinking about. Violence was in control of the world around her and death of her friend was about to happen, this was her chance to show to herself and Tanshu-sensei that she actually COULD be a hero. That she wasn’t useless or toothless or whatever. Even if it would be her last deed on this cruel world where people dear to you died and then other people dear to you tried to kill each other as a result of that death. Mad world required even madder actions to take control of it!

“Ice Style: Wolf Blade Draw!” Shimo’s body moved forward, completely oblivious of Mana’s frame that entered into the center of their crossfire.

“Shadow Yggdrasil!” Sugemi shouted out leaping forward, he didn’t care if his shadowy constructs break Mana’s back or her neck or her own ribs pierce through her heart in the process – it was the girl’s responsibility to consider her actions and his reaction. She made a choice to mess with his fight for justice, now she could die for all he cared.

Mana made a single handseal.

A gentle whistle killed the silence. A whistle of a lullaby that Mana had heard so many times as a little girl, one that her mother hummed to Mana so many times to put the girl to sleep. The ice wolf dissolved into snow and ice dust that quickly melted, Shimo dropped to the ground with his body completely paralyzed and his sword fell to the ground breaking in two from the abuse that the boy had put it through that day. Sugemi’s shadows disappeared and faded in an instant and his body also hit the floor completely paralyzed and so did every guard within a circle around Mana, close enough to hear her whistling. Her lullaby.

“H
How
” Shimo grunted as he failed to move a single muscle. The melody then stopped and Mana fell on her knees.

“My stupid best friends
 There are no winners in a fight between friends.” she said as the guards finally stopped shaking and approached the three putting stickers with chakra seals around Sugemi and Shimo. One tried to put another one on Mana who was silently moaning in pain from abusing her legs too much after her body got used to not feeling a thing from when she levitated. A jounin stopped that guard as the entire cavalry arrived.

“Hold your horses for now. This girl just stopped the fight, she may not need that seal.” Mana felt a hand softly pressing against her shoulder and someone’s breath close to her ear. “I’m sorry, Sorceress-chan
 You’ll have to answer some questions, please understand, we will let you go after and we’ll be very brief.” Shimo grunted, desperately trying to move but being unable to. Another jounin bent down and tried dispelling the illusion but failing, she looked at Mana confused.

“I’m sorry, it’s an experimental technique so
 I messed plenty stuff up
” Mana whispered as her exhaustion from using way too much chakra in one go made her lose her ability to speak loudly. “It should time out shortly” she concluded.

Shimo tried to move but then he managed only to talk. “Guys, please let Mana-chan go home, she isn’t to blame for all of this, we came here to stop Sugemi and she wanted to talk him down. I was the one who escalated this fight, I’ll answer all the questions and take whatever punishment you have for me.”

The head Jounin scratched his back pulling a smoke from his coat and lighting it up. “Fine, it’s not like Konoha’s Sorceress can run anywhere, her face is on the posters for her shows and all that, plus she doesn’t look in any condition to be able to run either. Someone take her home.”

It was going to be a long evening for Mana, an even longer one for Shimo, ironically enough Sugemi, the instigator of this huge scuffle, was completely out cold.

Mana simply could not sleep. One couldn’t have really blamed her – she was quickly brought to her room while the ninja carrying her decided to explain the situation to her parents. The girl’s father used to be an average ranked ninja, despite his unimpressive rank and career cut short by an injury he was still very respected even among higher ranking ninja. He may not have been that powerful or amazing during his time but he worked with plenty impressive ninja like Tanshu and some jounin, he also displayed great potential to become a good leader in the future. It was sad that said future remained a speculation after his arms got burnt badly.

The little magician still shook in her bed. She couldn’t believe what had happened, such was usually the case when events simply broke out of one’s control. She genuinely intended to talk Sugemi down, then Shimo decided that beating him would’ve been much simpler
 Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong after that. Mana could still hear voices below, her parents kept asking questions and the ninja replied to the best of her abilities. A middle aged jounin woman carried Mana home, one she had never seen before that night. Judging from a rather tough tone of her fathers she and father shared no history also, but the respectful and soft tone of the woman revealed that she did indeed respect him enough to use such a manner of speaking.

The strange thing was that Mana didn’t even know what was going on, nor did she wish to. Honestly it’d have been much better if the jounin lady just explained everything and left, explained enough that the young girl didn’t have to explain the events to her parents. What was even worse was the possibility that Mana would have her status as a ninja stripped from her. Such events weren’t that common, that happened when a ninja committed treason or dishonored their Feudal Lord so badly that they requested the ninja’s status being stripped. Treason also had numerous degrees: one may have left the village and become a rogue, the status of a wandering samurai or a ronin was romanticized often in folk tales but wandering ninja were usually frowned upon and hunted down. A ninja with no village to swear allegiance to was basically open season to have things done to them according to the hunter’s sick desires. There was only one limit to what couldn’t have been done to such an individual and that limit was the imagination of their attacker.

Slowly Mana’s eyes became heavier, the pain in her thighs was easing up a bit, most likely the result of her sleepiness with the body doing what it could to neutralize all obstacles in the way of her rest. The girl found herself having snoozed off for entire half an hour at a time as she peeked at the alarm clock on her table every time she woke up from such an occasion. After one such event the ninja magician realized that there was no one below talking anymore. Slowly and carefully so that her aching thighs weren’t lit up with excruciating pain again the girl sat up and took her clothes off, trying to settle down for her rest. Only then did she remember that she had a mission tomorrow
 Well, after this night that no longer mattered did it?

*****

Sugemi’s heavy head shot up as he found himself locked to a chair, the boy tried to build up his chakra trying to augment his strength and see if he could break out of the bindings. After all, if Mana could do it on the stage every other day it couldn’t have been too hard, right? After several unsuccessful attempts to channel his chakra Sugemi found multiple stickers with strange hieroglyphs symbolizing seals on his body. These were applied to unconscious or submissive prisoners to take away their ability to use chakra as long as the seals were intact. It would’ve been a very handy tool if anyone could just slap a sticker and take one’s chakra mastery away, however these seals started working when one’s chakra was dormant beneath a very hard line to sink to. Usually it took a lot of beating to reduce one’s chakra to that level, either that or conscious effort of the restrained person to not raise their chakra above it. For assassins like your average ninja either way worked


A man entered the room, it was not the jounin with the overcoat and silly hat and the cigarette that Sugemi could vaguely remember from before. After Mana took both him and Shimo down the boy could remember his mind fading in and out, he saw plenty of people but trying to recall those events hurt his head. Just how on Earth could this have happened? Mana took both of them out as well as all the guards in a circle around her. The Nara had underestimated that girl, everyone seemingly did. They mistook her peaceful nature for weakness when, truth be told, it must’ve been one of her greatest strengths. She had absolutely no regard for her own life, no desire to be happy whatsoever, all that mattered to her was that everyone else was happy. Such a person either died very young or became a hero, then again, neither was a very attractive path. A hero was just one step away from being a martyr.

The man was really creeping Sugemi out, he was tall but incredibly slim, had wild black hair that flowed freely all over his face, he had those blank blue eyes with no actual visible pupils inside of them. Such a weird and scary guy
 The creep just settled down on a chair in front of Sugemi and with tremendous effort raised his shoes on the edge of the chair wrapping his arms around his bent legs. Very creepily the man kept staring at Sugemi from above his bent knees. Almost as if he was peeking from a cover. The door then slammed open and a woman walked in – the very same woman that the three saw in the Administration building earlier.

The lady now looked a bit different, she still had that wild flowing brown hair, she still kept her height and build but now she wore a white coat, similar to that a Hokage wore. The only accessory missing from where Sugemi would’ve started making suggestions was the big red and white hat. “It’s okay, M” the woman said looking at the creep sitting in front of Sugemi, “No need to do your thing, you’re gonna stare a hole in him if you keep going. I can tell when a person is lying to me without your Yamanaka clan techniques, thank you” the woman gently placed her hand on the creep’s shoulder making the man jump up in surprise.

The door opened again and another ninja peeked in, “Lady Hokage, could you please not touch M-san, he is very sensitive to social interaction and he once had a stroke when a girl touched him accidentally during an Academy student group tour in the interrogation facility. M-san, Lady Hokage does not require your expertise, please come with us
 Ummm
 Cookies and milk are in order, I believe.” It appeared that the prospect of cookies and milk greatly motivated the creep, at least if by greatly motivated one meant him moving like a sloth to the door and leaving so slowly that Sugemi would never rid the feeling that he was still watching the man leave. His long fingers wrapped around the door and didn’t disappear before it would’ve been dangerous for him to keep his hand on the closing door.

The woman sighed and slapped her forehead as she sat down. “First day as Hokage and I have to deal with this
” she moaned out in annoyance. It was clear that this was not a woman who concealed her emotions much.

Sugemi coughed out. “Wait
 Hokage?” he asked to which the woman just nodded, stroking over her madly flowing long hair and pointed at herself using her thumb. “That’s right, my name is Hanasaku Senju though I don’t like using my clan name too much, people just call me
”

“Cut the crap! I know how they call you – Chestnut Hanasaku, you’re a Sannin, everyone knows that even non-ninja.” Sugemi was yelling out quite rudely and even louder than he was rude. The weight of the person in the room sitting in front must’ve not sank into his brain just yet. The woman stared into his eyes and the Nara kept on staring back, usually the eyes of a ninja would’ve broken down and sunk to the floor when meeting the gaze of a Hokage. Sugemi was either one with tremendous willpower or just as stupid as the lady in front of him was known to be.

“So they didn’t even take an entire day to replace the Fourth, did they?” Sugemi grunted out angrily. He was still very much offended by everything that happened recently: death of the Hokage, death of his sensei, his own teammates trying to get in his way and him failing to take revenge on a man he pinned everything on without any reason to because a girl in his team kicked his butt with a simple genjutsu technique.

“Well they really would’ve let it sink in before appointing another Hokage, then there’d have been an inauguration ceremony, obviously enough, they wouldn’t even have appointed a woman known for her tendencies to strategize in a battle by charging at everyone and looking like a pin-cushion after the battle. Sadly, time for formalities is a luxury we do not have. I have to read books with fancy words to improve my vocabulary, I have to review candidacies for my pick at Konohagakure’s appointed representative in Kirigakure relationships since the Mizukage was removed and the Great Villages now own its autonomy. Up until today I didn’t even know what “autonomy” meant.”

The woman’s body stood up and moved to Sugemi’s in an instant, a gentle finger tap sent the boy’s body through the room painfully bumping into the stone wall, the chair slid all the way to the other end of the room and it didn’t appear that the woman even used that much effort to fling Sugemi around. She must’ve known that the boy couldn’t mold chakra, he couldn’t toughen his body up, he couldn’t survive being crashed through stone walls anymore so she restrained herself to an extent that would’ve been impossible to restrain one’s abilities to. It was not the amount of power the woman had that impressed the Nara clansman, it was the amount of restraint she could issue to that immeasurable strength. It didn’t even appear she used any chakra at all, it was just her finger that pushed Sugemi’s chair to the other end of the room.

“So you might see why I’d have no time to deal with little shits like you!” the woman roared out loud, this certainly was not the Fourth’s manner of speech. Usually the Fourth spoke politely and never lost balance even when talking to his opponent. It would’ve taken a mass murderer to annoy that man and send him to a frenzy as fierce as this woman’s, this lady just looked like she was ready to smash the restaurant that served her a soup with a hair in it.

“They don’t care
 They don’t care about Fourth, they don’t care about Tanshu-sensei, they don’t care about you or me. They don’t even want revenge, they just want more ASSETS. Three most powerful ninja in our village die in one day and the council only cares to establish people who could leak resources and intelligence from another village. I heard Mana speak of how little life was worth in this world but
 Only now do I understand what she knew all along, she wants to change this world, she puts the weight onto her shoulders to change all of THIS? She’s insane. Only now do I understand what Tanshu-sensei meant when he spoke to her. Only now do I understand how stupid she really was
”

“And yet
” Hanasaku rolled back her gigantic sleeves and wrapped her arms around her chest. “You talk of her when you’re being interrogated, she stopped you and your comrade from killing each other for no reason. Perhaps this girl you speak of is closer to realizing her goal than you imagine, perhaps she was not as stupid as you and Bro think her to be.”

Sugemi laughed out, “Only an idiot strives to change the world, only a sadomasochist wishes to understand, let alone start changing this piece of shit of a world we live in. I once wanted having my story serialized in a manga, I wanted that people appreciated my existence, I wanted to be known, I wanted to know that life mattered and that I was born for a reason. Maybe it was because in the end I knew just what kind of world I lived in, just like Mana, I wanted to prove it to be different. Unlike Mana however I seem to have grown out of such foolish dreams.”

Hanasaku slowly walked up to Sugemi, the boy uncomfortably shook in his chair as she leaned up to him. Her strange hazelnut perfume reached his nose, her long wild hair touched his thighs as she leaned down to his eye level.

“And what is your dream now? Letting a Kirigakure Demon out of Police Force custody? Getting imprisoned yourself? Sounds like a sadomasochistic goal to me” the woman almost whispered out. Just Sugemi and her knew what she said, no gear, no sound transferring seals placed in the room could’ve transmitted that.

Sugemi jumped up trying to free his wrists. “What are you talking about? I wanted to kill him! I wanted to kill that Kirigakure scum, we are allies, they are the enemy, it’s as easy as that. Fools like Mana keep wrapping everyone’s head around with stupid confusions, they keep shifting blame around until it becomes no one’s. I just have the guts to admit the truth. An enemy cannot stay silent until their enemy is destroyed, for that reason until the enemy disappears we will never know peace.”

Hanasaku walked back to the center of the room and sat on the table crossing her legs. “Well spoken, you speak the words of Namikaze Shirona – the woman responsible for Howoku’s and Bro’s death as if you’ve heard them.” The woman’s retort utterly crushed Sugemi, his head weighed down and his eyes almost whited out like back then when he was knocked out. The utter shock that he may have been adopting the position of the person he wanted to kill the most of all was incinerating the boy’s sanity.

“Yours is a toxic way of life, sadly, toxic people seem to be the majority these days, to be smart is to be like you. For that reason people choose to remain stupid and be happy, or at least make someone else happy. This Mana girl you spoke of, she is a person I could hang around with, a fool who dismisses their own happiness to make others happy is my kind of fool. Can you not realize that if everyone was like her the world would be a perfect place to live: everyone caring about others solely but remaining happy because there is someone close to them who only tends to their happiness. I’d much rather stick to this ideal than kill all I deem my enemy, that being said I don’t possess the amount of patience for that belief.”

Hanasaku turned around and stepped to the door when she was stopped by Sugemi’s grunt. “Wait? You said “Let operative out”, didn’t you? We didn’t let him out, we knocked him out.” The boy spoke with a relative tone of surprise and sadness, the woman turned around with an expression of strictness and anger. “Well too bad, it seems you haven’t been smart enough to realize you two were being played – the Demon slipped out during the ruckus, we don’t know where he is now, it is highly likely that he escaped the village as his chakra level was low enough to not trigger any seals and since he was already captured he wasn’t really wanted. By throwing it all away to kill him you set him free, well done “avenger”.”

Sugemi yelled out loud like a madman as the heavy steel door closed. He didn’t care if he was imprisoned or even executed. It usually took an extreme case of treason for a ninja to be executed so even his maddened mind didn’t think it possible, either way his life had little attraction at that moment. He had become his own worst enemy and secretly a part of Sugemi wished himself death. A bunch of jounin surrounded the Lady Hokage leaving the room, she shook her head angrily and stopped them from entering.

“His mind is in shatters. We can’t have that kind of madman running around on missions armed to the teeth, yet he’s still young, feels wrong to have him in the Correctional Facility at this age, he is weak and confused, if we expose him to criminals like that we’ll just doom his mind for good. Send him to one of the remote facilities and lock him up there in solitude, let him hang around alone and think about all of this for a couple of years, observe him and report on his condition yearly.” The men seemed to obey the Hokage’s orders without hesitation, they didn’t care of the woman’s reputation up to that moment. She took this responsibility seriously, her love and adoration to the men she had lost, her desire to continue and honor their legacy made her a serviceable leader at the very least.

A jounin appeared close by, the one who lead that charge previously, still smoking, even in a closed in place like the Police Force interrogation room. “I spoke to that Shimo guy, he seems a pretty decent lad, he just feels compelled to beat up any bad guy he sees and in his eye his friend looked pretty bad at that moment.” The jounin spat out his smoke to the side and quickly lit up another, an annoyed Police Force officer picked it up and tossed it to the bin. He was impressed by the speed at which cigarettes were swapped and lit up, however.

“Doesn’t matter, he cost us a valuable prisoner, he is temporarily relieved from duty. I’ll review his case yearly and see if he can have his ninja status back but for now I’m tempted to throw him into a remote correctional facility as well” the tired Hokage scratched her worn out eyes as she grunted the words out. After finishing she yawned, it was tough break – she woke up that day somewhere in Fire Country with her students still a Sannin, now she was a full blown Hokage with so much to do on her hands, her life basically flipped over all on one day.

“You won’t have to, this Shimo boy said he’ll be leaving the village to think about what happened anyways, wander around until he’s got his status back, he already knew you’d strip him of it. And what of this “Mana” girl?” the jounin asked.

“Well I’ve heard some interesting things about her, initially I wanted to strip her of her ninja status too, after all with her career as a magician she doesn’t need it. Also magic is a poor tool for a ninja, ninja must use ninjutsu
”

“Lady Hokage, you do realize that’s not REAL magic she’s using, just stage tricks, right?” the jounin stressed out as he even took off his tight hat from the headache that the woman summoned in him.

“Well
 I suppose in that case
 I’d like to meet her, I’ll tell her my decision personally then. Let’s see that Shimo boy first though.” Hanasaku decided as she turned around and started walking towards the exit. The jounin with the nasty smoking habit followed her, obviously his Hokage did not know where the girl lived or where Shimo was placed in, the woman was infamous for often forgetting where she herself lived after all. Despite Chestnut Hanasaku, no, the Fifth, displaying extraordinary leadership and wisdom on rare occasions when it counted, she was a total twit most of the time who couldn’t have been trusted wandering around the village by herself.

*****

A rough hand shook Mana’s body from its sleep, it was father and while his manner of waking the little genin up was rude his face suggested that it wasn’t intentional. After the injury he oftentimes had trouble of properly restraining and controlling his muscles. “Honey, the Hokage wants to see you, please get up” he whispered making Mana jump up in shock, almost instantly snapping her out from her slumber. The Hokage? What did he mean? Swiftly the girl stumbled to her drawer and pulled out her night gown and slipped into it. She managed to do it just in time as the woman in the white Hokage coat entered her room and sat right by the girl’s bed.

Mana tried to kneel but the pain in her thigh made her drop on the ground like an idiot. The brown haired woman broke into uncontrollable laughter but then she restrained herself. “I’m sorry, I’ve heard a bit of your injury but I suppose slapstick appeals to the fools. I am Chestnut Hanasaku, the Fifth Hokage, pleased to meet you, Mana! Please don’t bother with the kneeling, just settle down into your bed and sleep that nasty injury off.” the woman looked really concerned for Mana’s well-being. The girl sat back onto her bed looking pretty confused.

“It took great courage to do what you did, initially reading the report I was pretty stumped as to why you did what you did so late and why you didn’t start fighting with your comrade from the get-go. All sorts of thoughts ran through my head, then I heard it from your father and Sugemi about what kind of girl you are and I understood. No. I perfectly understood your actions, it takes real heroism to oppose your friends like that, especially when the idea of your friends fighting each other crushes you completely inside, to move past that devastating inner defeat and settle it all saving both of your friends’ lives like that
 I think you’ll want to know what my decision was
”

The woman didn’t give Mana any chance to respond or recover from her confusion, this was the first time that the magician even saw this Fifth Hokage person, except that time in the Administration. There was no official declaration, no inauguration ceremony or a celebration, she was just appointed out of the blue and took over like that. Then she spoke as if she knew Mana, talking about how she knew just how difficult it was to hurt one’s friends when one didn’t even hurt their enemies all that much
 Even if the woman went out of her way to confirm her knowledge of Mana’s feelings somehow the girl wondered if the woman actually understood.

“I decided to imprison your friend Sugemi at a remote Fire Country facility, he’ll be locked up with only the lake island he’ll be in being accessible to think about what happened. I have little mercy for those who hurt their friends like he hurt you, both physically and internally. Your friend Shimo decided to leave the village on a journey of self-discovery himself, after talking to him and hearing about his dream of being the Hokage I sort of went back on my decision to strip his ninja status but he decided on it himself. I took his status away until he returns a new man from his wandering. As for you
” the woman stopped talking and sighed. Mana’s little heart was pounding inside, with a single word this woman could’ve ruined the young magician’s life beyond salvation.


*****

Sun finally rose in the horizon, the guards stood awaiting the arrival of the famous around the entire world Guru Ayushi. Instead of the figure of the monk arriving from outside the gate, a figure of the young girl arrived from inside of it. She wore a peculiar magician’s uniform with a fancy hat to top it off. It didn’t look like she was ready to leave as she carried no supplies with her, she did have a weapon pouch on her leg however. The guards knew this girl – there was hardly a person in the village who hasn’t heard of Nakotsumi Mana, Konoha’s Sorceress, the little stage magician at least once.

The guards kept staring at the girl as she slowly stumbled to the gate, it was clear she had trouble walking straight as it appeared like each step made her bite her lip and breathe erratically but she didn’t use any aid walking. Perhaps her condition improved over the days she was seen using walking aid


“Isn’t it a bit too early for your shows? Hanging posters for the new ones?” a guard asked politely. The girl turned at him and forced a genuine smile as her head was shaken playfully and as cute as a child breaking into teen years can.

“No. I’m waiting for my mission – my team was assigned to protect Guru Ayushi, there’s no Team Oak anymore but the mission objective still stands.”

“Oh
” the guard uttered with a certain shade of admiration for the girl’s devotion to her job slightly. He had heard of the event last night, he wondered about the Guru’s protection squad. Apparently having hardly any sleep last night didn’t bother this girl too much, nor did her injured legs. “Well then, little lady, we won’t get in your way. Make us proud!” the guards smiled as they relaxed and kept staring at the forest clearing outside waiting for Guru Ayushi’s frame to finally appear.

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.

For a while the continuation of the walk was quite awkward. Just as Mana suspected, talking about the problem of her father’s made it really uncomfortable for both of them. At least the magician herself was quite embarrassed that she was played by the medical ninja like that and had to make a fool of herself in front of one of the greatest heroes in the Ninja World. Guru coughed, quite badly attempting to fake a cough just somehow to kill this awkward silence.

“So
 Konoha has changed quite a bit since I’ve last been here
 I believe it was after the Second Great Ninja War.”

Mana’s sleeve once again rubbed at her eyes, luckily her blush of embarrassment did help conceal the natural red of one’s face when one cries. Needless to say Guru noticed the girl’s distress yet he chose to let her work it out by herself after suggesting the initial gesture of comfort and understanding. He had that great feeling to him that he perfectly understood the situation and almost like he had been through it himself, there was no sensible tension from his side, just the one that Mana herself has created and imposed onto the situation.

“First “Second” war, huh? I wonder what made the historians move past the “First” curse
” Mana spoke up. She did not expect the mad laughter from the side of her conversant. Ayushi was laughing it up holding his buff stomach with both of his arms as if protecting his intestines from falling out. The giant had bent over and almost fallen to the ground.

“Wow, I’ve never met a young lady with such knowledge of history? Do you aspire to be a historian? In that case I’ll be the first one to say you’ve chosen the worst first steps for that profession!” the man finally managed to force some words through his mad laughter.

“No, just a hobby, one would think reading ancient language and dialects would be difficult enough, how is one supposed to time a scroll correctly when each of them speaks of different “First” war. I personally like Demaso’s suggestion to name the wars: War of the Clans, War of the Earth and the Moon, the Wars of Establishment, War for the Greats, First and the Second Great Ninja Wars. Something in describing the purpose of a war just to help paint a better picture instead of just calling all of them “First” and then suddenly start numbering them
”

Ayushi finally straightened his body out, leaning back and to the side to stretch his bones out. Strangely enough they didn’t crack, nor did he act like he was in too much pain which for a man of his age was quite impressive.

“You speak great truth, sadly the profession of a historian is as dangerous today as it was before: it requires devoting all of one’s time to studying ancient texts, then it asks even more devotion wandering the No Man’s Lands of each country, lands abandoned because of the battles that took place there that now shelter the worst kind of nightmarish people there are. One might ask what is worse profession than that of ninja, I’d answer any profession that requires one to survive hordes of murderous bandits with only a scroll and a pen in one’s hand... For that reason each historian wishes significance with their work for that reason they each try to make their discoveries more important than they are, well, that and the danger makes the rushing or scared for their lives historians quite bad at their jobs
”

Mana looked at Guru Ayushi, only now did she realize just how insane this man’s profession was, it wasn’t even a profession as he did not accept any material goods from any village. The ninja villages were usually quite safe, they had the local crime underworlds, sure, but in a village filled with ninja those never got out of control, outside the village gate there were some ranges of relative “safe-zones” that very few bandits tread into because villages still often had patrols of chuunin or highly experienced genin wandering the places to watch the territory and locate and identify any threats to village security, notify the guards by the gate of what was going on near the village gate.

Then there were the vast territories outside the village. One would’ve travelled for days, maybe even weeks or months with ordinary pedestrian feet to find any change in scenery. There were just the vast and awe inspiring Fire Country forests where the trade route ended. It was the village gate, then the big Roiyaru Road that lead to a small pleasure town – Shukuba town. After leaving that town one would quickly enter the immense wilderness that took entire weeks to reach the port that sailed people through to the Water Country. Similarly those same woods would’ve lead to Land of Snow, then the colossal desert and rocky wastelands of the Lightning Country in the north or Lands of Wind and Earth to the west. Each of those paths were filled with bandits and thieves, villages never even let genin set foot in those areas beyond the “comfort zone”. This man travelled the world since times unknown with not even a toothpick to defend himself with


“I would like to see your friend Sugemi first, if he is to be transported to some remote location at some point it’d be for the best if we found him before that happens. This other friend of yours Shimo leaves on a journey of self-banishment, I’d assume he wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye to you first, call it a hunch of an old man.”

Mana nodded to Ayushi’s suggestion. She did take a slight lead in order to show Guru the way to the Police Force HQ. The girl scratched the side of her head wondering if she could ask the man about his history, about how he survived so long having abandoned violence. After all, hers was the life of a young woman who wished to make the world peaceful, make it a better place by setting the right example. If she knew how a man can survive peacefully in the most violent and dangerous to one’s neck areas maybe it’d give her a clue as to how she was to achieve her ideals.

“I see, you wish to ask me of something, young lady, go ahead. You’ve mentioned history was your hobby, I believe, I am full of history and quite willing to satisfy your hunger for knowledge. That is the least I can do after bursting the bubble of false hope that some despicable soul blew in your young heart.”

Mana shook her head vibrantly and ran out in front of Guru Ayushi, her body was still fighting the instinct to ask him the questions that she wanted most to ask but her mind just having been encouraged by the man himself overruled her shyness and embarrassment by itself.

“Guru Ayushi-san! You’ve traveled the world for so long, yet you say you’ve abandoned all remnants of your old life, left all that violence behind. My nindo, my Ninja Way and lifelong dream is to make this world different, to become a hero, an icon of hope that could maybe stop all this senseless murder and destruction. Someone who could make life be worth something again like it was at some point before, I believe such a point in time existed, it had to! Please tell me – how did you manage that?”

Guru Ayushi sighed, he wasn’t angry or mad, just slightly disappointed. Yet his eyes were so kind, so warm, he couldn’t have been disappointed in Mana, it looked almost like he was instead disappointed in himself.

“It seems it is my curse to blow this young lady’s dreams today, oh what a cruel star I’ve been born under
 I’m sorry, young Mana, I’m afraid that the “solution of peace” you think I’ve discovered does not exist.”

Suddenly a gale picked up, powerful gusts of wind started blowing Mana’s way freezing the girl in spot. Several months back the Demon beat her around with inhuman strength, when that man’s fists hit her they made the girl feel like she died every single time. This insane sensation, this powerful gust of wind that made Mana feel cold while she felt just the same as with the fists of the Demon. She heard violent wildfires rage around, feeling gusts of wind that picked up any stray leaves around and threw them around violently bashing them into windows and tearing them to shreds as they burned down ignited by what seemed like magic. Mana fell on her knees grasping at her chest as her lungs felt like she was drowning at the same time. She had never felt death knocking on so many doors at once, it felt so horrible that it was almost like her body just turned off and preferred death over that feeling for just one more moment.

“This is what some ninja call “Killing Intent”, truly it is nothing more but a powerful ninja releasing their chakra, preparing for combat, alerting all around them that they are ready to murder them on levels they never even thought existed. Usually ninja of high caliber restrain their chakra, lock it down behind thousands of mental blocks, this is the result of all that chakra being set loose. To sensors it feels like being naked in the vacuum of space in front of a star, absolutely overwhelming, to ordinary ninja it feels like
 Well
 That which you felt just now.”

Finally that nightmare stopped, Mana’s lungs could draw air again, her ears no longer heard deafening infernos raging around her while her body froze to death from inside out. The girl lifted her arm right up to her eyes and it was shaking mad. Such was the aftershock of that experience, it was so similar to what Tanshu-sensei had. Mana remembered almost instantly a similar but weaker feeling coming from the Sannin, a feeling that her team quickly got used to. She remembered how the animals in the Forest of Death avoided that feeling, ran from Tanshu-sensei in circles.

“I
 I s-see
” Mana uttered with shaking blue lips as her pale skin regained its exotic darkened tone combined with her childish blush. “So you did not achieve peace through some ideal solution. You achieved it by instilling fear into the hearts of everyone who wished to attack you
” the girl summarized her realization. Ayushi did not gesture to confirm it but he really didn’t have to, most bandits worth their plundering mettle possessed the basic knowledge of ninja arts, sensing one hundredth of such overwhelming Killing Intent would’ve dissuaded anyone from taking any sort of action towards this man other than tipping one’s hat as they passed by and wishing them to have a good day.

One would have thought that Mana should’ve learned her lesson already, after being informed about there being no “magical solution” to her problem once she assumed that there was one again. How could her naïve self not have realized that nothing in life was that simple, that situations could not have been solved by the right words being told or the right action being performed, that there was no solution to every problem in her life was beyond even Mana’s limited childish understanding. The girl’s puny fists closed up as she picked up a bunch of gravel from the ground, pressing it ever so hardly, as hard as her hand let her. Ayushi saw her frustration as the girl’s raven black hair covered all over her face.

“Are you mad at me? If so I’d love to somehow make up for this frustration I’ve caused you. It really is unfortunate that I had to burst so many of your dreams
” the man scratched his beard.

Mana’s little knuckles relaxed letting the bright powder slip from her fingers and fall down on the ground as her face finally lifted up and her lovely full smile met Ayushi’s face.

“Nope, I’m just glad that you gave me the chance to find my own solution to the problem. If you told me how to make the world peaceful I would’ve felt like something was missing, a true hero finds their own solution.” Mana kept on smiling. When she opened her eyes she saw a troubled face of Ayushi meeting her newly born attitude towards the world, one of a child who now knew that humanity had no answer to her question as one of the wisest people in the world didn’t give one to her.

“I won’t be the hero who achieves peace through fear like you, I won’t achieve peace through some treaties or papers that limit freedom like the Fourth. I will make people see that peace and love are the true virtues of this world by example, then they will become better people by their own free choice. Peace achieved by violence or fear of violence or economic pressure is meaningless, peace achieved by shackles of one’s freedom is equally worthless. Love for everything adopted by choice is the only ideal worth living for!” Mana kept on smiling as she delivered the declaration of her ideals, this clarification that Guru Ayushi helped her realize.

Guru squinted, his lips did twist a little to that which resembled a smile but he was very hesitant to finish that happy face.

“Young Mana, people often approach me begging me to fight for them, to beat this bad man who oppresses them, this band of bandits or this tyrant Kage who took power by force. I refuse their requests every time, do you know why?” the man asked, he expected the girl’s smile to disappear but it didn’t, it just slightly reduced and her eyes still shined with that childish glee.

“It is because of the circle of violence. Violence is a constant, crime is a constant, death is a constant. Once you mete out punishment for someone, once you cure one plague, another one takes its place, another sickness, far worse than one before arises. There is no end to this circle, the more you fight it the more people die in the end. Do not fall into this trap of idealism, I tell you this as a survivor as countless “wars to end all wars”.”

Mana nodded.

“Yeah, “war to end all wars” does sound idiotic, that’s how a men become corrupted. In the beginning they are good, then they gain power through public trust, they are granted the ability to really change things but they take up too much pressure onto their shoulders. They decide to do “this one bad thing” as a mean to achieve “that really really good thing that will totally compensate the injustice caused by the means” but that ultimate goal never comes. Once they see where injustice is taking them, once they step into those shoes that grant the widest steps they keep walking until they realize their feet have rotten and that the ground no longer supports them and then they sink into the filth they themselves mashed their motherland into.”

Guru kept curiously observing the girl, walking by her side observing her from behind her as she lead the way, witnessing as one man after another stopped to greet him and also greet the girl. This young lady appeared to be some sort of little celebrity around those parts as usually their protectors were completely overshadowed for people of the village even wave for them. People rushed at the Guru pushing everyone else out of the way because “their problems weighed the most” or “their joy burnt with the brightest flame”. Not this young girl, passing by the village square Guru noticed several posters with this girl’s gorgeous smile – “Konoha’s Sorceress” she was called
 People did focus their love and adoration on the Guru but the girl neither got ignored by them nor did she mind the love and adoration that the sage received. The man was becoming more and more interested with this child.

“I don’t blame you for not helping people, Ayushi-san. You’ve left the world of fighting and violence behind and so your hands are tied, you can’t fight the evil that harms this world. That is why I believe you invented this “circle of hate” idea. Sure, evil and sickness are eternal and me or you are not, obviously I am even less eternal than you are, but that doesn’t matter. Even if one evil changes the other that is no excuse to not do anything, would you refuse a cure to a sick person just because you know that somewhere in the world a new sickness will rise? Be it one stronger and darker than the one you can cure?”

Mana confidently tipped her top hat for a passer-by and then moved it to shield her eyes from the Sun that was blasting into the face of the two as it finally rose from the horizon with its all might and glory.

“My ninja way is to help everyone and anyone and if a greater threat rises after it I shall keep helping everyone until I die! Any other life is not worth living!” Mana smiled as only her white teeth could be seen from the girl’s covered up face that was protected from the wild sunlight by her wild dark as night hair and her elegant hat with her father’s seal on the inside of its top.

Finally the two had arrived to the location – Mana and Ayushi stopped and glared over the Police Force HQ. The two guards tried to stop Mana from coming any closer as the place was seemingly still quite busy with the repairs from the immense damage caused by the two genin duking it out last night. After seeing Guru Ayushi by her side the guards lost all remnants of their confidence or their minds. The man simply walked forward opening the door and gesturing for Mana to follow. He looked at the two men, “We are here to visit a young gentleman named Sugemi Nara, you two gents would be of great help if you directed us to him and give us some information as to where he is as he is about to be moved as I was told and I have an important message he needs to hear first, it’d be a real pain to find him in one of those “remote facilities” you keep some prisoners in
”

The men just pointed their fingers at the direction, one of the guards just uttered “312” giving the famous Guru a number of the cell. The bearded giant smiled.

“Thank you so much, gentlemen, I’d love to tip a hat but unfortunately the young lady is the only one with a hat
” he said and his tall and bulky frame soon disappeared into the mazes of Konohagakure Police Force HQ. Mana smiled, barely containing her wish to laugh out she just tipped her own hat at the two and rushed to follow the man inside. She thought that the words that the Guru might have for Sugemi would have been personal, or even if they weren’t, Mana would be the last person that her friend would want to hear them after what she did yesterday. The Nara pretty much made it clear that the girl was now his enemy, didn’t he? All that talk about this whole “either you’re with me or against me” attitude pretty much made it as clear as it could’ve been.

Mana looked around following Ayushi, the whole place was still a mess, there were Police Force ninja running around picking up sheets of papers from the ground and reading them. They probably just tried to identify if the papers were worth salvaging and being reworked or they could’ve been trashed. The girl had to hand it to the two combatants – they really did do a number to this place: walls busted down and through, stone and sheets of steel everywhere, Mana could have sworn that she still caught glimpses of smoke coming from somewhere too. There were several holes in the floor two, one of them lead straight to the room where the fight started in and the other lead to one or two floors below.

“So
 Seeing how your teammates are being punished for something and the state of this place I’d guess that
” Ayushi started his question.

“Yeah, they fought each other down there.” Mana replied without him having to finish by nodding at the deep hole that lead down to where the Demon was kept.

“Friends fighting one another, such a sad thing to witness yet it happens so often in this world
 Was the cause worth it? Young love perhaps? Maybe that was why it took you so long to break them up
” Ayushi kept guessing something right while missing something else. “After all with two friends fighting I’d assume you were there too, in my mind the only reason why you wouldn’t stop it immediately would be that you were in love with one of them or perhaps you didn’t know which one
”

Mana shook her head. “I do love Shimo and Sugemi but
 Not in that kind of way, slobbering while kissing is really gross. I assume since everyone chases that sort of love at some point it’ll stop feeling that way. No. I love them as brothers and really good friends. I didn’t interrupt because
 Well
 I couldn’t believe what was happening, I was injured and unable to keep up with them and then I just
”

“Couldn’t think about hurting a loved friend
” it seemed as if it was now Ayushi’s turn of finishing Mana’s sentences.

“Yeah, not much further now
” Mana pointed at the direction as they finally reached the cells numbered close to three hundred. Once again the awkward silence took over the two as they just continued to walk forward with only Ayushi’s weird bare feet and Mana’s sandals with slightly elevated heels tapping at the cold stone floor.

A lone guard watched over the room where, apparently, Sugemi was held in. Ayushi stopped by the man and smiled at Mana. The man must’ve wanted the magician to do the talking which to Mana seemed quite strange. After all, was he not the famous authority figure around the world? The man called the "spiritual leader” of the Shinobi World? It was just really odd that he wanted Mana to talk with the man. The girl sighed and took several steps closer to the guard who instantly directed his eyes at her. The man must’ve known that she was there yesterday as he did indeed tense up as if preparing for an incoming attack from the magician’s side.

“Umm
 Guru Ayushi would like to see the young man kept in this room. It’d probably be best if you let him in, after all, what harm could Guru Ayushi, of all people, do?”

The guard didn’t look too pleased. He snarled angrily at Mana and then at Ayushi. His hand moved behind his back slowly, he tried to move it so slowly that the two would not notice but Mana was no idiot. Having her hobby in mind she had to be not only perceptive enough herself but also know how to fool the eyes of a public.

“Is that it? So it’s Guru Ayushi who wants to see this guy, huh? Aren’t you this guy’s teammate, girl? Which is more likely, that the world famous Guru Ayushi wants to see some edgy punk who messed up like a loser, or that you asked someone to use Transformation Jutsu and transform into Ayushi?”

Mana took a step back, she knew that this wouldn’t work, why would it? She turned back at Ayushi who closed his eyes and sighed. Some odd feeling ignited inside Mana’s chest, she turned back at the man and walked right up to him, her head was looking up straight into the man’s eyes. It must’ve looked pretty ballsy to just waltz in front of a guard who was whole head taller than the girl and just stare him off.

“Sir, with all due respect, this is Guru Ayushi, the man who has fought the Uchiha, all four of the other Great Ninja Villages and was personally involved in two of them no longer being called “Great”. He was a man who has seen battles that lasted for entire weeks, losing his allies and then bringing them back to life as he shaved at his own lifespan to do it, and yet he still lives for over a hundred years. The man who abandoned all of these horrors and now a Police Force guard in Konohagakure wants him to remember all of that which he had left behind and despised? I don’t think you’ve thought this through, Sir.”

Mana’s voice was quiet but tough, cold and unwavering. It was not a tone usually attributed to her. The guard gulped and nodded. “Umm
 Very well, I’ll arrange a meeting immediately! Just please be brief, Ayushi-san, this young man is about to be transported in an hour or two, you’ll be the last people seeing him.”

Ayushi nodded and sat down by the wall on the stone floor. The monk closed his eyes, Mana would’ve mistaken his state for meditation had she not been such a prodigy in the field herself. No
 Ayushi’s eyes were moving sloppily, during the first state of meditation Mana remembered her eyes being quite static, during the secondary, more advanced stage they were all over the place. The girl walked up to the man and sat down on the cold stone floor beside him, she didn’t care if she’d dirty up her skirt, she didn’t care if the stone feel pretty damp and cold.

The man grumbled something, as if clearing his throat and then spoke up. “So
 You really do want to see these two quite much. No girl would try so hard to get into a room if the person inside wasn’t her friend or her beloved. I’ll take your word for it that it was the first.”

Mana closed her eyes as well. “Yeah. I do want to see Shimo and Sugemi before they leave. No, I will see them.” Her voice continued to flow like a river stream in spring that had broken through the ice of winter past, just as firm and strong as it did before.

“Good, I’m glad to have been able to help you see your friends. At least once my words and intentions won’t cause you pain, that much I owe you.” Ayushi mumbled as it appeared he may have been snoozing. Then his eyes opened again and he turned at the girl.

“One thing though, one thing bothers me. You seemed pretty determined to get into that room, from what I’ve heard when arriving to the village from the guards you’ve also been pretty determined to stop your friends from killing each other, even going as far as to use an experimental genjutsu technique. You do know that sometimes unpolished illusions cause permanent brain damage to both the user and the receiver? Were you ignorant of this or did you wish to save their lives at that cost? What lines are you willing to cross when protecting life?”

Mana’s eyes remained closed, she had never really thought about that. It was a very core shaking question indeed. Her entire life the magician wanted to save lives, to be the moral compass for the world, an example of a hero which would cause the world to change. She assumed that saving lives would always be the moral choice but sometimes it wasn’t. She was aware of the possibility of permanent brain damage for either of them when using her early stage of an illusion, yet the girl could not remember that stopping her for a single moment. It was just something that ran through her head.

“I
 I suppose any lines. I did know that possibility but I wasn’t afraid of it, it seems that I am ready to choose life over death, no matter the moral implications of such decision. I’d save a man from death, even if it meant that he had to suffer for the rest of it. I believe that no life in this Universe is unnecessary and this belief is unwavering.”

Guru closed his eyes again and returned to his state of slumber.

“That is a scary answer, young Mana, it is an answer that fanatics would give when asked about their beliefs. I’d wish to believe that you gave such an answer because you are still very young and have not yet encountered a truly gruesome situation where saving a life was to doom someone. Yet I’ve no reason to truly think so
 But don’t you think it is weird that you are afraid of hurting someone in that case? You don’t wish to kill, that is fine, but tell me if you’ve ever frozen in place unable to fight off a threat? You said you were afraid to interfere in the fight between your teammates for a very long time, I’d imagine this was not the only time this happened to you, have you ever wavered before entering combat before? Don’t you think it’s hypocritical to restrain yourself from fighting when you say that no line is going to stop you from saving someone?”

Mana was shocked by those words, she looked at Ayushi who was playfully smiling with his beard and moustache being twisted. It was not a sadistic or bad kind of smile, it was a smile of a father who had just scared the dog off of the stairs letting his daughter out to play because the dog was barking and scaring the little child. Mana had that feeling of dread for violence this whole time when she didn’t realize she may have been contradicting her own belief. Fighting was not wrong, not always, fighting to save someone she treasured, someone she loved was alright. She was not a pacifist, she couldn’t be if she wanted to be who she was. All life was sacred, that did not mean that people who threatened it couldn’t have been taken down, crippled or paralyzed. It may not have been morally correct but such were Mana’s beliefs.

This Guru Ayushi was amazing, now the young magician understood why he was called “spiritual leader” and one of the wisest people alive. He just solved one of Mana’s most painful problems for her with nothing but words, no, encouragement for the girl herself to come up with an answer. He never said anything, he just asked her questions and encouraged her to think for herself. This monk was truly something!

*****

About twenty minutes had passed since the guard started arranging the meeting. In between then and now the guard had left the room and ran around setting up the meeting with his superiors. Apparently seals and restraints were in order to prevent the detained one from hurting the girl who detained him last night and also the visitor. While bored of waiting Mana turned at Ayushi. A question popped into her mind, something didn’t add up but she didn’t yet wish to accuse Ayushi of lying.

“You told me that ordinary humans could not make use of your regenerative cells, yet Tanshu-sensei claimed once that he had regrown an entire muscle out of them, why was that? Was he sick too, riddled with tumors like that man you told me about?”

Ayushi opened his eyes and smiled again, just mere moments later he broke into an uncontrollable laughter. After a while of letting his laughter go free the man finally wiped a tear off of his eye and decided to reply the girl to her question. Guru Ayushi looked like a man who was in no rush at any point, he acted like his entire life was still ahead of him.

“Actually there’s an interesting story there
 I remember meeting your sensei back during my last visit, no, it was a brief stop as I was heading for the Fire Temple and Konohagakure was just in the way and night sneaked up on me out of nowhere. Anyways, I wanted a drink so I went to the bar, my regenerative cells prevent me from ever getting drunk so I can enjoy my drinks indefinitely. So I sat down close to this young fellow, he looked pretty strong, back when I sniffed up his Killing Intent I knew he was someone amazing. We talked for a while and
 He told me and showed me his arm – the entire muscle looked like some bastard tried to rip it out with its teeth, must’ve been a summoned animal or something.”

Guru delved deeper and deeper into his thoughts. Mana hated when the man just stopped talking and drifted off like that but she did want to hear all of the story the way it happened and if that meant some breaks in between it did not matter. Guru finally seemed to have remembered the events and continued.

“So
 The guy was pretty bold, he asked me of my cells almost instantly after the story, “Give me your cells, geezer” were his exact words. I explained to him just as politely as I did to you why it couldn’t be done and then he challenged me, he claimed that he could drink me under the table and if he did he’d drag my body to the hospital and take those cells from me. Now there was a challenge I could not refuse – on one hand I couldn’t possibly have lost such a challenge as I couldn’t get drunk, on the other one if I did by any chance lose it I’d be helping a young man whose career was ruined
”

“I don’t get it” Mana interrupted the story, “Why would your drunk cells work differently from your conscious cells?”

“Because you see, when my body is conscious my cells work impeccably, but when it is either comatose or passed out or
 Well
 Drunk they work at an incomparably weaker and slower rate. Rate that does not stress ordinary body nearly as much as my ordinary one. Normally that never happens – whatever damage I am dealt to my brain I heal almost instantly so I have not passed out enough times in my life to count them on my hand fingers. But that Tanshu was a very crafty kid, he had this strange seal ability to neutralize my jutsu without me even noticing and so I end up drunk in no time because without my ability I’m quite lightweight, despite my menacing size
 I suppose now you can piece the rest of the story together
” Ayushi finished the story at last. Mana gently covered her mouth as she laughed out, it couldn’t have been helped since the story was just really funny and weird.

*****

As half an hour more passed the meeting was finally arranged and Ayushi and Mana were called up to Sugemi’s cell room. The two entered and the man wasted no time walking up to the young man and sitting in front of him and Mana kept her distance by the door. She just felt that horrible feeling like Sugemi must’ve hated her for stopping him yesterday so she just stared at her feet which she kept rubbing at the stone floor shyly. Guru leaned back in his puny wooden chair making it creek for its life.

“Greetings, young man, news have reached me that you’d be sent away to a remote facility on one of Fire Country islands. Rest assured, the one you’re sent to is only prison by name actually it is quite pleasant. You see there are three prisons in Fire Country: one of them is a prison called “Jigoku”, it is a prison where the worst of the worst are held in the toughest security conditions and under constant surveillance, their chakra is kept sealed at all times and no one gets too worked up when a prisoner or two die in “accidents”. The people there are considered rejects of society and very few of them have a chance to ever leave that place. “Jigoku” is located underground, somewhere in a remote location of the Fire Country.”

Sugemi didn’t seem very interested in the man’s tale. He looked at Mana and interrupted the man’s explanation which was supposed to calm him down and get him talking in the first place.

“Do you hate me, Mana? Why are you so distant? What happened?”

Ayushi’s hand raised to stop Sugemi’s interruption. “I will leave you two time for farewells, sadly the words I have for you outrank the importance of the farewell of two young friends who will be parted for a year or two. The words I have for you are the last words spoken by Red Dog - Uzumaki Tanshu before his passing that were overheard by the Tsuchikage and sent to me via message. Those words are meant for three people: Nara Sugemi, Yuki Shimo, Nakotsumi Mana. Please let me finish my explanation and get to my message, then I shall leave the two of you to say your temporary farewells.”

Sugemi looked pretty surprised by the fact that someone overheard Tanshu’s final words but then his surprise was quickly overwhelmed by annoyance that this man would insist to finish his speech before delivering them, he then settled down and gestured for the Guru to continue.

“Thank you, as I’ve said, the second prison is “Rengoku”, it is the prison also known as the “Konohagakure Correctional Facility” located inside the village. It isn’t anything too impressive, just your ordinary prison meant for perpetrators not tough enough or not evil enough or with hope for being adapted back into society after their redemption. The prison you are sent to is called “Eden”, do you know why? Because technically it is not a prison, it is just a location where people of interest are detained. Currently all of Konohagakure Jinchuuriki are located there so that they do not escape or die and let their Tailed Beasts roam free. It is entirely possible that the Fifth will revise that decision and let those poor two go in the nearest future
”

Sugemi sighed, “Look, old man, I’m not worried about the whole containment situation, I don’t care. Just give me the words Tanshu-sensei left us and get out.”

Guru smiled and nodded. “Very well
”

“Tanshu believed that you were just as stupid as his sister, by which I believe he referred to Chestnut Hanasaku who had adopted him in his youth into her “family”. The man wanted that Hanasaku would train you herself because the two of you were both too stupid to know where your limits were. He also expressed a belief that your goal of having a manga written about you was not that bright.”

After Guru finished Sugemi asked if that was it to which the man nodded. “If it was any more personal than that I’d have asked the young lady to leave but I didn’t believe it was.” Guru added.

“Well, whatever, I don’t want that woman training me. Plus even if I did I pissed her off enough for a lifetime, I’ll do fine training in the containment facility with the two Jinchuuriki, I guess
” Sugemi shrugged, he then looked at Mana again. Mana’s eyes raised up to meet those of her friend and she approached him and slowly hugged him.

After the girl backed off she desperately tried to fight tears off. “I’m sorry, Sugemi, I don’t hate you. I just
 I got in your way, I understand. But I couldn’t let you kill that man, nor could I let you and Shimo kill each other.”

Sugemi banged onto the steel table signaling that he was done with the meeting. “I know, Mana, I’m still gonna get that manga written about me, I’ll just go about it differently. I’ll change the world, just like you wanted it to but I’ll go about it the entirely other way. Don’t you get it? The hero who has no backing from the people around her will fail and die alone and people don’t want peace. They want those who did fucked up things get fucked up things done to them. People are simple, I am going to get into their hearts by exploiting that and earn respect, that is how I will be immortalized in legends and get my own manga. We will clash again, Mana, it is inevitable. The one who wishes to kill all killers and the one who wants those killers to get “justice” by scolding them are bound to clash but I don’t see you surviving that clash, people will always back the killer of killers because people want blood. For your sake, I hope one of us will die before that clash because one of us won’t survive it if it happens and killing you would be too painful to me. Shimo was never my true rival, it was always you, Mana. It just was as Tanshu-sensei said, I was too dumb to get it.”

The guards came to take Sugemi away and prepare him for being moved. As he was taken to the door the Nara gently wriggled out of the guards’ hold and walked up to Mana placing his chin on her shoulder gently. “Goodbye, old friend, until we meet again
” was all he uttered. Mana and Guru observed Sugemi get taken away, the captain of the Police Force approached the two and stroke his brown thick moustache line.

“So you are seeking for Tanshu’s students, Guru Ayushi-san? In that case you’d better rush to the Konohagakure gate. We’ve had reports that one of the students, the swordsman, was leaving and the guards tried to hold him, once he explains that his status as a ninja is suspended they’ll have to let him go and if he leaves you’ll miss him.”

Mana and Ayushi started moving quickly towards the gate, the two ran up the stairs to the roof and left the building, moving quickly, dashing through the rooftops and wires, all the electric poles and the wires where the laundry was hung. Ninja travelled like that when they were on a mission, the rooftops were the playground of empowered criminals and ninja. Mana would’ve never guessed that Ayushi had retained so much of his past speed, she could barely keep up with him, several times she had to pop her “Mystical Wings” jutsu just to send the gust of wind to keep her from tumbling down when she missed a jump. The two were forced to move at such a pace that Mana almost twisted her neck several times.

Finally the gate was in sight, the two landed just in time to witness the figure of Shimo leaving. The boy was no longer wearing his formal and fancy clothes, instead choosing an attire more fitting for a homeless wanderer, which he was not. The boy wore a washed plain green kimono which would’ve soon get covered with dirt and get torn up in his travels. Right before he left Mana’s voice reached his ears and he turned around. His innocent surprised eyes and jarring mouth when he recognized his friend would’ve made Mana laugh had the situation not been so desperate. Guru took several steps forward again, as usual he had to complete his own duty to an old friend, the only man to have ever drunken the famous and unbeatable in drinking Guru Ayushi under the table.

“Young man, please wait. I have words to tell you, words from your late sensei. After than I believe the young woman would also like to tell her farewells and it would be extremely rude to
”

“Deny a lady a chance at saying “Goodbye”, I know my manners, old man!” Shimo finished the monk’s sentence before the man could. Wasn’t even that surprising, ever since he was a little kid, since the first day he entered through the Academy door wearing that comical suit with the world’s biggest bowtie he acted like the world’s most polite six year old gentleman. No one could’ve educated Yuki Shimo on manners when matters concerned women.

Guru coughed up and started fulfilling his duty. “Tanshu expressed extreme fondness of you, he admired your moral decision to despise a tyrant like Mizukage Daikon, he also expressed support for your goal to make it so that no one lived in tyranny again before his final moments. Tanshu hoped that you would train your swordsmanship and perhaps asked Mana-chan here to train you in chakra control one day. He also wondered sarcastically if you’d have liked the now deceased Mizukage Shirona over Daikon, the one who was responsible for the events of the Kage Summit.”

Shimo smiled and nodded in confirmation that he heard the words meant for him, his smile was not a happy one, more like one that was almost lyrical. It was clear that the Yuki acknowledged the sadness in his sensei’s passing but appreciated having heard his final words, at least as far as he was concerned. Once again, just like Sugemi, Shimo inquired if that was all to which Guru just nodded. “Well I guess sensei wasn’t a man known for his words or his extreme skill with the tongue. Still, thanks for that, Guru Ayushi-san.” the swordsman then turned to Mana and approached her.

“Heh, it feels pretty bad to make Tanshu-sensei wait before his final will is completed, I’ll definitely ask you teach me when I’m back. I just don’t want to draw my sword again before I understand who I am and where I stand. Nothing pulls the carpet from under you like raising a sword against your own brother in arms and being taken down by your own little sister
” Shimo hugged Mana gently, the girl once again just barely kept her tears in her. Shimo then moved back and laughed out as if he was going to say something really stupid.

“I really hope you didn’t fall in love with me or anything, I’m not a guy worth swooning over neither am I a guy who ties himself with just one lady so I’d just break your heart
” Mana’s fist bounced off Shimo’s head from the sheer force of her pound. She was pretty angry that her silly teammate ruined the moment but it couldn’t have been helped. Her friends were always sort of goofballs. Guru was smiling the whole time, after exchanging hugs and waving each other farewell the two parted, Mana followed Shimo’s figure as it disappeared from her sight in the thickness of the forest outside the village gate.

“It may seem like the end of the world to you, young Mana, but as I’ve come to learn that people leave only to return. You will meet your friends again, in the meantime you’ll make many new ones and while you won’t be a team anymore bonds like that which you share are not easily broken. Just some distance and journey of self-discovery is powerless against that sort of friendship. Now all that’s left is what was meant to be told to you
” Guru once again spoke wisdom. Mana didn’t intend to keep the man from completing his debt, when she finally didn’t feel Shimo’s presence anywhere close the girl turned back at the Guru and walked up to him to hear Tanshu-sensei’s final words meant for her.

Knowing her sensei it must’ve been something pretty mean so the girl’s little heart was pounding relentlessly in her chest but she knew that sensei always meant well with his strict words. His insults made everyone work harder, his jokes always kicked them in the butt to move forward faster. Mana was ready, she just parted ways with her friends and in order to start a new chapter of her life she needed to tie all the knots from the old one.

“I’m ready” the girl uttered letting the Guru know to spill it out.

Guru scratched the top of his bald head. Apparently the message to Mana was either the most important, the longest one or at least it was the only one that could have waited. After all, both Sugemi and Shimo were just about to leave. The old man pointed for the Mana to follow him, he himself started walking, slowly picking up speed as he went along.

"Your sensei recognized the fact that he was strict on you in his final moments. He even went as far as to say that he may have been the strictest and hardest on you as compared with the others."

Mana's nose wiggled around, it was her trying desperately not to cry. She was strong, she had to be. Heroes didn't cry, they couldn't cry because they had to appear strong in front of the people they wanted to inspire. So the girl's lips kept pointing out, her nose wriggled around and sniffled like she was about to cry but she held her front admirably.

"He drew comparisons between you and a lady he had known in his youth, I am not entirely sure who this "Vashia" was, I have only been given a name in the Tsuchikage's message. The only thing that Tanshu had made clear was that this young woman was an honorable one and very similar to you. I believe that now that I've met you I understand what he meant."

Mana rubbed her wet eyes with her sleeve, she wasn't crying just yet so she tried to play it down like wind had carried dust into her eyes, which was actually a quite decent and often seen occurrence since Konohagakure streets were mostly gravel and dirt.

"Yeah, Tanshu-sensei didn't really like my ideals. He often criticized me because I wanted to save even my enemies which he couldn't understand. He said that people like me were a danger not only to their own lives but those of their friends too as they will not only die themselves, they'll doom their comrades too. Those were probably some of the most painful words I've heard in my life
 But I really looked up to Tanshu-sensei, I liked him a lot, he was a good mentor even if we didn't see eye to eye."

Ayushi's thick and chest long beard was twisted around, it once again let the girl know that the man was smiling. His eyes were so soothing and calm


"Well, Tanshu wanted to meet this Vashia woman again his whole life, he admitted in his final moments that he knew deep inside that she was dead. He most likely believed that it was her honorable and kind ways that caused her death and he only was so strict on you because he saw Vashia inside you. He wanted to protect you by being mean to you. He wanted that you either left the life of a ninja or changed your ways, he saw you as a second chance to protect the woman he loved."

Mana turned her eyes away, somehow she managed to swallow down a huge gulp of despair and sadness, the magician thought she had already dealt with the pain of losing an authority figure like Tanshu but she was wrong. Pain like that most likely never went away. Still, it'd have been best if she followed her own advice, one she gave father back then when he was struggling with his injury. Mana had to stop letting her pain control her, stop letting it shape who she was and choose an alternate identity. She had plenty to choose from, plenty ideals to strive to shape herself into. Only by stopping floating she would drown into pain and one thing Mana certainly was, was a floater and a fighter.

"Tanshu acknowledged that the world was the strictest on people like you, he also acknowledged the injustice of that, that the sweetest and kindest people were always the ones that paid the highest price in this world. He also loved that you were trying to change that, he acknowledged that people like you were needed, they were what would eventually change this world." Guru spoke once more after a moment of silence.

It appeared that the next few words were difficult on Guru himself, just for a mere second Mana forgot her own pain just because she was surprised to see Guru so stricken with emotions deep in his own chest.

"Tanshu wanted to let you know that he would have wanted that you would never leave the village, never found out about the real world out there, never found out about his death and the manner of it. He thought that living in a pink cocoon of cotton candy was for the best for you. I don't think he meant that you were weak and couldn't take it, I think he knew that you'd just blame yourself for everything you'd see, you'd put it onto your childish and puny shoulders to change it all, you'd suffer tremendously under such pressure and he didn't want you suffering, he wanted a happy life for you the most of all people. As his final words to you he
 Apologized for the way he acted with you
"

A villager tried to approach Guru and Mana, Ayushi's large palm rose up alerting that it just wasn't the time. The old man whispered something into the villager's ear and the man nodded and rushed away. Mana tried her best not to collapse but she just couldn't handle it. A strong but soft hand pressed against her shoulder and led her to a bench. "Cry it out, kid, don't hold it inside. A world where people can't feel freely is a pathetic excuse of a world. I've got a seminar in an hour, we've got all the time in the world."

Mana sniffled "I just
 Wish that at least one of Tanshu's final wishes came true, Sugemi won't train with Hanasaku, Shimo won't train with me, I actually did find out about his death and do very much plan to tackle every inch of darkness and hatred this world has
"

Ayushi remained silent.

Mana was observing the sage giving his seminar. There were more people than she could have ever imagined attracting. The girl's watchful eye found her manager, also the owner of the hall they were in, Mr. Hiro rubbing his hands. This was really profitable to him, Guru Ayushi was a major international figure of wisdom and spirituality. He always made people gather so densely that half of the public didn't mind listening to the man's powerful voice from outside.

As a bodyguard the magician was failing her client – she allowed people even behind the curtains, sitting in circles right around the great Guru. If they wanted to attack the man all of what some of them had to do was to just stand up. Guru was one of the most powerful ninja once but he had left that behind and wouldn't have used any of his skills even to protect himself. Granted killing the man would've been close to impossible but if someone was stupid and desperate enough to go after Ayushi they would've at least done their research on him and come up with a plan.

What was so different between Mana and Ayushi? Why did he constantly gather full crowds, crowds even from other countries that followed the news of his travels and came into the countries he visited only to listen to him? Why Mana only enjoyed moderate popularity if she actually spread the same message? Granted her crowd was steadily increasing and she gathered full halls more and more often but she wanted to know the secret of Ayushi's skill in inspiring people. Inspire people to change the world so that Mana left it better than she found it was her goal, learning to make people adore her was a major part of that goal.

Ayushi seemed to love contact with his crowd, he gave no speeches, no large monologues of his ideals nor did he hammer his messages in. For the man it was mostly crowd interaction over anything else, the leader let his crowd give him questions and suggestions for topics, he also always hugged whoever needed it and held hand of the people who suffered so apparently physical contact also played a great part. The two were completely different people: Ayushi inspired change through preaching and promoting peace and serenity of one's spirit by answering the questions to one's problems accordingly. Mana was an artist who tried to give the same message but using art as her tool instead of speeches and solutions to people's problems.

The councilman was right, usually when a figure of importance had such close contact with their audience they at least invited creepy fools that either wanted to kill them to make their mark in history or at least show that they could've killed them at any time. One such event happened to Mana too during the time she trained after Tanshu-sensei's departure when a fan climbed on stage and just stood there watching her escape a deathtrap. He probably could've just climbed on top of the box and held its top, making Mana drown in front of the public, it was transparent but the box withstood any attempts to break out from inside. The man never tried anything, he just stood there and watched from close up as if letting the girl know "I could've made this performance living hell for you but I didn't". Some people just loved feeding their superiority complexes


Finally the seminar was over, it took good four hours to conclude and yet it didn't look like anyone in the audience was bored. Mana had noticed that as well, usually when people gave you morals one growed very bored in moments, Guru Ayushi had been doing nothing but moralizing and questioning her about her life and fixing her problems the whole morning and yet the magician had never even thought about being bored. Maybe it was just because he was always on point, always having the perfect words to say for every problem. Living over a hundred years, two hundred years, however long Ayushi had lived, made one really wise, able to pinpoint the exact problem and its solution easily. If Mana had to prove Ayushi's longevity she'd easily use that argument as a proof that needed no further argumentation. A man so precise and wise, a man able to pick any problem apart and recognize its solution in just a couple of sentences must've been around for a while to see a lot of said problems to begin with.

The monk approached Mana cleaning his sweat with a towel, he was quite energetic and at times loved to wave his arms around, also because of the overcrowded public the air inside was really stuffy, Mana had also removed her jacket and was holding it in her hands. She'd still need that shower later
 "So, how was that?" Guru smiled as he approached his bodyguard. Mana gave the man a thumb up.

"The world is this much closer to being saved
 And no one had to be beaten up to boot
"

Ayushi laughed out.

"Don't sweat about it, sometimes a problem can only be solved by beating someone up, even as a pacifist I acknowledge that. You can either be a pacifist who never fights and speaks of change or a kind hearted hero who fights for justice and those they love, also for those that cannot fight for themselves. You cannot be both. Both exist, both are needed. Wasn't it your idea that no person on this Earth is unnecessary?"

Mana pointed Ayushi to the exit, she was surprised that no one tried to catch up and talk to Ayushi off stage, usually people did chase her down for flowers or just a chat after the show. Maybe it was just that Ayushi didn't arrive often so he always made sure to leave everyone in the audience satisfied.

"For that to be true the world also needs bad people that exist solely to hurt other people
"

Ayushi laughed out and shrugged his giant hulking shoulders.

"True, still, that is never the problem, somehow those always rise up
 Even so, how would we know a hero, how would we know what's right if there weren't bad people to challenge those beliefs? Good is molded by evil, given shape by it, one only knows good when they see evil, point at it with a finger and say "That is definitely wrong""

For a moment there Guru continued to stare at a fixed point somewhere, the magician and the sage left the building and Mana started leading Ayushi to the hotel where he was supposed to be housed in. Konohagakure hotels were nothing too special which must've come off as quite the embarrassment since sometimes some pretty important guests had to stay there. At least some hotels had the business feeling in them enough to modify their places to closer resemble the classic style and try and appear like the shabbiness of the places was intentional. Guru was housed at the very best hotel in Konoha but that didn't say a lot. The whole place was just a simple wooden construction built in the classic style, all those silk cloths, carpets and curtains were supposed to mask the lack of funds attributed to the field.

"Have you ever wondered, young Mana, if you were something extraordinary, something special? Like an heir to some ancient clan or maybe your parents adopted you from some elite clan of ninja like the Uchiha?" Guru smiled, his words may have been taken as rude by some people. Mana loved her parents and they very much loved her, to think that they may have adopted her at any point would've been at the very least offensive to them. The girl shook her head.

"We do have several hours to kill until the place gets dark, even then I wish nothing more than to see that glorious Konohagakure shine at night, to see all the street vendors and all the lights reflect from the Hokage monument playfully dancing in my eyes. It is one of my favorite experiences in Konohagakure, something I always look up to." the man's eyes wandered off onto the Hokage Monument – a giant structure of faces of all past Hokage carved into a mountain. It was an amazing monument but when one walked below it every day it often sank into oblivion and lost its primary charm. "I wonder when they will add Lady Hanasaku to the four faces
" Guru added.

Mana nodded, it was her mission to make sure that Ayushi has the most pleasant stay in Konohagakure. The girl took her mission objective quite seriously, if the great Guru wished to hang around and roam the village and talk about Mana's heritage it was more than fine with her.

"The reason why I say this about your heritage is that your skin color and your hair, your eyes and your entire face look slightly too exotic to be from around this place." Guru started describing his mighty theory, "I've travelled all around the world and I found out that people all around have different traits. People in the northern parts like the Snow Country or the northern Kumogakure wastelands, northern Earth Country especially tend to be very tall, bulky and strong. People from Kumogakure tend to have dark or darkened skins, they're either very bulky or very slim and lean. People from the Wind Country have slightly more squinted eyes, no doubt to better protect them from the constant raging sandstorms, they're also lean and smaller in size so that they didn't have to burn too much energy fighting the desert winds and storms."

Mana was interested in Guru Ayushi's suggestion that there was something more exotic about her origin. Other Academy students always did think she looked a bit weird and for children that meant that Mana was automatically out of the most popular circle, she still had friends and all, she just was rarely described as the etalon of beauty or attention. The girl was told by father that her mother was not from around and that was the cause of Mana's exotic looks but she never questioned that story at all or dug deeper into it. That was odd, it wasn't like Mana also despised her different heritage in any way


"The thing is that if I had met you and had to guess, I couldn't even pin down an exact region you may be from. Your skin is of a darker shade than people from Konoha yet not dark enough to be from Kumo, not even if one of your parent was from Konohagakure. Your facial bone structure, namely your lips and cheeks also seem to be completely different from people of Kumogakure. You are also rather short and slim but not like people in the Earth Country. Your appearance is so strange to me that if I had to say I'd say you're descendant of one of the Sky Clans, just because you don't fit the description of any other clan I've seen
"

Mana got a little stumped by Ayushi description, normally a person would've been offended when they were put on a pedestal but the Guru did raise an interesting point and she was a bit curious as to what he exactly wanted to do with that theory.

"Wait? Sky Clans, you mean like the Fourth was the descendant of the Sky Clan? Can't I just be clanless?" Mana wondered, after all she belonged to no known clan which was a reason why very few people placed expectations on her in the Academy or outside. The thing was that all the best ninja were from one clan or the other, being a part of a clan granted one access to those crazy bloodline abilities or hidden technique only taught in those clans. Mana had none of those advantages so from her childhood she was looked at as cannon fodder, as a filler material in armies made to be led by someone from one of the elite clans.

The likes of Yamanaka had access to techniques that made one able to control one's mind, how was a genjutsu user supposed to compete with that? The Inuzuka clan and their kinship with ninja hounds made them become unmatched in terms of brute force, speed and sheer peeling power on the battlefield. The Aburame clan and their control of insects made them more amazing than most ordinary ninjutsu users could ever get as the insects were basically a living ninjutsu technique with a swarm mind of their own, fitting any use and capable of draining opponent of chakra completely. The Nara clan was able to completely lock any enemy strategies and were unmatched strategies, masters of displacement and diversions. The Hyuuga clan also made one impossible to compete with in terms of close quarter fighting.

One didn't even need to mention the likes of incredibly elite and rare clans like the Uchiha who were few and far in between each nation. A skilled Uchiha was more treasured and trained in a village than a Jinchuuriki carrying a Tailed Beast yet they were so rare that an Uchiha was usually too arrogant for their own good and died very early in their lives. The noble Kaguya who were all descendants of the Sky Clan, leftovers from the clansmen who moved back to the moon after the War of Earth and the Moon. The forbidden fruits of love based union between the Earth and the Moon people with abilities so amazing and fierce that they were treated as elite without even needing any training, just possessing their bloodline abilities. How could Mana, someone without a clan ever compete with all those families? While the girl did have complete and utter devotion to her cause, she never even for a moment placed herself amongst those elites nor did she even wish to, the title of "Strongest" was meaningless to her.

Guru shook his head in response to Mana's question. "Actually no ninja is completely clanless. Back when the First People split into groups and their society erupted into a civil war they each split into groups, each group grew with the bloodline of that group's patriarch, the strongest defined what that group's bloodline was, what blood their inheritors would carry. The First People split into clans, wandering the endless wilderness in a constant state of war against everything, eventually their elite and royal bloodline became less and less royal and elite and something happened, the First People changed and started becoming extinct, they were getting replaced by two lesser factions that they fathered – the Sky Clan and the Earth Clan. After the two were given the Earth and the Moon to watch over by the last of the First People, the Earth Clan still lived following the old ways, living in clans, only when the Settlement period began did the term "clanless" appear, a "clanless" person back then was someone with very vague family ties with some clan. In other words, even you have ties with a clan, just they may be traced very far back and the percentage of their bloodline in your blood is not enough for you to manifest it."

Mana thought for a while, did she really need that question answered? What did it matter if her ancestors were Yamanaka or Uchiha or whatever. She looked at Ayushi with a rather bland expression.

"I'm sorry, I just don't see the point of it all in that case, if solving this mystery would please you however, it is my mission to help you enjoy your stay. What do you have in mind in particular, how do you plan to find out about my heritage?" she asked.

Ayushi sighed, "Well, I used to have a technique to determine that, as a medical ninja I can diagnose irregularities in one's blood. Sometimes it helps one to determine the more extreme memberships of a clan, like the Kaguya have greater concentrations of iron in their blood, the Uchiha's blood structure is also very unique and they have an overdose of a certain protein. I really don't want to devolve into that however as I only use my old techniques if I have no other choice. You seem to be a girl who likes reading, else why would you know so much about history, what say you we hit the archives and check your heritage?" Ayushi grinned

Mana nodded, even if she still didn't understand why that interested Ayushi so much she went with it. Still, she had to admit that even the magician was getting a little curious about the entire thing. After all, what if she really did have ties with some weird clan way back, the little historian in her was a little excited. Not only because she was about to find out the truth behind her heritage, something that father and mother kept telling different stories about, but she also will get access to the Konohagakure archives that were usually pretty secretive about their information and only to be accessed by people with Hokage's permission, working there or people in a mission which requires information from them. Even so, who would ever deny someone like Guru Ayushi information? Mana followed the great Ayushi without uttering a word until they've come closer to the archive.

"So, what do you know about your origins? Maybe this whole little sidequest of ours is pointless?" Ayushi asked curiously.

"Well, father used to tell me that my mother had something to do with some traveling band of wandering ninja, that's pretty much as detailed as he got
 Mother usually just said she was travelling around as a youth before settling down with father in Konoha, she never even mentioned the "wandering ninja" and seemed pretty sensitive about the subject, my mother is pretty hot-blooded and when she's sensitive about something everyone around her is in danger so I never poked any deeper
 I just accepted that it's nothing special and moved on."

Ayushi carefully listened to young Mana's words and nodded, "Very well then, may this be my reward for refusing to help, or rather doom, your father and hurting your kind young heart. I shall find the secret of your origin for you and even if there's no secret to it. I could swear that you're so interesting, your hair are dark and messy enough to remind me of Uchiha yet you would've already woken up the Sharingan by now if you were, your skin suggests that you may be from one of Kumogakure's clans, Arashi perhaps? Let's just say you sparked the interest of the medical ninja in me
"

Mana shrugged, "As long as you don't start dissecting me, I'm up for some research" she joked hoping that Guru didn't take it as a suggestion.

Ayushi laughed out, "Truth be told had I been a medical ninja still that would've been what I'd have suggested. I can keep people sedated and alive during similar procedures and it had a perfect success ratio, also it wouldn't have even left a scar after
 Sorry, old habits, back during the war they had me harvesting bloodlines so some of my jokes may be a bit dark" he returned the joke back.

Mana did start feeling a bit creeped out by the man but she realized that this was a man who had helped her out greatly and only had the kindest intentions in his heart, also a man who had been through a lot in his life and was a relic of times where things were greatly different and people didn't casually joke about dissecting other people.

"Well then I'm lucky that you left it all behind then
" the magician played it off as a joke as the two entered the archive building.

"Part of why I left it too, the more masterful you become at intricacies of surgery and the medical field the less ethical some of the practices look. Even when you extract sickness from a person on a cellular level it still feels horrible sometimes
 Even now there are very few ethical lines for the medical ninja, something I was reminded of when those vultures asked you to talk to me about those cells." Ayushi's eyes changed to very serious and almost angry right before switching back to his usual carefree bliss.

"Now then, let's begin our search!" he clapped as he approached the ninja observing the entrants to the archive to have a talk with him.

Mana could barely even believe what was going on, while the actual events and actions they were going to see and do were quite ordinary, at least for anyone with access to the archives, the goal of such discoveries and the prospect of them happening did continue to scare her. What if Guru found some impossible connection to some rare clan, what if she found out that she had some super amazing ability hidden inside of her, what if Mana would find out that she wasn’t actually the child of her parents? That would undoubtedly have caused more pain, not made up for the pain caused by Ayushi’s honesty previously.

“Hello there, young Sir.” Ayushi spoke up interacting with the slightly aged gentleman in charge of watching the archives, the man looked like he could’ve used some sleep as his half greyed out hair were messy and his striped black and white shirt was covered with wrinkles and one of his suspenders was on the edge of slipping off.

“I’d argue about the “young” part but you’re quite welcome to the archives if you have permission to be here, how can I help?” the man answered, he didn’t appear to be affected by Ayushi’s presence whatsoever, perhaps so because he too believed the man to be some prank pulling teen who transformed into a world known celebrity the picture of whom he found in some textbook of his.

“Well when you can recall the War of the Moon and the Earth going on when you were in your cradle with your mother covering your puny and weak baby body with her exhausted motherly figure so that the Moon which was about to crash into the Earth didn’t crush you, you’d reevaluate that argument
” Ayushi joked grabbing his belly in laughter. Judging from the look of the archive worker, the man was beginning to piece things together.

“Wait
 Did you say the War of the
 Holy crap, you’re actually him, aren’t you!” the man exclaimed jumping up so quickly that his geeky glasses almost fell off. Ayushi giggled like a little girl into his fist.

“Sadly I am, I’d be someone else if given the choice and wouldn’t have to shoulder all those desperate cries of people who refuse to rely on their own strength or strength of the new generation, asking that I solve all their problems instead
 Sorry, I babble sometimes, yes, I am me, in that much I am sure, although now when I say that
 Who am I as a person and who are you? How do we
”

Mana slowly crept up to the man and gently pulled on his rag. Ayushi got the clue and stopped talking giggling again into his fist. While the man appeared to be acting like a schoolgirl placed in an old man’s body by some mind replacement jutsu, for a moment Mana did admire the size of his fist, the great Guru probably could’ve punched out a horse with that effortlessly


The magician nodded her head with a respectful bow in front of the archive worker and gestured at Ayushi. “The great Guru Ayushi would like to explore the archives, there is a question that plagues his wise mind, one that could be answered if permission to enter the archives was granted” she explained.

The archive keeper didn’t appear overly fond of the request. The man carelessly fixed his glasses and reached below the table, reaching for a weapon without a doubt. It didn’t seem like he wished to start a fight, he must’ve just felt defensive when cornered by a ninja and someone posing, quite skillfully, as Guru Ayushi. No! The man lunged out leaping over the table slashing at Mana with giant scissors, he wielded two sets in each hand, one was sent Mana’s way quite carelessly, just to cut her and show her that this was serious business, the other one opened up to straight up cut Ayushi’s head off.

Mana leaped back avoiding the strike, she wasn’t expecting it but the man didn’t mean to hit her that hard so it helped. She removed a kunai knife from her weapon pouch and got ready to block any follow up attacks. The archive man’s scissor blades snapped together driving the blades deep into Ayushi’s neck and sending streams of blood down the man’s neck. The girl was standing there speechless, as the blood of the holy man dripped on the ancient carpet she was shaking in disbelief. How the mission could have gone so wrong, how could she have failed it so badly? Where did this even come from!? The archive keeper just snapped out of nowhere!

“Who do you think you’re kidding, Konoha’s Sorceress, do you think I don’t know of your team’s stunt in the Police Force?” the keeper smiled sadistically at her as he clenched the blades again sending more blood from Ayushi’s neck onto the floor. “After that thing the three of you delinquents pulled, did you honestly think I’d let you in with some loser? Do you even know what’s contained within these walls? All the information on Konohagakure that one might need: names, addresses, histories, intel on all missions ever done in this village. You silly child, it was your head I should’ve snipped off!”

Ayushi smiled breaking the archive man’s concentration.

“Please, this is all just a big misunderstanding” the man laughed out stuffing a fist into the end of the scissor blades and pushing it further, initially blood shot out from Ayushi’s knuckle but then the scissor set just broke into two blades with a loud clang and the entire thing fell onto the floor. “I assumed you’d be this protective over the archive right after the Kage Summit but I hope you won’t be mad for the carpet. I decided not to avoid your attack because it could not possibly hurt me, also it would undoubtedly convince you that I am the real thing.”

The scissor wielding keeper backed off and walked right behind the counter. Mana was still shaking in shock and surprise but Ayushi gave her a thumb off, “Don’t worry, young Mana, your mission is not affected by this at all, I’ve been cut and stabbed and burnt so many times that pain doesn’t even affect me anymore, my satisfaction with my stay has not decreased in any way, not unless you want to call this sidequest of ours off, that is.” As he spoke the giant wounds on his neck closed in almost instantly.

The young ninja magician tried her best to regain composure and nodded, the archive keeper sighed and put his signature on a permission to access the archive letting Ayushi and Mana in. As the two entered the first floor archive hall and witnessed the vast storage of scrolls inside the girl could feel Ayushi’s breath by her ear, she gently leaned to his side.

“Did you see that?”

“Yes, I felt like killing myself in shame when you got hurt, please do not pull this ever again, Ayushi-san” Mana whispered slightly louder than she’d have wanted making the archive keeper bang on the glass of the door with his steel scissors again.

“Not that, I was talking about the reaction of the archive keeper, that was not the kind of reaction we got from the Police Force, was it?” the Guru reminded Mana of the difference in protection in the two buildings, after finally realizing just what the Guru meant the girl nodded.

“Why do you think that was?” Ayushi tried to provoke some strange process of thought within the girl, Mana scratched her cheek and wiped a strand of hair out of her way.

“Well, I think that the village values information more than people. After all, at this day and age leak of information would cause deaths of many, one escaped prisoner means little compared to that.” Mana theorized.

“Correct, do you think that is right?” the man asked to which Mana reacted by violently shaking her head almost instantly.

“No! A person’s life is worth an infinite number of scrolls with information for me, it is the most expensive thing in the world and I’d never choose any kind of information over a person’s life.”

“Even if it cost the lives of many? Say it was the password from the cell of a criminal who had the Tailed Beast sealed into him, escape of that man means an attack against Konoha by a Jinchuuriki and then a Tailed Beast being unleashed when he dies, what would your choice be then?” the Guru tried to provoke Mana again and again but the girl still shook her head, albeit in a much more controlled and restrained manner.

“Even still, I’d save the life of the person I’d be saving and then fight that criminal and the Tailed Beast myself, I’d sacrifice my life before I’d let anyone die. If that criminal killed anyone I’d just blame myself because it was my responsibility to stop him as the person who chose to protect the life instead of information.”

Ayushi smiled and facepalmed himself, he wasn’t disappointed or sad, his expression looked happy as he smiled with the full extent of his abilities.

“My, my, you’re just a spectacular and unusual piece of work
 You’ve almost sold me over to your cause with those speeches of yours, you know.” The man complimented Mana’s vocal abilities as the two proceeded to walk further down into the archive.

*****

Ayushi was spending entire hours researching scrolls, Mana thought that she was a history fan but even she couldn’t understand how he could just keep going like that. She even found some scrolls of herself to run through just to pass time. She kept in her mind about what she heard Ayushi say – he was just a child during the War of the Earth and Moon. That meant that he was alive when Princess Satsuhimasa destroyed the Moon, if that legend was true. He saw the Earth covered with whatever punishment the First People had in store for the clan that broke the peace between the two, he even grew up in those times, could that have been the secret behind the man’s incredible vitality?

This was straight out insane! Why would a man like that, someone who lived in the period when the most powerful ninja could destroy and reshape entire moons as they saw fit, the period when the Tailed Beasts were created and tamed by ninja, be interested in her? Why would a man like that spend time researching the history of some nobody with no hopes of being somebody like Mana? Could he really have believed that Mana was ever destined for something more than nothing at all? What reasons did he have to believe that she had anything to claim from this world based on her legacy?

Mana’s thoughts of self-doubt made her a little sad, she peeked at the man being completely absorbed into his research. Sometimes he turned back at her and asked her something like the names of her parents and things like that but some things even Mana herself could not tell. She didn’t know the names of her grandparents, both father’s and mother’s side. She didn’t know much about any other relatives besides her parents, she recalled father saying that his brother died early in his ninja life long ago, first mission outside the village, in fact.

No, Ayushi’s research and his claims were preposterous, how could she, of all people have been someone special? An Uchiha or a Kaguya, her? No way! Mana was just Mana, she could never have been anything more than that. The girl stood up and slowly walked up to Ayushi, looking over his search. He was reading a scroll in some language she could barely even recognize, the whole world spoke one language – a heavily modified version of the language that the First People spoke in. There were different dialects of this language in between different historic periods and so sometimes it was almost impossible to read them without a translation scroll. This could’ve been one of those occasions but why was he reading into so long ago? Either her roots were so celestial that they reached into ages ago, or Ayushi couldn’t find any clan roots in Mana even in that period, that last thought made Mana especially sad. One thing was being told she was nothing special, the entirely other was have it be confirmed that she was so much of nothing that one had to tread into the times of the First People to even grasp at straws of something special in her
 This quest was a bad idea.

The girl crept back and dropped into her chair, she covered her head and let her wild hair flow freely covering her face in darkness. Poor Mana could hear her own troubled and sad breathing. What a foolish girl she was, ever thinking she could’ve been some princess or a descendant of some special clan or a family
 Mana wanted to slap herself so hard that she’d return to reality, trying to force the violent and sad thoughts away the girl just returned to her scroll and started run over it one more time. Time just flew by like that


*****

“I think I’ve got the entire story
” Ayushi leaned back in his chair, he was really tired, it was seen in his face. Even his several ages old forty year old body looked wrinkled and worn out by all that running around looking for the right scroll, climbing the ladder to pick it up and all that reading. Mana slowly picked herself off the chair, whatever Ayushi would have said would’ve just crushed her dreams, both knowing that her parents adopted her and that she was just an ordinary good for nothing kid were equally depressing things to think about.

“Lay it on me, then, Ayushi-san” Mana uttered with a tired and still a little depressed voice.

The man looked pretty happy by his discovery, he laughed out and relaxed into his chair. “Well, I think it’s the best answer for you, you’ll really be most happy to hear it
 First of all, you’re the child of your parents, that much is for sure, you’re not some princess or an heiress of a clan adopted into an ordinary family to learn humility, truth be told you have no royal blood in you whatsoever. Also, technically you are completely clanless, completely as if in one hundred percent.”

Mana shook her head, her stare was both confused and a bit annoyed, “Wait a second, I thought that was impossible
” she grunted out in a voice completely taken over by exhaustion and irritation.

“So have I, apparently there is a way to be completely clanless, that’s to be a descendant of a clan that is not technically a clan. When is a clan not a clan, young Mana?” Ayushi kept poking at Mana and trying to provoke her interest even if the whole time he was the only one excited by it all.

“When it completely rejects all the principles of a ninja clan: it does not cross-breed with the other branches of the clan or inbreed, it does not cultivate ninja, it does not teach them any secret techniques nor does it have any bloodlines, a clan one can be a part of not only by being born into it but also being accepted into it.” Ayushi kept waving his arms like a child who had just been bought his favorite toy by his mother. He apparently made the discovery of the century and suddenly the historian within Mana’s heart also started hammering at her indifferent and depressed façade with a pickaxe of emotion and confusion.

“Wait
 What? There was a clan like that?” Mana asked in complete disbelief to which Ayushi energetically nodded in agreement.

“Just to be sure, could you tell me how you graduated the Academy?” Ayushi asked Mana, the girl sighed, she wasn’t a fan of talking about that story, mostly she just remembered it and then just instantly placed it below layers of other memories.

“Well, as a little child
 Fine
 Even now, I really dislike using techniques that I did not invent myself. I dunno, it just feels like
 Like I’m taking someone’s heart away. Someone put parts of themselves, their own feelings and thoughts into those techniques, they told their own history about the friends they had, enemies they faced into those techniques and I could never even hope to understand those feelings, how could I ever use such techniques without understanding that sort of thing?” Ayushi shrieked like a little girl, honestly, seeing a grown man act like that shaking his hands and shrieking in joy made the magician laugh a little.

“So naturally this would’ve been a problem in the Academy, the graduation test and a very important part of the Academy’s curriculum is mastering and using the textbook Academy techniques to their maximum potential. I just refused to do that, even during the early mock exams, so the other teachers said that I was a pathetic loser and a silly excuse of a ninja and that they’d fail me every time and that I should just give up
”

Mana scratched her eyes, she really thought that she’d cry at least a little having remembered all those memories, all those words and angry faces shouting at her. It definitely made her cry as a child, little Mana scratched her eyes until they started bleeding from wiping her childish tears. Father and mother kept telling her to just give up as well, they said that it wasn’t wrong believing what Mana believed and that it was OK to not be a ninja because of those beliefs. Still, even knowing well she’d fail little Mana kept showing up in one mock exam after another, getting yelled at and having the other students laugh at her.

“One day the sensei in Academy found me meditating on the swings, just sitting on them in perfect balance, completely snoozed off. The man was really impressed by the spiritual depth of such powerful meditation mastery of a child of such a young age, he asked me to show some ninjutsu to him, any ninjutsu at all and so I showed him the techniques I invented myself as a kid. He was blown away knowing that a kid invented ninjutsu techniques all by herself even if they were pretty much harmless. He passed my during my exam just because I showed him any of the techniques I’ve invented. The only condition of his was that I’d actually learn the techniques I was meant to know, just in case I’d need them to save my life some day and if I’d reconsidered in that case.”

Ayushi smiled, “I see” he noted. “This belief is native to a very special but also very
 Ordinary clan of ninja – “the Wandering Ninja”.”

“Wandering ninja?” Mana leaned her head to the side as the name confused her, all ninja had villages, there could’ve been no other kind of ninja. All samurai had masters, those without masters were known as Ronin, they were romanticized but usually not overly respected in a professional environment. Ninja without a village were just straight out rogues or nukenin. Rogues could’ve been killed by anyone at any moment, just being a rogue was a crime punishable by death. There could’ve never been such a thing as a “Wandering ninja”, they would’ve automatically been labeled rogue and killed on the spot.

“Yes, they were descendants of the First Men just like all the other ninja but they never joined any of the ninja villages. You see, after the War of the Clans the people decided to settle down, live safer by living in a bunch sparking what was known as the Settlement period. That was the time when clans united and formed villages. Some ninja like the ancestors of the wandering ninja decided that uniting and the advantage of not being in a state of constant survival environment was just not worth total subjugation, they loved their freedom more than their lives.”

The young magician still could not believe that, something like that sounded too crazy to have ever been true or taken as true by anyone. Someone like Guru Ayushi couldn’t have possibly believed in that, right?

“Initially what happened mirrored your first thoughts of what’d happen, by refusing to ally with any of the villages these wandering ninja became enemies of all of the villages and have been hunted down for decades just like the rogues. Their ranks started to thin, the mass genocide of their kind proved as a further motivator for ninja to finally pick a side. Then the genius solution came for the wandering ninja – learn to entertain. And so the wandering ninja became perfect dancers, gamblers, salesmen, singers and entertainers of all kinds. They travelled the world visiting a village after village, some of them were just plain con artists, most were actually good entertainers with exceptional heart for business. Explains why your mother is so amazing at managing her cafĂ©, even if she did trade the ragged clothes of a wanderer into a suit. Wandering ninja were roamers, they adapted and survived. That also explains your exceptional skill at stage magic that all those posters around the village praise so much.” Ayushi finally concluded.

Mana wasn’t sure about what to even think about it. She had heard some similar stories from her father, something about wandering tribes of ninja but it never went into too much detail. There must’ve been some painful stories about that. A smile covered Mana’s pretty childish face for the first time in a while that day. Rain started pounding quietly but relentlessly into the windows from outside as the night caught the two unprepared. The girl stood up and made a small lap around the table she was sitting near.

“So
 My people, can I maybe meet them some day?” she asked with excitement, Ayushi sighed.

“It’s a long story but I’ll try to sum it up soon. Your story about you being so original with your craft, it actually mirrors the beliefs of the people, your exotic skin and facial structure matches the story too – wandering ninja accepted people from all around into their midst, as long as they had dismissed all previous ties, the dark skinned giants of Kumo procreated with all sorts of people, even some Uchiha rejects which I why your hair looks so much like theirs, making a unique race with no bloodline, that’s why you looked so unusual to me. You’re not an alien or anything, you’re just a mixture of what’s best features of several people.”

Mana shook her head energetically, “No, I don’t care about that, tell me more about my people, where are they now!?” she yelled out, the archive keeper must’ve been long gone as he didn’t really care about the noise she made.

“Well
 There’s really no other way, I’ll tell the whole story to you, the whole story of your conception and the events that lead to it
 So it all began from a visit, the Wandering ninja came to Konoha, the timing was a little odd as the Fire Lord himself appeared to have decided to visit his strongest land. Naturally there was tension between the Fire Lord and the Wandering ninja as they obeyed no master and the Feudal Lords are the masters of all ninja, even now. As the wandering ninja did their thing, played with the local kids, gambled, danced and sung in the streets the councilmen of Konoha decided to get onto the Fire Lord’s good side
 He decided to eliminate all of the Wandering ninja. He sent a young genin – a man who would eventually become your father to spy on them, they then staged a murder right in front of your father’s eyes making him report that the Wandering ninja killed and robbed a villager of their money. With the Fire Lord already quite tense about those guys the decree was passed, no one really would’ve cared or missed ninja that belonged to no one
”

Mana kept listening, from Ayushi’s tone she already knew that this was not a happy story, she already knew where it was headed just because the man was so persistent to tell her the whole story. She was visibly becoming sadder and sadder.

“Well the hit happened, all of the wandering ninja were slaughtered, they were great tricksters and entertainers but they fared not too well in combat against trained ninja who got the drop onto them. Only one young girl survived, that girl was taken into your father’s family, the two then married. Since she adapted to the village life and never tried to recreate her old life, band the new wandering ninja, the village just left your mother alone. I believe you already know the remaining history, you lived it yourself
”

Mana and Ayushi stayed quiet. Knowing that she actually had special blood, blood of the wandering ninja, the world’s most beloved entertainers, dancers and singers, the most freedom loving people in the world. That actually calmed Mana’s heart, she was special, she was special because there was very little but her pride in her heritage that made her special. Her belief came from nowhere else but her heart, it wasn’t her clan mentality that made Mana into who she was, it was her own free decision and maybe it was the blood of the wandering ninja speaking but
 Mana loved that, that she was made and defined by that freedom, by being who she wanted to be, the magician actually honored the legacy of her people and with the blood still in her veins she had their legacy in her hands. Her people went extinct, sure, but they never were so much into being pure blood maniacs anyways. In a way Mana was still royalty, her mother’s own little princess, the last survivor, last half-blood of her people who carried within them the blood of all the united countries of the world.

Mana’s ancestors had no relation to a village, they went above that, ideals to them spoke higher and were more important than any village. A village was but an establishment and ideals went higher than that. Knowing her roots made many changes. All of a sudden knowing that there was nothing special about her but at the same time knowing that she was unique in her own beloved way made Mana feel greater than the village, greater than everyone else. Her children would be the inheritors of that will of freedom, that belief that one’s own mind and decisions, one’s freedom was above any authority and beyond their reach and for that the girl thanked her mother and her people. Even if they weren’t any elites of the ninja world, more like the rejects, Mana still thought that they were the best tribe she could’ve hailed from, Ayushi was right – she really did get the best possible answer!

Guru looked outside and stood up, stretching his neck. “Well then, now that we’ve got that out of the way, I suppose we can head for the hotel? Tomorrow will be my final day here, the people aren’t as affected by the death of the Kage as I’ve thought they were, now I am needed most in Kirigakure where the major reforms are taking place. You, young girl, were the only thing of interest in this village at the moment with the seminar out of the way.” Ayushi’s hand pet Mana, he tried not to come off as rude so he didn’t keep his hand on the top of her head for too long. Mana put her jacket back on as well as her hat, the great Guru Ayushi turned off the lights as the two left the archives. After the two left the building Mana heard a large lock clanging signaling the archives being locked up.

Her origins were known now, it was a gift from Guru Ayushi and what a gift it was!

The rain had already pretty much died out when Mana and Ayushi left into the streets of the village, leaving the archive behind. The magician wasn’t sure if her guest felt the same way, but she definitely felt like she left the archive a much happier and more complete person than she entered. The prospect of being some long forgotten heir to some clan, having some amazing larger than life ability, maybe more exactly the knowledge that she couldn’t be one of those people, the reminder of that fact was what plagued the girl when entering. Now all those thoughts were behind her.

Mana still felt some inferiority over that fact, the fact that most students in the Academy were special. Usually the people who enrolled to be ninja were the descendants of clan members, they really had very little choice in the matter. When one’s father was a famed Inuzuka hound master, known for his prodigious skill in the clan’s techniques it was pretty much expected for one to be able to follow up on one’s parents’ legacy. There was much pressure but also clarity and hope. While one was pressured into joining the Academy and becoming a ninja, because of their clan member status they were looked as if they were already elite in the making by default.

On the other hand the clanless children were looked down on, they had all the other jobs to choose from. They’d bring shame to no one if they chose the profession of a baker, florist, vendor owner etc. They could’ve made perfect janitors or caravan runners. The only place for a clanless ninja in the battlefield was to either make the casualty statistic, to make the bravery of the elite sound even greater and more built on blood and flesh than it actually was, or to become one of the countless filler ninja in the armies. Become a grey mouse, a page in a large novel, no, an entire address book. Pages to be torn away when a cruel reader became mad and started peeling away at their book, as the Feudal Lords sent their ninja to die on meaningless assignments.

To say that Mana had different treatment in the Academy was to flat out lie, no one ever expected great things from her, they didn’t, nor do they have now, the reason to. She was born to a family of an average ninja, with greater than average reputation, and an owner of a cafĂ©. Honestly her best bet for a profession would’ve been to inherit her mother’s business, she had no place in the ninja world, then there were her magic shows in which it was safe to say the girl was largely successful in. What point was it for her to be a ninja, most kids and teachers looked at Mana as a showoff, as someone who would back out at the first sign of pain, trouble and blood in her sight. On the other hand that was what made the teachers praise her more when she actually did something right, when no one expected one to succeed, they were only more surprised when they actually did so.

“Fantastic, just outright spectacular, astonishing!” Guru Ayushi kept shouting out looking around at the glowing nocturnal Konoha. Neon signs were a rather recent invention, apparently there was a ninja somewhere in Kirigakure that could use some sort of poisonous gas that when ignited glowed at a very bright and visually appealing light. It was just what Mana always wanted to see, the amazing abilities of ninja put to other sort of use, ninjutsu couldn’t have been purely a tool of murder, it was what the user made it do that defined it. Everyone’s ninjutsu was different, different by the actions that were done using it.

Mana couldn’t help but smile, on one hand she was admiring the remains of the intense rain on the ground and the raindrops barely hanging off of the various surfaces, on the other she couldn’t have enough of Ayushi’s reaction to things. He acted and looked like a child who had seen a train for the first time, so many things, so many gears, so many devices all working in unison. Similarly to that kid, Ayushi was impressed by so many different artificial lights brightening up the nocturnal village and making it look so majestic and almost divine, in a sense.

“So do you wish to walk around and buy something or do you wish to head back to the hotel? You’ve been so active today, Guru-san, I’m sure you wish to get some rest.” Mana tried to keep up with the Guru who was just running around, people all parted to make space for the man but they always banded together when Mana had to pass making her need to excuse herself to pass every time.

Guru soon returned with numerous large flasks of sake and a lovely purple umbrella on a bamboo stick. It looked rather traditional and it couldn’t have been too cheap, the strange thing was that Mana could have probably made one just like that herself if she had the appropriate cloth. These craftsmen must’ve been making a fortune in this world where all everyone knew how to do was fight, without these men this world would’ve been lost, all those simple pleasures of life would’ve been lost and even the meanest fighters had something they loved most of all and needed the craftsmen for: some loved smoking, that needed someone to make their cigarettes out of God knew what, also the various fancy lighters that most ninja used, some loved to just sit down and rest, they needed all sorts of bedroom things to enjoy that simple pleasure. Fighting was overrated, an ancient and needless, also very underpaid and risky craft. One could’ve made their life making umbrellas instead


“I don’t have too much money, I think I’ll just make do with these! Come on, let’s go back to the hotel!” he cheered after taking a sip from one of the flasks right on the street.

Mana tapped her leg angrily, “You shouldn’t be drinking, you know, this is a public spot and drinking is one of the ninja vices
”

Guru laughed with a full mouth making some sake leak out all over his beard and down his hairy and bulky chest.

“Hah, that’s the best part, I’m not a ninja anymore! I thought as a descendant of the most freedom loving people to ever walk this Earth you’d appreciate a man doing what he wants. Don’t worry, I won’t share any, you’re WAY too young for that, what are you
 Thirteen, fourteen?”

“Twelve and a half, doesn’t matter, let’s go to the hotel, it may not be best for you to be seen drinking like that!” Mana smiled dragging Ayushi gently by his elbow to the hotel room.

“Heh, girls always look older than they actually are, experience says
 Anyways, it’s fine, I told you I can’t even get drunk, technically it’s not even drinking, it’s like I’d be sipping water
” Ayushi laughed out like a beast again, his laughter roaring wildly through the crowd. Mana had seen father and his friends drink before, they sipped that thing, just barely let it touch their lips, none of them usually finished more than two or three of those small cups.

“You’re not sipping, you’re gulping, quite intensively I must say.” Mana tried to contain her laughter inside, Ayushi getting drunk worked so weird, he got drunk for just a single moment – his voice started dragging and slowed down, he became softer and his eyes closed up, his smile twisted his entire face and he blushed. Then it all went away in just a moment and his entire body returned to how it was. It looked just so silly and stupid, Ayushi must’ve only felt the dizziness for just a moment making him want to get drunk more and more just to experience that feeling. For a man who couldn’t feel almost getting his head snipped off, Mana couldn’t blame him for wanting to feel something


“Let’s go, it’s not too far away.” Mana kept calmly encouraging the drunk-then-not-drunk-anymore Ayushi to stagger-walk back to the hotel.

*****

If Mana thought Ayushi’s drinking habit was weird before, it really got out of control when he didn’t need to worry about walking, the man just dropped onto his butt crossing his legs and started cleaning one flask after the other, tossing them aside and letting the small wooden containers roll further away. He must’ve really longed that feeling, the feeling of being vulnerable and dizzy, the feeling of some sort of happiness and carelessness. Mana wanted to be strict on his drinking but she just couldn’t. This was a man who had the entire world asking him for answers, now that he had answered all he was asked, didn’t he have the right to relax the way he saw fit?

“You know what
” Ayushi started slurring slightly, his speech dragged on, he started speaking slowly and omitting words. “I’ve lived for so long with little to no activity, always talking excuses and
 Oh
 Alright
” Ayushi’s speech fixed itself from the last flask of sake being emptied. Any living man would’ve undoubtedly been either dead or about to be from the excessive amount of alcohol consumed in such a short span of time.

“I mean, so many people came to me for help, they kept begging me to kill this tyrant or do this heroic deed and I kept denying their requests, offer other kinds of help. Gather monetary support for their villages and offer spiritual guidance. Meeting you made me wonder
 Maybe your way, the little more hands-on approach was actually better. What if instead of gifting monetary support, which got plundered by the same tyrant I tried to help them recover from anyways, I just stood by their side and used intimidation to repel his forces? What if instead of cowering behind my retirement I used my medical skills again to save lives, to create medication that’d eliminate and heal pain? What if I learned how to degenerate my own cells to the state where donating them could actually help people instead of killing them faster?”

Ayushi downed whole other flask of sake down his throat and tossed the flask aside. “Makes one wonder, huh?” he slurred out again.

Mana wasn’t entirely sure just what Ayushi was getting to, just which part of this was his drunken delirium and what was actually his intention? Could her conviction to her cause actually cause the man to reconsider on his centuries old vow to remain passive and neutral and distant from all conflicts and problems of the world? How could it have been so? Mana wanted to tell him that he shouldn’t take her ideas too seriously but
 What if he did do what he spoke of? What if he did cure pain and sickness and people could get his cell treatment finally? What an amazing dream of a world would that be? Ayushi’s authority could stop wars, his panaceas could cure sickness and unhappiness, his unseen prowess in the medical field could bring back the recently dead and even grant children for those who cannot conceive them. This man just wondered if he should make the world perfect and Mana was about to keep him wondering.

“I think it’d be selfish of you not to do so
” Mana uttered the words which she instantly regretted and slapped her own lips for uttering. The girl stood up and turned around, bolting out of the room and shutting the door, locking it behind herself. Her heart was thumping and her chest was jumping up and down from the intense and stressed breathing. How could she have said that? It was selfish of her to wish anything of the sort to be done. Mana slowly unlocked and entered the room, she was careful, a single word or a bad stare from Ayushi would’ve sent her back but he didn’t do any of those things.

“So you’ve decided to watch over me while I rest? Thank you, young Mana, I will certainly feel safer this way. I think you’re right, it would be selfish of me not to use all of my gifts to benefit humanity, the Guru Ayushi that will leave Konoha tomorrow will be a whole new Guru Ayushi. I shall create a better world encouraged by a brave and lovely young lady in Konoha. What a wonderful future for our world
” Ayushi slurred and then recovered again, sitting onto his bed and slipping his cloth off of his chest, the man kept his ragged pants on and fell asleep almost instantly. He must’ve been really tired with all those seminars and walking around the village and researching Mana’s history after all


Mana carefully settled down on the floor by the door, she made sure to shut the windows and set some wires, hooking them up to fragile objects. If anyone tried to apply pressure onto the window, the fragile objects would’ve fallen down and broken, something like that would wake Mana up. Wire trapping was quite common among ninja, it would’ve worked against the more common ways of entering through the closed window like cutting out the glass or trying to open it from the other side but if a strong wind blew against it nothing would’ve happened.

Slowly Mana blacked out and slipped to sleep, she was just as tired as Ayushi was, chasing after Sugemi last night and barely having any sleep at all after that. All the roaming and worrying over her friends and the Guru also tired her out. While Guru shouldn’t have been in any danger she protected him like he needed constant surveillance her protection. Mana’s standards were just that high, now that her team was disbanded she had to make sure to do her best, to prove to Hokage that the decision to not suspend or strip her rank of ninja away was the right one. Suddenly thoughts started feeling murky and the girl’s mind drifted off into the black void of slumber


*****

Heat. Smoke. Mana’s eyes shot wide open only to reveal her own worst nightmare realized. Guru Ayushi was covered in flames completely blacked out, the whole room was filled with smoke and she started coughing almost instantly after returning to consciousness. It took the magician a moment to realize that everything that she was seeing was actually real, that it wasn’t a dream or an illusion but it was painfully real. She could feel her body starting to drift away and feel weak and sleepy from the smoke. The need to move hit her head in an instant, the pain in her thighs was meaningless, Mana fought through it forcing her body up. The girl weaved a couple of handseals shooting a burst of wind chakra from her palms shooting her body up onto the air, she stopped breathing – the highest parts of the floor were where the smoke was the thickest.

Mana leaped over the wall of flames, while in mid-air the ninja tossed a kunai knife to the side, she heard the window break and the wires pulling a vase down. That meant that the windows weren’t trifled with, Mana had her back against the door and would’ve been woken up upon it being pushed, how could this have happened?! Mana shot more air currents from her palm to force the flames aside for just a moment in which she landed and grabbed onto Ayushi’s ragged pants. Mana aimed her palms at the wall, she had just one try to make this jump just right, anything less than perfect will kill both her and Ayushi and she had no time to hesitate or do this any different way – the smoke was slowly killing her, she could feel it.

Mad burst of chakra sent air currents that bashed into both the bed and the wall, once again splitting the fire apart and shooting Mana’s body off of where she and Ayushi were. The two were propelled to the window. The girl shouted out in pain as she felt painful sensations over multiple spots on her body – she didn’t make it perfect enough, she and Ayushi still got cut up by some glass. Desperate not to lose consciousness Mana shot out the final gust of wind chakra to cushion their fall. She still hit the ground pretty hard, the girl heard her clothes tearing and felt some gravel and stone etching into her body, the cuts were bleeding and the dirt that got into those wounds burned. Still, pain was the only thing that reminded her that she was still alive, dead people felt no pain. The magician peeked at Ayushi, his body appeared to have no more flames on it after the secondary burst of wind from Mana, still, he looked bad. His body was almost completely charred. Mana messed up


*****

The girl kept scratching at her wounds angrily, as if she wanted to open them, wanted to punish herself and bleed out in the hospital waiting room. How could that have happened? The room was completely safe, everything was done according to the procedure as taught in the Academy, where could the fire have come from? There were no gas leaks, this was a classical hotel, it had no gas lines going through or below it. From what the magician had heard Ayushi’s was the only room that was set ablaze. None of this made any sense whatsoever. She messed up, she’s such a loser! The Fifth made a huge mistake, she should’ve kept Sugemi and Shimo but dismissed Mana. Ironically enough, as much of a crybaby as Mana was, she didn’t cry a single tear. This was too absurd and she was too tired to even cry.

She was officially the worst ninja in existence, she wasn’t sure who took the second place but she beat that person by a longshot. How could anyone come close to her idiocy, the world’s most famous figure, loved by all, the world’s spiritual leader almost died on her watch. The girl shouted out in frustration and punched the wall, she cried out in pain as she drove some small shards of glass deeper into her palm, crying from pain Mana removed them, the medical ninja that healed her before must’ve missed those. For all people to burn that night, it was Mana that should’ve burned, she felt so embarrassed that she was about to burst aflame at that moment.

Two ninja walked out, one of them must’ve been a student as he couldn’t have been much older than in his mid-twenties, that was the age when medical ninja usually start working on actual surgeries and treating actual people. The other one looked like a seasoned medical ninja. The younger one walked up to Mana and shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Mana-chan, we did what we could but his body is burnt to the point where anyone else would have died. We kept him alive just to use parts of him as his cells, technically now his cells are damaged enough to use them to heal people successfully” he spoke sadly, scratching his neck. It was clear that he was ashamed of himself to talk about a living being that way.

“If you woke him up
 What if he healed himself?” Mana wondered, she was talking nonsense, she was not herself, the stress and fear for that man’s life made her almost lose it completely.

The older ninja stepped in, “That’s possible, he is Guru Ayushi after all but that would cause him so much pain it is just as likely that he’d just pass out, either that or die from pain. Who knows, everything we do is uncharted waters with this man. Think about it, the way he is now we can heal everyone, we can cure incurable diseases using his damaged cells, we can even heal your father back to how he was, he may even be a ninja again
”

Mana closed her eyes and grabbed covered her face, her whole body was shaking in fear and the fact that she didn’t know what to do. No. She knew perfectly, she was Nakotsumi Mana, Konoha’s Sorceress and she had no right to accept that offer. She’d screw herself and the people she loved but she’d do the right thing, she’d save the man’s life even if it would have meant dying. “No
 We wake him up. He’ll heal himself, I
. I believe that he will.”

“That’s just stupid, Mana-chan!” the younger medical ninja shouted out, once again stepping in. “We’ve got no reason to believe it’d work, we’d just be torturing him by waking him up, if we kept him sleeping we could heal hundreds of hopeless patients every day!”
“It
 It wouldn’t be right, save Ayushi-san’s life. At least try to
” Mana spoke even if her tongue flipped on an autopilot, she was completely dazed off, it all felt like the worst dream she had in her life, she just rejected her father’s salvation just to get a chance to save one man’s life. This happened on the same day that she asked that man to save her father’s life and he said he couldn’t. Mana was the worst daughter in the universe... Arguments could’ve been made for being the worst person alive.

“This is stupid, I won’t let some insane brat
” the younger medical ninja started talking trying to storm back into the ward but the older medical ninja stopped him.

“This is unethical, completely immoral and gambling on a man’s life, you’re asking us to destroy a panacea just to do something which can kill the man, just because it has a slight chance of saving him. It’s disgraceful and despicable, I approve of it.” Mana would’ve been completely taken aback by this expression of the old ninja’s opinion but it appeared that the younger one actually beat the girl by one second.

“No! You can’t seriously be
” the younger medical ninja tried to stop the older one who was about to enter the ward where the stench of burnt flesh was spreading from.

“This girl is the Guru’s bodyguard, for the duration of his stay in the village she is in charge of decisions like this. She’s got the balls and lack of moral sense to try something as mad as this, I can respect that.” the older ninja disappeared into the ward, unwittingly the younger one followed. Mana sat back down, she was shaking. She just confirmed her own worst fears, there was no line she wouldn’t cross to save a life. Even if the person begged her to kill them, even if they were doomed to a life of pain. Ayushi recognized that darkness in her heart long ago
 A pitiful and selfish being like Mana shouldn’t have ever been born


A deafening shout of pain, one that froze entire bodies and hearts of everyone who could’ve heard it echoed through the entire hospital. Even Guru Ayushi who was hurt in every way possible shouted from pain. There was nothing to be done to help him. Mana grabbed hold to her ears and pressed her own hair so hard she thought she’d tear it off. All of a sudden the screams stopped, a minute later the completely shocked younger ninja walked out, he placed his hand on Mana’s shoulder and gently tried to force her into the ward. The magician didn’t even resist it, she despised herself more than anything in the world at that moment.

Mana closed her eyes, she was afraid to face what she had done, a gentle “It’s okay, you can look” snapped her out from her despair. The body that greet Mana’s eyes was a completely healthy and sleeping one. Guru Ayushi healed everything in an instant, his body healed itself subconsciously right when the body was woken up, Ayushi’s new skin looked so pale and so soft. He had just grown it all from nothingness, strangely enough his whole build changed, the fire decimated his muscles and all the fat in his body. Now Ayushi looked slim, as if a baby who had just been born and has never trained a moment in his life. His body healed only the bare minimum of his muscular structure. This was a medical miracle, but the cost at which it was achieved scared the magician. She forced the man to be woken up, she didn’t know nor did she ever assumed he’d be OK, she just wanted that his life would be saved. Somehow


Ayushi peeled his eyes open, he smiled at Mana. “I believe a sign of gratitude is in order, you’ve just saved my life, young lady, while I’ve healed myself from much worse before, I needed my full consciousness to do so. I put myself to sleep consciously when the fire got really bad.”

Mana looked the man right in the eyes, she was hit by a realization all of a sudden. There was no way for the fire to just happen out of nowhere, the windows were sealed, the doors were closed and Mana had all of the entries well protected. Furthermore no one in this world wanted to harm the man. Now that the girl finally saw the man’s face without that fuzzy beard to cover him up, now that she saw his real face, all of his mimics. When she saw the man smile at her and speak to her
 She realized something that made her doubt the reality of this dreamlike experience.

“You
 You caused that fire, didn’t you?” Mana uttered a single question.

Ayushi smiled and nodded. “I heard so much about your beliefs, I just wanted to see if what you told me is real, I wanted to see how deep your devotion to the ideals you spoke of went. If you were ready to cross the boundaries that no one else would cross, in other words, what were the limits of your conviction. Apparently there are none, that is good to know, I plan to embody your ideals and so not having any lines to get in the way will make me much more efficient at creating the perfect world. I can finally stop being selfish, just like you told me, young Mana.”

Ayushi shrugged and pointed at all of the medical ninja, “Now, you can go home to your family, affirm your father that eventually I’ll heal his injury, I’ll heal all the injuries, all the sicknesses in the world, I’ll even cure war. I’ll relieve you of your duty, a duty which is unfit for such small shoulders of such a cute little girl. I’ll fulfill your goal for you.”

Mana walked up to Ayushi. “You could’ve killed both of us!” she told him staring the man right in the eyes.

“There was never such a danger, I could not have died even if the flames ran their course, eventually someone would’ve either cut off large enough chunks for me to grow myself from them anew, or would’ve woken me up, then I’d have reanimated you, success depending of course on how much time had passed
”

Mana staggered back, it was like she was talking to a whole another person. A person who adopted Mana’s beliefs but just found out that there were no ethical or moral boundaries to stop them. Even worse, this man had so much power that he could have backed off his wild claims, unlike Mana to whom all of that was just a childish dream she swore her life to. The magician knew she’d fail eventually, that she’d die somewhere in the battlefield, alone and forgotten after failing to stop all war and violence. Ayushi could’ve actually made it happen. The magician’s childish heart couldn’t decide if she was supposed to be horrified or happy. At that moment she lingered on both. She wanted to shout out to Ayushi that all of it was just her stupid childish dream but she couldn’t, she genuinely believed that naïve dream and she couldn’t deny that even if she’d lie doing so.

The girl just collapsed on a chair nearby the man. He gently stroke her cheek with his new baby skin. “Oh, maybe it’s too stuffy here, doctor, please open the window. Or better yet I should probably leave, after all, there’s no point in me being here – I’m completely healed. Oh well, I’ll leave in the morning.”

The older medical ninja from before stepped closer to the Guru and objected.

“Silly doctor, you cannot stop me
” was Guru’s only reply.

By the time Mana had woken up in the waiting room it was an early morning. She was surprised that she was allowed to just pass out waiting for a patient to recover like that. Almost instantly the magician jumped up and tried to peek into the ward where Ayushi was left in after the fire he had caused to test Mana. She had that silly reason in her mind even though she wasn’t entirely sure why Ayushi had done that. He said that he wanted to make up for the pain that he had caused and yet he caused the most pain to her with that last stunt.

Truth be told, Mana was angry at Ayushi, not in a way that made her hate the man or anything, no blood vengeance was sworn, she was just very angry at him because he made her stress out so much, even more so because he made her deny her father treatment once again. Mana’s mission was to protect Ayushi during his stay, make sure his stay was pleasant and yet the man seemed to have went out of his way to almost kill himself. If that would have happened there’d have been no life as a ninja for Mana. She’d have been eternally dishonored and would carry the stigma as the girl under whose watch Ayushi got hurt.

Thing with dishonor was that it was one of the worst marks for a ninja. Usually most cases of shame and dishonoring one’s name or clan didn’t make one lose their ninja status but it always carried a certain social stigma to it. If a person let a teammate die or killed them themselves, they’d have always had the name of a “comrade killer” and be treated as scum. At times even rogue ninja were treated with more respect than those with shame. Letting one of the most beloved icons of the ninja world get injured and stay in a comatose state would’ve made one of the worst social stigmas out there, there’d have been no comparison.

Mana was surprised to find different people in Ayushi’s ward, even the monk’s bed spot was filled by some old lady. The girl ran out to the bathroom and fixed her hair, washed her dirty hands and face and snapped out of her morning snooze, then she tried to find a medical ninja and ask them about what had happened. One was always walking around and it wasn’t too tough of a task to fulfil. After walking just down the hall Mana ran into a group of two just walking to a ward near the one where Ayushi was yesterday. The kunoichi raised her hand and stopped them.

“Excuse me, Guru Ayushi was brought into the ward yesterday, right there, where is he now?” she asked “I am responsible for his well-being and I am working for the Konohagakure administration so I do have access to this information.” The girl added that last bit just in case she was refused the information.

A medical ninja lady with short blond hair came up closer and explained the situation to Mana in half whispered speech.

“Yes, he was here however he had completely recovered after you asked for him to be woken up so we let him go. Well
 Actually he just stood up and left, we couldn’t really stop him or anything, technically there wasn’t anything wrong with him after he completely healed himself so we had no authority to keep him here.”

Her male colleague smiled to Mana, he seemed to know the girl from the situation that happened last night.

“Hey, you’re that girl who saved his life, right? He was brought here all burnt to a crisp in a pretty much comatose state and you asked to have him woken up, letting his passive use medical jutsu kick in, right? That was some bold call, how did you know it’d work?”

Mana smiled unpleasantly, she quite honestly didn’t, she was disgusted by her own behavior yesterday and just remembering the darkness in her heart made her puke. That dark gnawing at one’s heart of failure, that terrifying prospect of seeing one’s most loved people disappointed forced her hand, it was her own selfishness and desire to protect Ayushi’s life at all costs, abiding no moral codes and seeing no ethical lines, that forced her to make that call.

“Lucky shot, I guess
” she tried to play it down but the medical ninja didn’t have any of that, he almost started clapping to Mana.

“Lucky call my ass! You luck out when you win the lottery, to make a call like that, to wake up a barely alive man into a life of eternal incomparable pain and disgust of their own pitiful existence, you must’ve had really strong reasons for that! Ah, it’s OK, I guess you’re a magician and a hero, those don’t often share their secrets. Anyways, Ayushi-san insisted that we let you sleep up, he said he’d be waiting for you by the gate once you wake up. Remembering your heroism yesterday and Ayushi-san’s authority
 Well the hospital was happy to oblige.”

Mana just couldn’t take it anymore, she couldn’t stomach all that disgusting praise for her own selfishness, her desire to follow her ideals past the line of common sense. She hated her own guts at that moment, after being informed about Ayushi’s intents the magician just waved goodbye and wished the medical ninja to have a good day and rushed off to the bathroom. Nausea took Mana over as she bent over the toilet but she couldn’t even throw it all out, instead that sickness in her own self continued to plague her, burn her from inside. With the last resort attempt to push all anger for Ayushi’s behavior away Mana breathed in and out and left the bathroom after one last wash of her face and hands, no matter how hard she rubbed, that feeling didn’t wash off


It wasn’t really clear what exactly was that made the magician so angry at herself, maybe it wasn’t the fact that she said all those things, asked burnt body of Ayushi to be forcefully woken up from his comatose state. Maybe it was because part of her actually felt alright about that? Some part of Mana felt like she had acted just how her ideals would’ve demanded, Mana just was herself, she ordered to save lives at any cost, that’s who she was and what she did. It was just that before the question of was saving lives always moral never rose up to her. Not until Ayushi just flat out asked her yesterday, before deciding to test her answer.

Or maybe it was the fact that she herself denied her father the cure for his pain. She denied her father happiness and his chance to be a ninja, to tinker, to have those stars of hope and glee in his eyes. It was like Mana snuffed those sparks of happiness out herself by demanding Ayushi to be woken up, she didn’t ask for his cells, even if the medical ninja suggested taking his cells. Obviously that would’ve taken time, researching and cultivating them, Ayushi would’ve remained comatose but he would’ve fulfilled his dream – he’d have cured every sickness and injury ever
 Yet
 That didn’t feel right, keeping a man sleeping against his will, that’s not what heroes did. Maybe if there was no hope for him at all but
 Not like that. Mana covered her tired and teary eyes with the tips of her fingers. She wanted to pummel Ayushi so hard at that moment, for forcing her to do that, to say no to her family’s happiness. For fueling that clash between her ideals and her own personal happiness and that of others.

No. Mana wasn’t always moral, she didn’t do the right thing all of the times and that was painful. Up until that moment the girl thought she was perfect, that good people always did good things and did so by their own free will, that bad people did bad things by their own free will. Good was good and bad was bad for no other reason than the way things were. In reality even good people apparently messed up, even good people did immoral things. Then again, did Mana even know what was moral anymore? After telling the medical ninja to wake a burnt man up under the conditions of equal chance that he died from the pain or healed himself before his heart exploded from the pressure.

There he was, the tall pale figure. Mana walked up to Ayushi and looked him in the eyes. There was this certain shade of anger and hatred in her eyes, not the malevolent kind, the kind that a teenager gets for their parents when they forbid them to leave and meet with their friends in the evening. Ayushi nodded his head and greeted Mana.

“Didn’t exactly feel right to leave without saying my farewells, not to a girl who had changed my life.” Ayushi started up the conversation. His tone was different, he was speaking faster, he thought less of what he was saying. Yesterday his tone was more like that of a person under certain substances, he was slurring and slow even before he got drunk, now Ayushi’s tone and voice was clear and fast. Words came out so quickly that one used to the man’s previous manner of speech had to readjust to the new Ayushi.

“I wouldn’t have minded
” Mana shot back rudely.

“Would you not have?” Ayushi asked curiously.

“Yesterday when
 When you did that thing
 I almost died, YOU almost died, so many things could have gone wrong! If I missed the precision of my chakra control we could’ve had our throats opened by the glass, I did miss it, just not by that much. Then when they carried us to the hospital and took care of my wounds they asked me about your cells, they said that
 That there was not much that could’ve been done but they suggested cultivating your cells.”

“And you refused” Ayushi butt in, “It takes a great hero to refuse such temptation. You have been offered to make a great moral action – sign under permission for a panacea to be invented. What you did was the right thing – right thing which seemed grey to you, that thing which your own ideals gave you a suggestion to. Don’t you know what I tried to teach you, young Mana? Your ideals are your moral compass, even mine now too! As long as you follow that path you cannot ever get lost.” Ayushi was quite energetic with this speech. That wasn’t entirely unlike the old Ayushi from yesterday.

“I had to
 I had to say no to my father’s cure, I had to do a thing so despicable that it made me hate myself.” Mana almost broke down emotionally. She couldn’t believe that Ayushi too thought of her having done the right thing, how could he? He was the one who almost died last night, he was the one who went through the absolute limit of pain that a human brain can go through. The only reason he survived was because of his unnatural pain tolerance of having been injured infinite amount of times during all those years and having grown accustomed to it.

“That’s what being a hero is all about, you of all people should know that choosing this path is to choose the most difficult life for oneself. You’ll be hated, publically made fun off and in the end you’ll choose happiness for those people who scorned you instead of your own. That’s the kind of person you are, that’s the kind of person I shall try to be as well, from now on. I’ll travel the world trying to become more like you, trying to obtain your spirit, your mentality, your personality. Join that with my own skills
 I’ve experienced pain yesterday, yes, but that only made my hatred towards pain to burn even stronger. Instead of focusing my wrath on my own actions or, even more idiotically, you, I chose to focus my spite on pain. I’ve decided to make it my first target. I’ll destroy the world’s pain.”

Ayushi’s words sounded so mad, the world’s spiritual leader, one of the most respected people on the planet got charmed by the ideals of a young girl in Konoha and decided to change to fit her way of life. That should’ve become the practical example of madness in the definition somewhere in some dictionary. Mana tried to reach out and stop Ayushi from leaving, to try and talk him over but the man turned around and started leaving through the gate, he slightly peeked back at Mana and smiled.

“I told you spiritual journeys of self-discovery were for the best, young Mana. I shall become a brother of your ideas, once I truly discover how to become more like you, once I learn to absolutely rely on that one ideal, once I start to truly treasure life... “No life is unnecessary” will be my one true mantra from now on!” Ayushi’s last words echoed before he left into the thickness of the forest from where he appeared early yesterday morning. For a moment Mana just kept standing there, thinking and refusing to believe this insane visit. She just kept staring at the vastness of the forests and refused to move on.

A gentle hand reached over her shoulder, it was one of the guards of the village gate, the man smiled and gave the girl a thumb up. “Relax, Mana-chan, this is a mission completed for you” he reported but the magician still refused to believe it. Slowly she turned around and started making her way towards the Konohagakure administration building, she still had to report about the mission, then the painful part came, the part of going home and telling father and mother that she’s the worst daughter to have ever been born in the history of time and space. Only an individual worth such a title wouldn’t be able to step over oneself to cure the pain of their loved family member.

As the girl entered the building she couldn’t help but let out a disappointing sigh. For the first time since probably ever her mind was completely empty, she was so weighed down by all that had happened that she couldn’t even think or feel straight. People thought she was a hero of some sort, she hated herself for that same decision. Apparently moral sense was not some sort of absolute either, the more days Mana had spent in this life of hers, the more firmly she started to believe that moral things may have not been some sort of absolute and to be defined by the observer.

“Sorry, Kiyomi, I’ve got no viable team members for you at the moment. You’re an experienced genin and I will grant you permission to work alone on missions but I cannot put you on a team.” Mana overheard a heated conversation inside the Hokage’s office. She decided to wait it out, the magician didn’t really want to listen in on that but the two people that were talking pretty much forced everyone in the building to listen to them go on by yelling at each other.

“Then put me up for the Chuunin Exams!” the other, much younger voice yelled out angrily, it seemed to have been something that was repeated over and over again during the conversation as the young lady talking said those words in a rather monotonous but loud nevertheless tone.

“I told you, that’s out of the question, Chuunin Exams are meant to be taken by teams of three. An essential part of the competition is to test the teamwork of the people taking it. Letting one person without a team take it would be unfair. More so, there’s not enough time left for you to find one, the sign-ups will be over tomorrow at midnight. Even if you do find a team by then, you won’t have a chance to bond and train with them, you will be taking a test of teamwork with people you don’t know.” At that moment Mana recognized the voice of the first woman, it was the Fifth Hokage. It wasn’t that easy to identify the woman, after all, when she spoke to Mana she spoke in a much calmer and pleasant tone. Now the woman sounded like she was really getting annoyed.

Suddenly after a loud exclamation of frustration the blonde burst from the room, she was a girl of a similar age to Mana, perhaps a little bit older. Her hair was so blond that it was distracting and her eyes seemed to be completely light blue with little to no intelligible irises. A more experienced ninja, or just one who lived in Konoha could’ve easily identified the Yamanaka clan, the masters of illusions and mental abilities. Usually every genjutsu user wasn’t too fond of those guys, to the Yamanaka the abilities to manipulate minds came almost as naturally as waving a hand whereas it took great mastery for a common ninja to learn that sort of ability. Yamanaka were the elites of illusions and mind reading and controlling, they also were unmatched in intelligence gathering and enemy displacement.

The significantly taller and more muscularly built girl just stood in front of Mana, who had not yet realized that she was blocking the young lady’s path. For a moment it was clear that the Yamanaka girl wanted to shoot something offensive or just to bump into the young magician pushing her out of the way but she restrained herself. “Please get out of my way” was all that the girl said after walking around Mana and disappearing behind the corner leading to the stairs down and out of the building. The young kunoichi wondered what was that all about before remembering having seen this young lady before, in a much more battle hardened look, it was back when the Hokage returned with her students to the Administration building back when she, Shimo and Sugemi originally received the mission to protect Ayushi.

Mana sighed and entered the Hokage office. The Fifth looked extremely irritated so she just raised her palm to stop the entrant in her tracks, looking scared and confused. Hanasaku took a moment to rub her temples with her fingers to relax and then gestured with her hand to continue.

“My mission to watch over Guru Ayushi was
 I guess successful
” Mana stuttered at the last and the most important part of her report. The Hokage’s assistant placed the countless files he had on the table and crossed his hands on his chest.

“You guess?” he got annoyed.

“Well, he’s alright, he seems pleased but
” Mana wanted to report the whole situation but the Fifth once again lifted her hand into the air.

“That’s all we need to know. Ayushi-san is a strange individual, he says and does weird things to “cure” everyone. Things he does are also highly personal so you may not wish to share them. The fact that he is safe and that he is happy with his stay is enough, we’ll report to Kirigakure that he’s coming, thank you, Mana”

Mana shook and rubbed her foot onto the floor, she was a little hesitant to keep talking but she had to report on what happened.

“We do know of the situation with the fire and the whole hospital ordeal, you’ve encountered difficulties, you’ve moved past them and made the right call, congratulations, now go back to your recovery, Nakotsumi Mana.” The assistant informed the girl after noticing her hesitation.

“Ummm
 I’m not sure he’s going straight to Kirigakure
” Mana let the bird out of the cage. Hanasaku’s fist shot through the table leaving a large hole in the colossal pile of papers and the table but strangely enough it didn’t collapse.

“WHAAAAAT!?” the woman straight out roared. Mana was a bit worried for her life but she actually sort of wanted to be beaten down and punished for what she pulled last night.

“He said that he wants to start using his medical abilities again to save lives and change the world, he said that meeting me opened his eyes or something
” Mana closed her eyes and clenched herself for impact that would’ve sent her flying through the wall. She waited, fearing but also wishing for her high flying death, whether she’d die instantly from the Hokage’s furious fist or her neck would snap while flying or she’d crash and die that way
 Nothing. Mana opened her eyes only to see Hanasaku smiling like a lovely old lady over a cup of coffee.

“Heh, you just can’t help it, can you
 Oh well, it’s not like he has to do anything, he’s retired anyways
” Hanasaku cracked a grin even if a vein was still pulsing on her forehead, though that was most likely present there from her meeting with her student before.

“B-But
 Hokage-sama!” the assistant yelled out wanting to make a bigger deal from it, Hanasaku waved her hand.

“I said it’s fine, whatever, the man does whatever he wants, he’s a force of nature, thanks for letting us know, Mana. I saw your team’s application for Chuunin exams, I don’t think I need to explain it do I?” the Hokage brought another topic up, Mana’s face turned to the floor as her hair weighed down and covered it. The girl’s top hat almost fell off from her sad expression but it remained just barely on her head.

“Yeah, Chuunin exams are a test done by teams of three, part of the test is testing the teamwork and all that
 I’ve heard it, I’m pretty sure everyone did
” Mana uttered with profound sadness and disappointment in how this whole situation went. It wasn’t just the fact that she was denied her chance to grow in rank, it was also the fact that this denial also went out of its way to remind Mana of the fate of her disbanded team.

“I’m sorry, I’ll be going through possible candidates to form a new team
 For now though keep training, there’ll be another exam in three years, you’ll have your team formed and ready by then. I’ll send you some easier missions to do in the meantime, after you recover from your training injury, of course. Now, if that’s all, you’re dismissed.”

Mana dragged her sorry body out of the Hokage’s office. Things really went bad, there was so much hope and expectation back when Tanshu-sensei last trained her, back when he promised to recommend them for the Chuunin exams to get that sweet battlefield experience. The magician sighed. After that things just all went downhill: Tanshu-sensei died, the team got disbanded, Ayushi-san got mad or something, now there’ll be no Chuunin exams for at least three more years. Worst part of all was that she had to go back home and talk to her parents about those damned cells


Mana went back home, her parents almost immediately picked up on her sad face. Mother hugged the girl and kept almost furiously stroking her hair. “Ayushi’s cells won’t work, they’d heal father but that’d cause another sickness that’d kill him really fast
” Mana said to her mother, the magician could feel her mother shaking in sadness. No. They had to know the whole story. Father entered the living room too, walking down the stairs and staring at Mana and mother expressing their sadness and support to one another.

“Oh well
” he said “I mean, that bastard took his sweet time to get here anyways, by now I’m almost used to it. Got the recipe for the new herbs and ointments, they help keep it manageable, I’ll live” father replied and went up to Mana trying to express his approval by gently stroking her hair. “You did good, you were hurt, you had my unfair expectations and expectations of the whole village to make this work, even more we relied on you to do something stupid and impossible. Any sane person would’ve cursed this world to hell for that sort of responsibility and pressure. I’d rather completely lose my arms and legs than have my precious girl be blamed for that sort of bullshit, I kind of loved my life as a ninja but I love you much more.”

Mana felt almost surprised and a bit relieved hearing it from her parents that they didn’t blame her for anything. She was certain that they’d cave in but father was right, all this extra time it took for Ayushi to get here made him better at dealing with the pain himself. He was so much more mature than Mana, he didn’t believe or need any miracle cures. He acknowledged that his life was in his hands and his hands alone and dealt with his pain, he learned to live with it and deal with it. He was a true hero, her true hero! Mana hugged father apologizing to him one more time. “There’s one thing
 Ayushi
 He once fell into a coma and
 There was a chance to cultivate his cells
”

Father put his finger on Mana’s lips, the girl flinched in surprise.

“You did the right thing, kid. I’d rather live in pain than know it was healed by causing pain to someone else, I know you asked for his life to be saved, you’re my little hero. I know you’ll always do what’s right, what you think seems right.”

*****

Back in Hokage’s office the assistant angrily looked at the Hokage and tried to object to something she had said to Mana before her words broke and interrupted his speech before it even began.

“Before I and my students left to Kirigakure, not too long before Howoku and Tanshu left for the Summit, I met with Howoku, Misu and Tanshu over dinner, just to call back to the old times, we always do that sort of thing before big missions. Just to remember that moment in case our last hour comes in those missions, just to have a pleasant memory to grasp on to in case nothing else comes up, just to make that final journey into the void more pleasant.”

Hokage’s assistant walked up in front of the woman and found a seat, he put the files he had in his hands at that moment back onto one of countless more piles to the side.

“We spoke about our happiest moments, I of course kept going on about some big brawls I had, some of the fun tests I had with Kiyomi and the others, I kept abusing them and almost killing them and most of that wasn’t even consensual, I was just an idiot who kept messing things up. Howoku spoke about how he loved sometimes leaving the office, walking through the street and admiring his peace, the smiles of the villagers and the children just playing in the street, the peace he had created from violent wars over those last fifteen years. Misu didn’t talk much, he rarely did talk much
 Lil’ Bro, however
 Tanshu, my little precious brother, usually just bashed how idiotic our happy thoughts were and how he’s wasting his time, he didn’t mean it but he always had to keep that façade up
”

The man fixed his glasses, Hokage’s assistant was a very strict and to the point man, still, he appeared to be smiling and enjoying the story. Having one’s job experience pile up by working for the Hokage meant having to listen to these kind of stories from time to time.

“That day Lil’ Bro was different, he actually praised his students to us, he spoke about how they were bunch of losers but how they actually grew stronger under his guidance which he initially thought impossible
 Then
 That last couple of lines he said
 He spoke about this lovely but stupid young girl who reminded him of a friend he once had. I think I may remember that friend of his, at least him talking about her from back when we sieged the Tower of Bones that one time. I thought, wow, a young girl who reminded Tanshu of a woman he once loved, that was amazing. I almost instantly wanted to meet that young girl who was so weird and stupid that she even made my Lil’ Bro smile
 Now when I saw her change both Lil’ Bro and Guru Ayushi
”

Assistant stood up and took a bunch of files into his hands, slamming them in front of the Hokage’s face. “That was a fun memory, you’re not allowed to die yet so don’t long for it. You have no right to die until you fix the Feudal Lord bingo evening budget.”

*****

It was a really lovely night outside. Mana kept breathing deep, observing it from her bed. Her childish chest kept lifting up and down from her heavy breathing. The young ninja carefully stroke her thighs, she didn’t feel that much more pain left. Tomorrow she’ll start training again, she’ll be careful, she’ll still keep training her kicking focused style of taijutsu she’s trying to master but she’ll put more focus on her chakra control. That technique, that illusion she casted on Sugemi and Shimo saved both of their lives. Mana was called Konoha’s Sorceress as her stage name, that name has also been associated with her ninja abilities too. She was crafty and tricky, she always did the right thing, she always lucked out so far but she needed some powerful tool like that to stop relying on luck. Next time when innocent lives or lives or her friends will be in danger – she’ll be ready for it.

Ayushi may have given her the cold shower about the moral implications of her ideals, how they may not always have been the right and moral thing to do. Either way, saving lives was what Mana did. What she wanted to do and how she wanted to change this world. Ayushi also taught her that fighting for her ideal, fighting to stop the bad people trying to hurt those she wanted to protect may have been OK sometimes. That if they chose the violent path, she should’ve not been so afraid to disable them if talking didn’t work. Before she often found herself frozen in fear of hurting her enemy, Ayushi taught her that hurting the enemy wasn’t the problem. She was the Konoha’s Sorceress, she had it in her to find ways to beat the enemy without killing them and then leave it up to them to change. That was her nindo, her ninja way.

The day had already reached its prime. Children were playing in the street, the smaller ones were chasing rubber balls and the slightly older ones were tossing wooden ninja tools at each other and clashing with wooden swords. Playing ninja was one of the most popular past times for kids old enough to grasp the basic concept. It was more common amongst young boys, girls usually played a strange simulation game where they’re just sitting around at home taking care of their dolls which were supposed to be their kids. It was quite usual for the two groups to play together and fuse their seemingly separate universes into one.

Each kid had their “family”, a “wife” they left at home when they ran off with other boys to play a great war of ninjas. Girls liked being part of boys’ group and their silly antics never interrupted their own game so they played along with this weird social contract. It was a small model of how society worked, the most common and simple particles of it, at least. There were some girls who didn’t fancy just sitting at home feeding the dumplings that their mothers gave them for snacking to their dolls. They played alongside boys and went to war yet it never bothered either the boys or the girls. Girls accepted those other girls as part of their group, let them occasionally visit their “family” and boys treated them as their equal partners. If a girl was considered a weaker ninja of the group it wasn’t because of her gender, it was because she wasn’t creative enough to make a strong imaginary persona for herself and lacked the skills of imagination and quick decision making.

Maybe to some this would have seemed weird, those people would most likely not have experienced the world where spiritual and physical energy of one’s body was able to augment one’s abilities to compensate for natural shortcomings. Some people would have attributed this strange aura of equality that surrounded the children, usually the least likely group to behave appropriately and respect equality, to a certain amount of time having passed since the strongest and the leading ninja of the village was a respected woman, even more, one who could’ve shattered the dreams of any man trying to match her in physical strength department. Those people would not have known how things were before that woman took over from Star of Hope, Howoku, the Fourth Hokage.

Obviously in a world where people’s lives were wasted left and right a woman’s decision to devote her time to raising children was very much respected. No woman was scorned or scolded for choosing to devote their life to that goal, maybe even the opposite was the case, they were respected even more than an average ninja who devoted their life for their village would have. They enjoyed specific protection, a certain social elevation in their importance which was tough to explain but quite visible if one was to spend some time amongst the villagers.

A whole year had passed since Chestnut Hanasaku became the Fifth Hokage, her face was quickly added onto the monument amongst the other Hokage of the past. The village was living in some strange state of having frozen in time after the initial shock of having lost their Hokage and most of their Sannin. There was an obvious vacant gap left, for the first time in many years Konohagakure had no Sannin to be proud of: Misu and Tanshu had killed each other in their battle, Hanasaku left the spot open by becoming the Fifth Hokage. The council tried to raise some of their more prominent jounin to the rank but for one reason or another they were refused. Konoha had plenty of powerful jounin but they weren’t quite on that level just yet. Knowing full well the amount of danger and respect that the rank granted Hanasaku rejected each candidacy, the woman simply didn’t think any of them could have handled the fame and the desire of so many bounty hunters from the sides of both: rogue ninja or other villages to take them down and add their heads to their collections.

Konoha still didn’t have people in Kirigakure to observe the village’s political and administrational life. Despite being the primary motivation of Hanasaku’s election to the great chair, the woman just said that she either needed most ninja selected for that role in the village and at her disposal or she simply didn’t trust them enough. Little by little, people started talking that Chestnut Hanasaku had crumbled under the pressure, she made very few ballsy choices during her reign. Usually Hokage punished with severity, chased goals of great ambition, even questionable ventures. It seemed that Chestnut Hanasaku was so afraid to show off her stupidity and inexperience that she just froze all iffy matters in time and space. While the council and any political experts and journalists didn’t enjoy that behavior, to the general public her safe approach to politics seemed rather pleasant as they had one shock too many recently. Ambitious ventures became associated with the name of Mizukage Shirona and left a bad bloody taste in everyone’s mouths.

“Mana, dear, you’re gonna be late!” mother’s voice came from below alerting the girl to finish her gearing up quickly. The girl buttoned up her cufflink, secured and double checked her various hidden cards and sleeves. During that last year Mana had changed up her ninja tool arsenal a lot, moving much more towards the card and magician prop focused more innocent and tricky style. Instead of the usual kunai knives, shuriken and explosive tags Mana used much more deceiving and tricky tools like steel edged cards like the ones used to give Sugemi that nasty scar back then, steel rings and ropes of cloth, also cards with explosive seals on them that only used a small bit of chakra to set off. Finally the girl embraced her magician roots and her stage nickname of Konoha Sorceress, she tried to honor the will of her late sensei by doing so.

After securing her father’s gifted hat and checking if she had the “package” sealed inside Mana ran down the stairs. She recalled how just a year ago using her father’s seal sapped most of her chakra, a year of endless chakra level training allowed Mana’s chakra to grow several times above her previous levels. If she pushed herself far enough she may have even been able to use the clone technique that once knocked her out cold before. Mana’s bulkier and firmer thighs also were a testament of gruesome effort and training that she put into mastering her own style of taijutsu. As the girl ran down the stairs and gave a free hug to her father and mother before leaving through the door, she couldn’t help but call back to all the days she spent practicing acrobatics and various stretching exercises to better control her body. Mana was almost confident that her kicks and flips were now fast enough to surprise even a more physical peer of her level, something she took great pride in.

Obviously her path had many training injuries and accidents, she burnt out just like before several times, also there was that time she broke her arm and her leg after falling pretty nastily in the training grounds. She continued to train even during injury which greatly annoyed the medical ninja. Having no fear to fight, no fear to hurt but never kill those that threatened her ideals and her loved ones made Mana much less afraid to train and grow strong. Her mind was completely free, absolutely clean of any doubts and fears. All she felt was curiosity and excitement, the girl was always a little bit on the geeky side and she viewed training and the subjects of genjutsu and ninjutsu techniques as another subject, a hobby with endless possibilities to be explored.

Even after a whole year Mana didn’t manage to master that technique, it was only when she started delving more deeply into the subject of illusionary techniques that Mana found out just how reckless and stupid she was back then using that technique at such baby stages. Honoring the last words told to her by Tanshu-sensei during their training the magician delved deeper into the craft, trying to pick up more tricky and difficult subjects of the matter, such as sound based illusions and different mediums through which illusions could have been transferred. It was incredibly tough focusing on that specific craft. That was because of the nature of the specialty that Mana had chosen.

Genjutsu was the art of illusionary techniques. Illusions were fancy and often powerful, a good tool for diversion, displacement and various other versatile uses. However most ninja were too practical, they wanted to cause damage on the battlefield, cause some ruckus. Illusions never caused actual damage, they could’ve tricked one’s mind with enough skill put into it to cause the body to damage itself but illusionary fire was always just that – a fancy vision. Also the art of genjutsu was incredibly despised and neglected among most ninja, very few even bothered picking it up because of its intricacy and very unrewarding nature. It required almost perfect chakra control, great concentration and skill as well as some imagination to be used effectively and even with all that effort it still dealt no direct physical damage to one’s enemy. It wasn’t hard to see why people were frustrated about it.

The thing was that because of the complete neglect of the craft that was barely even touched upon in the Academy made most people completely unable to defend against it. A surprising majority of ninja crumbled even under the most basic of illusions and incredibly skilled ninja could’ve even sunken those ninja under multiple layers of illusions, caused extreme confusion and made them believe that they were in an illusion when they may not have even been under one causing some terrible circumstances. There was this one story told in the Academy by the teacher, one that had a moral of never choosing to neglect any subject or craft completely.

The story was about this young and strong ninja who had a lot of potential, one who was all about physical and destructive power. That ninja focused exclusively on destructive techniques and strength overpowering all of their peers. One day they met a decently skilled genjutsu user who was actually a very unimpressive ninja otherwise and he chose to engage him. Apparently the illusion master caught that ninja into an illusion and convinced him to kill all of his comrades and give up all of the scrolls with vital information they were carrying. Then the genjutsu user delivered one final line: “I never even used genjutsu, it was all just the power of suggestion, you killed your friends because you believed I masked myself in their image, you gave me the scrolls because you folded under the belief that I had you in my control.” Sensei in the Academy said that the ninja later committed suicide being unable to deal with the pressure of the situation and the shame.

That inability to deal with even the most basic illusions of most ninja out there gave an illusion user a slight advantage, however the idea that there were no skilled illusionary ninja in the village to train with brought that advantage down and dragged its face in the dirt. There were very few ninja who even dabbled in the illusionary arts, let alone skilled enough for Mana to ask advice or guidance when in a tough spot. Sure she still hadn’t reached the level where she’d be the authority figure of genjutsu in the village but she was approaching that spot and that prospect scared her quite a lot.

Mana’s amazing growth in strength and spirituality and mind wasn’t the only pleasant news to happen during that year. Her magic shows pretty much became the biggest source of entertainment in the village, her strangely classy attire also helped create the illusion that it was a very high layered kind of entertainment, many rich and famous people started attending her shows bringing the owner of the hall, Mr. Hiro a terrible lot of money making him appreciate his newly found golden hen. Hiro insisted that Mana moved all of her performances to what he called “prime-time”, he let her dictate the terms whenever she threatened to leave his care. Still, even with all that success the magician tried to not let it go over her head. She still tried to incorporate the lessons of public contact and certain closeness between an entertainer and their audience that she picked up from Guru Ayushi during his seminar. The price of her shows never rose beyond the price she charged at the beginning, her tremendous rise in profits was not due to increased prices but because of increase in people who bought the tickets.

Maybe that same success in terms of her being an amazing and unique sort of entertainer, seeing how stage magic was still something no other village had explored, was what made Mana so well known in the village. People approached her in larger masses, spoke to her more often and invaded her public privacy with every chance that they got. This newly acquired fame was both something the girl enjoyed and in a way wasn’t overly fond of. She loved being appreciated, she loved that people acknowledged her art and the message that it carried along of ninjutsu being what the user used it for, not the predefined tool used for murder and nothing else. On the other hand, Mana hated being known just for her stage magic. Quite often when the girl did leave on some of the smaller missions she was recognized by both her mission targets and her fans, most people thought that she was only a ninja because of a publicity stunt and criminals she tried her best to apprehend always made sure to make fun of her for her child celebrity status when they were beaten.

Mana was just as much a kunoichi of the Leaf as much as she was a stage magician. She felt like people neglected and never appreciated the things she did as a ninja, they kept waving at those things and mentioning how cute they were and how she just “played ninja” and kept considering her mainly a magician and only cared about what she did as a magician. If only she could have done something amazing, something so incredible and heroic that she could’ve finally busted through that barrier of neglect and ignorance, if only she could have placed herself amongst the higher rated genin of the village, the kind that attracted people to the stadium when those genin sparred
 Mana started craving to be strong, not because she wanted to be the best, not because she had a selfish power fantasy but because she wanted to be taken seriously, not as some silly girl playing ninja. There were plenty of times she could’ve died in the field and yet no one acknowledged that and thought she was still taking it easy. That hurt Mana a lot internally.

“Hey, it’s Konoha’s Sorceress! Hello, will you be performing today?” a lovely pair stopped Mana just to say hello and talk. Mana stopped and smiled to them despite still feeling hurt inside by her own feelings that she brought up.

“No, sadly I’ve been called to a mission, it’s been a while since I went on a bigger mission and I was warned to cancel any shows I had today or in the nearest future, it may be something pretty grand.” Mana scratched the back of her head only now realizing that she may have been leaving to her final mission, all of a sudden the girl started feeling like she may not have said her goodbyes fondly and softly enough. Each mission may have been one’s last and should’ve been treated as such.

“Oh, that’s too bad, we were really looking forward to it, be careful, Sorceress-chan!” the pair bowed their heads slightly suggesting respect despite still using the slightly demeaning honorific.

Hesitant to keep on walking Mana scratched her neck, maybe she should return and talk to her parents a little bit more, she had some time left to do that and
 Whatever. Father knew what kind of thing these kind of missions were, he wouldn’t have been too surprised if Mana got hurt. If all of those stories of mother being a descendant of the wandering ninja were correct she also had been on the outside of the village and had seen the world beyond the village walls. As much as the girl wanted to say her goodbyes as if they were her last she felt like her parents were tough enough to handle the tension.

Slowly the magician started walking towards the Konohagakure Administration to pick up her mission. If she was told that it’d take several days that’d have meant that Mana was supposed to leave beyond the village walls, right? But then why would she have been sent out like that alone? She still didn’t have a team despite Hokage’s most desperate attempts to find her one. Seeing how many high ranking ninja died in the Kage Summit many of the assembled teams were left without a sensei so there were many genin without a team. Even during the early stages some genin managed to get themselves killed already, right after leaving the Academy. There were vacant spots but as Tanshu-sensei said, there seemed to have been some special rules when putting teams together. What with all the one member being a genius, one average and one loser rule, for example.

After entering the Administration building Mana just went up to the floor where the Hokage office was situated. Some more manual labor kind of missions were handed out by simple office clerks but the kind that this mission apparently was were handed out by the Hokage and her assistant themselves. Mana walked up to the door and knocked, listening in and hearing a permission to enter. The girl opened the door hesitantly only to see the Hokage and her assistant in the building. The strange part was that they weren’t the only people there. The Hokage gestured towards the blond Yamanaka girl that Mana had seen several times before, the one that used to be on the Fifth’s team apparently at some point.

“It’s good that you’ve come. I invited all three of you but for some reason the third one didn’t come
 Those guys are always a real pain in the ass.” The Hokage scratched her forehead angrily trying to just rub her headache away.

Mana looked curiously at the other girl, she looked pretty tough but she was a pretty girl too. She had those deep light blue eyes that would’ve made her an ideal pop idol singer but her look was far too tough for that kind of profession. There was little innocence in this girl’s eyes, she’s seen the outside world, without a doubt. The Yamanaka suddenly turned making Mana jump up a bit, trying to act as if she wasn’t staring. The magician was really interested in this girl, she was so pretty and looked so strong that Mana couldn’t help but admire this girl.

“I’m Yamanaka Kiyomi, pleased to work with you, Mana.” the girl said extending her hand forward. Mana did look a bit confused about how would the blonde know her name, after all the names or even the fact that they’d be working in a team was nowhere in the actual mission objective. Hesitantly the magician answered the gesture of greeting.

“Oh please, your name is all over the place, to be honest it’s written in some really small letters, “Konoha’s Sorceress on the other hand is really clearly spelled out. If it’s an ego thing I can call you that, I guess.” The Yamanaka girl explained without having to be asked.

“Was she reading my mind?” Mana wondered inside of her head, knowing the skills and the reputation of the Yamanaka clan members to be absolute masters of controlling and messing with their enemies’ minds.

“No, I didn’t read your mind, just because I’m a Yamanaka doesn’t mean I read your mind all the time, you know
” Kiyomi leaned at Mana angrily placing her hands on her hips as if she was being placed into a stereotype, despite the magician never having said a thing.

“Ummm
 Sorry, I guess
” Mana just let out turning away with a blush. She made a fool of herself in front of this really cool girl, she really wanted to fit in with this blonde who was a part of the Hokage’s squad. Truth be told, part of Mana’s wish to be approved by Kiyomi was because the magician was extremely jealous of the girl despite knowing so little about her.

Kiyomi was a member of a clan, a pretty well thought of and one held in very high regard at that. She must’ve been able to do all sorts of amazing things and she looked a year or two older than Mana which gave this young lady an experience advantage. Also Mana was still going through her puberty so to herself she looked kind of weird, where this Kiyomi girl was clearly a more attractive due to her age and completed process of puberty as well as probably a much stronger girl by a margin.

“Relax, I’m just messing with you” Kiyomi laughed out playfully punching Mana in the elbow. “That’s just what most people tell me when they’re socializing, I’ve got a system by which I classify people by what they tell me, it gets boring sometimes.”

Mana smiled, she was still embarrassed and didn’t feel too comfortable in the girl’s company even if she had a genuine desire to feel that way around the Yamanaka. There was nothing really wrong with the blonde, her eyes were pretty kind and had no malice behind them, she had lost all the anger and irritation that the Yamanaka once had when the two bumped into each other in the hall last year. It was just that this new feeling of wanting to be acknowledged and looking up to someone was quite new and it didn’t let the magician feel too comfortable around the girl. It was all about the new itchy experience that didn’t let her relax.

“So
 What’s the mission, when do we leave?” Mana tried to change the topic for later hoping to avoid the awkwardness from having to socialize with a person she had strange sensations about which the young magician barely even understood.

“Not so fast, there’s a third person you need to pick up, I’m not sure if she even plans to drop by anytime or if she’s even coming, that one is a real loose cannon sometimes.” Hanasaku growled irritated by the personality of the third one. Mana started both feeling curious about this third person but also feel slightly hesitant towards them and started to get a bad feeling about them.

This whole mission felt weird, usually team-based missions promoted teamwork between the three or more participants, now this was much different. The three teammates haven’t met each other yet, they won’t be a long term team, just work together on one mission, the three had no time to get to know each other, learn about the skills of each other or learn to cooperate. It was almost like Hansaku just tossed this mission and this team together randomly, organizational skills like that cause casualties. Mana felt like she’s about to experience Fifth’s lack of experience first-hand but she stayed quiet.

For a short while the two girls just stood quietly before the Hokage. The year was actually quite kind for the woman, her brown hair finally settled towards an acceptable and even somewhat regal hairdo, instead of flowing wildly all over the place in mad locks. Her eyes and her skin looked soft and had no bruises or blunt traumas that a ninja on active duty had their body full of. Even Mana had a couple of long term scars already, it wasn’t to the point where the girl was shy to undress in front of a mirror but in a year or two it might get there. Truth of the matter was – Chestnut Hanasaku was looking much more ladylike and sported a more fitting look for a lady in charge of a village. Power didn’t seem to corrupt this woman, it changed her for the better, taught her some experience. Still not enough, apparently.

“Enough!” Hanasaku shouted out slamming the table, this time the woman restrained herself perfectly, she also seemed to have learned restraint as breaking too many tables must’ve costed the Administration an arm and a leg. “If that girl doesn’t feel like showing up to the briefing just wait for her near the gate until it becomes a bother, then ditch her. I swear to God!” Hanasaku yelled out angrily.

“It’s fine, me and Mana here can handle it if the third one is a no-show” Kiyomi smiled confidently. Mana smiled back and nodded. She liked Kiyomi’s confidence. Just one more feature to make this blonde be Mana’s idol, the kind of ninja that the young one tried to be more like soon. It wasn’t like Kiyomi was that much older to be her absolute hero or anything, it was more like a directional guideline, almost like an older sister for Mana to admire and try to imitate.

“That’s a big no. Usually I’d send at least five genin to a mission like this, probably even a chuunin to lead the squad. A son of a rich perfume tycoon of Konohagakure was kidnapped. We don’t know anything about who kidnapped him or why, they didn’t send any requirements or demands or a reason as to why that was done. It is starting to seem that the son may not have been kidnapped for his father’s funds which is beginning to scare me. You absolutely need to have a third member, your mission is to find out about the kidnapping and if possible reclaim the victim. Mission objective is information, secondary objective is the return of the victim safe to the village. If by any chance the third one doesn’t show – hire some mercenaries outside the village walls. It’s a dangerous gambit but a hundred times less dangerous than going in just the two of you.”

Kiyomi nodded, Mana was about to kneel as per normal procedure when accepting a mission but seeing Kiyomi’s ignorance the magician just awkwardly froze half-way and then straightened out, blushing to her ears about how dumb she must’ve looked.

“Yes ma’am!” Mana uttered shyly.

Kiyomi laughed out openly, seeing a hatchling ninja several years younger mess up continuously trying to look cool must’ve been hilarious to the Yamanaka. The two turned around and left the office. Both of them stood awkwardly for a moment in the corridor just looking around, each one of them was hesitant to take charge of the mission but eventually both of them started walking downstairs to the first floor complex of offices.

“So
 Why are you alone? What happened to your team?” Kiyomi opened up the discussion first. “Usually genin are working in teams until they are promoted in the Chuunin Exams”

Mana’s chin sunk down as she once again remembered the story of Team Oak. “Well, Tanshu-sensei died during the Kage Summit, one of my teammates messed up and left on a journey of self-discovery, the other tried to kill a prisoner we caught from Kirigakure and
 Well he was sent away to a containment facility, Eden I believe”

Kiyomi whistled out in surprise. “Tanshu? As if in Red Dog Tanshu? Holy Hell! I thought you were just for show initially, no offense, all the fancy posters and all, sort of makes an impression of all those pop idol bubble gum girls, you know? Tanshu’s hardcore, Hanasaku used to be my sensei, the two constantly hung out, the rep was that Tanshu was just insufferable. No matter how many beatings we took, how many times we got burnt or something blew up cause sensei was a loony, we always thought it could’ve been worse, we could’ve ended up under Tanshu’s care
 I mean, all the respect for the dead and all
”

Mana smiled, recalling the first meeting of the team and how Sugemi had his hand broken the first day. Then remembering how they were left to be animal food or get good and survive. From a neutral point of view that was brutal but
 To them it felt nostalgic, they were afraid for their lives back then but it felt so silly and innocent. They were just children after all.

The two just started moving towards the Konohagakure gate, deciding to wait for their third team member there. Kiyomi didn’t feel like letting go of Mana as she kept asking questions. “Hey, how old are you? Cause, no offence, but you look like a damn kid, you know? I mean we’re all kind of still kids but
 Ninja grow up fast, they pretty much have to.”

“Almost fourteen” Mana replied, Kiyomi whistled in surprise once again.

“You’ve been through some badass shit and you’re pretty young, I left the Academy almost three years ago at thirteen, not because I flunked a class but because I took a course in my clan’s special class. It’s something like intelligence gathering and that sort of thing. Everyone expects Yamanaka to be all about intelligence, you know, mind reading, spying, telepathic mental links and all that
”

Honestly all that talking was making Mana grow fond of Kiyomi, the worst thing she could’ve done was stay shut and not talk to Mana. The magician started to feel like she was viewed as somewhat of an equal so that made her warm up to her temporary teammate.

“So what happened to your team? Are you alone just because Fifth became the Hokage?” Mana finally gathered up the courage to ask something herself, Kiyomi just hissed, something about the Fifth rubber the girl the wrong way, probably still an old wound about the Chuunin Exams


“Nah, one of my teammates got cocky in a mission and got hurt, he was an Uchiha so he started showing off those stupid eyes of his and got careless. He lost his eyes. Fucking Uchiha
 Hate those guys. The other guy left the team shortly afterwards, Hanasaku isn’t the best of mentors, then again, look at me complaining to a student of Red Dog Tanshu
” Kiyomi laughed out. It appeared that it wasn’t that much the Fifth herself that irritated Kiyomi but the history of her team. She must’ve still held a grudge towards the Uchiha boy and the one that left.

“And the worst thing is that they still didn’t find me another team, I mean just slap the two of us together, give us a hot guy on our team and I’m as happy as it gets, we could take the damned Chuunin Exams, no problem. I swear to God if they make me skip another exam!” Kiyomi started angrily rubbing her fist and slamming it to her free hand and punching air. It didn’t look like Kiyomi was a physical kind of ninja but she definitely threw a punch with free and fluid movements like a pro.

“You really think we’d make a good team?” Mana asked smiling.

“Hell yeah!” Kiyomi yelled out energetically, “If me and the red eyes doofus made it work between us without me strangling that cocky bastard, we could make do. All teams fight between each other, it’s not the chemistry in the beginning of the road, it’s the chemistry when it counts that matters!”

Mana smiled and nodded. Somehow talking to Kiyomi made her own worries and painful history feel a little bit lighter. Kiyomi was definitely a person that the magician wanted to be around more and maybe work with after this mission. If they even return from their mission, that is.

“So for how long are we going to wait?” Kiyomi pouted looking back at Mana who was patiently standing near the guard stand with her hands locked on her chest, staring at the village as if she still had hope that the third one would show up. After being asked the question the magician just sighed. “Don’t know, you’re the one with more experience, you take charge” she submitted all of the responsibility on Kiyomi’s shoulders.

“Point taken, if I can choose between a ninja from our village and some mercenaries I’ll choose a homie anytime. Don’t really like those brutes anyway
” Kiyomi grunted out. The blonde didn’t seem to be a very patient one but she appeared to at the very least be able to get over herself and wait if she needed to. Stepping over one’s own character was a really good feature which the magician greatly liked in anyone she met. This Kiyomi girl just may have been a pleasant person to work with


“You’ve had some bad experience with mercenaries?” Mana asked. She recalled her own experience dealing with the mercenaries that Hanada Katsuo hired to watch over his family. Based on that experience alone those guys weren’t really trustworthy, yet that one guy who still worked for Katsuo seemed really happy to have moved past his mercenary days and settling down.

“Oh, come on, you don’t have to have bad days with them to know they’re trouble. Think about it, some ex-ninja and just all around brawlers, criminals and killers selling their services, wandering in bands and settling down in camps all over the world. Anyone who defies a village and isn’t loyal to something, willing to sell themselves over a coin is a scumbag.” Kiyomi laughed out sarcastically, she really used a lot of irony and disgust in her voice.

This special dislike for people who didn’t obey a village and didn’t devote themselves to an ideal sort of hurt Mana. The magician wanted to talk to Kiyomi about clans but then she realized that her own origins hailing from the Wandering Ninja would’ve come up. Wandering Ninja must’ve been just as shameful and hate-worthy to Kiyomi as mercenaries. Mana pouted and tightened her hand lock trying to close that part of herself from her temporary partner. Suddenly the magician stood straight and started moving out through the gate.

Kiyomi jumped up and started running after Mana. “Hey, wait up, what got into you!?” the blonde yelled out. The young magician really hoped that Kiyomi didn’t read minds casually, that would’ve been an invasion of privacy but that wasn’t the worst part, Mana just wanted to keep her origins secret from a person who was a patriot and devoted to their village without question. That wasn’t an unusual trait, Kiyomi deserved no hatred or dislike for it. A lot of ninja were just like that. Mana just sighed realizing that once again she was the black sheep, she would’ve always chosen her own ideals and freedom over the orders from a village, she’d have been willing to die for her ideals or lose her title as a ninja. She wasn’t that much different from the mercenaries, she just didn’t sell her ideals out, the ideals themselves were the coins for the girl.

“Did I say something?” Kiyomi ran up to Mana looking at the girl curiously, this at the very least revealed that Kiyomi didn’t just probe people’s minds just because she could. That just made the younger kunoichi appreciate her superior a little bit more.

“No. I got sick of waiting, let’s move.” Mana cut the dialogue down, she was really hurt and shut inside, maybe most because she admired Kiyomi and wanted Kiyomi’s approval and this revelation that Kiyomi was one of those loyalists of letter of law and absolute loyalty to the village made Mana feel like in the eyes of her superior which she wanted to befriend she’d have looked just like those mercenaries – just a scumbag.

“Okay, the road is long, are you gonna talk to me, or not? How about you? Have you had any experience with mercenaries?” Kiyomi asked with that same tone of curiosity in her voice. The blonde must’ve already picked up on something bugging Mana, she also appeared to have related that to something that she must’ve said and it was evident that Kiyomi tried to somehow find out about what exactly rubber her partner the wrong way without probing her mind.

“Yeah, I’ve had some. I fought them when they turned on a guy who paid them.” Mana casually threw back. She didn’t sound angry or anything, nothing in her voice implied any malicious and offensive feelings towards the Yamanaka but she still sounded sad. Almost like a person sounds when they knew they’ve been wrong and someone corrected them. A part of a person felt grateful for the person who did that but it still hurt deep inside.

“Oh
 That’s impressive, mercenaries are trained to face ninja, for a girl your age to hold your own, that’s pretty cool, you must be really strong” Kiyomi tried to somehow repay her unclear offensive remark with some compliments. Mana didn’t react to that in any way. “Did you beat them all by yourself?”

Mana suddenly started feeling even worse. The magician stopped letting Kiyomi catch up to her and then take lead. She then shook her head angrily but slowly. “No. This jounin named Dorimi saved me. I did knock out all but the leader, I hesitated to kill him and he flipped the table on me, next thing I know I was about to die
” Mana stopped talking trying to let her newly made friend know that she didn’t take any pride of having to be saved. If actually offend her a little.

Kiyomi laughed out, “Really? Why would you hesitate to do something like that? You’re just like my friend, not the Uchiha one, that guy was a real douchebag, he never hesitated, the other one, the one who quit. Initially he really was afraid to fight people, Hanasaku-sensei kept pummeling his face every time he refused to hurt someone because he was afraid to hurt them. “You don’t have to kill, but you must not be afraid to fight! If they die while you’re fighting it’s on them, not on you. True student of mine must love fighting!”” Kiyomi did her best impression of the Fifth.

“Great, so on top of being a village loyalist Kiyomi is also a brawler with no reservations about killing
” Mana sighed after being laughed at. It wasn’t an offensive laugh, more like the kind of laugh that a friend gives you when you tell them an embarrassing story from your youth. Mana lived a life of embarrassment and inner pain, she was always looked down on and laughed at whenever she voiced her ideals of peace and love being the ruling forces of the world. One of the most painful things to happen to her was when ninja she admired ditched her beliefs and laughed at them.

Tanshu-sensei wasn’t a ninja Mana wanted to be like when she grew up, still, to her Tanshu-sensei was the best ninja in the world. When the world’s strongest ninja tells you you’re wrong there’s a certain amount of pain and sadness one has to go through. Tanshu was supposed to know everything there was to know about being a ninja and he was pretty firm on that specific distaste of Mana’s ideals. Now Kiyomi, a kunoichi whom Mana strived to be more like, someone she looked up to because of how cool, pretty and strong she was, also shared that same belief. The world didn’t seem like it was about to give the magician a break.

“OK, wait, are you
 Still
 You know
 Like that?” Kiyomi suddenly jumped up and shyly shouted out, having realized that she may have spouted out something offensive. Mana silently nodded.

“I am, I would never consciously take a life, I’d die before killing someone. I used to be a lot more peaceful but a wise man once taught me that in order to protect the people I want to protect, which is everyone, I need to fight sometimes. I realized that he was right, if an enemy of mine chooses to fight, it’s his choice and I’ll do my darned best to end that fight quickly. I won’t shy away from doing whatever I can to them, I’ll break their body and their mind until they can’t fight but I’ll never take their life.” Mana silently explained, she could hear Kiyomi’s step slow down a little and wriggle hesitantly further from her.

“Damn
 That’s pretty
 You know
” Kiyomi let out, she wasn’t disgusted or anything she just wanted to let Mana know what she thought.

“Stupid? Yeah, Tanshu-sensei let me know that every day
” Mana replied shutting inside even further.

“No
 Dark and hardcore. I mean
 I get it, you don’t want to kill it’s your ideal, your nindo and all that but
 It’s not by any means an idealistic pink shades ideal I’ve taken it for. You may just be darker inside than I am. Most ninja choose to kill other people over causing them too much pain, the whole point of ninjutsu is to eliminate the enemy so quickly that they don’t even know what hit them, so fast that they don’t even get a chance to feel any pain
” Kiyomi explained.

Mana didn’t get any happier from that declaration of opinion but at least she knew now that Kiyomi didn’t exactly think that Mana or her nindo was stupid. She just took a bit different stance on things and that was alright. That was why magic chose to let Kiyomi be born, she was that kind of person and people of every kind were necessary in this world for it to be rich and diverse and as magical as Mana took it to be.

“Look
 If I said or did something that hurt you, you know I didn’t
” Kiyomi started something that sounded like an apology, Mana shook her head and interrupted her newly met friend.

“No, it’s my fault. Me getting worked up over you saying something about my views, which is also a testament of your views is the same thing as the thing I’m getting worked up for. I’m just
 I get angry sometimes and sad and
 I know it’s wrong, I know I’m wrong but it doesn’t help
” Mana almost grunted out her admittance of being wrong. She knew just how hypocritical getting offended for expression of opinion was, after all, she made a life of someone harder just because they let her know their opinion. In other words, she got pissy about someone’s opinion because someone got pissy about hers. If there was anything wrong with the views of Kiyomi, Mana made something equally as wrong with hers when she took them too deep and shut in herself.

“It’s called puberty, it’ll pass
” Kiyomi smiled, Mana finally managed to crack a grin. “You should’ve seen me when I was your age, I was punching everyone, every time. Even Hanasaku-sensei got the sharp end of my wrath, I liked to punch her especially because she never got hurt from any of it
”

“I
 I got angry initially because you said you disliked people who took their ideals over the authority of the village. I’m a half-blooded descendant of a tribe of wandering ninja entertainers, they valued freedom and making people laugh and enjoy their time most of all. They got slaughtered by the village because they defied its authority, I just felt like if you knew that you’d hate me just like you hated those mercenaries
” Mana admitted.

“That’s stupid, why would anyone hate someone with those cute cheeks?” Kiyomi playfully pinched Mana. Being treated like a younger sister initially annoyed the magician but then she still couldn’t keep her laugh inside. “So you’re from a clan too? I’ve never heard about your clan, guess that makes you a little last princess, huh? Most girls would kill to be in your shoes” Kiyomi joked with some irony in her voice.

“It wasn’t an actual clan, more like a tribe of people who shared their love for freedom and entertaining people for food and donations to get them through the life outside the village walls” Mana spoke “Plus, I’m not sure if I’m the “princess” of anything, I’m only half-blooded member of a tribe of ninja mutts with kind hearts. I just really like everything my ancestors stood for and I owe a lot, because of my own ideas, to what they did”

Kiyomi shrugged, “Nothing wrong with that. You’re not selling your ideas and heart out for money like mercenaries, you have your own nindo which isn’t that popular to begin with. It constantly clashes with the opinions of people around you and the popular opinion of your village. You’re always forced to defend your views against parties much stronger, older and more respected than you and you’re always looked down on and pushed around. You’re strong, both inside and outside and that deserves nothing but respect”

Mana looked at Kiyomi for a moment and smiled, she just barely restrained her instinct to gleefully shriek like a little girl, her idol finally recognized her ideals and existence, she may not have actually agreed with Mana’s views but at least she recognized that they were there and didn’t just attack Mana for believing in such stupid childish things. That to the magician meant the whole world.

“So, how close are you to being “Princess Yamanaka”?” Mana asked trying to return the question and get to know a bit about Kiyomi in the process. The blonde smiled and sighed.

“Actually
 I’m pretty much it, my father’s brother is supposed to pass on the status of clan’s head to his heir but he has no children. The main idea floating around is that once I get married my family will lead the clan” Kiyomi admitted slightly blushing.

“Why do you need to marry someone to lead a clan, also wouldn’t that make you the queen? I mean wouldn’t your husband rule the clan in that case?” Mana curiously blinked repeatedly. All those clan rules were so complicated and confusing but they were living tradition and history and Mana loved everything about history.

“Not if I marry another wife, I’m joking
 I mean, whatever, the thing is that if I marry a Yamanaka like me, in that case yes, he’ll get the wheel and I’ll just be a cheerleader from the side but if I marry someone from another clan, they won’t hand the rule over clan matters to some random guy so I’ll still have the whole responsibility in my hands and my husband will be the cheerleader.” Kiyomi explained. Mana almost felt bad that she didn’t take a notebook to write all that stuff down, clan rules and traditions were pretty interesting but also confusing.

“Wow, I should’ve known earlier, I would’ve bowed to Your Majesty!” Mana smiled and bowed from the waist down as if she was meeting a Feudal Lord or something. Kiyomi just showed Mana her fist as her eyes flared as hotly as the red on the Yamanaka’s cheeks. “I’m older than you by at least two years, I can still kick your butt, you know” the blonde let out a joking threat, at least it was supposed to be taken as that from the tone.

All of a sudden Mana’s eyes shifted to a spot behind her, the girl leaped into the air and quickly made some hand seals, Mana thrust her legs forward, almost like as if she did a dropkick but instead of just kicking a powerful gust of air shot from her feet, it was a vertical “Mystical Wings” jutsu. The powerful gust of wind that would’ve normally propelled Mana into the sky or broken her fall now blew away multiple knives coming at the two girls. Kiyomi looked back and picked one of those knives up examining them.

“They’re not just simple kunai, they’re throwing knives but they’re completely flat, they’re meant to go in deep, not just puncture the flesh, this one can go through bone and even get into the body whole way in. Be careful” the blonde warned, she then lifted her head up and yelled out, “Come on out!” into the thickness of the forest. Nothing came from the blackness of the shadows formed by the thick line of trees. The assailant may have been anywhere.

“Damn it!” Kiyomi shouted out nervously throwing multiple kunai and shuriken into the depth of the shades, in multiple directions and multiple degrees of elevation just to see if she can get a read on the enemy’s location. The correct course of action would’ve been to dive behind cover, trees could easily stop shuriken and kunai but these knives were so flat that they had the penetrative power to go through most trees and then still pierce into the flesh, staying hidden behind a cover would’ve just made the two static targets unaware of them being picked off.

A dark haired young woman leaped out from the cover deflecting the kunai and shuriken going her way as easily as eating a pie. She wielded twin short swords, they went just a bit past her elbow but they were definitely long enough to impale someone on them. They also looked a bit crooked and more of the slashing kind. The woman’s face had a strange tattoo on the upper forehead and the cheek, they were some strange symbols, hieroglyphs used in the ancient times that Mana identified as being from the War of the Earth and the Moon times. The one on her forehead read “Kill”, the one on her cheek meant an ancient praise of a single symbol “Galateia Be Praised”, it was hard to know what exactly that name meant, it could’ve been the name of this young woman.

“Why you! Are you a mercenary?” Kiyomi wondered out loud but then she noticed a headband protector with the Konoha sign on it. The raven haired assailant was tall, she was no girl, she must’ve been either in her late teens or early twenties even as her body was completely formed, covered with scars and tattoos. She wore a simple darkened bronze ring armor which only covered her chest, her arms looked like the arms of a slim but athletic male. This was a woman capable of smothering the life out of a person if she got her hands on them. She had an extremely pale skin and oddly colored dark purple eyes with wide irises. That was too unique of a look not to be from some weird clan.

“Galateia, Goddess of War be praised with these two joining her fray!” the woman uttered playing and rubbing her swords at each other so strongly that they shot off sparks. She must’ve been able to coat the blades with chakra because usually swords dulled when similar misuse and tension was applied to them.

“What kind of retarded Goddess accepts one’s own comrades as offering?” Kiyomi angrily grunted charging forward, the woman moved in an instant, passing right through her opponent. After this assailant appeared behind Kiyomi, the Yamanaka grunted in pain and fell on her knees, a small gash opened on her cheek but the girl appeared to be clenching her gut where she must’ve been hit with something dull as it didn’t bleed. This woman was insanely fast! Way faster than any genin Mana had ever seen.

“Galateia, Goddess of War? That’s the Goddess from the times of the Great Settlement period, worshipped by assassins and warriors like the Uchiha and Kaguya. Who are you?” Mana asked the attacking kunoichi openly but the young woman straightened out and prepared to attack again instead of answering Mana’s question. Mana lunged forward, she couldn’t let this woman attack Kiyomi, with a quick flick of her wrists she tossed several steel tipped cards that hit the swords in the lower section forcing some shock to be transferred into the woman’s wrists, strong enough to disable those arms for a moment.

Mana leaped into the fray with a powerful spinning kick but her kick was blocked by the same manner of kick. Angered and irritated from being perfectly matched in term of kicking speed and power Mana kept sending more and more kicks, faster and faster, the woman matched Mana’s speed but didn’t surpass it, the two were locked in a clash of kicks, it was an endless dance of kick after kick, Mana’s black sandals moving in a flurry, powerful booming sounds of muscle hitting muscle erupted every time the two clashed. As fast as Mana kicked, as fast as she linked her kicks together and switched her dominant leg letting out another kick the woman matched it perfectly, it was a very different style but it was equally fast and strong.

Mana did a cartwheel back to clear the area as a powerful explosion erupted coming from Kiyomi’s explosive kunai but the woman just leaped out from the smoke moving in close to Mana, with her swords in the ready to cut the girl down. Mana gasped as that last exchange of kicks left her out of air and as fast as the girl’s hand seals were they weren’t fast enough to save her life. That was it! The woman grunted triumphant as her swords swung in a mad spinning slash but they only cut down a large log. Mana felt her being held by Kiyomi further away – the Yamanaka used substitution to replace Mana with a log that she had in her hands.

“Thanks” Mana thanked her friend feeling really bad about almost being killed. She trained so intensely that last year and all of it was for nothing, had she been alone she’d just have died for nothing. “Don’t feel bad, no way she’s a genin, we’re as good as genin get, I would’ve aced those Chuunin Exams last year and I know a Chuunin when I see one.” Kiyomi winked at Mana, “You’ve just clashed your super neat legs against those of a Chuunin and didn’t get crushed, also you kept her from cutting me down so that’s appreciated
” Kiyomi breathed out as she did seem a little worn.

The Yamanaka shoved her arms forward holding them in a peculiar hand seal. “Mind Body Switch Jutsu!” she shouted out, Mana’s mouth opened wide from surprise when she saw some sort of transparent ghost-like figure shooting out from Kiyomi’s hand seal heading towards the woman, with a graceful flip to the side using her one hand for support the woman evaded and lunged towards Kiyomi. Mana leaped back, knowing that the woman didn’t attack fast enough for someone as tough as Kiyomi not to dodge it. The woman got closer and closer, time seemed to have stopped. Mana’s arms went through a handseal. The woman’s swords pierced Kiyomi’s black grey top but then only cut through a log. Mana returned the favor by substituting herself and her friend.

“Thanks” Kiyomi smiled at Mana, “I am left wide open and can’t move for a while after using that technique, I guess she’s a bit too agile to just throw it around like that, sorry” the blonde laughed out as if her life wasn’t on the line here. Mana smiled back, “Guess we’re even then” she casually said without turning her eyes off the woman. Suddenly the woman leaped forward, reminding of one of those graceful jumps of ballet, as her dominant foot landed it redirected all of the force into a fierce skin, the swordswoman moved like a horizontal disc saw!

Kiyomi charged forward, somehow Mana knew just what her friend meant to do, it was like they were meant to be fighting together, almost like they needed no further training to understand one another. After getting dangerously close to the woman Kiyomi flipped acrobatically over the woman with an arabian flip. Since Kiyomi covered everything behind her with her body there was no way for the woman to see Mana’s steel cards with explosive notes on them, a violent explosion erupted from the cards being deflected by the woman’s mad spinning motion. Kiyomi and Mana were huffing and smiling at each other for their nice combination move. This fight was like their deadly playground to learn to work together. They’d need it later, if they survived this, that is.

The woman was huffing heavily on her knees to the side, her armor was completely busted and all over the ground, the bronze rings weren’t that tough to shatter. She must’ve really strained her body hard and twisted her leg weird because she was sweating all over her forehead. Mana and Kiyomi attacked simultaneously, neither of them was able to match this woman up close alone but together they could just do that. Mana went in for a fierce and swift combo of kicks that was swiftly blocked, the magician felt Kiyomi’s arms on her shoulders as the Yamanaka leaped over Mana with a powerful kick that planted right into the woman’s face, making her stagger back with a bleeding nose. Mana rolled forward getting behind the woman and doing a backwards cartwheel to send her up in the air, then leaping up and wrapping her leg around the woman’s neck. The assailant let out a powerful grunt as Mana’s other foot kicked the woman straight into the top of her head sending her crashing down into the dirt.

Mana landed nearby and moved back in order to avoid any deceitful responses from her lying opponent. Kiyomi looked at Mana and nodded. “This woman can augment her moves, her endurance, her strength and speed using chakra, that’s why she’s still alive
” Mana concluded seeing the woman rising up from the ground, wiping blood off her nose and her lip which was busted. “This sort of augmentation is not something genin can do, not to such extent, this combo I hit her with was made to paralyze
” Mana huffed heavily.

“Well then it’s official, we’re facing a Chuunin, a Jounin would’ve already mopped the floor with us
” the blonde concluded.

“You little fancy dressing bitch!” the assailant yelled out, she appeared to have quite the potty-mouth and her voice fit that rough manner of speech perfectly.

“I just wanted to mess around with you two, now this is personal! I’ll kill you both and then finish our mission by myself!” the woman swiped with her sword angrily taking a fighting stance again. Kiyomi and Mana both blinked rapidly as they realized that this woman in front of them was their third teammate.

The woman leaped forward swinging at both girls but Mana gave Kiyomi a boost to leap over the slash while she herself just dodged backwards just getting a small cut on her throat, any deeper and it may have really gotten nasty. Mana covered her neck trying to see if the bleeding was dangerous or not, it bled rather slowly but it was a very annoying and relentless bleeding, plus the magician preferred not to mess up her uniform if possible. Those required a lot of sewing and crafting to complete with all those hidden pockets and spring devices to boost the speed of the cards shooting out of her palms


Kiyomi charged forward, the woman roared proudly raising her swords vertically and Mana observed much to her horror as her friend ended up hanging on the tips of those swords. At least Kiyomi managed to somewhat augment her endurance or else she’d have been impaled. With a swift kicked after removing the swords the woman sent Kiyomi rolling back grasping her small wound on her gut. Despite the gruesome look, her friend was lucky to toughen up just in time, she must’ve wasted a lot of chakra but at least she didn’t die


The raven haired psycho leaped at Kiyomi trying to decapitate her when Mana appeared in front of her pressing the buttons of her cufflinks, whole two decks of steel tipped cards shot out, the woman backflipped doing her best to deflect all of them, she skipped some, they left some nasty cuts, several etched into the woman’s body but generally she received no fight ending wounds whereas Mana cleaned all of her reserves that were in her emergency spot near her wrists. The psycho swiped her sword and licked the blood off of the tip, leaving some to rub onto her cheek, she seemed to enjoy the blood of her injured comrade.

“I see, so that’s why you dress like that, you hide those stupid cards in every pocket of that stupid uniform. No worry, auntie Hisako will strip you of it and force you to fight without it, I’ll kill you slowly without your handy cards to bail you out. I’ll bleed you out like a pig, then that older blonde will beg me not to kill her like you, maybe if I’ll have had enough of your screams I’ll slit her throat and be done with it
”

Kiyomi grunted out, her gut wound must’ve kept her down pretty badly. “That clears it out, she’s a goddamn Yoruma
” the blonde said. Half of Mana’s glance reached back at her friend, “Yoruma? I think I’ve heard that last name before
” Kiyomi nodded.

“Yeah, Yoruma are braindead psycho assassins, some of them are just bloodthirsty brawlers, some of them are cold and calculated psychopaths who love to torture people. I don’t know why the village keeps them around but they do, probably cause Yoruma are decent at torture, assassination and strategy so the Council likes them... If you ever felt compelled to kill someone, this might be the right chance to think over your beliefs, knowing Yoruma mentality, she’s not bluffing.” Kiyomi grunted standing up. Mana took her fighting stance, she was ready to take this woman on, or at least hold her back before Kiyomi recovered.

“No. Even a woman like this deserves to live, somewhere, at some point she’ll have a purpose to serve and I have no right to take her life. It’s not for me to decide those things.” Mana replied still very much determined to keep even this psycho alive. Hisako leaped forward swinging her sword, Mana tried to block it but the sword blurred and Mana couldn’t catch the blade with her palms – it disappeared like a mirage! Then the mirage disappeared and the real Hisako appeared in its place, the first one was just an afterimage, the woman slashed making Mana scream in pain, she didn’t cut to kill, she didn’t intend for it to be that quick. Nor did the Yoruma wish to let the magician have it that easy, she playfully cut Mana again and again, rubbing her blade against Mana’s skin just to open painful gashes but not to make them deep enough to kill her. This Hisako really was ready to fulfill her promise!

Finally after a powerful spinning motion after jumping up in the air, the swordswoman sent Mana down on the ground. The magician grunted pitifully but she crawled away further from her opponent just to stand up again. “What a fucking disgrace, a little pop idol girl who thinks she’s a ninja yet refuses to kill. I’ll do the world a favor and snuff you out right here and now, I don’t plan on giving you an easy time either, it’ll be a lesson to all those stupid idealistic little kids who think this is some cranberry pie day out here!” the woman shouted out.

“Stop! If you kill a comrade for no reason you’ll go on Ninja Tribunal, you’ll get executed or imprisoned for life!” Kiyomi tried to reason with the Yoruma. The woman turned back with a sadistic smile, “Do I look like the kind of a bitch that cares!?” she replied licking the blood off of her swords. Mana’s foot planted deep into Hisako’s gut while she was distracted, the woman flew backwards, her eyes looked completely whited out. Mana realized this was her final chance, with a swift roll she moved behind stumbling Hisako and locked her hands behind her, she locked them hard enough for the raven haired monster to drop her blades. Kiyomi placed her seals forward, “I’ll kill this psycho right now
” she said angrily, the blonde’s voice was enraged enough for Mana to believe it!

“No, please don’t, just take her out, we’ll find some mercenaries and ask them to patch us up. They’ve got medics amongst them too, maybe we’ll pay them to detain her while we deal with the mission. Please
” Mana yelled out struggling to keep the hold.

“Mana
 After all the pain she caused you, after she mocked your ideals and cut you up like that, after she tortured you
 You still want her to live?” Kiyomi couldn’t believe, her hand seal faltered and almost sunk down.

“Yes! Hurry up, please!” Mana shouted as Hisako started stomping Mana’s foot and hammering the girl’s sides with elbow strikes but Mana’s hold held firmly. What the magician lacked in physical strength she compensated with sheer willpower.

“Mind Body Disturbance: Harakiri
 Peaceful Version!” Kiyomi chanted firing off that same strange ghost from her hands that this time successfully entered Hisako’s head, a strange howling sound let go as the woman just slipped out from Mana’s arms and ran wildly like a maniac, controlled by Kiyomi’s technique. She slammed her head right into the first tree in her way and passed out. Mana fell onto her knees clutching her cuts and wounds, she lifted her tired and beaten head and smiled for Kiyomi. “Thank you
” she was really grateful for her friend’s decision to modify her kill technique to just disable just because Mana asked her to.

Mana took her top hat from somewhere on the ground and activated her father’s seal removing a medical kit with bandages and some medical food pills. Mana tossed one for Kiyomi and ate one herself, after tying Hisako down she also gave Hisako one. The two girls just collapsed near the tree they held Hisako tied to and almost fell asleep.

“Now we definitely need to find those mercs, we need medical supplies
” Mana said, they had eaten all of their medical food pills and those provided only the most basic medical emergency aid like patching up small wounds and fixing broken bones or torn muscles. These were quite rare so it was unlikely for most genin to even have them, Mana accumulated three over several months of saving them in her missions
 One psychotic young lady ruined all of that collecting, all of that wish to have them ready for a dark time, to save someone’s life with them gone


“I guess you’re right
” Kiyomi nodded. The two looked at Hisako who was awake right after being given the pill and now kept staring at the two with the coldest and most emotionless stare ever seen on a person, it wasn’t angry, it wasn’t spiteful, it was just there


As the day was approaching its end, Mana and Kiyomi continued to wander forward through the Fire Country’s forests. They had already passed the incredibly rich trade route that lead to Shukuba pleasure town, the three decided recently that staying there would be counterproductive. While both girls would’ve used a warm room and a bed, those simple pleasures had to be given up on when the two heard about the prices. It appeared that Hisako, the raven haired assassin from the Yoruma clan was to blame for all of the trio’s troubles.

First of all, Mana and Kiyomi could’ve easily fit into a single room but the policy was that three people had to rent out two rooms. Even a single room would’ve drained the funds meant for hiring a mercenary, something that the magician and the Yamanaka would have to do, now that Hisako proved herself to be completely insane. Even more, with the black haired assailant being tied up she was moving at a turtle’s pace, there was no malice from her side, she just couldn’t move too fast as her legs were restrained and her hands were tied quite firmly. Mana knew which knots could’ve been escaped from and which couldn’t, she’s been doing it for the greater part of her life after all. Even the Academy “Rope Escape Jutsu” couldn’t have helped Hisako with those knots.

And so since the funds needed to be conserved, their prisoner kept in their sight at all times, also the mission implied urgency needed, with the life of a youngster being in question, the three needed to pass right through the pleasure town. Kiyomi was quite rough on the young woman, the Yamanaka kept dragging the woman around like her dog and appeared to greatly enjoy this. Mana asked if it was her turn to keep Hisako on her check and the Yamanaka denied it multiple times. It was a chore to keep the woman on watch and drag her around, still, it was a chore that Kiyomi had taken great pleasure in doing. After almost getting impaled by the Chuunin and having to spend most of her chakra on that incomplete augmentation she must’ve been tired too


To Mana such hate and severity towards a fellow ninja seemed excessive but the magician had decided to show respect towards Kiyomi’s approach after the blonde showed so much respect towards Mana’s by not killing the woman when she had the chance. The Yoruma was so quiet and submissive the whole way after her attack that Mana almost forgot that the woman had just tried to kill them. Well, technically, if her statement was to be trusted she just wanted to mess with her comrades but Mana’s “rough” approach pissed her off. Apparently in Hisako’s mind it was OK to almost kill her comrades but when they as much as touched her in defense they had to get tortured and killed


“Can you believe those Yoruma?” Kiyomi grunted aggressively yanking Hisako’s rope to the point where the rope had burned some nasty wounds on the woman’s hands and body where it came in direct contact with the woman’s skin. Even if those rope burns were supposed to hurt the woman didn’t as much as moan, she just stayed completely quiet and didn’t even flinch even when her wounds turned crimson red and were about to draw blood.

“I’m sorry, I am unfamiliar with the Yoruma except some small bits I’ve heard from my old team about Yoruma torture being the worst there is.” Mana replied quietly, still wondering if she wouldn’t have been out of line to ask Kiyomi take it a little easy on their prisoner. The magician wasn’t even a fan of having her around, after all, if the mercenaries refuse to take Hisako in and deliver her to Konoha they’ll have to go on a mission they have no hopes of completing with an offended Yoruma prisoner who was ready to slit their throats at the moment they make a mistake and let down their guard.

“I mean, they keep pulling shit like this off, once a Yoruma let his teammates die just to wait until the enemy set up camp and then they slowly tortured and killed every enemy in their own camp, the other time they joined the enemy side and killed their own comrades, then when the enemy let down their guards slaughtered them all too. They’re skilled strategists but their strategies involve their comrades getting sacrificed like it’s a game of goddamn shogi!” Kiyomi complained giving Hisako an angry stare and yanking her rope harder, finally the young assassin gave in and fell onto the dirt, Kiyomi walked up closer and stood by the woman giving her time to get up.

“But
 Wouldn’t someone do something about them if they were that bad? Why are they allowed to do things like this?” Mana wondered looking at the whole situation. Hisako wriggled on the ground in pain and Kiyomi softly kicked the woman to the side, not strong enough to hurt her but strong enough for it to hurt and for her irritation to be made apparent.

“That’s the thing, every time they do crazy shit like that they complete the mission. The village Council loves them. The First Hokage once fought over the Council to banish them, the entire clan was nearly snuffed out under the Second but they really must like sex because they’re duplicating like rabbits
” Mana giggled into her palm from Kiyomi’s mention of procreating, for some reason to her dirty jokes seemed funny, even if they never did before.

“Every time the Fourth tried to raise the question of their blatant lack of any morals or ethics, the Council shot the Hokage down. The Yoruma complete their mission, they do everything they’re told to do, why bother sending a Yamanaka to read someone’s mind, you’d need to answer a bunch of questions, you’d need to capture the enemy alive and then the Yamanaka would know all the secrets you’re conveying, they also are moral, they tend not to torture people needlessly. Yoruma can just delete them like that enemy was never born and they’ll never wink twice about it or ask a bloody question, if one needs intel they’ll torture it out from them with no moral code in their methods. For that reason the Council made them pretty much damned invincible in terms of responsibility. They do from time to time act out a Ninja Tribunal session but for some reason the Yoruma either get all charges dropped or just get placed in Eden, the softest of the Correctional Facilities.” Kiyomi kicked softly at Hisako again to which the woman moaned but managed to pull herself off the ground.

Mana wanted to raise a point that Kiyomi’s hatred seemed to be based somewhat on clan competition. There was a big tension between clans and the competitiveness of efficiency in terms of mission completion always made matters even more difficult. Yet the magician stayed silent, she had no clan so she couldn’t understand those sort of matters. “I’ve met a young man who was too powerful for his rank too one day, he was trained in the Kirigakure Demon Corps and he was quite ruthless, I wonder if he’s a Yoruma too
” Mana remembered the young Demon that they fought in the Junkyard district.

“Unlikely, those bastards are Konoha exclusive, as far as I know. Several villages want some of them for their services but the Council doesn’t want to share and the Yoruma don’t even care. As long as they have beer to drink, members of other or same sex to have fun with and throats to slit they’re happy in Konoha.” The Yamanaka grunted out annoyed. Obviously the matter of Yoruma was a painful and inviting a lot of hatred topic for the blonde so Mana wanted to drop it as fast as possible.

Finally as the sky turned dark the trio reached the mercenary camp that was wandering around close to Shukuba town and Konoha. This one was a particular and a special one, ninja sometimes used the services of mercenaries and this one was an exclusively that kind of a band. They hung around Konoha and offered their easily accessible services to the ninja of that village, other villages had similar bands as well. Mana and Kiyomi were hesitant to enter the camp. It was a large circle of tents with a colossal fire that lit up the night’s sky. Some sort of a large animal was being roasted on a spear just above the fire.

“You can come in, girls!” a loud voice reached the ears of Mana and Kiyomi. It was cybernetic voice, similar to that of the same Demon that Mana had remembered fighting before. This mercenary must’ve used a cybernetic amplifier which made his voice unrecognizable too. The three slowly stepped into where the band could have seen them. These were a very brawny lot, armed to the teeth and armored. They looked like quite capable of doing most jobs requiring muscle but it was always a gamble with mercenaries as the three were just teenage girls entering their fray.

The owner of the strange cybernetic voice stepped into the light, revealing himself from the large circle and looking over the three. The giant was almost twice larger than any tall normal man. There were many ways in the ninja world to achieve such insane height and bulk but this certainly was not by any means achieved by natural means. The man may have been closing in on four meters in his size and he did not lack anything in the physical bulk department either. His group wore the usual chuunin vests that would protected their vitals and their torso from most conventional weapons like swords and kunai knives or shuriken. This man however was too large for that, he just wore a white shirt and a black vest with shoulder guards to protect his oversized neck and shoulders.

“Well, come on, little ladies, won’t you ask how I knew of your presence, if anything you were pretty much invisible, ain’t that right, folks?” the giant turned at his group who all raised their beers in the air and yelled out with a deafening cry of joy and approval. Mana’s heart was thudding like mad inside of her little chest, one couldn’t have been too sure about how a bunch of mercenaries would react


“OK, big guy, how did you know?” Kiyomi replied having decided to play by the leader’s rules in case of them staying there.

The man suddenly reached onto his eye lid and peeled it up as if it was some sort of a zipper revealing a red glowing eye with some sort of yellow symbols and numbers running down his fake eye. “Those damned Iwagakure sensor eyes, best thing in the world, I swear, calculates distance between multiple points, senses body temperature and all that neat stuff. I don’t know how those bastards rock miners did this but it’s hot as hell!” the man shouted out in excitement.

Mana actually was quite interested in this strange eye of the mercenary boss. She had heard stories about technological breakthroughs happening all around the world. Konoha with its glowing gas for vendor ads and computers which could calculate really fast and store files, some people said it’d soon push the carrier pigeons and the Konohagakure Archive and its scissor-man owner out of business! Iwagakure with its sensory and radar technology, inventing radars that could sense veins of certain minerals underground and put the structure of the soil on display, Sunagakure with its amazing weather prediction system and its amazing solar power drawing devices. So far, Kirigakure was the only one lacking of technological advances as it very much dabbled in the old ways. They did use Sunagakure’s solar power technology and started recently developing similar hydro power technology under the watch of the other villages


“And what’s that on your back? Is that a sensor too?” Hisako’s voice came for the first time since she was captured. Kiyomi looked back at the woman angrily and was about to punch her but she decided not to, after all, showing violence in front of those guys may make them a bit annoyed.

“Nope!” the mercenary colossus removed his gigantic pole from his back. It looked like some sort of metallic column of some sort and it had bunch of weird numbers on it. “This is “Julie” the newest invention from Kumogakure, the world’s leading inventors of kickass weapons. This baby converts chakra into pulsar blasts that blow shit up, no jutsu needed. You sort of need to know how to channel it into this baby so that sucks but so far this baby and me are engaged!”

Mana smiled back at Hisako, the woman seemed to know how to play this man, if he was pleased and talking he would’ve most likely have grown fond of the three and maybe helped them out. Then out of nowhere the giant mercenary leader recovered and pointed his gigantic finger at Hisako, seeing those fingers made Mana shake, the man would’ve been able to pop her head like a zit with two of those if he grabbed a hold on her


“Why is that little hottie all tied up? We’re all free men here, aren’t we? Untie her the fuck up, come on, don’t be such poor sports
” the man commanded.

Kiyomi stepped forward but Hisako leaped into her back pushing her forward, Mana realized what the young woman was doing so she covered her friend’s mouth too.

“Ummm
 My friend wanted to know which mercenary band this was, if we were to have business and untie this woman, we want to know at least if we’re dealing with the right band
” Mana smiled and blushed as she just made that excuse up. She needed to buy time and play this right, hopefully Hisako got over her madness and started playing along, so far she seemed quite helpful and started making up for trying to kill the two. Not that saving their lives would make up for that but she was at least going the right direction.

“Right, well my name’s Hachi, I’m the leader here ‘cause I blew the last one the hell up. That dick tried to move this band away from Konoha, I didn’t agree with that and I used all of my awesome gear that I’ve bought using my numerous payments, which other members of my
 Group
 Wasted on booze and
 You know
 Temporarily fun things.” The giant explained. Mana didn’t really like this man, not because of his “weapons of destruction are cool” attitude but because he had enough brain to use his funds for something like bartering for such weapons. Most mercenaries weren’t so good at making investments for the long run because they had no long run, their life expectancy out here wasn’t that great so they just drank and humped until they died in battle. This guy was different and something about it rubbed Mana the wrong way.

“Fine, we want to do business with you, Hachi” Kiyomi pulled the bag of coins that she was given by the Fifth as mission funds. “-san
” Mana added trying not to disrespect the man and desperately wanting not to pick a fight with this group. There may have been as many as twenty men and women here, most of them wore chuunin vests and how they earned them was quite shady, they may have been bought or looted from dead bodies and ninja tend not to sell their equipment to strangers unless they’re greedy and the deal is good.

“Well then, why don’t you settle down by the fire, young ladies, also untie the blackhead chick, even if she’s your prisoner she’s not running away from all of us.” Hachi ordered.

“You’d be surprised
” Kiyomi started but then mercenaries surrounded Hisako and cut her ropes. “Or
 You know
 Do whatever the hell you want
” the blonde finished her thought having realized that all semblance of control had just been taken away and the table was officially flipped now. The rug couldn’t have been more pulled. The mercenaries gently lead the girls around the fire as they settled down in front of it, on the other side Hachi dropped down shaking the ground under his giant rear cheeks. His size never ceased to impress, apparently his weight must’ve been matching the man’s size as well.

“Well then, what do you need to do and what do you have to offer for it?” Hachi asked curiously placing his head onto his giant palm and looking at the three girls with genuine curiosity. The lack of malicious intent in his eyes was surprising but Mana had seen kind eyes change into malicious in a matter of moment. This situation was as close to sword of Damocles as possible.

Kiyomi peeled a chunk of meat from the giant animal roasting and stuffed her mouth after being gestured to eat. After swallowing the whole thing down she slammed her hand on the ground to try and gather some respect and authority. Mana also took a small bite of the meat, she wasn’t much of an eater but if a host wanted one to eat, the worst thing to do was to dishonor them by refusing, especially if a host had a heat-seeking eye and a pulsar chakra blast launcher on his back as well as God knew what other enhancements
 Hisako also sliced a piece with her knife. She had multiple belts of knives all around her body, as many actually as Mana had cards. For a moment this revelation of all the hidden sharp blades around Hisako’s body made the magician feel happy that she recollected most of her cards she had tossed in their brief scuffle before.

“We have a hostage kidnapped and we need hands to rescue it. This woman here is Yoruma Hisako, she was supposed to be our teammate, a Chuunin no less, and she tried to kill us. Now we’re short on competent hands and we need your help. All of the ryo here is all we have to offer, unless you’re also charging us for the food
” Kiyomi explained their situation revealing the bag of coins on the dirt, it was picked up by a mercenary and brought to Hachi who counted the ryo and nodded.

“Fifty thousand ryo for an assignment like this? I assume you’re paying for a single merc because one mercenary costs forty five thousand at the least, I price my own services in the ranges starting from a million ryo.” the man rumbled out. Kiyomi looked really confused, she probably expected hiring the boss as a single mercenary may not have cut it in this assignment.

Hisako spat to the left, her spit landed alarmingly close to a near naked mercenary woman who was rubbing her body against her colleague. “Anyone told you you’re a greedy bastard, Hachi?” she remarked, the mercenaries started shouting out in excitement as they felt like this woman had just challenged their leader.

Hachi laughed out, his laugh alone appeared to nearly put out the giant fire in the center of the camp.

“I mean a kunai with an explosive tag costs what
 Eight hundred ryo? To have decent meal costs more like nine hundred, if we’re talking Ichiraku Ramen it’s five hundred or even three depending on the bowl of ramen. Now I haven’t seen shit from you yet so if you asked me, I’d rather eat two thousand bowls of ramen and let my egg allergy kill me than hire you. Or just buy a thousand and a quarter of another thousand of explosive kunai, I’ll let your little calculator in your eye do the math and check if I’m correct, I get it, you’re big, it takes time for blood to reach everywhere
” Hisako kept on throwing insults at the man but it appeared like the more she insulted the man, the more he kept on laughing.

“Now there’s a bitch who knows how to talk to a merc
” Hachi laughed out. He stood up and took his “Julie” off aiming to the side and blasting a single bright blue ball of pure chakra into the area where the three have come from. A deafening sound equaling a thousand thunderclaps made Mana lose her hearing for a moment and the bright light completely devastated her sight. The magician only regained her senses after almost a minute and she only saw devastation and destruction, craters and trees pulled with their roots and incinerated in the blast into dust and ashes. This man blew up at least fifty meters radius area with just one blast, a glass container shot out from “Julie” breaking on the ground. It was empty.

Hisako nodded, she didn’t appear surprised or impressed but Mana could smell the sweat from the girl, she clearly was stressing out a little even if her act was pitch perfect. “Fine, we’ll take either you if you’re willing to work for this price or a man whom you trusted enough to join your group. Give us someone of your choosing.”

Hachi sat back down putting his trusted cannon back it its sheath. “Not so fast. There’s still one matter I don’t get. You came here with this mission and hired us, that’s fine. But then where will you go at night? You are clearly also asking us to let you sleep here in our tents, that’ll cost twelve thousand ryo extra, I mean you’re ninja and this gal looks like a Yoruma with those fucking tats, I can’t really trust you out here unless you’re willing to buy my trust. You’re also asking us to lead this “Hisako” chick right back into Konoha, so you’re expecting my mercs to just waltz into a ninja village? That’s twelve thousand ryo extra. So to sum it up you owe me twenty four thousand ryo more than you got.”

Mana shook in her seat uncomfortably, they didn’t account that at all. When a mercenary feels ripped off he might turn uncontrollable. Kiyomi looked really pale and it didn’t appear like she knew a way out either. Hisako on the other hand wasn’t worried, she was utterly terrified. Mana couldn’t understand it, what exactly could this girl be so terrified of? Then the raven haired woman just stood up and walked up to Hachi on the other side and whispered something into his ear. The man laughed out from his full lion’s chest, the buttons of his shirt shot out revealing his hairy and bulky chest.

“Well then
 This girl knows how to make a deal, then again, you did tell me that you were doubting my skill, why should I value yours at that price? I’ll need a display of your skill or I’ll just send your two underage brats home and keep you under my protection.” Hachi ironically winked at Hisako who just lowered her head. She nodded, then Hachi pointed at some random mercenary who took Hisako to a tent.

Mana turned at Kiyomi who was a bit horrified by the transaction, more perhaps that Hisako was the one to initiate it. The magician didn’t get what exactly was scaring her teammate. Clearly Hisako made some sort of a deal and it from how skilled she was with words it appeared like she was quite skilled at those sort of deals. “What happened?” Mana asked Kiyomi with a whimpering and silenced voice, trying to talk with just her friend. The Yamanaka weaved a hand seal. Her words started appearing in Mana’s thoughts as if the two were linked with their minds, Kiyomi knew how to telepathically communicate!

“It might be better if you don’t know
” the Yamanaka said. Mana wasn’t completely sure why on Earth was the atmosphere suddenly so sad and why her teammate was so crushed. Kiyomi’s hands were trembling for some reason. Fifteen minutes later the mercenary and Hisako walked out from the tent and the mercenary nodded at Hachi. The boss then smiled at the two and at Hisako who soon joined the two by the fire. “Well then, I suppose a fun lady for the night
” Hisako raised her palm and nodded at Mana. Hachi coughed up, “To tell me stories from her rich ninja life whole night, I mean
 That concludes the deal if my associate is happy
”

The boss stood up and spread his hands out wide with a happy smile, his giant cannon almost slipped off of his back. “Well then, young ladies, enjoy yourselves, eat and sleep wherever the fuck you want, my camp is your camp, my mercs are your mercs. My associate just let me know that I in fact owe YOU some. I am glad we could reach a consensual agreement here.” Just like that Hachi disappeared, he danced around by the fire, sang songs and kept on drinking. Mana looked at Kiyomi who couldn’t pull her eyes off of Hisako, for a moment the magician saw the reflection of Kiyomi’s eyes from Hisako’s crystal eyes. The Yamanaka was looking at the Yoruma with both pity and disgust.

Finally the big feast and all those horrible songs and hilarious dancing was over. Mana sat by Hisako who had her hands untied. Kiyomi disappeared in her tent, the mercenaries chose to vacate the tent which Kiyomi had chosen. “If that bitch tries something just think about it, I’ll cut her throat that same instant!” Kiyomi’s thought appeared in Mana’s head, this ability of Kiyomi’s sounded scary, just how did the girl use it? How potent was it? Who heard it? How exactly could Mana talk to Kiyomi back? Apparently it was as easy as focusing on a thought. Still, now the magician saw why the Yamanaka clan was so treasured by the village. They may not have been “point to make the problem disappear” people like Yoruma but they were incredibly handy in other departments.

“Why the fuck are you still here? What are you, seven? Go to bed, twerp!” Hisako hissed angrily at Mana, for some reason the woman wanted to stay alone by the fire. Mana looked at the sad female and she sort of felt sad for her. Whatever that deal she made was it looked like she was really familiar with those terms as that cruel realization moment made it apparent that Hisako had done it multiple times before. Did she often hire mercenaries or something? Mana just wrapped her hands around her knees and buttoned up her blazer and moved in closer by the fire, the night was a really cold one.

“You look sad, I thought maybe you needed company
” Mana tried to be nice to the woman. “Plus I’m like almost fourteen, so come on, don’t be like that.”

“Trust me, kid, I’m about to have my company, more than most can handle.” Hisako hissed back, just with a little less anger, Mana wondered if maybe she could talk to the woman before it was time for the assassin to go to Hachi’s tent to tell those stories of hers.

“You know
 If you don’t want to follow up on that deal, if you don’t know that many stories or if you don’t feel like it
 We can just leave, we can do the mission just the three of us, we wouldn’t need the mercenaries, we’d just have to get together
” Mana suggested, she was really ready to follow up on that suggestion, if Hisako felt uncomfortable with any part of that deal she made the magician just wanted to let the woman know that she had options.

“Jeez you’re so fucking stupid. How do you think it’d go? Me working with that blonde Ms. Morals in there, I’d never wish to impose on her “my bloodline is so exalted and you’re all just fucking disgusting plebs here” personality. Plus just seeing you makes my blood boil, I’d probably just kill the two of you anywhere in the middle of the job. I’d rather tell stories to this whole fucking camp by the fire for a month and then go to prison than have to listen to the condescension of that Yamanaka bitch.” Hisako grunted out, she spoke quietly but she was visibly angry. She looked like a woman who was hurt way too many times as a girl and when she became corrupted by that damage people’s hatred for her made that damage grow out of control.

Mana placed her hand on her chest and wiped her nose. Her eyes started watering a little. “Hisako-san, why do you hate me?” Mana asked.

“Shut up, go to bed already.” The woman hissed back at her.

“I mean
 Why are you so stubborn that you’d rather do something you don’t like than just work with us?” Mana asked again.

A painful shock emanated in Mana’s side, Hisako kicked Mana pretty weakly. Kicks from a sitting position weren’t that potent but it really did hurt, mostly the mental idea that the woman would’ve rather hurt the magician than talked to her. Mana picked herself up and sat at the same spot where she was.

“I mean, I think I get it why you hate me, Hisako-san. You’re a person who’s had bad things happen to you a lot for your whole life, you became a person who could deal with that pain and all that darkness but other people didn’t like that person. All that dismissal and all that hate, all that condescension and all that prejudice of your Yoruma legacy made you shut in even more, it’s a circle
 No, a drowning spiral of darkness and sickening hatred that doesn’t help anyone.” Mana spoke up, Hisako turned at Mana with a violent stare, the magician saw the woman’s hands trembling on the handles of her knifes on the belts on her thighs.

“I’ll fucking kill you kid, it’s not worth it, leave it alone!” Hisako warned Mana as her voice started to pick up.

“Mana?” Kiyomi’s trembling mental voice reached Mana’s mind through the telepathic link.

“Please go to sleep, we’ll have a troubling couple of days ahead.” Mana thought concentrating on the thoughts with all of her might.

“You don’t have to concentrate that hard, you’re basically screaming it at this point
” Kiyomi replied mentally.

Mana reached up and hugged Hisako unexpectedly. She felt a sharp pain in her gut, Mana coughed up as all traces of oxygen left her lungs and she fell down on the dirt. She looked down where the pain came from, Hisako tried to punch the magician out by punching her in the gut. The girl desperately struggled to pick herself up. “Next time there will be a knife in that hand” Hisako grunted out. The woman stood up and started walking away moving to the large tent that belonged to Hachi.

“Does this hatred come from your family? Do you at the very least have a home to go back to and relax?” Mana huffed out, struggling to breathe. Hisako punched like a truck and a single punch almost made the girl throw up all that brief dinner that she had. Even after almost a minute had passed the magician struggled to get up.

Hisako stood there for a moment, she didn’t say anything, she just stared into the tent and closed her eyes, the woman’s head lowered as she stared into the dirt, she was shaking but then her voice returned to Mana.

“My mother was killed on a mission, she was a spy assassin, the slipping poison kind and she slipped poison to an official who was immune to it. She got tortured for hours before she died. My father was killed in front of me by the same people who wanted revenge for that attempt, they didn’t attack the Kage, they attacked the family that was hired. That scar on my eye, that’s from back then. Now go back to sleep and don’t go to that tent, not if you want to see this world for what it really fucking is. Sick world for sick people, a world where excess of sickness is rewarded and kindness and weakness leads to suffering and death. Keep living in that dream, keep thinking it’s beautiful, keep thinking you can change it. I want you to have that thought in you when I kill you, I want you to think about that, I want to see that thought leave your eyes at your last moments.”

After that monologue Hisako entered the tent, Hachi’s happy welcome echoed from inside and Mana finally managed to stand back up. The girl still rubbed her gut from the pain, Mana painfully walked up to Kiyomi’s tent and peeked in. Yoruma had a way with murderous monologues, that much Mana had to hand it to Hisako


“Kiyomi-san, can I sleep here too, I don’t want to force some pair of mercenaries out of their homes?” she asked in an apologetic tone.

“Sure
” Kiyomi’s sleepy voice returned. Mana entered and settled down into the corner of the tent on the fur that was taken off some dead animal’s carcass, possibly even that same animal that Mana ate that night. The magician sighed, the air that entered her lungs was shaking in fear and hesitation.

“Don’t talk to Hisako anymore, don’t even think about her, she’s nuts and she will kill you.” Kiyomi warned Mana, this tone she used was incredibly strict and almost maternal. Mana closed her tired eyes and rubbed them wiping all the remains of any premature tears that may have formed. Yoruma really could talk, their scary monologues were so cold and so distancing, they made any sane person realize that this person was trouble. Most people would’ve described Mana in many ways but sane wasn’t one of them. “Also, you may want to cover your ears, maybe cover your head with the fur.” Kiyomi said gently pulling the fur cover on Mana’s ears.

Mana’s head slipped out from the fur, “Why?” she asked. Kiyomi grunted in frustration, “Yoruma kill a lot so I imagine her story telling techniques will be quite vivid and energetic, if you want to get any sleep you might want to cover up” the Yamanaka said covering the magician’s head back up. “That sick self-centered bitch
” Mana heard the last message come through the mental link before she couldn’t feel Kiyomi in her own mind anymore.

Despite the tent being cold and stuffy and the smell of dead flesh being all around her Mana drifted off rather easily, that fight with Hisako earlier left her quite exhausted.

It‘s strange how deep and long the sleep of cold autumnal nights was. It’s like the body was getting ready for some sort of human hibernation, the exhausted body and the somniferous cold nights made a very freezing and almost dreamy combination. Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was the fact that everyone had their troubles to wake up to, oftentimes those troubles got edgy during the autumn period as one had to both work and prepare for the winter. This may have been a very primal reflex of postponing stress of preparation and casual trouble but it seemed to be passed down the generational line quite efficiently


It took Mana good two or three “love taps” from Kiyomi to wake her up. The magician softly rose from the fur, rubbed the aching skin as the fur etched into her face. She made the right call to sleep with her clothes as her entire body would’ve felt itchy and had those weird sleep marks of hair rubbing at her body. Ignoring the stench that once again smashed itself mercilessly at her nostrils, Mana also desperately tried to get her wild hair in order but unfortunately the bed hair was strong on her. Kiyomi giggled looking at the magician.

“God you’re so cute like that, I’d nom you like a pickle
” the blonde remarked but then her lovely smile quickly changed back into disgust as the Yamanaka peeked from the tent to see Hisako by the fire.

After Mana left she just barely restrained her surprise. Hisako looked amazing, someone did her hair and she wore a majestic, almost regal-looking, fur coat. It appeared to be made from the skin of some rare and once very beautiful marten, sable perhaps. Also when Hisako turned back Mana noticed her wearing a silver hairpiece. Were her stories that great that the assassin earned some additional bonus points with the mercenaries?

“Well, Hachi liked Hisako to begin with, I suppose she just got to know him better, I wish she let us in and opened up a bit as she did with
”

Kiyomi’s grunt interrupted Mana’s thoughts. For a moment the girl wondered if the Yamanaka was able to hear everything but then the blonde transmitted something back at Mana.

“I’ve had it with this bitch, let’s get our merc and leave already, they’ll deliver Hisako to the village or keep her for themselves, I don’t care
” Mana still hadn’t gotten used to the mental link. Thoughts just materializing in her head with her partner’s voice sounded just too weird. It was like the blonde was some sort of an alien or something and communicated through telepathy. Just like in all those weird plays that spoke of the Moon People


“Why would the mercenaries keep Hisako-san to themselves?” Mana thought back at her teammate curiously.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Mana, Hisako paid for the mercenaries, the food, the tents and all that with
 Ugh, you laughed at a dirty joke before, come on!” Kiyomi blasted a powerful sensation into Mana’s mind. The magician tapped and rubbed her head as the thought was really powerful and caused some headache, even by shouting through telepathy Kiyomi was able to cause headaches, just how powerful her clan hidden techniques were it was scary to imagine!

Mana couldn’t believe for a moment but then it all made sense. Why Hisako whited out before committing to it, why Kiyomi was so disgusted, why Hachi was so happy and content and why Hisako got all that special treatment like she’s the queen of the mercenaries now
 The magician walked up to the woman and gently tapped her shoulder.

“I’d stab that hand but I’d stab so deep that I’d plunge it into my own shoulder too, what do you want, idol-bitch!?” Hisako yelled back at Mana to which the mercenaries just laughed like they were bunch of monkeys.

“How did it happen?” Mana let out a very serious and concentrated question, her tone implied that she was about to do either something very stupid or just let it go, depending on the answer.

“Scuse me, didn’t you fucking hear what I said? Bugger off before I’ll ask one of the guys to spank you with a belt like an annoying little bitch you are!” Hisako rudely shouted back at Mana pushing her and removing the girl’s hand from her shoulder.

“Mana, you’re doing it again, just leave it at that, she’s not worth it
” Kiyomi’s thought was voiced on the link, it was interesting how the Yamanaka never included the assassin in the link. Almost like the hate for Hisako was so deep that the blonde wanted nothing less than let her anywhere close to her mind whereas she had little problem letting Mana in.

Seeing how the magician didn’t move and continued to stare at Hisako with an angry stare that didn’t budge off of the raven haired woman’s eyes for a moment the assassin waved her hand at her, two assassins stood up and tried to lead the girl away, gently. With a single flick of her fingers, weaving a single hand seal sent the two writhing on the ground.

“Get them off!” one yelled, “They’re all over me, oh my God, why did it have to be mole crickets!” the other joined in with his own horrifically pathetic scream.

“How
 Did it
 Happen?” Mana repeated the question. More mercenaries stood up, they looked much angrier than the lot that came at Mana before and while the girl’s exterior acted all tough, internally she was beyond afraid. If all of them came at her she wouldn’t have been able to detain all of them. She had to work just to keep that illusion on both of the other guys.

Hisako stood up and grabbed Mana by her elbow, forcefully dragging her further away from the band and Kiyomi. “Drop your fucking cheerleader act, now!” she hissed at the magician but Hisako noticed that Mana’s eyes didn’t change.

“You whited out when Hachi-san told us that we had nothing to pay him with, then you instantly switched to that. I want to believe that they forced themselves on you but
 That simply doesn’t happen like that. I’m confused if I should kick as many of their asses before they overwhelm us to teach them a lesson or if we need to have a talk.” Mana insisted hissing back at Hisako. The magician didn’t really understood what sexual violence was, it wasn’t even much to her care, she didn’t want it in her perfect idea of a world but killing was her primary opponent, she was bit too young to realize just what sort of a thing it was so she usually never thought about that. That meant she was about to pick a side on the spot, depending on Hisako’s answer.

“So you’re gonna condescend me too then, huh? That blonde cheerleader bitch got to you then? Well at least she’s got some guts, enough guts to hate me! Idol-bitch and just bitch, ain’t you just a fucking Bitch Brigade!?” Hisako started throwing a fit but then she noticed that she’s not getting a reaction from Mana.

“If I have to ask you the same question again
 I don’t care how much chakra I spend, I’ll make you pee yourself all over that fancy fur coat, eventually I’ll find the insect or animal you hate
” Mana replied, it wasn’t a threatening tone or an imposing one, while the content of her reply may have been interpreted as such her voice and tone were completely distant and cold.

“Fine!” Hisako yelled out before switching to a lower tone, “Yes, I paid with
 That
 I told you, idol-bitch, this is a sick and twisted world and sometimes sex helps you to make some shortcuts. I made a decision on my own free will. Tell you what, I didn’t go pale because I was afraid of fucking with that giant hunk of muscle and gear, I did so because for a moment I thought I’d actually have to work with you two bitches and that thought made me wanna puke so much that I’d have died and if I did I’d have been happy because I wouldn’t have had to look at your stupid fucking face for once”

Mana sighed and lowered her eyes, she didn’t know what to say or do. How could she? Was what Hisako did wrong? Yeah, it probably was by Mana’s moral point but
 It was what Hisako wanted, wasn’t it? Mana couldn’t have known if it was wrong or not, she was too damned young and inexperienced with those sort of matters.

“I can hear you two caring but I simply don’t care enough that you care, now if you’ll excuse me, if I screw with that Hachi guy enough maybe I’ll yank that fucking cannon off of him
” Hisako replied turning around and walking towards the center of the camp where the mercenaries were cooking some animal for breakfast. As the woman approached the fire the other women moved to the side and let Hisako sit down.

“Well at least it worked
” Kiyomi’s thought materialized in Mana’s head, “In just one night the Yoruma went from being a prisoner to being pretty much the queen of the whole band. If she asked them, they’d even let her stick around and wouldn’t take her to Konoha
”

Mana’s head sunk down, the magician couldn’t even fathom how wrong it felt. Hisako did something so seemingly wrong but also she was so good at making it sound right. Also she wielded results, had the woman not done what she did Mana and Kiyomi would be heading back to Konoha to return Hisako and they’d have jeopardized the mission as they’d have wasted too much time. What Hisako did was wrong and immoral and
 But she saved the mission, even if she was a selfish cunt about it. Maybe if she regretted it one bit


Having grown with the mental sickness that she had, having to experience all the joys and misfortunes, having to relearn all the facts and rules, both written and otherwise, all over again, Mana sometimes got confused. When a deed seemed bad to her but the perpetrator felt not even a single drop of remorse about it she always lost her damned mind. That was just the simple defensive reaction, the social implication was that in such a world this sort of behavior was acceptable but
 Mana tried to desperately tell herself differently, that was what caused her to freeze and just think about it hard.

“I’m sorry, Mana
 I’m still looking at your thoughts because you’re still transmitting them, you’ll learn to keep things out of the link eventually, sorry
 What you feel is right, what Hisako did was wrong, there are no written rules that forbid such behavior and female ninja are even trained to do that sort of thing to get what they want but
 The human nature is that a woman must have some dignity, she needs to own and respect herself but she also has to respect the other gender. Using one’s own advantages like this is disrespectful but
 Technically she did what some kunoichi do and there’s nothing illegal about that. Ultimately
”

“Thanks, mom
 I got it
” Mana thought to herself rudely letting Kiyomi know that she wasn’t that young and inexperienced to get morals from her superior of that nature.

“Yo! You two cunts hungry? There’s some bitching sable cooking and I think I’m wearing it so
 I dunno, feels kinda cool, like I totally destroyed that bitch, you know?! I mean we’ll eat its flesh and then we’ll wear its skin...” Hisako yelled at the two when Mana closed her eyes and shook her head moving towards the fire to get a bite or two before leaving. Kiyomi followed shortly.

“Yeah! Let’s eat the shit out of that dead rodent!” one merc yelled out when Hisako laughed out maniacally.

“I was kidding you fuckwad, the animal’s fucking dead, like it fucking cares!” and she started digging into the animal. It didn’t appear like Hisako was at all ashamed of her using someone, it was the exact opposite since she was almost happy and proud about it!

A mercenary came in, his face was completely black from blunt force trauma. Mana looked horrified at the man when Hisako dropped her chunk of meat.

“You look like you kissed the bottom of the canyon from all the way up, what the fuck hit you?” she mumbled out taking another chunk of meat out of the animal to munch on. Mana suddenly felt like she wasn’t hungry.

“Hachi
” the man sadly jumbled out through his toothless mouth and wrecked face.

“Holy fuck, I mean
 I get it why he did it, technically we were supposed to screw and no one shares boss’ bounty, that’s like the first rule of mercs
” Hisako replied peeling a chunk of meat from the thigh of the animal and munching on it almost comically as a strip slipped out of her mouth only for her to slurp it back.

“Yeah but we didn’t even fuck
” the man whined grabbing his jaw and almost starting to cry from pain. Kiyomi looked at Hisako curiously to which the Yoruma just shrug.

“So I held the knife to his balls and told him to say it was the best fucking shag of his life, no offense, man, but even I got standards
” she replied. Mana wasn’t sure if this revelation made her dislike the woman more or less, seemingly everything about Yoruma Hisako was worth complete and utter hatred and disgust. Mana stood up and stuck the stick with the chunk of meat onto the ground close to the fire moving further and closer to the tents.

“Aincha gonna eat, idol-bitch? I mean you got a nasty right leg stomp, I’ll hand you that, but you’re not gonna squash a bug if you don’t eat
” Hisako asked. Kiyomi nodded

“Yeah, Mana, you should eat something, today will be a tough day, hopefully we’ll find the kidnappers and set camp around their location and plan the ambush overnight
” the blonde added agreeing to the basic idea that the Yoruma brought up for the first time.

“I don’t feel like it, just know one thing, Hisako-san
 I don’t hate you.” Mana replied. Silence took over the circle sitting around the fire when Mana turned half of her face back and glanced at the raven haired woman over her shoulder with a very faint smile aimed at the assassin.

Yoruma turned back, for the first time in a long time she looked actually pissed. Not pissed in a comical manner, not acting like she’s angry when in her heart she’s content. Hisako looked like she burned with such anger deep in her heart that it was about to explode and take over this whole forest. Kiyomi smiled so hard that it was clear that the Yamanaka was restraining herself from breaking into laugh from the apparent humiliation that Hisako felt in her heart. Obviously the Yamanaka wanted to kick Hisako in the butt, to somehow get at the woman but this was better than anything, this was seeing the woman get hurt internally and it was worth a billion ryo to the blonde.

“I know you put this exterior and talk nasty and bully people because you want to reject them, you want to be alone because then you have an excuse to be pitiful. You can whine about this cruel world and act like you’re in control by stimulating sexual relationship with men you think you’re using for your ends when in reality you’re just compensating your vanity. That’s why you were so mad yesterday, right? You wanted us to hate you, to push you away, you were also angry and impulsive towards the mercenaries but today you’re all shining
”

After Mana turned around she heard a loud scream and then a strong tearing sound. When the magician turned around she saw Hisako halfway to Mana with her hand on the sword handle and Kiyomi locked her hands onto the assassin holding her in place. It was impressive that the Yamanaka could hold the assassin in place, it was likely that some degree of chakra augmentation was used and for a genin it was no small feat to pull off. It just proved that Kiyomi should’ve been a chuunin at this point having her ability to slightly augment her abilities with chakra in mind


“You may not hate me or whatever
 But have in mind that I will still kill you.” Hisako said angrily, Hachi left his tent and Kiyomi instantly let go of the woman, the last thing she wanted was to be seen brawling with the woman that the leader of the mercenary band slept with. Too much depended on Hachi’s cooperation to make it happen, if Hachi pulled the plug on his support Mana and Kiyomi would be leaving on a suicide mission and if he just decided to murder the two kunoichi then and there he probably had the manpower to do it


“Now! What’s all this ruckus about? I really feel like getting some beer about now!” the man roared out, Hisako sheathed her half drawn blade and picked up a jug off of the ground, rubbing herself at Hachi’s body even if she just reached up to his lower chest area.

“Sheesh, what a godly woman, why on Earth would I take you to Konoha?!” Hachi laughed out as beer spilt all over his chin and down his black cloth and over his chest.

“Because I’ll gut your oversized balls if you don’t
” Hisako replied rudely. A devastating blow whistled in the air, a slap able to blow down entire tents or smaller vendors and crushing them to bits. Hisako’s raised arm blocked Hachi’s blow with a deafening thud and an awesome shockwave causing violent gales of wind that picked up the crashed chips of trees from last night. Hachi’s wild laughter echoed through the air


“What a wild, godly woman
” he kept on chuckling like an oversized ape

*****

The whole band of mercenaries was preparing to go. Hachi actually decided to aid Mana and Kiyomi and send his entire mercenary band to aid his “queen”. The degree to which Hisako had the leader wrapped around her finger after just one night of her “magic” was simply unbelievable, she may as well have run all the things in the band. The magician had even heard the colossal mercenary boss attempting to talk the young woman over and convince her to stay with the group. Hisako was smarter than she acted, had she done so she’d have been instantly declared rogue and then there’d have been no place on this planet where she could’ve hidden from the Hunter Nin hunting rogues or rogue bounty hunters who were rogues themselves but made a living hunting the most expensive heads to add to someone’s collection.

Mana sat down gently to the side of Kiyomi and observed the Yamanaka twisting a flower between her fingers, enjoying the sight of the yellow petals and the charming scent of the plant. The magician smiled softly, “Do you like flowers?” she asked trying to find out more about Kiyomi. The Yamanaka closed her eyes and nodded.

“Yeah, my mother had a garden and we liked to take care of it together, she even called me her “little flower”
” Kiyomi replied, the girl looked a bit sad and very concerned before but when reminded of her past she bloomed like a flower during spring. Mana’s smile became more apparent, she liked hearing stories like that, stories of happiness because it reminded her what she was striving to change the world for. She wanted every child to have a childhood like that of Kiyomi, at least the image of it that Mana had in her head


“They even treated me like one, due to the potential inheritance of the high status of the clan they kept holding me back, they did everything in their power to keep me from getting as much as a scratch on me. I was inexperienced and weak even by the standards of the other students in the Academy, if it wasn’t for my brother training me in secret I’d have never even graduated
” Kiyomi then continued to talk. Apparently Mana had caught her friend during a very nostalgic moment. Those happened often when one’s life was at stake, people commonly referred back to their childhoods and history trying to validate their own existence in case it just ceased soon.

“What happened to him?” Mana wondered, regretting the question almost instantly when the blonde started sniffing. It was clear that the question still hurt her and those memories were sealed, still, the young girl didn’t break down and she maintained her posture as well as her kind and noble features.

“While I was weak because I was held back, not being permitted to even get a scratch on me without the tutor getting fired, my brother took the responsibilities for both of us. He was expected to be my protector, he was supposed to be the strongest of us and so he worked twice as hard. He became a perfect protector, a legend and a hero of the clan and he also still was my big brother, the best kind I could’ve asked him to be
” Kiyomi replied, she wasn’t taking the story well but she appeared adamant to finish telling it.

“He was too good for his own good, I suppose, he made enemies and he died protecting me
” Kiyomi finished it summing it up really quickly, it was clear that at that part she would’ve almost broken down. Mana turned her eyes away looking at how the mercenaries put out the fire and how they lifted Hisako to be carried on their shoulders like she was some sort of royalty. It was almost comical really. It now made sense why Kiyomi hated killers, rogues and criminals, people who defied the village authority so much. Mana smiled turning back at the blonde and gently placed her hand on her shoulder.

“It’s OK, I think your brother would’ve been really proud of you. You’re the strongest genin I’ve seen, you’ve worked with Chestnut Hanasaku, one of the Konoha Sannin and the current Hokage. You’ve become one of the most prospective ninja in the village while still being next in line to inherit the leadership of the clan. Any person who wouldn’t be proud of such a sister is not a brother whose approval is worth earning.” Mana replied almost whispering, as softly as a feather of a dove passing by fallen off of its wing.

Kiyomi chuckled, all traces of tears disappeared from her eyes. “Heh, Hanasaku-sensei was weird, she just took over watching me when she saw me being pandered, she thought that I was getting spoiled and so she wanted to grind my face against stone, to make my life a living hell and make the next inheritor of the Yamanaka leadership worth their mettle instead of them just being a spoiled brat. Every day Hanasaku’s idiocy almost killed the three of us, the Yamanaka elders complained again and again when I got back wounded or full of broken bones but the Hokage only suggested them coming to Hanasaku-sensei herself
 No one in their right mind would’ve objected that woman, not if they wanted to keep their face from having to peel it off the pavement.”

Mana got surprised, “Wow, Fifth’s training was that tough?” she wondered recalling how badly Tanshu treated them, breaking Sugemi’s arm just because he acted just like sensei predicted him to act, leaving the kids to get mauled and eaten by the animals of the Forest of Death which were supposed to test genin who were advancing to the next rank. It was the edge one needed to overcome to become a Chuunin but it never stopped sensei.

Kiyomi winked she lifted her shirt revealing clean and pale skin with a large visible white scar tissue shaped almost like a small cross. “Once Hanasaku failed to decipher the map properly and missed a trap warning, I stepped on a panel that sent a stone with wooden spears crashing at me and impaled me. I thought I’d die but Hanasaku-sensei healed me haphazardly, then the medical ninja said that they had to rearrange my innards because sensei messed something up, obviously because she was lazy and because she rarely healed others, her physique was mangled so much that to her silly things like that don’t matter. Usually scars like that get removed through several medical ninja healing sessions but I was completely gutted on the table and surgeries like that don’t really go completely clean
”

Mana scratched her head, she still wondered which was worse: getting injured because one’s sensei was just silly and couldn’t do their job properly or because they were insane and purposely let one get injured. Had Mana not been quick enough she’d have been cut in two by the centipede back in Forest of Death as well, had it been an acidic centipede the girl would’ve either gotten crushed by the archive caving in or dissolved in the insect’s acidic goo trying to swim through its guts. While the Kage and the Sannin were considered the greatest teachers and the students of those kind of sensei were supposed to inherit their teachers’ status, they also seemed to be quite ruthless and crazy with their methods!

*****

“Alright, ladies, let’s move!” Hachi ordered, he swung his fist up in the sky gesturing for the others to move too. Going against his own plan he also took five extra mercenaries with him to head towards the area of supposed kidnapping. He happened to know a new encampment having risen in his area of where he sold his services, apparently it was just a day long walk further and if the group hurried up and moved as fast as ninja usually do they may have reached the area before the night fell, which would’ve been the plan as the night could’ve been used to set up plans for ambushing and recovering the hostage.

“I don’t like it.” Kiyomi telepathically let Mana know, “Hachi is taking extra men, he is changing his plans every minute, now Hisako will only be watched by fifteen men
”

“Don’t underestimate mercenaries, during my early days I could barely match up to one of them and only beat them through trickery and cheap luck. They’re trained to fight ninja, plus Hisako-san said she’d rather make love with the entire camp than work with us.” Mana replied back, she was slowly getting the hang of this telepathic link thing. It worked very strangely, when one wanted to send something all they had to do was think about it like they were going to say it, the harder the concentration the stronger the tone and the louder the thought. If one wanted to think but to keep it away from the link all they had to do was to think without voicing those thoughts internally, it took some training but Mana was a prodigy at meditation and self-control, she found the trick really easy to pull off and only needed brief training with it.

“Smell you soon, bitches, or better yet, never again!” Hisako smiled gesturing a farewell motion and leaving with the leading crew, heading back to the village whereas Mana and Kiyomi were moving to the completely opposite side. “Trust me, the feeling is mutual
” Kiyomi replied also waving her farewell. Mana smiled and waved at Hisako.

“I hope we do meet again, I’d like to talk to you about what happened to you again
” she replied.

“I’d rather choke on cocks” was Hisako’s reply to which the entire mercenary crew once again fired off their barrage of wild monkey laughs. These guys may have been even less mature about dirty jokes than Mana was and Mana was still working through her puberty, the time when dirty jokes were at their most hilarious.

“I most sincerely hope she does
” Kiyomi replied on the link as the groups finally moved beyond where one could have seen the other. Mana glared at Kiyomi, it was advantageous that the girl knew that telepathic communication ability, after all, they were surrounded by mercenaries which honestly couldn’t have been trusted even by the most optimistic people. They could’ve been working for the kidnappers and tried to kill the two girls deeper within the forest for all Mana knew.

“So, Kiyomi-san
 What are your specialties, I’d rather know who I’m working with and what they can do before we get into a team scuffle like the last time, while we worked together quite well, it’d be better if we actually knew what we’re doing
” Mana asked on the link.

“Actually, from what I’ve seen, mostly same as you. I’d say that I throw a punch better than you but your kick sent that bitch crashing and pissed her off even through augmentation, I’d say my upper body is stronger and I’ve more experience with my hand to hand. Other than that I use ninjutsu of Fire Release and Ground Release, I can also do some basic Wind Release techniques and obviously the Yamanaka hidden techniques
”

Mana took note of all that her partner had said.

“I do genjutsu and ninjutsu, my kicks are just to keep my opponent at range in case they try to rush me down close and dirty. I mostly use ninjutsu for annoyance and displacement purposes whereas my genjutsu is more of the crippling kind. If I land one, we may as well have won.”

It appeared that Kiyomi also took what Mana told her seriously. Now that the two shared their affinities and preferences in battle and had experienced fighting alongside each other first-hand, they’ll stand a much better chance when trouble came their way.

“You two are awfully quiet, my lovely Hisako used to talk a lot of obscenities but she at least spoke
 I like women that can talk, even if they talk nonsense, talking is just more of a woman’s thing to do, you know
” Hachi tried starting an interaction, he must’ve suspected some sort of foulplay being involved with the two just silently walking by each other and looking at one another from time to time.

“You do realize “your lovely Hisako” screwed you just for gain, right? That’s what kunoichi do, they show some skin, sometimes even at some very sensitive areas so that they can plunge a knife into your heart or slip something into your drink?” Kiyomi asked, Hachi looked at her angrily, Mana realized that her friend shouldn’t have walked such thin ice, having in mind the man’s reaction to his friend “sleeping” with Hisako before him, even if it was by his order.

“I’d say
 That beer tasted strange last night
” Hachi remarked to which Kiyomi and Mana just curiously stared at one another.

“I can’t fucking believe it
” the Yamanaka slapped her face in frustration.

“Well, at least Hisako-san got the “underneath the underneath” part of the ninja life right
” Mana added. Hachi laughed out, still obviously not getting the clue.

“She danced so well that I passed out pretty darned fast, if only she wasn’t a ninja with all those going rogue rules
” Hachi replied “I thought a woman should be at least a little mysterious but Hisako-chan just slipped out of her clothes instantly, I thought I’d have a heart attack.”

“Too many details, Hachi-san” Kiyomi angrily replied “Let’s just focus on the road”

Mana laughed to herself inside, Hisako stripped because she wanted to accelerate Hachi’s blood circulation so that whatever she slipped into his beer worked faster. She was a true assassin, born and bred. Able to take her enemy by surprise and use whatever means she had to take them down. Kiyomi and Hisako were both older kunoichi who were potential examples of what Mana could’ve grown up to be like, they were both guidelines for what she’d become and it was only for the magician herself to choose who she’d be in life. At the very least that event taught her to always look for something deeper in simple statements and things.

“Holy shit, look at that rich caravan!” Hachi’s voice rumbled through the forest depth as his finger shot forward pointing at a wooden but sophisticated looking caravan passing by. It just screamed rich as it was covered with colorful silk cloth and the horses were armored, as well as the caravan driver.

“No! Absolutely not, you can’t be serious, we’re on a mission right now!” Mana objected out loud. She got Hachi’s idea almost instantly, after all, it wouldn’t have been that tough. A caravan with no visible guards, pretty far away from any active Konohagakure guard patrols, a mercenary band already mobilized and prepared for battle. It all could’ve only meant one thing. “You are not robbing that caravan, we have an assignment!” the magician repeated as if that was the most important thing that bothered her.

Obviously Mana was much more worried about the innocent lives that could’ve been lost. The caravan driver, maybe whoever was protecting the goods inside as well. Mana trained for over a year, she trained with one purpose in mind – to prevent innocent people from dying, whether she’s there to do it or not. Now that she was right up close to the lives threatened there was not even a single moment of hesitation, she’ll pick a fight if she had to but those people will reach their destination.

“Chill out, kid, I know what I’m fucking doing. There are no guards in this caravan and even if there were, we’ll overwhelm and crush them quickly. We’re risking nothing.” Hachi pressed his temple with a finger and his radar eye started running down numbers.

This was bad, the mercenaries were ready to plunder this caravan right in the middle of a mission. Mana looked and Kiyomi and finally realized why the blonde had that particular dislike for mercenaries. The magician didn’t rule out all mercenaries as being total dickbags, still, those guys definitely were if they were willing to just throw their entire mission away.

“Odd, there seems to be no one inside that caravan or I just can’t see any heat signatures
” Hachi mumbled placing his cannon arm forward, was he going to blast his cannon at that caravan? Why would he be so reckless and risk destroying it? The mercenaries all took their bows and arrows off their shoulders and quivers and prepared for an ambush. This was a stupendously bad idea, it was an even worse idea to pick fights with those guys. Mana and Kiyomi were underhanded already, they needed the mercenaries, not to mention that a fight like this would draw out resources, tire them out, injure them or even kill them. To fight them now would’ve been to jeopardize the whole mission!

Hachi’s cannon fired off a small concentrated beam hitting the horse, the heated beam went right through the animal’s flesh as if it was a heated knife going through butter. The animal fell right under the other horse’s feet tripping him as well, the entire caravan stopped and the driver fell over and off his seat bumping his head. It was then that the arrows appeared. Mana and Kiyomi moved at the same time. The two dashed to the driver, making their hand seals while moving forward, they made it right before the arrows started landing forward, each mercenary shot out at least ten arrows, it was safe to say that some amount of chakra must’ve been used. It probably was a similar technique to the “Multi-Shuriken Jutsu” which Shimo used once during Team Oak’s first training session with Tanshu-sensei. The arrows multiplied while in the air.

“Wind Style: Friendly Gust!” Mana shouted out, a powerful burst of wind chakra shot out from her thrusted palms deflecting most arrows heading for the driver. It was clear that the target of the mercenaries wasn’t the driver himself, it was the caravan, they were trying to draw out any people hidden inside, set off any protective seals and scope the material it was made from. Still, some arrows went off their path and would’ve hit the poor driver who already had his head split open from bumping it to the ground. Mana looked back, Kiyomi moved the guard away and told him to run. For once the magician was glad to have a partner who cared about the lives of the innocents as much as she did.

A loud clang drew the girl’s attention, the arrows meant for the caravan just bounced off their target. Mana slowly advanced to the large box that was on the carriage and poked it, it was solid steel. The kind of steel they’d make shields and high quality blades from. Something here was really fishy. Why would someone make a steel container, such high quality steel nonetheless, such container would be more expensive than most things that could’ve possibly been inside it. Hachi moved out from the cover of the forest with all of his men. Mana checked her pockets and sleeves, she still had some cards that she picked up after using them all out during the brief fight with Hisako. This mission was cursed or something, at every twist and turn something went wrong


“Now why would you girls have done that? As I told you, we had it perfectly under control, we’ll just snag this container now and then we can go on our merry way and help you with that mission!” Hachi laughed out, his eyebrows and mimic suggested that he was annoyed and alarmed by Mana’s and Kiyomi’s actions against his ambush however.

“You
” Mana was about to start swearing in a manner similar to Hisako when Kiyomi shut her mouth by covering it. The Yamanaka decided to try and salvage the mission, they desperately needed the help from those mercenaries even if it meant having to bend over from time to time.

“Look, something doesn’t make sense here, Hachi, this caravan has no guards, it carries some weird solid high quality steel container that probably not even our greatest Fire Release users could melt, you drop everything you’ve had up until the point you saw it, jeopardize our deal and the mission to plunder it clean
 What’s in that container, Hachi?” Kiyomi asked the key question. Mana looked back at the container, it did really feel strange that Hachi was willing to go back on the deal they made, while he was a mercenary the deal did provide him with lots of pleasure, or at least he dreamt of pleasure while he was knocked out by Hisako’s poison, right?

Hachi cocked his cannon arm, Mana looked at a blue liquid running up and down it and it seemed odd to her how the amount seemed lower than it was before. Could it have been that this cannon used that strange, glowing, blue liquid? Didn’t Hachi claim that “Julie” ran on chakra bursts? Unless
 Unless he couldn’t manipulate chakra and had to provide it with ammunition of some sort of chakra cells. That meant that running him dry on ammunition meant that he couldn’t fire that cannon, it also meant that the cannon had a very volatile weak spot.

“Now that’s none of your fucking
” Hachi opened his mouth to talk, Mana was already up in the air, aiming her kick at his neck. This wasn’t a concentrated and full powered kick, she purposefully made it slow and wanted for it to be blocked, it was just a distraction, she just wanted to get close. The girl’s kick actually was blocked by Hachi’s hand, he tried to wrap it around the girl’s foot and slam her but Mana’s lack of force behind the kick let her kick off of his hand and leap back – now his cannon was an open target! The girl tossed several cards at the cannon with all the force she could come up with without it hurting her aim. The cards bounced off of the steel cannon. The giant mercenary leader grunted out and ordered his subordinates to kill the girls.

“I really liked the deal we made, too bad that this caravan is a thousand times more worthy loot. Guess I need to make sure Hisako-chan doesn’t reach Konoha either, otherwise they’ll think it’s a bit suspicious, I mean little girls die out here all the time but why would their teammate return with a bunch of mercs, right?” Hachi pressed against his temple when a large device popped out from around his ear and covered it. It must’ve been a very strange communication device.

“The manner in which those cards bounced off
 That caravan is made from the same kind of steel, it’s probably carrying more of Kumogakure high-tech weapons to Konoha. That’s how Hachi got the hands on all of his tech
” Kiyomi sent a message on the link. Mana tried to intercept Hachi delivering the message but the lowlife mercenaries got in her way, they tried to rush her down swinging spears and swords at her, at that moment they were far too close to fire arrows at the girls. Mana was so reckless that one spear actually scrapped her in the shoulder, almost lodging in.

“Don’t rush so recklessly, Hisako is a tough bitch, she can handle herself
” Kiyomi warned Mana mentally kicking at a mercenary and breaking their spear. The other one behind the girl tried to stab her with a dagger which Mana blocked using her leg to wrap around the man’s arm. With a strong pressing twist of her leg she broke the man’s arm. The mercenary fell down on the dirt screaming like a madman. Kiyomi then started pummeling her own mercenary with a combination of blows, too fast for the man to keep track of, too strong for him to stay standing after the Yamanaka was done.

“Help us fight, Hachi!” the mercenary yelled out in fear as two of his friends rushed off to fight the girls as well.

“Are you fucking crazy? If I start firing my cannon and throwing my fists around I’ll destroy everything around this place, you guys will get crushed just a badly as those little brats. Plus it’d attract attention. Just shut up, get brave and kill those two before I grind you to the dirt!” Hachi replied angrily.

Mana threw a mad combination of kicks, too fast and unpredictable for the shield wielding mercenary to block consistently. His wooden shield crumbled and he started skipping blows. The man swiped his dagger that he held behind the shield, cutting the magician onto the lower part of her leg. Mana grunted in pain and flipped backwards kicking the man in the chin and knocking him out. With her leg injured she botched the landing and fell pretty much almost on her face. Kiyomi crushed her mercenary with a powerful punch and rushed to the magician’s aid.

Hachi sighed and looked at the last mercenary, “Go, survey how the situation with Hisako-chan is, make sure she’s dead and that no one finds her body. I’ll take care of these two”. Mana had never seen a happier man than the mercenary who ran off, glad that he won’t have to fight these two ninja. Mana examined the two cuts that she picked up, the shoulder wound looked a bit nasty but if it hit an artery she’d have already been dead, she just wasn’t fast enough to turn for her dodge and the blade still got her. The leg injury was a little bit less serious but it impacted the speed of both her kicks and her running.

Kiyomi looked at Mana, her concerned voice reached the magician’s mind. “Are you gonna be OK? I can take this fight if you need some time to patch those up
” Kiyomi was a really caring, kind and noble girl, the last thing Mana could’ve done for her was to make her fight this thief alone. A man who built his power on stealing Kumogakure’s tech meant for Konoha and killing innocent people, a man who lied to everyone that he’s an investor when in fact he was pulling side jobs behind his previous leader’s back
 It’d be a crime not to deck this guy in the face at least once.

“I’ll be fine, just give me a couple of seconds, stall him, make him shoot that cannon, the big one.” Mana asked to which Kiyomi looked really confused. “Just trust me
” the magician added to make her teammate feel a bit braver about herself. Kiyomi charged forward while Mana examined her wound, still keeping the eyes on Hachi. The man laughed out and pointed his cannon at Mana.

“A diversion? Don’t take me for a fool! Obviously I’ll pick off the weak first!” Hachi yelled, Mana weaved a hand seal and leaped to the side just in time before the cannon fired. Her “Mystical Wings Jutsu” propelled her and pushed her to the side enough to avoid the cannon’s blast, it wasn’t the all destroying blast, but instead the weaker beam version. Kiyomi started pummeling Hachi’s hip area, the tallest she could reach before she had to give up on strength in her punches. The punches of the Yamanaka linked together perfectly, she threw entire combinations but it didn’t look like any of the punches did any damage.

Kiyomi slid back waving her arms from pain, “It’s like this guy built himself from the same steel
” she let Mana know.

“He probably has several prosthetics or something in that fashion, be careful, we don’t want to bust our knuckles against this guy, we still have a mission to do later on!” Mana warned as she painfully grunted, trying to pick herself off the ground. The burst of wind combined with the small explosion of Hachi’s cannon sent her through several bushes and she hit a couple of trees, she was lucky not to have broken or dislocated anything. They were taking way too much damage, there was no way after this that they could have still carried on with their mission


“Ha! You just postponed your death, fuck her up “Julie”!” Hachi yelled pointing the cannon at Mana, the magician heard Kiyomi’s warning shouts in her head but her mind was too buzzy and mumbled up to make it clear. She could hear the sounds of the cannon charging up, it must’ve been the big blast, the magician relaxed and spread her hands, smiling. An awesome, deafening explosion broke all the trees around the area tossing them around. The explosion however was not from the cannon disintegrating Mana’s tired body, it was from the cannon misfiring and blowing up in Hachi’s face. By overextending Hachi ruined his favorite weapon, had he just fired the small beam blast at Mana he’d have killed her, he had to go big and so he triggered that explosive card Mana tossed at him earlier.

“I thought those cards bounced back!” Kiyomi asked Mana mentally. “One of them was not steel tipped, just ordinary paper, easier to make it get stuck into smaller areas like between the chakra cell and the cannon compartment that holds them
” she replied. Even Mana’s thoughts sounded tired and pain ridden.

“Are you OK?” Kiyomi asked. Once again her voice was so worried and concerned, it was like she was genuinely worried and cared about Mana. That was not the kind of relationship that most ninja shared. It wasn’t even Mana that triggered this reaction, Kiyomi was the one who bonded with whatever team she was given, that must’ve been why she was hit so hard when her old team walked their separate ways.

“Yeah just
 Glad to be alive
” Mana stood up, she looked at her wounds, they looked manageable but she’ll need to seriously take a look at them soon.

“You little bitches, look at what you did to “Julie”!” Hachi’s enraged roar echoed through the area of the forest that the girls were in. Mana’s eyes shot wide open in surprise and so did those of Kiyomi, the girls observed completely taken over by fear and disbelief as Hachi’s figure appeared from the smoke. Some parts of his flesh were torn off, he really did have some steel prosthetics on him, the man shrugged off the whole damage from his cannon blowing up in his face and peeling off of his hand. He now had just a torn up stump but he didn’t react to the inhuman pain he must’ve been in


The mercenary leader started slowly walking towards the caravan, still clutching the shards of “Julie” in his working arm. Kiyomi tried to charge at Hachi, she kicked him in the weak areas of the leg, targeted all the joints trying to trip him over, hit him in the neck but to no avail, she was backhanded off of him like she was just a pest. Hachi shouted out loud in rage, he shoved the shard of his cannon into the caravan, then putting his working prosthetic arm into it and peeling the caravan open. He took out some sort of knuckle-like gloves, when applied to his wrecked hand the glove drilled into his bone with a small drill and after just a brief second, just like that, Hachi had a new hand, twice larger than those he would’ve normally had.

“Shit
” Kiyomi slapped her own face with her palm. “I think I know where this tech is coming from, it’s from Kumogakure.”

“I think that much was already made abundantly clear
” Mana replied on the mental link.

“Yeah but
 I know why it’s here. It’s because Hanasaku-sensei stroke a deal with the Raikage and the other countries, that’s why we have no one in Kirigakure, because all the other countries are paying us with technology not to have someone there. Sensei traded political power for scientific and technological advancement
” Kiyomi explained, Hachi was quite busy testing out his new gigantic fist prosthetic.

“Yeah, too bad this scumbag takes all the cargo, Fifth must have still not noticed we’re not getting our share
” Mana replied.

“That’s just like sensei, she’d really be too dumb to notice
” Kiyomi rubbed her eyes in frustration when Hachi finally remembered that the two were there. A thundering clang emanated from his point of location when Hachi cracked his metallic knuckles. At that point in time he was far too close to Kiyomi for comfort. Mana stood up and felt her foot, she could just about move it around. Moving it did cause her some pain but by that time the magician had gotten used to some degree of pain. She remembered when she overexerted herself daily and every movement caused pain, this was a joke compared to her training.

Mana leaped up and weaved a couple of handseals, shooting off another gust off of her feet using her “Mystical Wings Jutsu”, shooting her off forward at great speed. Using the technique as a superfast and incredibly powerful dash wouldn’t have cut it, the magician invented that technique as a child as a pathway to mastering flight, complete and total levitation, similarly to how Iwagakure ninja could fly by reducing their own weight to almost nothing. Obviously, Mana’s skill with ninjutsu and inventing new techniques still wasn’t great enough but this was still something.

Mana’s kick clashed with Hachi’s, whatever the mercenary leader had in his legs wasn’t that steel alloy prosthetic, it had to be something unnatural to withstand Mana’s kick but it must’ve been something else, clashing with that steel alloy would’ve busted Mana’s leg up. Even now, the magician felt incredible shock passing through her body, she had to slightly augment her endurance to withstand that shock and keep her leg bone from being grinded into dust. Mana flinched and fell, grabbing her leg and clutching it in pain, Hachi seemed completely devoid of any pain. He raised his oversized fist to crush Mana where she was.

Just before he could do that Kiyomi’s fists sent the man stumbling forward forcing Mana to roll sideways. The Yamanaka was pummeling the man’s back again and again and while it did no damage it successfully pushed him stumbling forward. Before Hachi could have turned back and backhand slapped Kiyomi like he did before, the girl finished her combination with a stab with an explosive kunai, after a leap backwards the girl detonated is as well. Kiyomi obviously pulled no punches, if she had the chance to kill Hachi, she would’ve!

Mana was of entirely different mindset, she wanted to stop this man, she wanted to take little to no damage while doing it but she also wanted to somehow not kill him. She was childish and naïve but that was just how Mana was. She wanted everything and strived for it, she may have torn her muscles and overstretched her childish shoulders trying to support all that responsibility but that never scared her away from at the very least trying. Kiyomi leaped forward, kicking Hachi’s back right into the cloud of smoke that picked up. Her kick hit right into Hachi’s cheek and sent him down for the first time that day.

“Stop holding back, Mana, we can’t allow ourselves to take too much damage against him, you’ve already taken far too much. We’re killing him, now!” Kiyomi declared.

Despite her inner conviction that she was absolutely not going to kill Hachi, despite everything he had already done and what he’d do in the future. Mana accompanied Kiyomi on her attack on the giant. The cut on her leg started to feel better and better, while it still burned with each sudden step, at least it was somewhat tolerable. Ninja were trained to retain as much battlefield functionality when injured in battle. With a swift and decisive step both Kiyomi and Mana lunged themselves at Hachi avoiding his strike. Both girls were tossed up into the air from Hachi’s ground pound, a powerful shockwave ruptured the ground and caused fissures to open up.

The elevation allowed Mana’s combination of kicks to connect right to Hachi’s face. She didn’t care nor did she check just how much damage she was dealing, all that mattered was to keep kicking, to not stop for a moment because stopping meant that the man could’ve gotten his hands onto her and that would’ve meant it was all over. Just slightly below Mana heard Kiyomi grunting, the young woman was shouting as she was expelling all of her rage and energy into a fierce onslaught of blows directed at Hachi’s gut. The colossal man was completely overwhelmed and yet he didn’t rush to fall, he just grunted in pain continuously and stumbled back, occasionally trying to toss a half-baked response which forced Mana and Kiyomi to change places, the magician descended and started kicking at the man’s groin and gut, Kiyomi used her kunai to climb onto the man’s face and started pounding it.

It would’ve been much easier if the girls didn’t have to use tremendous amounts of chakra to keep their own bones from shattering from having to punch what felt like a brick wall. Augmentation came very hardly for Mana, she wasn’t used to it and only used it several times before and only in the matters of life and death. While this most definitely was a matter of life or death as if the man caught her he’d have pulled her limbs off one by one without any effort, Mana still was getting more and more tired the more she struggled to keep the combo of kicks going.

Kiyomi screamed, Mana stopped punching and saw Hachi catching her by her hair and holding the Yamanaka up in the air. Using her “Mystical Wings Jutsu” Mana dashed up but Hachi’s head was thrown right at her. Mana covered her own face to block the man’s headbutt, it still felt like a truck. Mana tightened her back and augmented her endurance, she knew what’d happen next, Hachi threw a lackluster kick to get the magician away from him while he finished Kiyomi off. Mana screamed out in pain as the kick broke through her augmentation. The girl writhed on the ground clutching her back, she had no time to cry like a little kid, her friend was about to get hurt very badly!

Hachi used his free hand to punch Kiyomi straight into her face, Mana saw her friend’s hands weigh down, whether she accepted her fate or just passed out from the pain was yet to be found out. The magician saw drips of blood coming out from her friend, angry and desperate Mana weaved a couple of hand seals and leaped up, Hachi looked at the magician angrily ready to kick her again but then he froze. The man collapsed onto the ground, waving his arms and legs wildly, desperately grasping the air for an ounce of breath while Mana caught her friend and moved her away.

“Polymorphy Jutsu!” Mana whispered to herself as she placed Kiyomi onto the ground, her friend’s forehead had a nasty bruise and an open wound, probably from that steel knuckle hitting her in the face. Her nose also looked broken as blood was wildly bursting from it. Finally the blonde got back to her senses. Hachi finally recovered from the illusion of thinking he was turned into an octopus, he leaped at the girls intending to crush them but Mana once again made some hand seals and placed her hands forward, lightning ran down her entire body passing through her arms and then a wild barrage of small balls of lightning started bombarding the man’s body, forcing him to take steps backwards, stumble away from Mana’s jutsu.

“Lightning Style: Lightning Spark Barrage!” Mana yelled out, she was getting tired and worn out by all that chakra wasting, it’d have been much better if she didn’t have to use chakra to survive every blow this man threw her way


Finally Kiyomi had recovered as well, the blonde leaped right into fray, Mana just barely managed to stop her jutsu as Kiyomi jumped with a combination of kicks aimed right at the overwhelmed colossal man, with his defenses broken with Mana’s unexpected lightning style jutsu, Kiyomi’s kicks definitely hit home and took Hachi down. Kiyomi tossed a bunch of explosive tags up into the air and weaved some hand seals of her own.

“Earth Style: Traveling Rock Pillar!” she yelled as a great formation of rock shot out and went on aiming towards Hachi almost like an oversized fin of a shark, gathering all of Kiyomi’s explosive tags in the process. The blonde finally set off the tags blowing the rock formation up right when it was up in Hachi’s face. Whatever technological replacements for his bones and limbs Hachi applied to his body really made him a juggernaut in the battlefield. Even this combination that’d have without a doubt killed anyone without a significant skill in chakra augmentation or agility to dodge it only bent and mangled his body a bit, torn some more flesh off of him exposing more prosthetics and various devices inside of him.

Hachi quickly recovered and dove out from the smoke, he still had debris like small pieces of rock and dirt deeply etched into both his fleshy bits and his prosthetics. Hachi’s sensor eye was completely blown up and shards of glass had dug deep into his eye socket shooting blood out of it. The giant man twisted around his own axis throwing a powerful kick towards Kiyomi, the poor girl couldn’t have possibly avoided a kick with a leg so large and covering so much space. She just lifted her hands up for a block but it didn’t work that well as her body was tossed backwards like a ragdoll. Kiyomi screamed out in pain, a barrage of crunching sounds emanated through her body as she slammed into a tree further behind.

Mana tried to step in to protect her friend since Hachi advanced for a finishing blow, the girl jumped into the giant’s path, angry Hachi tossed a punch at her. Mana leaned backwards avoiding his hook just barely but then she felt something grab her by the collar of her blazer. Hachi pulled her in closer and dug his oversized fist right into her gut. Mana’s eyes whited out. She didn’t even feel anything, her mind went completely numb with just loud squeaking noise audible in the white void she’s been transported into. The girl could hear something in the distance, something reminding of Kiyomi’s voice
 Then the pain returned. Mana lifted her head off the ground, her long hair felt sticky, she probably had a bleeding wound on top of her head. She felt nauseous.

“Mana, MOOOVE!” Kiyomi yelled out but the magician had no strength left, Hachi picked her up by her leg and swung her around. If he smacked her down like that she’d die, it was the equivalent of hitting the ground falling down from space, Mana could hear complicated machinery working in Hachi’s shoulder joints.

“Die!!!” Hachi screamed out with his cybernetic voice a loud poof and a slamming sound killed all the other noises. A deafening silence ruled supreme, Kiyomi covered her mouth, tears started running down her eyes. Hachi looked around trying to peek into the cloud of dust and dirt that he raised from slamming the girl into the ground. Only a stain of blood bleeding into the fissures and various crevices of the ground was visible. Hachi pulled his arm out of the cloud and stumbled back. He looked at the joint and saw a card stuck in there, his joint started shooting off sparks.

“That bitch
 Did some damage to the joint before she died
 No matter, I can finish you off without the use of the big fist
” Hachi quietly remarked. Kiyomi couldn’t stop crying and slamming the ground. She was afraid to look at the magician’s mangled body. Not that she’d be able to see much, the poor girl made quite a crater from being crushed and grinded with dirt, it would’ve taken a jounin to amplify their defenses hard enough to withstand such a blow.

“She was so young and kind
 You bastard!” Kiyomi yelled out.

Hachi shrugged, “What can I say, most mercs love their money, I say, money’s good, power’s better. Technology is the future, who cares if you guys can manipulate that ninja magic shit, I can use that same cultivated energy for same purposes. Also I can replace my squishy parts with others, time of ninja is ending, ironically enough by the hands of ninja themselves inventing weapons that’ll replace them.” The giant laughed out maniacally.

The giant pulled his damaged arm hard, the cybernetic prosthetic snapped off and fell onto the ground, black oily goo shot out from Hachi’s arm socket, the giant advanced to the large caravan container and removed a new arm, putting it into place.

“Not as good as the old one, but it’ll have to do
 Shit, I hate using puppet parts for my prosthetics, they’re all snappy and really stiff. Oh well. That bitch
 Ruining a good arm like that
 Good riddance.” Hachi mumbled to himself.

“You dirtbag, I’ll kill you!” Kiyomi yelled out through tears and frustration, pounding the ground until her knuckles started bleeding. The blonde didn’t take loss of team well, she’d never had a teammate die on her watch before. Seeing Mana’s body smash into dirt and dig up a giant crater raising dust and dirt into the air so dense and thick that it still didn’t settle down


Kiyomi was pissed. She’d avenge her friend even if it meant having to die herself!

With a wild shout Kiyomi lunged forward at Hachi. She held two kunai in both of her hands, ready to poke an eye out or deepen the already gruesome eye wound that Hachi’s own sensor eye made after bursting during the explosion. The girl’s entire body was tense, so tense it was shaking. She was ready to murder this man in the most painful ways she could make up in her mind. A man who so mercilessly and gruesomely killed an innocent and inexperienced ninja had no place on this Earth, or maybe what was so painful to Kiyomi was that fact that such was exactly the kind of man who would’ve thrived in this world?

Hachi didn’t just stand and took the punishment meant for him, his giant puppet arm slammed at where Kiyomi was leaving a crack in the ground from which several fissures started opening up but the girl was no longer there. Hachi’s fists only crushed a thrashed log of wood with which Kiyomi had replaced herself using the “Substitution Jutsu” at the last moment. Hachi lifted his arm into the air but then he froze. A cruel smile dyed Kiyomi’s face as she raised two of her fingers up, making up a single hand seal. Hachi was frozen in place, the man’s entire colossal build was shaking in tension.

“Chakra Hair Trap Jutsu!” Kiyomi whispered to herself, only then Hachi’s single working eye lingered down to see strands of hair scattered on the dirt with a blueish glow of pure chakra connecting the hair to a line that also connected Kiyomi and him. The man grunted and tried to force himself out of the technique but unsuccessfully.

“What did you do!?” he shouted out. His cybernetic voice box was bugging out, the damage he had taken throughout the battle must’ve been doing its part. Now his voice often just dimmed, when the voice box bugged out the man’s voice just disappeared as if he had no voice without his box. He may have had several voice boxes to switch up with as this current one sounded a bit differently from the one the two girls had heard yesterday or even earlier that day.

“It’s a secret Yamanaka paralysis technique. I always wondered why did my clan elders teach me that if it ties both my and your movements and forces me to insert chakra continuously to keep it going. Seemed like a disadvantage to me, if anything. After I fought Hisako yesterday and missed my clan technique leaving me wide open I realized it
 The Yamanaka clan jutsu are incredibly powerful, being able to transfer one’s mind into another one’s and just force them to do things
 However if it misses just by a slim margin the user is left open for a follow up attack for a lengthy window for a counter. This technique is integral to using Yamanaka clan jutsu.”

Hachi tried desperately to break out, he could barely even move, Kiyomi was surprised by the effectiveness of the technique. Usually it wasn’t supposed to be so completely debilitating, it worked similarly to the usual Nara “Shadow Possession Technique” which just restrained the target but a particularly strong opponent with strong willpower could’ve resisted, maybe even broken out. Hachi was completely tied down like a machine which was turned off. Maybe it was because of his machinery bits that made the technique so effective, fleshy bits always had enough strength to resist chakra effects but machine was just a tool, a tool that was useless without flesh manipulating it. Seeing how Hachi was now at Kiyomi’s complete mercy he couldn’t really work with any of his prosthetics or technological replacements.

“Let me go, let me go and I’ll leave you alone
” Hachi started singing a whole different song after he realized the horrible nature of the situation.

“No. Scumbags like you, people who kill other kind and noble people like Mana don’t get to just leave. I’ll play around with you until I’ll think you’ve had enough, then I’ll knock you out, I’ll leave you here, knocked out and your subordinates will find you here, they’ll never look at you the same, the great Hachi bested by two little girls. You’ll be everyone’s bitch, serving grub to everyone’s dogs and cleaning after their litter.” Kiyomi replied looking Hachi right in the eye.

The girl’s arms shot forward in the shape of the Yamanaka clan technique seal. “This technique is the first taught to most Yamanaka children, “Mind Body Switch” transfers one’s own consciousness into another’s body, it’s not overly useful in one on one fights, after all, I take all the damage that my weightless body takes, I also take all the damage that YOUR body takes while I’m in it. I can’t just force you to commit suicide, not unless I cancel the technique at the very last moment, when avoiding death is impossible for your returning mind.”

A loud howl echoed as a hollow ghost-like figure floated from Kiyomi’s body straight into Hachi’s. Just like that the chakra flow through the hair ended, the wind that blew through the forest scattered them everywhere. For at least two minutes the two bodies just kept standing there, Hachi’s body was twitching with his eyes completely whited out, Kiyomi’s body collapsed as if she had just died, not even a single sign of its owner’s life was apparent. Hachi was the only one with any signs of life, yet very faint and rather grotesque as his wild twitching wouldn’t have made anyone get the right idea


A powerful howl echoed again as Kiyomi picked her body off of the ground and leaped back, she took great haste, right after the girl gained some distance she collapsed on her knees. The girl was breathing heavily and her face had the combination of both fear and anger on it. She used so much chakra, she took quite some damage and it was all for nothing
 Hachi’s flipped back twitching head returned to its original position, the man wore the most gruesome and disgusting sadistic smile.

“What’s the matter kid? Weren’t you supposed to make me kill myself or something?” he asked sarcastically, letting out a despicable thundering laugh afterwards.

“It won’t work
 Part of his body isn’t controlled by his mind, it’s a machine, I can’t take over the prosthetic part of his body for some reason, I can only control one part of his entire collective mind
 My techniques won’t be too effective as long as he is of that collective mind.” Kiyomi grunted in her own mind, still transmitting the message through the mental link, as if she still kept some small rustling flames of hope inside. Finally the smoke settled down, the Yamanaka wanted to take a look at Mana’s crushed and broken body but she couldn’t force herself to. She had seen people die during her time away with Hanasaku and her old team but they were always bad people who deserved punishment. They were always just like the dirtbags who killed her brother!

Mana was different, she didn’t deserve anything coming at her, she was naïve but she had only the best intentions in her heart. She even believed that someone like Hisako still had kindness and something to foster in her black heart. To Kiyomi the heart of someone like Hisako was just a black oily sludge, similar to that which was running through Hachi’s prosthetic parts, there was nothing but dirt and ooze in that woman’s heart but Mana believed that everyone was necessary in this world. It was a retarded ideal but the girl wore it proudly and that deserved respect.

“What the!?” suddenly Hachi got over his feeling of superiority, it was when he peeked inside the gapping crater and noticed that there was no body in there, actually there was just the wrecked giant scrappy part of “Julie”, it was not Mana’s blood running in torrents down the fissures, it was Hachi’s own from when his poor “Julie” was blown up! The colossal mercenary roared out in anger and frustration, he started looking around the forest, paranoia was starting to take over, the magician girl was a ninja and she was a particularly slippy and tricky one to get a hold of. She could’ve been anywhere or nowhere, she could’ve bolted and yet still Hachi would worry that she could’ve appeared out of nowhere


Kiyomi smiled. This whole time she looked at Mana like some sort of inexperienced kid, someone who had to be protected, sort of her younger sister who was let out on the field for the first time. That was why Mana’s death would’ve hit her so hard home, knowing that the magician was well able to take care of herself and think of a plan independently made the Yamanaka appreciate the magician a little bit more. Consider her somewhat worth the praise and opportunity to get to work with the future leader of the Yamanaka. People often said that “Konoha’s Sorceress” being a ninja was just a publicity stunt for her shows
 No. The whole “Konoha’s Sorceress” act was just another training session to aid her with being the trickiest and craftiest ninja out of her entire generation. Mana used “Substitution Technique” so masterfully, she wasted just the right amount of time, made the switch at the very last moment making them believe until the very end that she had perished.

“Come out!” Hachi’s voice thundered throughout the whole forest area. Kiyomi placed her hands forward, she had to give Mana some time to do whatever the magician planned to do. Initially Kiyomi saw herself as the deciding factor just like she ended things with Hisako but after wasting so much chakra the Yamanaka started to count on Mana’s plan more and more.

“Mind Switch: Art of War” Kiyomi chanted as the hollow ghost shot out at Hachi, the giant was unprepared, he was looking for Mana everywhere and the clever Yamanaka seized the moment. Her clan technique connected taking over Hachi’s mind. The gigantic leader of the mercenaries fell down on his knee and started yelling out loud into the sky. Clawing at his head, at his temple until it started to bleed. He was so strong and his cybernetic arms were so sharp that he almost peeled his scalp off revealing that half of his skull was plated and filled with various technological replacements.

“Art of War” was a B-Rank technique that caused excruciating migraines to the victim, the user transferred their mind into the victim’s body but they didn’t shelve the other person’s mind, they literally started warring over their mind. That was why the technique was a short one, even when one’s mind was shelved it usually broke through and kicked the user out of their mind. When the two minds waged war like that the war took only moments but those were immensely painful and debilitating moments for sure, human brain wasn’t built to have two mental projections in it. It wasn’t built for conflicts like that.

Hachi’s puppet arm shot forward, extending in the middle, his hand wrapped around Kiyomi, the blonde was caught completely unprepared. Apparently the giant’s arm could stretch, it was some sort of incredibly elastic type of steel alloy. The machine man dragged that Yamanaka closer and tossed her in the air, his mind still pulsed with pain, his temple was still spitting blood from the gashes he himself made by clawing at his temple to try and ease his pain. The monstrous man started tossing wild punches in the air, toying with Kiyomi by punching her up a little with weak jabs, his weakest jabs felt like the most horrifying pain to Kiyomi, every punch felt like it went through her bones and dug into her vitals.

“You hear those screams? Those moans? They’re for you, stupid brat! Come out! Come out and show yourself!” he yelled out. So that was his plan, Mana had some sort of plan but he wanted to torture Kiyomi until the magician was forced to come out and reveal herself shelving that plan


“Don’t! Mana, you hear me! Do whatever you’re doing!” Kiyomi found some spaces between the punches that took over her body. Every time she was punched the girl couldn’t help it but scream out from the bottom of her lungs.

Another punch, and another one and
 Hachi’s third punch was pushed to the side by Mana’s kick. The fool came out of hiding and ditched her plan just to save Kiyomi. The magician girl twisted around and delivered another kick straight to Hachi’s unflinching face and then kicked off of it grabbing Kiyomi and moving as far away as she could while holding a heavier person than she was.

“Sorry about the landing
 And the time I took
” Mana whispered to Kiyomi. “I shouldn’t have come here probably, I don’t think I’m ready for this sort of mission yet
”

“You idiot
” Kiyomi grunted out, she spat some blood out, probably those punches gave her a nasty case of internal bleeding. “The only thing you did wrong was come save me. I had things under control
” the blonde smiled.

“Sorry, I guess an artist like me just likes to snag the great finale from others
” Mana replied. A loud snapping sound reached the ears of the girls taking their entire attention. Hachi tore off his elastic arm was currently searching the container for some more tech. He removed an arm attached to some sort of chest plate which Hachi added.

“It should be fine now, Kiyomi-senpai, he clawed his head off, damaged his tech enough, his speed and response time dropped. If you land another clan technique he won’t be able to resist.” Mana said looking at her opponent. It was clearly just a theory, just a plan improvised because her previous plan went up in flames horribly after the magician had to give up on it.

“Call me “senpai” again, see what happens
” Kiyomi squinted at Mana angrily, while to the magician the honorific used with superiors fit both Kiyomi’s professional and personal status in Mana’s eyes the magician noted the girl’s disdain for that honorific.

Hachi smiled, he started pulling switches and pressing pressure points on the chest plate, some sort of sharp metallic devices appeared from Hachi’s arm and from his back plate as well as the shoulders. Each had the same kind of chakra battery cell, glowing with blue liquid attached to it.

Mana realized what those devices were, the glowing chakra cells gave it away. The magician took two kunai from Kiyomi’s tool pocket and flung them at Hachi, just to occupy his attention and make him direct those missiles to her. Kiyomi tried to shout something, try and stop Mana’s suicidal plan but the Yamanaka couldn’t properly talk after being pummeled in the chest and gut like that. She tried talking to Mana’s mind but the magician closed her mind off, the blonde couldn’t believe it, she was just familiar with the technique for over a day and Mana already successfully managed to close her mind from any telepathic messages.

The magician just kept repeating a phrase in her mind, like a mantra, again and again. That was the way to close her mind from Kiyomi’s mental messages. For her friend’s pleas to stop and think, there was no time for that. Mana got the man’s attention. The pointy steel devices with chakra cell tips took off with a loud poof, within just moments they closed in on Mana’s location, the magician leaped into the air and activated her “Mystical Wings Jutsu” to push her away, one last dash further from the zone of explosion.

Kiyomi jumped onto her feet with adrenaline pumping and forcing her body into action. The powerful explosion sent her back down onto the grass, Kiyomi covered her ears for a moment so that she didn’t hear Mana’s gruesome scream when the chakra missiles exploded so close to her. The magician did everything right, she gained Hachi’s attention, she pulled the target further away from Kiyomi who was at that moment in time injured beyond the ability to successfully dodge
 She even pulled a desperate attempt to avoid the explosion entirely but


Hachi smiled. “Died again?” he ironically spat out seeing Mana’s lifeless body on the floor fifty meters further from where the explosion went off, her clothes torn and tattered and smoke coming from her smoky rags. The girl’s body reeked of blood and burning flesh, she probably took some damage but chakra burns were unlike normal burns, they could’ve been completely healed if Mana received medical attention soon. Obviously even if she was still alive it was all messed up
 Where would they get medical attention from in this middle of nowhere? Mana may as well have sacrificed herself right after coming back to life


Hachi looked at Kiyomi who stood back up on her feet. “What, you gonna lash out again? We’re doing this whole “You killed my friend” routine all over again?” he didn’t drop his sarcasm.

Kiyomi angrily flung some ninja tools at the man, first things she could get her hands on inside her pouch, just like with the tools Mana threw they bounced off of Hachi’s body. “You two are giving up your lives, refusing to die, wasting chakra just to barely survive each attack and then wait until you recover with your insane ninja metabolisms
 Where do you think this’ll go?!” Hachi yelled out angrily.

“I’ll tell you where it’ll go. One of two ways, either I kill both of you quickly with you helping me and stopping using your cheap augmentation and replacement tricks, suffering so much just to barely survive each blow. Or my comrades, who are probably already on their way after murdering your friend from behind, will come here and then you’ll really know pain. I’d prefer to finish this all quick, I’ve already gone through half of the toys in that container, it is becoming useless to me now
 Give up.”

Kiyomi smiled, her usually tidily tied hair were now wildly all over her face, just her smile was visible on her dirty and blood covered face.

“So if your sidequest of getting that container is worthless, can we return to our previous deal and go on with the mission?” Kiyomi asked following up that smile, “Work like nothing happened? My friend there is either dead or dying, we killed some of yours, we’re even, right?” she huffed out spitting out blood as she tried using lungs to draw air and then talk.

Hachi stepped back confused before Kiyomi continued.

“Is what ninja are taught to say in such a situation
 But
 Me and Mana aren’t like Hisako, our generation isn’t like the usual ninja, we have our heads on our shoulders but we aren’t just weapons of the Hokage or the Feudal Lords, we’re soldiers, not tools. That’s what I believe, that’s also what Mana believes. So come, beat me up so Mana can recover and keep on fighting, then beat her until I recover. One thing I know for sure, we’ll make your fight not only worthless, we’ll make you go bankrupt
 That peeves you mercenary folks, right?”

Hachi shouted and pointed his arm at Kiyomi, shooting off smaller chakra missiles as the armor started literally firing itself, just flinging the parts off of Hachi’s chest and arm in the shape of missiles, except they didn’t have the chakra cells so they weren’t explosive. Kiyomi carefully and slowly avoiding each and every missile, the smaller explosive ones tossed her around, making the girl spill some blood but she still picked herself up regardless. Once again, Hachi was unarmed in the literal sense of the word, but Kiyomi wasn’t about to let him re-arm.

“Mana
 I feel like passing out, I was beaten and tossed around pretty badly, if you aren’t dead and feel like tagging me out for a while
 I wouldn’t mind
” Kiyomi whimpered out looking at her lifeless friend, the smoke coming off of her unconscious body was the only sign of life coming out from her. Hachi started taking slow steps towards the container again. Left, right, left, right
 His feet let out strong thuds, bumping and crushing the grass beneath them. A soul crushing huff came from Kiyomi’s left just as she was about to try and interfere.

Mana was on her feet, shaking, huffing and looking pretty dead but she was on her feet.

“That rage back when I came back the first time was completely uncalled for
” she said, her voice was weak and pathetic, her hand seals were just one tenth of what they once was but her tenth was probably just as fast as anyone else at her age


“I did complete my plan after I “died” the first time
” she finished the sentence making Hachi freeze in fear after putting his hand right into the hole in the container. Mana shot her hands forward and lightning once again ran down her body and concentrated onto her palms.

“Lightning Style: Magic Spark Barrage!” Mana yelled out firing off the more powerful version of her lightning sparks. These lightning sparks were shaped like little baseballs, they flew at the speed of an arrow and they bumped into the target leaving pretty big bruises, they also let out all of their lightning chakra upon impact. Hachi started yelling out, desperately trying to pull out his arm off of the container to dodge the jutsu being fired at him but failing as it got stuck.

The container blew up, violently, throwing both girls off their feet and making them work to get back up. It was just pure luck that none of the container’s shrapnel hit them while they were down.

“Some of the things inside that container were pretty explosive, I tossed a little something inside and waited for him to come closer. Last time he didn’t go in as deep, he switched his arms too quickly, plus if those chakra cells exploded in unison with those weapons this whole forest may have been leveled. I waited until now to set them off
”

Kiyomi wanted to laugh but she physically couldn’t, it took her a couple of moments before the girl could even sit back up on her butt and look at her disabled friend. Mana turned her head at Kiyomi.

“Can you stand? Like use you chakra augmentation to force you on your feet or something?” Mana asked.

“Nah, augmentation is dangerous by itself, you’re messing with your own chakra flow and you may mess it up without return. You can permanently damage your maximum chakra level, you can also injure your body beyond repair. I’ve done it so many times on a very small scale that if I did it in my current condition my heart would probably blow up or something
” the blonde replied. Mana laughed, her body ached, the girls were in no condition to move, their mission was failed all because of those mercenaries.

“So I guess all that’s left is to wait here for death?” the magician asked with a grim tone in her voice.

Kiyomi lowered her head, “So it would seem, still, if the mercenaries would’ve killed Hisako they’d have already been here. The bitch is giving them trouble, either way, whoever wins out of the both of them – we lose
” she replied falling on her back and stretching her arms.

Mana took a handful of gravel in her hand and let it gently and softly sip out from her fingers. She didn’t want to die like that, not at that moment, not there
 Well
 She cheated death multiple times that day, but this must’ve been how everyone felt in this world, everyone who died. They kept thinking on and on about who they were, what they did, what they planned to do and never for a moment accepted death like that. Mana didn’t either. She didn’t want to die like that, out there it was just not her time. While the girl’s body kept fading away, she felt the light release right within her reach, Mana still fought on. For what though?

Thud, thud, thud
 What was that noise? The girl lifted her head witnessing the most gruesome and horrifying sight – Hachi walking out from flames, his flesh completely torn off, mangled and burnt up, just a part of his brain must’ve remained, the part that was hidden inside the prosthetic part of his skull. Hachi didn’t talk, he probably didn’t think much, he acted out on instinct, just what his damaged dying brain told him to do
 Kill. The mindless leader of the mercenary band kept on walking forward, with his single damaged prosthetic arm intending to drive it through the fleshy soft bodies of his disabled enemies.

Hachi drove his arm forward, aiming right at Kiyomi’s heart but the girl caught it and tied her legs around the arm. The mindless mercenary lifted it up. The girl kept punching, clawing and bashing the steel skull, trying to finish off the man’s brain. Hachi stumbled back and almost fell – as weak as Kiyomi’s taps were, they were doing some damage, all shocks to his steel skull were shocking his brain as well, all damage to him mattered in those cruel final moments. Hachi started advancing towards Mana, Kiyomi dropped down unable to keep her hold on Hachi’s arm. The mercenary stopped above the girl, raising his arm in a straight palm position to impale her on it.

“I’m killing him, Mana!” Kiyomi yelled as she focused her chakra and made the handseal pointing her seals at Hachi.

Hachi tried to impale the girl but she rolled to the side and kicked his head, the mercenary slowly stumbled backwards but he turned around.

“Initiating Protocol: OP Punch!” Hachi’s voice box let out, his mechanical mind was operating while his human mind was out cold.

“No
 Please
 Maybe we can still
” Mana tried to talk but a strong punch to her gut made her spit up blood and pass out from the shock and the pain. The damage she had taken was simply too great and the girl’s body just turned out, slowly fading until it was ready to die for good.

Hachi’s arm tensed up and straightened imitating a blade again, ready to go through Mana’s heart since the girl was powerless and unconscious.

A loud howl echoed, Kiyomi’s mind entered Hachi’s, this time there were no two conflicting minds, nothing to kick Kiyomi out. The Yamanaka was now in complete control.

“Mind Body Disturbance: Harakiri” Hachi’s cybernetic voice spoke, the what remained of the mercenary jumped up, high into the air and backflipped, pointing his head right at the ground. The heavy steel frame just drove into the ground, it’s head snapped severing the ties between Hachi’s spine and his brain as the neck snapped and broke off, just being held by a small strand of steel wire.

Hachi was finally dead. Kiyomi heard footsteps. This was either the mercenaries or Hisako, either one would’ve finished both of them off. Hisako had a particularly nasty distaste for Mana. Going out of her way to every time they met point out that she’d kill the magician
 Mana’s honest and kind approach pissed the assassin off more than anything in the world could, by not sharing Hisako’s hatred but instead loving the young woman, Mana earned the woman’s eternal scorn. Kiyomi’s head raised up, while she was powerless to oppose impending horrible death in the hand of the mercenaries she looked at who would appear from the forest’s depths.

A short and slim figure of a torn up and showered with blood woman appeared, her body was covered in cuts, she was almost naked and dressed just with what she looted from the female mercenaries’ corpses, her wounds were so intense that the cuts destroyed her clothes. Hisako’s hair was bloody and looked extremely greasy, the woman’s eyes were the same color but for some reason they emanated hatred and bloodlust. Seeing Kiyomi and Mana powerless like that must’ve satisfied her sick feelings
 Kiyomi wanted nothing more but to rob her of the following satisfaction. The bitch kneeled up to Kiyomi and felt her pulse, checked her eyes. She must’ve wanted to make sure that the Yamanaka was alive to see her plunge a knife into her heart


No.

The woman stood up and advanced to Mana, checking the girl’s neck, running over her injuries and observing her lack of response. She then yelled out to someone. A young boy ran out from the forest, covered in blood but he had little to no wounds to explain that blood – the blood was not his. The boy handed something to Hisako and pointed at Mana’s chest.

“She needs to be awake, wake her up, make her feel the pain and snap out from it, drive this right into her heart!” the boy ordered pointing at the long glowing object he handed to the raven haired sadist. Hisako looked at the object in her hands and at the Mana. Kiyomi tried screaming something out, fighting it. She had to stop it, Mana saved her life so many times in just two days, Kiyomi had to fight those wounds, somehow stop it all. Hisako raised her hand up, taking her sweet time, Kiyomi took the time to look the Yoruma assassin in the eyes
 Oh, she was enjoying this moment so very much


This was so horrible, to die here like this, having won the fight yet knowing nothing, being not a single step closer to the mission objective. Nothing worked out, the boy remained kidnapped and will probably soon follow Mana and Kiyomi. Who the hell even was this boy Hisako kept around, was he another boy-toy of hers? Just like she had manipulated Hachi she’d manipulate this fool, maybe he’ll lead her to the village and then take the dive for her? Maybe he’ll admit having killed Mana and Kiyomi
 No
 Not like this, injustice couldn’t have won like this
 Kiyomi wriggled around, flipped on her belly and started crawling towards Mana and Hisako pointing the object.

“What are you waiting for!? Do it!” the boy shouted out, he was pretty rushing this execution. What was his gain in killing poor Mana!?

“I dunno, you sure you don’t wanna?” Hisako asked him back.

“No! My hands are shaking, I’ll miss her heart!” the boy replied “Now stop being such a wuss and do it!” Kiyomi was so close!

Hisako’s hands shot down, plunging the object into Mana’s chest. The magician’s eyes shot wide open and she screamed madly. Hisako sat on top of Mana keeping her from writhing around too frantically. Kiyomi relaxed, it was all over


She’d be next


White seemingly eternal bliss was everywhere where one's consciousness could reach. There were various strange voices, long lost memories, voices of people who once said or did something. Was this life flashing through one's eyes right before death? A blast of needles struck Mana's forehead forcing her to peel her eyes open. She didn't remember anything. The girl looked around, her floating vision and migraine didn't let her forget that something horrible must've happened but her mind was still in shatters.

"Jeez, idol-bitch, you really struggled like a beast, you know that? For a little bitch like you I didn't expect that much resistance, thought you'd claw my fucking eyes out." Hisako's soft voice reached Mana's ears making the girl turn at the raven haired woman. The woman's annoyed face leaned over entering Mana's sight of vision from above, her eyes flared up, catching all semblance of light that the fire nearby emanated and reflected it off like a colored glass panel.

Mana gripped her chest and grunted out, some throbbing sensation reminded her of something horrible having happened earlier. A young man passed right through, looking at Mana for a second and breathing out heavily. "Oh, you're awake
 That's good, for a moment there I thought we lost you." he said acting as if he was someone Mana was supposed to know.

Mana sat up, still clutching her chest, only then she realized how cold she was – her uniform was full of fist sized holes all over, close to her laid her cards, all stacked in a steel tipped deck. When the magician was found her uniform must've been so singed up that all the hidden pockets couldn't hold her weapons inside. The girl took the cards and tried to find where she could've hidden them. Mana weaved a hand seal and removed a small pouch from the bottom of her hat unsealing it from father's seal. She had several necessities in there in case of an emergency as large as this.

Slothfully the girl placed all of her cards into the empty leather pouch, her body was shaking from the cold. Thoughts started flooding in, thoughts of what exactly happened, her memories were all jumbled up so it was tough to put them together. Mana definitely wanted to unleash a flood of questions because at the moment nothing at all made sense to her. It was like she woke up in a dream or something. The magician let her vision get straight, she let her eyes run around the small camp consisting of several sleep bags placed around a small fire.

"What happened? Why does my chest hurt so much?" Mana mumbled out through the cold that made her grind her teeth and shake. The magician moved in a little bit closer to the fire, Kiyomi smiled at Mana and hugged the girl. It was strange to see such expressions of softness and affection from the blonde, usually ninja didn't care that much about their comrades except the professional bonds or the ties of sharing ones village that tied them all together.

"Hisako stabbed you in the heart, I got really scared but then they told me that this guy here is a medical ninja I've no idea why he saw it necessary to put that thing into your chest, you may want to ask them
" Kiyomi replied. She looked pretty happy that Mana was OK but she didn't seem overly fond of the situation they were in, perhaps it was because it was Hisako and that strange young man that pulled the two out of trouble.

Hisako shrugged, she was eating something that looked like a fish cooked on a stick and it didn't appear like she overly cared about anything going on around her except for that fish. "I was walking down the forest path, thinking how I could return to you guys and help with the mission because I suddenly got the urge to actually do that mission and all. I didn't think how much fun it'd be killing all those criminals, it's basically a kill-all-you-want buffet of murder. Then I heard those strange whispers behind me, also that strange radio transmission, naturally my instinct told me something was wrong and I didn't take any chances, I started rampaging all over the crew of mercenaries."

The young man walked up to the fire and sat down, he stroke his messy and spiky blond hair and took off his dirty cloak tossing it to Mana. The girl looked at it and gratefully dug herself under it, she was freezing.

"You really didn't think covering Mana up while she was out? It's goddamn freezing and her clothes almost got torn and burnt off by that explosion!" Kiyomi angrily lashed out at the medical ninja boy.

"I'm a Quack" the young man shrugged.

"What's a Quack?" Mana wondered out loud, there was just so much information she needed to absorb: why did Hisako suddenly want to cooperate with the two girls, was it really just for a chance to murder all criminals freely, who exactly was this young medical ninja and where did he come from, what was his role in all of this, what exactly happened back in the battlefield fighting Hachi, how was she healed and how much time had passed after she passed out, what was the progress with the mission?

"A Quack is a rogue medical ninja, some of them are really charlatans however rogue ninja need medical ninja so a lot of Quacks are often more skilled than your average village medical ninja. Their methods are strange, often too rough and unethical to be used by village's medical ninja" Kiyomi explained taking a stick with a fish on it away from the fire and digging in.

"So I keep cutting everyone down with those guys completely unprepared, they didn't even hear that fucker's order to kill me till the end and all
 Suddenly this Quack just stands there looking me in the eyes as I lunge at him with a sword, completely unfazed by all the murder and without a single twitch to defend himself. Naturally I was interested in his story so apparently he was some medical ninja apprentice who had his superiors killed in the field and he himself got kidnapped and passed around from one band to another as their personal Quack."

"So you decided to release him from his slavery?" Mana got curious, that was a very kind thing for Hisako to do


"Fuck no, he's my Quack now!" Hisako started coughing after Mana's suggestion made some food get stuck down her throat. "So anyways, I pick the Quack up and kill every fucker in that mercenary gang while they were unprepared. Then I hear the transmission from the headset of that beheaded head and take her earplug, the bitch didn't even turn off the transmission so I heard most of the bullshit going on. Since my desire to murder those criminals was still there I decided to bail you two bitches out and start a new page, just until we're done with the mission."

Kiyomi finished the fish and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. "You should've seen that, Hisako rushing into the battlefield covered with blood and guts, rushing up to you and stabbing you in the chest, I thought she was actually murdering you."

"Nah, I may have been a bit too bitchy about that whole murdering thing, I'm still working on that decision
 I really feel like we've connected, like we're making a progress here" Hisako replied starting another fish. Kiyomi squinted angrily at Hisako's joke suggesting that it wasn't funny to her at the slightest.

"Okay
 So how exactly stabbing me in the chest saved me?" Mana asked completely confused. There were some more important questions, this didn't really matter that much but it really made no sense and distracted the girl's still hazy mind from the more important matters.

Hisako's eyes flashed, she stared at the Quack to explain it. The young man sat down close to Mana and removed an incredibly thick and large rod.

"Basically the worst nightmare for any medical ninja is an unconscious patient, you don't know if they just passed out, if they're completely dead or if they're in a coma. Medical ninja have a very limited chakra pool and wasting chakra on a comatose or dead patient is a bad decision putting it mildly, that chakra is better used making a run from the hunter ninja coming after you. Most Quacks use this sort of tool to stab their patient through the heart, the rod pulses with chakra and because of the pain and the shock it wakes them up, it'd also kill them normally but usually a good medical ninja can get that wound under control and it also makes healing a little bit more clear and an easier task. Good thing I had Hisako here to hold you still though, you were flailing pretty hard
" the Quack explained.

Mana didn't really understand any of it, maybe it wasn't that she didn't understand it but it didn't really make much sense. Then again from what she remembered seeing in the Konoha Hospital most medical ninja never woke up their patients, they just supplied a certain amount of chakra into healing them and if it didn't work they called them hopeless. Obviously their stats were always monitored and sometimes the condition stabilized even while the patient was unconscious but Mana had never wondered about those sort of things, to her medical ninja just sounded like the real magicians with their ability to bring people back to life and patch them up quickly.

"OK, so what's the status of our mission then?" Mana wondered, the fact that they weren't in Konoha at that moment must've meant that there was still hope that they'd complete the mission. The magician wanted to know how far they travelled so far and where exactly they were and if any new intel came up.

Kiyomi tied her long hair and sat up close to Mana opening up a small map of the Fire Country. The girl pointed at a random point. "This is where we were a day ago, we've moved to here at the moment
" she dragged the finger further to another point and then even further by a narrow inch, "This is where we speculate the kidnappers are in and where they're holding the hostage, we managed to catch a black market dealer passing through the area and he revealed some pretty sensitive information about a young purple haired brat being held in an underground bunker nearby disguised as a warehouse"

Mana jumped up rushing to the fire, "Why is this burning then? We're giving away our position, they're so close that they can definitely see us!" she yelled out starting to panic, Hisako tossed the fish bones at the magician which she managed to avoid, the stick with the bones hit a tree behind the girl and rolled down the hill somewhere.

"Calm your tits, that's what we're counting on. We don't want to engage the kidnappers in a fucking bunker, that's where they're holed in like fucking rats. They'll have trap seals in there or just ordinary pressure plate traps, we need them to fight us on our territory. Don't worry, I have a hunch for being ambushed
" Hisako smiled with a mouth full of fish. Mana sighed.

"This is a terrible plan
" she replied, "I mean I know they most likely knew there'd be at least a single party of ninja raiding them to retrieve the kidnapped kid but that doesn't mean we need to let them ambush us just to avoid playing by their rules"

Hisako didn't even honor Mana with a response, it was painfully obvious that the girl wanted to fight those kidnappers, she wanted her life to be in danger, she thrived in such situations. Suddenly Mana started to realize more and more about this young woman, about the Yoruma mentality in general. These people just wanted to fight, they didn't care who would get hurt in the process or anything like that, they didn't care much about the mission objective, to them the missions were just an opportunity to fight someone strong enough to get the village's attention.

"Plus, if they're so well bunkered in, they won't risk ambushing us in the first place. Did you forget that it's us who need to extract that young man, not the other way around?"

"That's what I told Hisako but she is an adamant young woman
" the Quack replied shrugging and sighing as if he was looking at it all like a big joke. Mana sat down and looked at Kiyomi.

"What do you think? Why are you suddenly agreeing with this plan?" the magician asked curiously, of all people Kiyomi was the fastest to point out the flaws in Yoruma because the Yamanaka couldn't stand those guys and how they just did whatever they wanted. The blonde winked slowly and turned her eyes away.

"She's our superior, she pulled our asses out of the fire. She wants the same we do, she wants for the mission to be completed. Sieging the bunker would require cooperation and trust and we have neither of those things. Surviving in this state of everyone for themselves just gives us better odds at both surviving and completing the mission" the blonde replied, despite her great annoyance by the situation it appeared like the Yamanaka truly believed in what she was talking about so Mana gave in.

"You know
 I really liked you when we met, I looked up to you like this amazing great ninja I wanted to be more like. I still do. You're like my idol, like a big sister for me to look up to and shape myself to be more like. If you trust Hisako's plan, I'll go with it too
" Mana replied, trying to appeal to Kiyomi's own sense of what's right. If the Yamanaka just wanted to repay some sort of debt to Hisako for saving both of their lives this wasn't the right way to do it, it was the Yoruma who was repaying the debt for trying to kill the two when they first met.

"Look, I get it, idol-bitch, you don't want to get stabbed a bunch of times in your sleep, that's not what I fancy too much either. We will keep the night watch, cheerleader-bitch agreed with that." Hisako looked at Mana with those eyes that one's best friend gives you when he tries to tell you that peeing into the city hall fountain is a really good idea.

Mana looked at Kiyomi, "The only thing I see here that's wrong is you lashing out on me for calling you "Senpai" when you completely ignore being called "cheerleader-bitch"
" the magician gave in and sat down, the Quack handed her some fish and told her to drink some hot tea with some strange herbs he put in. He observed carefully while Mana drank it but only when it was halfway down her throat did the girl realize she may not have wanted to drink it, she looked curiously at the young man who smiled at her.

"Don't worry, it's just drugs
" he said through the world's most genuine and heartfelt smile.

Mana spat the second gulp out and almost spilt all of the tea out. The Quack jumped up to her trying to calm her down.

"Don't worry, it's fine, they will accelerate your natural ninja metabolism. Most people regenerate injuries naturally, ninja have incredibly potent out of field regeneration factors which are granted by them mastering their body through chakra manipulation. These drugs only enhance that
 And
 Might give you some side effects
"

Mana squinted angrily leaning closer to the Quack and clutching her fists. "Side effects?"

"Yeah, possible nausea, hallucinations and insomnia, it's really worth it" the Quack explained.

Hisako chuckled, "Don't worry, idol-bitch, he tried to drug me when we first met too
" she added.

"Umm
 It may have been better to ask you this before you drank but did you by any chance ingest any alcohol today or have a history of heart sickness? Cause in that case you'll most likely die
" the Quack then winced with an innocent and begging forgiveness smile.

Late evening finally turned to night. The drugs that the Quack gave Mana with her tea actually helped her feel a little better about her pain, even if it wasn't intentional for her to consume them. Either way, it also gave her a massive case of insomnia. That was why to the magician those three hours just laying by the tree waiting for her turn to watch, when it was time to take over from the Quack were as gruesome as torture. Every time she looked angrily at the medical ninja who was watching and listening to the surroundings waiting to wake them up if something suspicious came up gave her an innocent smile back.

Finally it was her turn, Mana stood up and crept up to the Quack putting her arm on his shoulder softly and waking him up, he had been sleeping like a baby for the last forty minutes but since the magician was awake anyways she didn't bother saying anything. All of this goofiness that surrounded this Quack was almost a bit cute, he may have won a lovely smile out of Mana had he not successfully drugged her with insomnia drugs.

The girl sat down on the wet and cold feeling stump and sighed. This didn't feel very comfortable so she ran up the tree and settled down there. It'd give her more perspective to see a wider area, she could see both the lower and the higher levels from where she was anyways. Mana really believed that those kidnappers would come for them, she was almost certain about it even if before she theorized that they wouldn't. Maybe it was just a hunch, an instinct similar to that of Hisako's. Regardless of her personal fears, multiple attempts to relocate to get a better vantage point she heard or saw nothing suspicious.

Her watch must've ended because Kiyomi woke up and knocked on the bark of the tree where Mana was. The girl slowly and carefully climbed down.

"What the hell, Mana? I thought you were supposed to wake me up when my turn comes
" Kiyomi whispered rather angrily, still rubbing her sleepy eyes with her knuckles. Mana yawned, while she felt tired and kept yawning until her eyes started tearing up, she still couldn't catch a Z even if she tried.

"Sorry, those drugs just made me a bit sleepless so I figured that I'd just watch it until the end
" Mana replied, Kiyomi smiled.

"You're lucky, I actually got nauseous yesterday cause of that same shit
 I'd really pound that Quack hard if he hadn't healed us from the point of dying." the blonde replied, she then settled down on the same log that the Quack was watching from earlier.

"Come on, I'll keep you company, I mean
 May as well since I'm awake, right?" the Yamanaka smiled. Mana sat on her knees placing her back to a rock. She dug into the cloak that the Quack gave her as cold started sticking needles into her body since she stopped frantically moving around looking for better vantage points.

"So
 That thing you told me earlier, about you looking up to me, treating me as your superior and all that
" Kiyomi suddenly brought up a topic after a couple of moments of silence.

"Yeah, I meant it." Mana confirmed it nodding at the blonde with a smile "To me this mission feels really strange, I was put on a team of two extremities, two older young women who are both strong and amazing women. Even Hisako-san has a certain amount of qualities she could teach me. She's probably more valuable to the village than I'll ever be because of her classic virtues. Then there's you – a slightly older, beautiful and strong and badass young woman who knows who she is, what she's doing and how she'll get to her goal. Yet doing it while following her own rules, your own personal ethics together with the code of a ninja
"

Kiyomi smiled and closed her eyes, for a moment the magician wondered if the blonde actually snoozed off but then she turned and looked Mana right in the eyes. "You're a silly girl, Mana, you don't need to shape yourself after us, you don't need to look up to me and sure as hell not to Hisako. You have your own life, your own nindo, sure you feel confused about everything, sure you think you're a lesser person because you see amazing people around you every day and you feel like you don't add up to them. You were taught by Tanshu himself and you feel like you will never rise up to his legacy, like you'll never fulfill his expectations. Truth is that you don't have to become a Sannin like he was, you don't have to become Hokage or whatever
"

"God no" Mana laughed out sticking her tongue out in comic disgust, "I'd never agree to being Hokage, it's just a symbolic post, you do paper work, you compromise with the Council that cares more about efficiency and money than people's lives. A Hokage needs to sacrifice people daily, send ninja away on missions they may not return from. I couldn't do that, I'd want to do everything myself but I couldn't leave the village because the Hokage is needed there at all times to manage trivial administrational matters. The big chair just isn't for me
"

"Don't spit at it
" Kiyomi smiled back "Your goal is becoming a hero, in other words, a symbol to people. A person who values all life, a person who treasures life and treats all life as being magical and by example encourages the world to change as well. A Hokage is in the best position to be that sort of a person, people automatically look up to Hokage and it's not because of the big hat they get to wear, it's because it takes great charisma and strength to gather enough people and trust to become one."

Mana closed her eyes and sat there silent, she understood where her friend was coming from but it still didn't change her stance on the seat of Hokage. She'd support any righteous and heroic Hokage with all her strength and heed their every order that didn't force her to be something she's not.

"My point is, you don't need to look up to us, don't chase me or Hisako or anyone else's image. Don't be like I was when I looked up to brother, to Hanasaku and failed. I failed to become a strong ninja like brother because he was always the wall of what I could achieve, that was why I couldn't help him at all. Same with Hanasaku, I tried to become more like her except the incompetent part and I still failed, Hanasaku made the team disband and I was an even lesser woman than she was because she was my goal. The person you are destined to be is without walls, limitless and knows no boundaries. If you make your ideal self the only wall to strive to rise up to, you'll have no walls or barriers, you'll transcend all others. Don't try to be your version of us, try to be Nakotsumi Mana through and through." Kiyomi finished her thought from before.

Mana lowered her head, "I guess
 If I tried to be you I'd fail anyways, you have all those cool Yamanaka abilities I'd never manage to keep up with while I'm just
 Me. You can be everything I can ever be and more
" she replied.

Kiyomi punched Mana in the elbow painfully.

"That's completely not what I meant. It doesn't matter if I'm an heir of a clan or whatever, it doesn't matter if you have a clan or not. I knew an Uchiha shithead who was an inch of a person that you are and that arrogance got him nowhere. He lost an eye and he then stopped being a ninja altogether donating his second Sharingan to his clan, having implanted normal set of eyes instead. For his arrogance he was punished with what he deemed the worst punishment ever, being ordinary, losing his Uchiha heritage."

Mana kicked a small pebble around, "Except he didn't" she added, "Your friend didn't lose what made him
 Him. He just thought that he lost it with his eyes that's why he gave up on himself, he could've been just as skilled of a ninja with one eye or normal eyes if he just trained and worked hard and learned to deal with it
"

Kiyomi placed her hand on Mana's shoulder and smiled. "That's actually is what I meant, now you get it
"

The blonde smiled and stood up, stretching out. "Well, I think I'm off to sleep a little bit, I'll wake Hisako up, you may want to get up that tree again, I wouldn't want anywhere close that woman when she's woken up like this from her beauty sleep" Kiyomi said, making those last words sound especially mocking and comical. Mana giggled into her hand and observed the Yamanaka waking the Yoruma up, the swordswoman walked up to Mana and sat down to the same stone.

"The fuck are you still up for? Don't tell me, that fucker's drugs actually are keeping you awake!?" she thundered out loud waking the Quack up, annoyed the young man flipped on the other side and tried to go back to sleep. Mana didn't even answer that, probably because by then she had learned that Hisako didn't particularly care about that. The only person she cared about was herself.

"Hisako-san" Mana's gentle and softened voice reached the assassin's ears. The woman turned her head at the magician.

"Thanks for saving our lives. Kiyomi is an heiress of the Yamanaka clan, her life is really important
" Mana smiled at the woman.

"You fucktard, everyone's life is important. Your life, my life, her life, everyone's. That is why Yoruma kill, because when a person is dead nothing else matters, it's the ultimate "fuck you" to everyone. People can say how fucking amazing they are and how they defy death but truth is that they love life, that's because there's something everyone loves and that thing exists within life, ergo they love life by extension. Taking that life away is to the complete discretion of a ninja, it's an ultimate act of playing God and I'll be fucked if it's not fucking fun."

"I
 I didn't realize you treasured life, Hisako-san
" Mana looked really surprised.

"Only an idiot doesn't and odds are if you're an idiot, you're dead or about to be, that's the world we live in. It doesn't matter if you're strong but it helps, doesn't matter if you've got a nice set of tits but it helps, the only thing that matters if you're fucking retarded or not
 The only thing that ass-kissers get from life is a warm ass to crawl up in and live in while the "honorable" can all go get fucked. Killers live, victims die. If you don't love your fucking life you're a lot of things but a retarded fucknut is definitely one of them and if you searched the dictionary, retarded fucknut is another way of spelling victim."

"You curse a lot
" Mana smiled, it didn't really hurt her that much that her teammate did but it was just an observation, the girl really wanted to realize where this habit may have come from.

Hisako started wildly looking behind where she was sitting, trying to life the giant rock that she was sitting by, Mana looked really interested in what on Earth she could've been doing.

"What are you doing?" the magician asked.

"Looking for a fucking medal for this child fucking detective, with those fucking skills you should've become a Police Force officer, you'd look really tits in that tight uniform too, oh, you wear one anyways
" Hisako lashed out and then collapsed by the same rock. Mana broke a chuckle, it was clear that Hisako was trying to push the magician away and offend her but she wasn't doing a very good job. Or maybe it was just Mana who had gotten too attached to her newly met teammate to push her away because of something she said.

"Chuunin Exams
 What were they like, Hisako-san?" Mana asked with the same smile that she greeted the woken up partner with.

"Eh, cut some kids to pieces, get a promotion for it
 Simple as that
" Hisako replied.

"They let you kill people in there?" Mana was a bit surprised by that revelation.

"Fuck no, but you know, accidents happen, to some they happen every time in a row." Hisako smiled.

"I've never before met a person who was proud to have killed children" Mana looked at Hisako with a worry in her eyes. It wasn't a worry for her own safety or anything like that, she was worried for how twisted her friend was.

"Well I was a fucking kid back then, plus, when a kid picks up a weapon and comes at you, you don't give a fuck if it's kid or not, no, you give more fucks and kill them without hesitation because a kid doesn't give as many fucks as an adult does. An adult thinks about bullshit like "What if this fucker has a family, what if it'll hurt, what if this manner of death is inappropriate and wrong", a kid just fucking slits your throat because the good man down the street promised him a fucking ice cream stick for it, do everyone a favor, when you face off against a kid coming at you to kill you, kill the fucker."

Mana shook her head, "I would never kill anyone, no matter the age, no matter if they're good or not"

Hisako laughed out, "I'll come to your funeral, kid, that is if they deem your death important enough to give you one, sometimes they just dig the fuckers up randomly, outside the village walls. Only the strong and smart people earn a nice grave, that's even if your enemy won't cut your head off to show it off to their Kage
"

Mana looked at Hisako weird, "Wasn't that an ancient custom of Kirigakure, back from the Bloody Mist days?"

"Once a killer, always a killer, kid" Hisako replied. She then drew her sword nonchalantly and spun it to the side deflecting a spear flung her way from the forest. Mana jumped up and prepared for combat, with a loud whistling sound a wire attracted the spear back to the owner's hand cutting Hisako on its way back. The woman grunted, Mana already saw the bloodlust in her eyes
 Hisako was already in her primal rage mode and she was beyond being reasoned with now


"Everyone wake up!" Mana yelled out but she didn't even need to, her teammates got woken up from the first clang coming out from Hisako's sword deflecting the spear.

The ambush had begun!

One thing that was impossible to get used to as a ninja was how quickly shit could have hit the fan. After all, had Hisako not used whatever supernatural reaction time she had and deflected that projectile Mana would’ve seen a friend die before her very own eyes just like that. One moment everything was fine, the other moment one’s friend could’ve just kept on standing with a spear in their chest and then collapsed and faded away. That was the world that they all lived in, the world where anyone could’ve died at any time. The world that Mana intended to change during her lifetime.

“Stop daydreaming, dear, let’s move” the Quack snapped Mana out of her thoughts.

Barely visible figures were flashing above in the higher level, those must’ve been the assailants. Someone flung a knife at the young man, Mana managed to form her “Friendly Gust Jutsu” just in time to deflect the projectile, also the one hidden right below the other. The man who attacked them tossed a knife and then another one right below the first one, it was a deceitful attack. Such attacks were common for ninja, could these people have been rogue ninja?

A black figure swooped in, swinging on something reminding a rope or a whip, her high heels drove into Hisako’s cheek as the woman was quite busy reflecting the projectiles from her knife tossing friend. The raven haired woman peeled her face off the dirt almost instantly and shouted out in frustration. A smooching sound reached everyone’s ears from the other side, the woman who kicked Hisako sent them an air kiss and swung away from the battlefield using her swinging tool.

“Oh no you fucking won’t!” Hisako rushed forward head forward, Mana jumped forward to stop her but the woman was faster, also Kiyomi caught Mana’s hand and shook her head. She was right, splitting them apart and picking them off one by one must’ve been the idea
 Out of nowhere Hisako returned to the area, rushing in from the other side.

“Fuck
 That bitch is fast
” the woman was hyperventilating quite excessively. Mana looked at the small skyline, barely visible through the trees and she noticed three shadows. One belonging to a man with spiky hair, a slim one but also he had a strange hairy and large figure by his side, almost like it was a head of a wolf growing out from his shoulder. The other one belonged to the woman from before, she wore a full black bodysuit that disguised her in the darkness making her able to just swing around with that thing and deal damage either up close or from further away. The third one belonged to a very bulky and apparently quite hairy man. He must’ve been the knife slinger as his shadow was quite edgy and had bunch of spiky ends. The figures split again


“One of us has the heir, I wonder which one
” the woman’s sultry and playful voice echoed through the camp. It was followed by an evil laugh overkilling her idea of a taunt. Hisako grunted and prepared to lunge after where the voice came from, Mana shook her head placing her hand on Hisako’s shoulder.

“Move your fucking hand or I’ll chop it off for you!” Hisako hissed out.

“No, if they are really carrying the kidnapped boy with them the most likely person to have him would be the one with the dog by his side, I doubt the others would risk carrying him around. Please go after that guy, Hisako-san, I’ll handle the swinging woman.” Mana replied.

Kiyomi didn’t like that idea. “You’re suggesting that we send our psychopath after the man with the kidnapped boy? She won’t reason with that man, she’ll murder him and won’t care about the boy!” she shouted out, all three girls realized that they didn’t have any time to stand around and argue.

“I know, that is an advantage, the man will have no leverage over Hisako because she simply won’t care, her mind will remain cold and calculated no matter the odds. Also she is our strongest member which means she has the highest odds of rescuing the boy.” Mana explained. What Kiyomi complained about was right, Mana knew that it made little sense to send Hisako, someone who was in it only to kill people to save the boy. Either way, Hisako was able to fight off both Mana and Kiyomi before, obviously that wasn’t a clean fight as no one knew of the others’ abilities but Hisako was fast, strong and ruthless. She stood the best chance of winning that fight.

The raven haired assassin nodded with a sadistic smile and disappeared. Just a mere moment later a whisper returned from her, “Don’t worry, I’ll bring the wussy back, what remains of him at least
” Mana didn’t like Hisako’s idea of a joke, not at all but this was the only call they could’ve made at that point. Kiyomi rushed forward on, she decided to chase down the knife slinger since Mana claimed the woman previously. Mana stopped her friend.

“I don’t like the idea of splitting
” her voice faltered.

Kiyomi smiled and gave Mana a thumb up, “Don’t worry, you’re amazingly strong, you can handle it.”

Mana shook her head energetically, “That’s not it, I want to watch over you two, I want to know you two are alright.”

Kiyomi just leaped up and forward, a message on the mental link reached Mana back, “Don’t worry, we’re both stronger than you are, you’d just get in our way. Now don’t die, my mental link will soon dissolve ‘cause we’ll be out of the fifty meter range, watch out for yourself!” the blonde let the magician know before the mental link snapped like a string with too much pressure on it from both sides.

Mana only laughed, she wasn’t the one with self-confidence trouble, more like the whining kind. She never took herself as being unworthy or anything of the sort, still, Kiyomi was most likely right. The magician just smiled and moved on, following the woman. These assailants were moving slowly, it didn’t take Mana much time to catch up to her, must’ve been the same with the others. Had they wanted to escape they’d have never alerted the trio, they wanted to split the group and kill them off one by one. Now they were playing the game of their enemy which was a very dangerous thing to do.

Back at the camp the young Quack just shrugged and sat down by the tree, he looked at the briefly visible skyline, the leaves on the higher tree line covered most of it. The young man smiled, “Yeah
 I’ll just sit here and patch you three up. New crew, same shit
” the boy laughed to himself. While the girls treated him with much more respect, he was still doing the same thing he was doing with the mercenaries. That Hisako person even claimed him as “her Quack”. That woman seemed to always linger between the dark side of the line and doing the right thing, most of the time she did the right thing but with the darkest of methods.

*****
Further away, Hisako was catching up to the man with the strange dog head close by. Now that she had gotten closer it was apparent that he was having a white wolf by his side, the animal seemed to be moving at the same speed as the man was, he must’ve been a ninja-hound. This must’ve meant that the man either was a ripoff who used ninja-hounds or that he belonged to the Inuzuka clan, the famed users of ninja-hounds. Hisako was slowly getting excited, Inuzuka were amazing taijutsu specialists with unusual sync techniques utilizing their hounds. Maybe she should think about not using her swords to make it more interesting?

Inuzuka were amazing, they lived with their dogs, grew up with them. An Inuzuka member was given their dog as a partner from the early days, right before graduating from the Academy. Due to their mastery of chakra manipulation those dogs were pureblooded badasses who mastered their bodies, they possessed all the natural strengths of a dog enhanced, also there was none of the “dog years” shit. Hisako smiled, this was going to be an incredibly fun battle. Over their long years working with the dogs the Inuzuka members also started possessing dog-like features, they had those strange fangs, their eyes were almost canine in their features and they also had a much larger portion of the dog’s senses compared to common ninja. A dog was still the better sensor, had a better nose and hearing, but the Inuzuka member was incredibly close to matching that prowess which was incredible all by itself.

Suddenly the dog split off from the man, spinning in a wild vortex and heading for Hisako. The dog howled and the Inuzuka turned at her and grinned, the bastard must’ve sensed her coming from a mile away, smelled her sweat or something incredible like that
 Hisako drew her blades and blocked the drilling vortex. The dog applied the pressure and suddenly the girl felt really weak, the pressure and the sheer unrestrained brutal force of the animal tackling her with that spinning manner blew her off her feet and made her plummet down to the dirt.

“Tunneling Fang!” Inuzuka’s growling voice reached her. Hisako got back on her feet, she had heard of Inuzuka techniques before, seen this technique in action during the Chuunin Exams. This idiot was using his easily predicted techniques on a Konohagakure ninja, most Inuzuka were native to Konohagakure anyways, there was only a small majority in Kumogakure and most of the other portion was living in the Snow Country. A Konoha ninja would’ve seen those idiots fight at least once in their lives, who did this fucker think he was kidding attacking Hisako like that!?

The man landed right in front of her with the dog following him not too much later, landing right by his master’s, no - his partner’s side. Hisako pulled out her swords and brandished them just to taunt the man. The Inuzuka’s face twisted with a smile, his creepy long dog-like fangs were visible in that weird mouth of his, before that day was over Hisako will have pounded those teeth out. Maybe she’ll make a necklace out of them? Wearing heads around one’s necks was strangely uncomfortable and creepy anyways, teeth made much better trophies for accessories.

“I see you took some damage there” Inuzuka rubbed his nose with his finger pointing at Hisako’s torn up top, he must’ve got some pretty dirty look at something through that hole and thought that’d dishonor Hisako or make her feel shameful at the slightest. Yes. Hisako was a sexy beast and she knew it, she won’t cover up what that dog tore out while she augmented her body not to get injured too hard. If some naked skin excited this man that much, he may have wanted to get a good look, Hisako will use that to her advantage and make it the last sight the man would see before his head parts from his shoulders.

“It’s fine, your dog will make a fine coat anyways, they say this winter will be pretty chilly
” Hisako retorted, it was quite apparent that the dog understood human speech as he slightly flinched and looked intimidated by that retort. The Inuzuka comically started flailing his hands above his head.

“What!? Who does that to dogs? Are you some sort of sick bitch? Jeez! I mean
 You don’t hurt dogs! That’s like
 Too evil even for this sick world!” he started yelling out. This Inuzuka must’ve been a funny-man, Hisako liked funny men, namely how their fun tended to leave their eyes shortly before they died. There was simply nothing quite like that sight to be entirely honest.

“I see you don’t have the kid, who has him? Don’t tell me that the bitch with the whip has him!” Hisako grunted taking an offensive stance preparing for her attack. The Inuzuka finally snapped out from his shock that this world had people who’d hurt his wolf, he then started snickering like a dirty teen. “Heh, we fucked with you good, you’d think we’d wanna move that fucker an inch further? We left him at home, we just wanted you bitches to think that we moved him so that you didn’t ignore us and just stormed at the bunker.”

“I see
” Hisako thought for a moment before her body just disappearing and reappearing right in front of the Inuzuka, a giant gash opened up on the man’s chest, the woman cut faster than even a ninja’s eye could see. It took great skill and perception to track her incredibly fast movements. “Not that it matters since I’ll kill you and proceed to that bunker anyways
” Hisako mumbled out making an elegant swipe with her blades, opening another cut on the man, not quite as deep but still prominent and painful. She then dug her feet into the ground and kicked off, spinning like a dancer with her blades and opening a very deep cut on the man’s face, he tried to lean back out from her finishing attack but he got cut regardless and was sent tumbling back.

The Inuzuka managed to get himself back together. “Wow, I seem to have had some streak of bad luck
” he complained.

Hisako smiled. “Tell me about it, an Inuzuka user who uses the “Chakra Absorption Technique” to enhance his clan techniques, don’t think I didn’t notice it when your dog used that “Tunneling Fang” technique on me
 You’re a perfect counter to any little fartface who uses ninjutsu techniques as you quickly drain them and make them feel too weak to fight you back. However when you face a physically strong opponent who fights at close quarters and doesn’t rely on chakra that much
 That’s bad for you, right?”

The Inuzuka’s dog leaped forward biting at Hisako’s neck, the woman just stuffed her blade sideways into the dog’s mouth blocking his bite and then swiped her blade to the side leaving a big cut on the dog’s jaw. A powerful impact from behind – this Inuzuka was really fast as he used the opportunity granted by his dog to get behind Hisako and ram her back with his shoulder. His arms lit up with blue flames as he started pummeling Hisako with a powerful combination of taijutsu blows at the same time as his dog occupied her by biting at random vital points. It took Hisako great trouble not to die from that dog’s fangs, every time the man hit her she felt her very own life-force seeping out from her body – he was slowly draining her chakra with each hit!

Hisako flipped back, shooting her arm onto the ground to keep her balance as she stood on that arm upside down and flung her blade, the blade etched slightly into the Inuzuka’s body. Hisako finished her flip and then lunged forward, sadistically and rudely pulling the blade out and making a whole fountain of blood shoot out. Those swords weren’t exactly piercing swords, they were more like slashing swords, built to cut their opponent and leave deep cuts or chop their limbs off, stabbing left wide holes but it was near impossible to hit any vitals because of its curve and it was very hard to drive the sword very deep. The Inuzuka coughed up some blood, to add up to the shower of it that dyed the grass.

“You’re a lucky fucker, lucky that you sipped up so much of my chakra, now it sustains your life, you’re using it to sustain you post-injury right? It’s common for little fuckers like you to use chakra stolen from others just to prolong your own pathetic lives, right? Face it, you’ve lost, had you faced off against idol-bitch you’d have slaughtered her because she relies on chakra, the cheerleader-bitch would’ve struggled but she packs a mean right hook so she’d have also come out on top eventually. You’re basically fucked, give up and stop torturing yourself by using your chakra to keep yourself alive.” Hisako taunted dashing right at her opponent slashing at him and knocking him off his feet.

“Fuck
 Sunomaru, we’re retreating!” the man shouted out at his dog, who responded with a whiny bark. A loud snap - a small smoke bomb was seen in his fingers and slammed at the ground making dark purple smoke shoot out, Hisako covered her face and coughed, she felt a powerful palm slap at her chest and suddenly weakness took her over again – the man took a large chunk of chakra from that.

“Thank you, ma’am, I’ll take that wrapped to go!” the man taunted her and after the smoke bomb cloud cleared he was gone, almost like he was never there.

“Fucknuts wrapped in a pussy sandwich!” Hisako cursed, she almost had a pretty neat kill but her bloodlust was kept waiting again. For how long could she have kept herself in control? If she as much as smelled some blood she’d leap into the fray blades swinging. This was fucking ridiculous!

“Whatever” Hisako thought to herself as she turned and started moving back, she needed to assist those two bitches if they got in trouble after all. Maybe they got lucky like she did and ended up against the opponent whose skills they countered perfectly, maybe that wasn’t it.

“Dad
 I won
 He got away but not THAT man, I killed HIM
” Hisako thought to herself closing her eyes, her mind started drifting, Hisako’s speed dropped drastically to the point where she was barely even moving forward. Her mind moved back to her early days, that fateful day


*****

Hisako lunged at her father, she swung the bamboo sword as hard as she could, attacking from the side and from above, trying to swipe from below, to break his sideways placed guard too, nothing worked. Father always blocked every strike, he found his way to block literally everything. Not to mention that he then punished the girl by driving his actual sword into her, he slammed the blunt side into her face, her gut and her knees, he hit wherever it hurt. Such was the Yoruma training: die or become strong, survive by wishing for the pain to stop, every time one failed they were stabbed, cut up, had their kneecaps broken by cold steel being bashed into them. Steel against bone was hardly a fair match


But then once the kid started to wish for the pain to stop there were just two options, strike better, faster and stronger, be more precise and technically superior, improve your technique and get good. Either that or just give up and die. Either way worked, whenever Hisako landed a blow on her father she got to eat her dinner and when she didn’t her father beat her up. That was the Yoruma way, father was not a monster, quite the contrary, he did it because he loved Hisako and wanted her to be strong. He beat her and stabbed her and broke her bones because he wanted his daughter to be strong, to win, to have what it took to survive in this world. If she chose death, the coward’s way out, then she wouldn’t have been her father’s daughter and she’d have deserved what was coming.

“Enough” father shouted, Hisako tried to strike him while he was off of his defensive stance but father’s blunt side of his katana hit her right in the head sending her down. Hisako bit her tongue and cracked a tooth after that last slam. She felt like the whole world was spinning, she felt nauseous, must’ve been another concussion.

“I said enough!” father yelled kicking Hisako in the gut when she was down, the kick was strong, lifted the girl’s body off the ground by a significant margin. The girl grunted and spat out some blood, she’ll probably pee it too for a while too. She should’ve been better, stronger and faster, her sword loops just didn’t work, father worked his way through them with a single displacing block. She was sloppy, she was weak
 Like mom


“Your attack is impressive, Hisako, however you have no defensive skill whatsoever, you just rush attacking combinations with no attempt to block my attacks. That is a silly idea, a katana is a perfect blade for combining both – attack and defense” father said, his voice was judgmental but also a bit soft, he was showing kindness by not killing her when she was making so many mistakes! Father was so merciful and kind! The girl tried to get up but the nausea and the coughing up blood sent her back down, writhing in the puddles of blood she herself spat out.

“Defense is for weaklings
 Mother was all defense, she was beautiful so she used that to deceive, she was tricky so she used that to slip poison and escape but it all caught up to her
 If I’m exactly the opposite of Mother
 I’ll survive. Only attack, no defense!” little Hisako chanted.

Father lost it, he started rampaging through the yard, he knew that his daughter was dying so he didn’t push it, he didn’t hit her but he hit everything that wasn’t her. “Don’t ever speak that way of your mother
” father spoke in a different tone. “Your mother was discovered because of bad intel, she did everything right, it’s those pencil pushers that fucked up, YOUR MOTHER WAS PERFECT!” Father shouted out.

“Perfect people keep their heads on their shoulders” Hisako replied. She whited out, something hard hit her and the girl couldn’t remember anything. Everything was white, father must’ve kicked her pretty hard for those last words.

Hisako woke up later, she felt like her chakra and most of her endurance was restored, she felt up her body and saw that while most of her scars remained, her wounds have already closed and made some new ones. Father fed her a medical food pill, he never showed that much mercy, he always just tossed her bandages and water and a needle to sew her injuries. Father must’ve lost control
 He kicked Hisako when she was too injured and he didn’t want to kill her like that. Even father wasn’t perfect, father lost control.

Hisako looked at her bamboo sword, she took the thing and drove it at her knee. The wood broke, Hisako shouted out as she heard a powerful crack at her knee. She must’ve busted up a bone again. Not that it mattered, it’ll all heal up in a day or two, that was just how ninja were. If they weren’t dead they could’ve come back from it in just days time. Hisako had her knee busted many times, both of them even. This was nothing for a big girl like her to cry over


Hisako crawled up to her bed and laid down. She looked at the ceiling. The bamboo sword represented the katana, it was the perfect weapon for offense and defense as father put it but
 If Hisako’s style was all out offense why would she use such an unfitting weapon for her style? Katana was meant for striking and then returning to defense, Hisako needed something like
 Like those swords from the east that she read about in the Academy, those twisted swords that were perfect for only attacking, if she needed ever to defend those would’ve helped but Hisako didn’t want to defend, she’d survive anything, she’d kill the enemy before they managed to beat her loop


The girl stood and crawled up to the two pieces of her bamboo sword. She whined in pain as her knee didn’t let her stand but she picked the pieces up, Hisako swung those for hours, adapting her style to these new weapons. Only when she passed out from the pain of her bleeding and broken knee rubbing against the incredibly tough wood did she finally get some rest. The next day Hisako woke up to a deafening shout of pain. The girl fell out from her bed and got onto her feet, limping downstairs she ran into the yard.

Father was there, he was kneeling by a group of men with strange green kimono and he
 Had a sword driven through his throat.

“Fucking Yoruma, you fuckers should all just die with your sick and twisted ways! Sending your wife to seduce and poison me
 You should know that I plowed that bitch good before giving her the satisfaction of getting to die!” the man shouted at Hisako’s dying father before pulling his blade out of him.

“He didn’t send shit, the Konoha council plays those sick fucks like puppets. What husband just lets his wife go to some guy’s house and fuck with that guy because some old fucktard says so?” the man’s companion shrugged.

The third one pointed at Hisako, “Look, that’s a little fucking Yoruma bitch, looks just like her mother this kid!” he laughed out.

“Look at how beaten and bruised she is, she’s pale like she has no blood in her
” the man kicked the corpse of Hisako’s father. “Those sick fucking Yoruma, they should all fucking choke on dicks and die, they make their kids as sick as they are since their baby days! Having the guts to come and kill me
 ME!” the man walked up to Hisako and punched her, the girl fell down on her back. Tears started accumulating in her eyes.

“Hey, calm down, man, we’re in Konoha, this ain’t Kirigakure, we can’t just murder a family in the middle of the street!” the man’s companion started encouraging his leader to leave the village as fast as possible.

“The fuck are you so pissy about?! This is the fucking Yoruma clan district, do you think anyone even steps their fucking foot into this pisshole? Do you think anyone fucking cares if these dogs live or die? They have no morals, they have no pride in them, this little bitch would suck my cock if asked her to. That’s the kind of people Yoruma are, she’d bite it off after I’m done with her though
 Fucking and killing is all those sick bastards do!” the man slashed at Hisako trying to behead her with a single swipe but the girl dove to the side. She screamed like she was getting killed, the girl covered her eye up, there was a deep gash on it going deep into her eye. She was blind with it, blood was bursting from it but even if it wasn’t she’d still be blind with it!

This was her eye
 Her eye
 The one that mother and father made her with! This was
 Her eye!

Hisako lunged at one of the men beating him senselessly with the two pieces of her broken bamboo sword that she still held in her hands. Initially the other men just laughed looking at the wild girl they were about to torture and kill but when Hisako started madly laughing and stabbing the man with the sharp parts where the sword was broken they suddenly froze in place
 This kid just killed their friend


“You fucking bitch!” one of the men yelled out leaping at Hisako. What followed was hours if not days of beating, torture of the most inhuman kind. It all happened on the backyard of one’s family’s household but no one passing by dared to intervene. This was a Yoruma household after all, Yoruma were all assassins and killers and this must’ve been just common practice, this must’ve been just how they made their kids behave. No one cared about the two brutally murdered men on the lawn, this was Yoruma district after all.

Who even cared about them fucking Yoruma?

“Who even cares if you live or die? You Yoruma fuck a thousand times every day and breed like fucking rabbits, what’s one little cunt less in this world?” the man held Hisako’s beaten body lifted up, holding his sword and readying to strike. He let for the girl’s body to slip out from his hands and fall on her knees onto the bloody grass. Hisako didn’t even feel like herself anymore, it was like her soul moved on, she looked at her body from further away, who was that horribly beaten and mangled person? Was it her? No, it couldn’t have been?

The man turned away, Hisako knew that move, it was the typical fake-out slash at the back of the neck, he was going in for the kill. This man who killed her mother after torturing her for hours, this man who just murdered her father will kill her too now
 No! No he won’t, Hisako suddenly opened her single working eye, before the man could turn around and slash at her, Hisako’s knife was already in his throat. The man gurgled with blood and fell. She could’ve just let him drown in his own blood for minutes before he died, just like he tortured her mother!

“You’re right
 My life doesn’t matter, no one’s life matters, our all existences are meaningless. So don’t be offended if I do this to you because none of it matters
 It’s because you think like that that you die, if you treasured your life, you’d have never turned your back on a Yoruma!” Hisako sat on the man’s chest and stabbed at his eye, she’d pay all of it back, giving the man time before moving on to the other debt. She had several minutes, half an hour if the man was adamant to steadily prolong his pathetic life using chakra.

When the Konohagakure ninja arrived after receiving a report about an unusual, even for Yoruma district, breakout of violence in one of the family’s household they saw the most horrible sight to behold: a single girl just barely breathing, kneeling over a pile of corpses. Just barely alive but still pushing it strong. Hisako was quickly carried to the Konohagakure Hospital.

*****

Finally Hisako landed by the camp, she looked at the Quack who was just sitting by the tree admiring the stars through the small gap in the tree line.

“Where are the other bitches, are they OK?”

“Seeing how quickly you’ve dealt with it
 They’ll be just fine
” the Quack replied with a creepy smile, “Even if they don’t, little ninja die every day, what does it matter?”

“Everyone’s life matters, that’s why they beg you so much not to take it away
” Hisako replied. Quack smiled, he liked Hisako, she was more like the people outside the village walls, she knew what this world was like but she was still a bit unique. A very unique kind of monster


Kiyomi was moving steadily through the black thickness of the Fire Country's endless forest. She had treaded so far from the village walls before, even as far as to the islands of the Water Country but that by no means meant that she knew the place. There was a certain degree of worry, that speck of fear when chasing an enemy of unknown level of skill throughout a dark forest, knowing little of what the enemy's actual plan is, knowing even less if the next branch you set foot on would break or have an explosive tag on it ready to peel one's leg off.

Maybe that was why Kiyomi was losing the sight of her projectile slinging opponent? No. The man must've possessed a certain degree of dexterity and physical prowess as he was moving incredibly fast. Almost like these thick forests were native to him, Kiyomi did not see him move but she heard the noise of rustling and shuffling leaves and his sandals hitting the wood of the trees at high speeds before the man leaped off of the tree to the next. It took Kiyomi a lot of chakra to even keep up with the man, leaping from one tree branch to another while keeping one's sight on the target as well as where one stepped on was incredibly tough. Almost made Kiyomi appreciate the profession of a Hunter Ninja.

Right after her brother had passed Kiyomi wanted to become one, the job of a Hunter Ninja was to roam the outside of the village walls searching for rogue ninja. With just their wits and the Bing Book by their side, the book with information about most notorious high ranking ninja, both rogue and village alike. Information gained through investigations, favors and blood, lives were lost, probably even made for this information. Whoever compiled the yearly editions of the Bingo Book must've been incredibly crafty, to be able to track a rogue and get such detailed information as to make an entire databook on them


Thing was that the lifespan of a ninja was quite lacking in its length, life of a Hunter Ninja was even more so. Hunter Ninja were vultures, hunting dogs barking at everyone and not afraid to bite any hand to get to their prey, they were not much better than all those Bounty Hunters roaming the forests. One could've said that a Bounty Hunter was just a rogue version of a Hunter Ninja, one who kept the pay for one's head to themselves instead of giving it all to the village, also Bounty Hunters killed for money, Hunter Ninja killed because the rogue ninja inconvenienced someone important. Not to even begin on how Hunter Ninja hunted village ninja from other villages alike with the criminal scum


Ninja villages were highly competitive. Almost like separate firms doing same sort of business, which was to say – all kinds of businesses, whatever pleased their paying clients. That was why highly skilled ninja, the "employees of the month" so to speak, were highly sought after, each ninja village secretly craved elimination of skilled competition which was why Hunter Ninja always hunted the most skilled ninja from other villages as well. It was incredibly dangerous for someone ranking higher than Chuunin to roam around not only the outside village walls, where Bounty Hunters were looking for a cheap cash for someone's decapitated beauty shot, but also even look for salvation inside the other village walls. Hunter Ninja hunted them there. To survive long enough to make a name was to literally become a public enemy
 It was like the world itself was out to get the most illusive survivors of its sick natural order.

Kiyomi would have never known or thought so much about these things had she not travelled with Hanasaku for all that time when her sensei had that mission, right before the Kage Summit. It was during that time that the blonde realized what it meant to be a high ranking ninja, when everyone wanted you dead. Villagers refused to house Hanasaku in their homes in fear of those homes being destroyed when she would've inevitably had ninja come looking for her, every passer-by could've been a killer in disguise, several attempted at Hanasaku's life in broad daylight in the middle of a small settlement. Innocent bystanders got hurt quite often, at some point the woman wrecked so many houses by causing earthquakes during her fights that even the villagers tried to stab her with forks in her sleep. One night Kiyomi woke up to a sight of a hooded men with knives around their beds. Seeing and living through something like that made experiences like this even scarier than they had to be


Kiyomi slowed down, continuously losing speed as the sound of her prey's feet shuffling through the leaves and hitting the wood disappeared. The Yamanaka looked around, trying to pick up anything, any sound, nocturnal birds, maybe rodents running around the lower levels looking for a good night's snack. Nothing, absolute silence matching that of a graveyard during a Friday night. This man may have been sitting silently, looking to make a cheap and quick kill. Kiyomi drew her kunai blade from the pouch and prepared to deflect any projectiles, trying her best to listen in to that horrible sound of steel whistling and buzzing through the air aimed at her chest.

Sharp pain, almost like ice cold glass being dragged over her flesh on her back. The girl couldn't help but let out a grunt of pain, grinding her teeth together, as her body fell over forward, through the branches only to land softly on the moss below. The ground was soft, sludgy, almost like a swamp. Kiyomi looked around, touched her knees and felt a painful wound on them, probably caused by the fall, her elbows and knees were bleeding, the hot air made the warm stream of blood running down her back barely even sensible. The girl looked around, just by her own good luck she turned to see her assailant in mid pounce, instinctively the blonde raised her kunai knife and blocked the man's stab by shoving it to the side, his knees however dug into her abdomen sending her down and leaving her opponent on top of her ready to poke something out.

He was so silent! He moved with little to no sound, as if his steps moved no leaves, pressed against no moss, snapped no twigs. He moved fast, silently, hit right to the point. His knife was aimed right at the girl's chest, had his attack connected she'd have a giant knife sticking out from her heart, having cut right through her spine. Paralyzed and dead momentarily, a silent and flawless kill. Just who on earth was this guy!? The man raised his arms for a finishing stab, Kiyomi thrust her knife upwards, fighting strength with speed, the assailant leaned back to avoid the kunai so she wrapped her legs around his throat. No. At the last moment the man dropped his knife and blocked her thighs, shoving them aside he leaped backwards, so strong and so fast, he disappeared into the swampy forest with just a single leap back. His legs must've been able to dent steel to have this kind of force in them, either that or he used augmentation of his speed and dexterity to retreat.

Kiyomi got back on her feet, moving backwards and always looking around her surrounding, trying to summarize what she already knew about her assailant. The man was strong and fast, leaped through the air as if he had no air resistance to oppose him, walked and jumped without a sound. He knew his way with projectiles but he also seemed to wield a pretty large knife. Large enough to cut through Kiyomi's chest and leave on the other side, maybe even wide enough to chop limbs off if he had the piss in him to cut hard enough. Looked more like cleaver than a knife but was too fancy to cut dead meat with it.

His look was so strange, he looked like a really well trained hobo, he had long mane-like hair all over his head, the like that would get in one's way when travelling around through such a thick forest, maybe that was why he stopped moving and decided to just take the girl out and be done with it. Well, Kiyomi was the future heir of the Yamanaka clan, one of Konoha's elites, she'll make the man work for his kill, ideally, she'll take him out. He was travelling way too fast to have the hostage with him, travelling so fast and so carelessly with a passenger would've been too difficult, even for a bulky hunk like he was.

Kiyomi shook her head, a strange detail entered her mind
 The man
 He had grey whiskers and fangs, his teeth reminded her of Inuzuka teeth, she'd know, she'd seen those numerous times during her days with the old team. His whiskers rubbed against her face, right before the man tried to kill her, also she felt a pleasant tickle on her thighs, right where her skirt was torn by the explosion.

"I guess it's inevitable that there's a cat clan, I mean there can't just be a clan of dog people and no cat people, that'd make no sense
" Kiyomi thought to herself sarcastically. The man hunted like a large cat, however he didn't act entirely like one, great cats like the ones that were native to the Lightning Country's wastelands or some native to the southern parts of Fire Country's forests tried to bite through the neck, kill the enemy momentarily. Waste no time, waste no energy. This man acted similarly but differently, he aimed at a lethal spot but not the neck. Maybe he wasn't taught all of his clan's secrets just yet, maybe he's a reject of his clan or something?

A knife plunged through Kiyomi's neck, right through her throat, right through the spine and out through the front. A loud poof dispelled the clone making the cat-man confused, Kiyomi's shoulder dug into the man's back making him grunt and get thrusted off balance forward, the cat-hobo tried to turn around but Kiyomi's punches kept him from fighting back or getting back straight on his feet, neither was he let to get away again now that he showed himself again. Once again without a sound or a single sign of his existence. After a large number of punches, enough to take out most ordinary men and even weaker ninja the large cat-man stumbled back, struggling to keep his stance straight. Kiyomi was nowhere to be seen.

"Earth Style: Submarine Voyage!" Kiyomi shouted out appearing from below with an unexpected punch from underground. The man blocked her punch and swung her, tossing her aside with little to no effort and disappearing into the forest with a single leap once again. His stupid quadrupedal pounces tossing him to the other side of the battlefield annoyed the girl greatly. He took all of her punches and stood, that wasn't something many people were able to do, she also caught him unprepared, it's very likely that if they contended one on one just with their hand to hand skills he'd come out on top, Kiyomi needed to be careful.

The girl wanted to get the man talking but she knew that was impossible, if he was an actual stealth using assassin he'd stay quiet and out of sight. The fact that he didn't use projectiles showed that he either used all of them out before or he realized that projectiles didn't move as fast or as silently as he did. Both assumptions were right, the man moved faster than a thrown knife, he leaped more quietly, almost like he didn't contact with air. Kiyomi pressed her back against a tree, she knew that the man was likely able to cut right through it, no he'll be tempted to do that, in other words she made a mistake to draw the man out where she could've seen him.

Almost like she sensed the man coming Kiyomi rolled forward, the man's knife appeared from the tree bark cutting through it like butter, with a roar the man pulled the knife out from the tree. His muscles were tense and were apparently working overtime to pull the blade out, that meant that it wasn't chakra-enhanced weapon. It could only cut thing depending on the toughness of its alloy and the strength of the user, it could've been subjected to dullness and rust. Not that Kiyomi could make steel just wither...

The girl pulled out her knife, she wasn't that great at knife combat but she couldn't afford letting the man slip from her sight again. This was not good, the man countered her perfectly, he was constantly out of her sight so the girl couldn't have possibly hit him with her clan techniques, he was a very agile and dexterous combatant so even if she did see him it'd be hard to catch him off guard again. He was a pretty tough cookie!

Loud clangs emanated through the forest as Kiyomi tried desperately to injure her assailant, the man deflected her swipes near effortlessly, as predicted he was much better at armed combat. It didn't took long for the man to find holes in Kiyomi's defense and start swinging around her blocks, leaving cuts and gashes on her, tag and mark her as ripe for killing. Kiyomi needed to get back from him, to get away from this confrontation or she risked skipping a thrust and dying a painful death before she could claim her position as the leader of her clan. Something Kiyomi was rightfully proud of, something she viewed as a great honor and as a responsibility, she had no right to get hunted down like some deer in the woods!

The girl raised two of her fingers, the hunter stopped in his track, his knife was right atop of her chest, perhaps several inches away from entering it. His unsuccessful attempt to behead Kiyomi separated a lot of hair from her head, the girl smiled looking down and seeing her chakra channeled through the hair and stopping the man in place, now she had him. Kiyomi weaved her hand seals again.

"Mind Body Disturbance: Art of Valentine!" she shouted right before a loud howl echoed and a pale hollow left from her palms, one shaped similarly like a sphere with a Kiyomi's facial features onto it and entered her opponent. The man twitched and shook violently before lifting the knife up into the air and plunging it into his own chest, blood squirted out from his wound and Kiyomi's mind left his body. This technique was quite different from her simple "Mind Body Switch", she didn't take over the opponent's mind by entering it, she instead just ordered them to do something, something like injure themselves.

The cat-man struggled, clutching his chest he stumbled back and tore his shirt off revealing a grotesquely hairy chest. He then disappeared into the forest thickness with a single leap. Kiyomi once again heard no sign of his existence, she was really surprised that the man could still move so swiftly, if he could move like that, it meant he could still fight even with that wound in his chest. Kiyomi didn't know how deep exactly it was but this man had some stamina and pain tolerance, she had to give him that


The man's figure leaped out from the forest into the fray, stabbing at Kiyomi's location, this time the girl could hear his cloth rustling, he had his shirt wrapped around his chest like a tourniquet and charged at her without whatever stealth techniques he used previously making avoiding him an accomplishable task with enough effort. Finally some luck smiled at Kiyomi's side too, she could compete with an opponent who perfectly countered her abilities, she was really a prodigy! Now the girl realized what exactly the clan elders saw in her, well, technically her origins had a lot to do with her status but skill must've also


A loud poof alerted Kiyomi that the man who leaped out was just a clone. A spear flew out from the forest plunging itself into Kiyomi's stomach. The girl coughed up blood, she got careless for just a moment, thought she had the man
 Almost instantly Kiyomi weaved a hand seal and forced her body to use chakra in hyper mode, waste as much of it as it needed to in order to keep her alive. As her life was fading the Yamanaka supplied her chakra to replace it but the more time would pass the more chakra she'd need to fill the gap. Kiyomi moaned, no screamed in pain pathetically as some sort of a wire dragged the spear out from her gut and made her fall onto the ground. She saw the blood spill out madly, a wild burst of chakra slowed the process down a bit. This was bad
 She couldn't die here, not like this


The cat-man prowled at her from the thickness of the forest, he smelled the blood rushing out of her, he saw her pale skin, he sensed her body slowly seeping the life out of itself. Yet the man was desperate, he was also bleeding out so he desperately tried to take the girl's life with carelessly wide swings, Kiyomi was no knife combat master but even she could avoid or deflect such careless and desperate swings. The man roared, two more knives appeared in other spots on his hand, he held a knife using the holes between his fingers as if they here his claws. Like a real great cat he lunged forward with a barrage of mad swipes. Kiyomi's body got torn into shreds, into small pieces as if she was file in a paper shredder but then her body poofed and de-transformed into a piece of log that she substituted with using the Academy "Substitution Technique"

The girl breathed heavily clutching her bleeding gut. She charged at the man using her knife, maybe he'd be just as lackluster with his defenses as he was with his offense? Kiyomi's theory was correct, he was getting sloppy but the bad news was that so was she, her blood loss made her swings weaker, sloppier, the dizziness in her head made her swings strangely lack power, speed and precision so the man managed to avoid them. Kiyomi thrust her knife forward sending it right into the cat-hobo's eye, from a cloud of smoke she realized that she just pierced a log of wood, the cat-man also managed to use the "Substitution Jutsu" in time, so he actually was a ninja who went through the Ninja Academy


Kiyomi leaped to the side, instinctively, knowing that the man would try to take her out after her attack missed and just barely she avoided a spear, another whistling sound, the wire returned the spear to the man's hand and he tried hitting Kiyomi with her again. The man returned the spear back to his arms but Kiyomi had already pinpointed his position from where the spear returned and sent some shuriken at him, she couldn't afford to miss her clan techniques now, it'd leave her a free kill out in the open during the time that her mind would take to wander back to her body


A loud clang and her shuriken falling down signaled that her projectiles were deflected. The man leaped out from the forest aiming to plunge his knife at Kiyomi, the girl just stood there, too dizzy to fight back, too injured to oppose
 She made the look that pleaded for her life, she of all people, a Yamanaka heir could not have died, not like that
 Not in some goddamn swamp out here
 That was just the helpless act she needed!

"What the fuck!?" the cat-hobo shouted out as he realized that he was stuck in the air. Unable to move a muscle and when he forced it, steel wire cut into his flesh, making him drip and lose even more blood.

"What, did you think the real me was just doing nothing back when I replaced myself, did you think that I just revealed myself after having a chance to disappear from your sight? I played the prey this whole time
" Kiyomi smiled through pain, her lips were slowly becoming pale and blue, she pointed at the trees on the other side that had kunai in them, the kunai had steel wire tied around them which made an efficient wire trap, students were taught to make similar traps in the Academy so falling for it, thinking for a moment that this fight was over before being over was this man's mistake!

"I lost my explosive pouch in my last battles
" Kiyomi said and she switched the minds with her opponent again using "Mind Body Switch" again. "That's not too bad, you still have yours anyways
" the man's body spoke for Kiyomi as the girl forced the arm to reach for the pouch, the wounds opened also on the real Kiyomi's arm but she managed to let the pouch slip off, Kiyomi forced the man to weave a hand seal and her mind quickly returned to her real body before the explosion was set off.

A deafening explosion killed all the other sounds, it devastated the battlefield and set the moss on the ground ablaze starting a forest fire. Kiyomi looked around, she wasn't about to get cocky again, she needed to see the man's torn off limbs and blown up body to confirm her victory
 Only a bunch of spears
 The man must've substituted himself with them, he had several placed all around the forest, that mean that he also wasn't just staring at the blonde when he was hiding, he was setting up a plan B as well


Kiyomi turned around catching the small knife aimed at her heart with her hand. She was so injured and so desperate that now further injuries barely mattered, the girl was on her final legs so she had to throw it all at the man, this was her final resolve, do or die! Kiyomi's punches ran wild, entire combinations connected to the man's tired body and face, she then fell on her knees but even as she did that, Kiyomi didn't let herself rest, even on her knees the girl kept pounding at the man's gut, blood started shooting from her stomach, running down her mouth but Kiyomi refused to just flip over and die, the girl weaved some hand seals, the man prowled back to the forest's thickness.

Kiyomi slammed her arm onto the dirt making a large boulder shoot off from the ground, making it rise controlled with her chakra. The burning moss on it stank even worse than that cat-man's beard! With a chakra fueled punch Kiyomi shoved the boulder forward, forcing it to crash into the area of the forest where the cat-hobo was supposed to be.

"Earth Style: Boulder Rush!" she shouted.

A wild roar, almost like that of a cat whose leg was just stepped on echoed after the deafening rumble of the boulder crashing through the trees, Kiyomi knew that she hit her mark! The girl fell on her knees and raised her head forward, she barely had the strength to defend herself but
 She must've won, right? Purple smoke spreading from that area right behind the boulder suggested that a smoke bomb was used. Kiyomi waited for a counter
 She waited and waited
 And waited
 Nothing.

The girl's body weightlessly hit the ground, she heard the forest burning down around her and saw the light closing in
 She was too weak, lost too much blood


The blonde felt a pill being shoved down her throat, thinking that it's a medical food pill the girl cracked it in her mouth. A wild flood of blood, no, some sort of blood substitute that instantly got absorbed into her mouth started running out from Kiyomi's mouth and into her stomach.

"Shit, blondie, you're not supposed to bloody crack it in your mouth
 You're supposed to swallow it
 Get it, I said "bloody", because it's a sanguine pill
 Eh, fuck you, tough crowd, I guess
" Kiyomi heard the Quack's voice and saw Hisako slap the back of his head. She still felt weak, the Yoruma lifted the girl off and put her onto her shoulders.

"You'll heal her when we make our way back to the camp, as much as I appreciate that cheerleader-bitch set the forest on fire and let us know her position this place is about to kill us pretty fucking badly. I'd rather not have my fucking flesh melt like noodles in pee
"

"We have vastly different tastes of food, dear, you know that?" Quack snapped back at Hisako and the two took off

Kiyomi struggled to keep her consciousness, she felt warm stream of blood go through her body and her cheeks, she felt much better but it still felt like dying. It didn't matter, she just won. She got to prove her worth as a Yamanaka heir and that was all that mattered, leaving that alone she also kicked that cat-man's butt pretty hard. Maybe with some luck he'll be out of commission when the team stormed that bunker.



*****



Kiyomi kept on relentlessly bashing the training dummy. The knuckles of the young girl were bleeding, it was entirely safe to say that she no longer knew what she was doing. Much to her defense, she just woke up in the world where her brother, the only person in this world who saw her as a person instead of some delicate flower who couldn't be let out of a bubble and had to receive only the right amount of sunlight. Kiyomi punched the dummy again and again but it barely budged, the girl looked at her bleeding wrists, her hands looked so messy


A man in strangely feminine blond hair and a purple kimono walked in on Kiyomi's "training". He ran up to her immediately trying to pull her away from the dummies. Why won't they break? Why won't they bend or fall how they did for her brother? Why was Kiyomi so weak that she couldn't even deliver a proper thud when she clocked those wooden leather covered targets.

"Lady Kiyomi, please, you can't be doing that!" the lady-man pleaded with her trying to drag her away.

"What's wrong? No sensei to fire for actually doing their job and training me?" Kiyomi rudely tossed back trying to yank her arm out of the man's grip but he was surprisingly strong for his build and looks.

"Lady Kiyomi, you must understand you must grow up to be of serviceable condition, you will be the image of femininity and compassion to not only your clan but the clan of your chosen husband. You absolutely cannot have broken knucklebones with knuckle gumps like some brawling wanderer when you grow up!" he pleaded again trying to drag her but Kiyomi pulled out a knife and slashed at him, leaving a small cut on his kimono but not yet cutting his "delicate" girly skin.

"Screw that, I want to be strong, I want to be a good ninja to be like my brother. I won't be some damned damsel described as a big cheese but actually fainting when the temperature falls below her comfort zone
" Kiyomi snapped back at the man and rushed at the dummy as if it was her actual opponent, as if that dummy would've killed her brother.

"Please, Lady Kiyomi
 The clan shall provide all the tutoring you will need and it will also keep you safe, if you asked me it's for the better that you won't be around your brother, he was a bad influenc
"

Kiyomi slapped the man, tears filled her eyes and she bolted from the garden, rushing as far away from the clan district as possible. What a pathetic ninja she was
 Her brother would've been disappointed, slapping and crying and whining like a spoiled brat
 Her clan's strategy at pampering her must've been getting to her, she needed someone more like her brother, someone who could've watched her trip and fall, someone who'd laugh at her when she stepped into dog poop instead of licking it off from her shoes and then get fired for allowing the "Lady" to get dirty.

What was so special about her anyways? It wasn't like she was THE next in the line, she was just a conditional heir, then again, it was highly unlikely that her uncle would've actually had any heirs with his age and attitude in mind. Kiyomi kept running, heading to the training grounds. That was where her brother trained, that was the best place for her to be, be alone with her thoughts.

A powerful shockwave shook the ground tossing Kiyomi at least a meter into the air and then plummeting down. The Yamanaka stood up and ran towards the shockwave's center point. What if it was actually another bad person, a rogue ninja or something? No, it made no sense, how could it have been a bad person so deep inside village walls? It wasn't a desire for revenge against the very abstract idea of evil that lead Kiyomi rushing into the training grounds, it was sheer curiosity. Regardless, it was a powerful force to be lead by.

A middle aged woman with the usual Chuunin flak jacket and vibrant and wild brown hair was standing close to a leather dummy, knee deep in sawdust and small leather pieces. The brown haired woman closed up to the dummy, carefully, taking one or two steps at a time. As if she was expecting a counter or some sort of movement from it. Slowly the brown haired stranger moved two of her fingers up to the dummy and flicked it ever so softly. Another violent shockwave tossed Kiyomi up, the dummy dissolved into a pile of sawdust and leather cuts from the force built up inside it and small fissures opened up letting the excess of the leftovers spill inside. This woman was so strong!

Kiyomi flew up into the air and landed face first onto the dirt, the girl started tearing up again as she felt blood rushing from her broken nose. She felt a cold relief in her bleeding nose and saw a green flash of light right up to her face. It kept glowing and shining
 For so long that Kiyomi was both bored and hurt from just sitting like that on the dirt.

"How long is your healing going to take?" Kiyomi asked, starting to get annoyed, her own clan medical ninja would've fixed something like a broken nose within seconds. She's been sitting there for a very awkward amount of time.

"Hey, I'm not used to healing other people, most people can't really take my healing, sometimes I break
 Things." The woman loudly exclaimed. She sounded like one of those class clowns and Kiyomi had little time to deal with such people. Though maybe she could have been used, maybe this woman could've taught her to be strong, like her brother and this brown haired idiot?



*****



Kiyomi opened her eyes, they ran around the camp and stopped for a moment just to see Hisako and the Quack talking, having noticed Kiyomi waking up the Quack wandered back to her and sat on his knees.

"You snapped the sanguine pill in your mouth, while it did do the job of giving you a universal blood replacement to compensate you bleeding out through your gut while I healed you it did it halfway so you passed out, I was just about to stab you in the chest but it seems you've woken up, that's good, I've healed up your guts, your welcome, by the way. I used out most of my chakra checking after you and Hisako so beg that the one with the weird choice in clothes doesn't get too roughed up. It'd be best for you to rest now, I promise to do my best not to stab you in your sleep checking if you're not dead." The young man smiled for Kiyomi and walked away.

"We'll need to siege the bunker in the morning, we've no time to wait, they already know we can kick their butts so they'll move as fast as we give them the chance to, if they move outside the Fire Country we can't chase them. The seas are a neutral zone and the Atlantis Archipelago is already Water Country territory and jurisdiction
" Hisako's voice reached Kiyomi's ears after the blonde closed her eyes to rest.

"No, that's stupid, I told you that I won't be able to take care of you two for at least two more days after this, we need to wait! Quacks don't use medical food pills because they're too expensive and rare, if we carried those on us we'd be a constant target for rogues, my supply of sanguine pills and snap crackers is running low, you break a bone or lose some blood – you're on your own. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't normally care if you kick the bucket, well, the blondie's kinda cute but she's not my type, plus she has a year or two before she's allowed to look cute
" the Quack replied.

"Wait, so do you give a flying pigeon's raging diarrhea of fucks about our lives or not? Because that makes a huge fucking difference!" Hisako started losing it.

"Of course I do, you're my only chance to get inside Konohagakure and legitimize, settle down, stop healing wild mercenary swingers' broken dicks and feeding them blood pills when their concubines shank them. All I'm saying is, if you want me to help you – you'll wait."

Kiyomi snoozed off, just a tiny bit short of hearing the resolution of that heated debate. She felt tired and wanted some rest. There were a million thoughts running through her head, worries about Mana and what'd happen if she got injured, worries of how the mission would go if Hisako just ignored an exhausted Quack on their team


It all disappeared with a flick of a finger right as the girl slipped into sleep.

Kiyomi sighed happily after Hanasaku sat back and the green flashing light of the woman's healing stopped. The young heiress of the Yamanaka clan had just met this brown haired klutz and while she was impressed by the sheer awesome power of the woman, her skill with healing could've used a lot of polish. Hanasaku smiled like an idiot with a full-teeth smile and gave the girl a thumb up, her thumb then was dropped as horror changed to woman's expression.

Hanasaku's horror ignited the dark flames within the blonde as well, she shook uncomfortably and asked the woman "What's wrong", being a bit worried that she may not want to know the answer.

"Your nose
 It's
 It's on your cheek at the completely wrong place, it happened to me again!" Hanasaku shouted out slamming her own forehead in frustration.

Kiyomi jumped up and started running around frantically, completely lost and unable to get even a single idea of what she should have done in that situation. This woman
 She bumped the girl's face and now she ruined it for good, what will the clan elders say? They will immediately remove Kiyomi from the line of heirs that much was for certain, what kind of a husband would've wanted a wife with a nose growing out from her cheek


The girl dashed to a small leaking pond and looked at her own reflection. She then touched the point where her nose would've been normally feeling it up. It was only then that Kiyomi realized that her nose was completely normal and Hanasaku's heal was totally fine. The blonde felt a gentle pat to her back that sent her flying over the surface of the pond like a stone tossed at the ocean bouncing into the horizon before sinking like a brick in the middle of the pond.

Kiyomi swam up and got onto the surface of the water using her "Art of Water Climbing", a technique that she was taught after leaving the Academy. There were many sensei that gave her tons of meaningless techniques to work on, they had to occupy the attention of the young heiress so that Kiyomi felt that she was learning something useful when in fact she was learning something completely trivial like walking on water


"What was that all about!?" Kiyomi yelled having lost all semblance of composure, at this point she was pretty much barking insults and lashing out on the woman while Hanasaku was rolling on the rocky dirt where she accidentally sent Kiyomi flying all the way to the other side of the pond.

"Sorry, sorry, I never get used to my own strength
" Hanasaku finally managed to stop rolling on the ground and give the blonde a reply, the woman then pointed to the side with a smile and rubbed her own nose, "That's what this training was all about, I was learning to restrain myself
"

Kiyomi wiped her hair rubbing it over with her hand and letting the excess of water just flow off of it. This idiot was unbelievable! The blonde stepped off of the pond's surface and deactivated the jutsu she used to walk on it. "Who on Earth are you? My clan elders will hear about you insulting the future heiress of the Yamanaka clan!" Kiyomi shouted out. She was acting like a diva, she had no idea why, after all she hated all of that over-glorified childish pampering that she got. Maybe she just wanted this woman to pay for this transgression but she knew well that she couldn't have matched up to her in any way.

Hanasaku made that weird guilty look, almost like a little puppy and introduced herself. "I am Hanasaku, I have a clan name but I don't like to throw it around because I grew up in a normal family of clanless villagers
"

Kiyomi's eyes shot up wide and her mouth opened almost to the ground in shock.

"Wait
 Hanasaku
 Chestnut Hanasaku, Konoha Sannin!?" she asked yelling out and completely losing any semblance of cool she may have preserved before that, even that façade of a pampered child was blown away, no way that could've been true


"Why do you have to go around telling your people this
 I'm sorry, I don't want to have to beat them up, you know!" Hanasaku exclaimed with little to no restraint to her tone, she was so outspoken and extraverted that she pretty much almost yelled her words out.

Kiyomi rubbed her chin like a supervillain plotting her next scheme, she could almost feel the hellfire burning behind her and a devilish cape growing out from her back, together with the small evil horns to complement the whole set! There was no way that any of her elders could've ever found any muscle who could've left a scratch on the Chestnut Hanasaku, that was exactly what Kiyomi always wanted, that was a chance for her to become strong, to break free of her shackles, of her cage and become an amazing ninja! Someone actually worth the mettle of being the next leader of her clan instead being just a sissy lady with a fancy dress and being all name.

"Ummm
" Kiyomi thought out loud before flipping back and falling on her butt and slamming her head into the dirt, trying to make her fall look convincing. "Owwie, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! That slap, why did you do that
 Oh no
 I think I'm really hurt
 I
 I may be dying, in fact!" she started faking an injury. Hanasaku shot up to the fallen girl and started freaking out.

"Oh no! What?! Wait, what'll I do!? I killed the heiress of the Yamanaka clan, Shiyomi!"

Kiyomi lifted her head off the ground comically.

"Kiyomi
 I mean
 I decided to temporarily postpone my death to remind you that you're a medical ninja
" she said out quietly, almost whispering like the autumnal trees dropping their leaves.

"Wait
"

Kiyomi shook on the ground, shit, her act was outed, now she'll be announced as fake!

"I think that you might have an internal fracture!"

The Yamanaka couldn't help it, she leaped back on her feet and started yelling at the woman from the deepest abyss of her lungs, so hard that even the deafest of all pigeons took off in fear for their life.

"How an idiot like you could have finished medical ninja education, you're supposed to study at the Konohagakure Hospital for that!"

Only after realizing that this time she outed herself for real Kiyomi just coughed and scratched the collar of her top in discomfort. She raised her palms up to calm the Sannin down and explain her intentions, Kiyomi was pretty good at playing people whether it was via her mind control hidden clan techniques or otherwise. However she didn't count on how difficult it'd be to actually be playing an idiot, a complete buffoon!

"Fine, I'm not really injured
 Just
 Look, you offended me, you made me slam my face into dirt, then you scared me with that prank and then you threw me into the water, I could've drowned you know
 Actually, it might be an actual miracle that saved me from having my spine break from all the backflips I did after you slapped me over the water."

Hanasaku just stood there and looked at Kiyomi with the dumbest puppy eyes possible, it was quite not out of the park that the woman didn't even realize where the girl was going. No. She must've struggled with the basic concept of most of Kiyomi's sentence structures as she looked like she'd appreciate having a notebook to write all of it down.

"The thing is
 I want you to train me in return to repay the harm you caused me today." Kiyomi declared her terms of how Hanasaku could've avoided the horrible fate of having to beat her clan elders and their hired muscle effortlessly.

"Oh
 Okay, you should've just said so
 You go around and around and around and I get really confused, when I train you, tell me how it is. I should really teach you to talk, you know
" Hanasaku pouted like a little baby wrapping her arms around her chest.

Kiyomi rubber her temple with her fingers angrily, she struggled to believe that this Hanasaku was an actual adult human being. She looked like she was at her late thirties yet it was hard to tell as medical ninja often enjoyed a much more youthful and beautiful appearance since their healing prowess somehow managed to affect them indirectly as well. The woman should've been much older, maybe in her mid to late forties if all those stories of her participating in that huge battle at the Tower of Bones was true
 That scuffle actually formed what was known as the Mammoth Graveyard – a giant pile of bones and crushed and grinded soil north of the village walls.

How could a half-wit like this be one of the strongest ninja in not only the village but the whole world? Even more, the famed Chestnut Hanasaku was among some of the most powerful of the Sannin among all of the villages, the top percentage of Sannin. How could she ever be so numb-witted? How did she survive daily activities? How didn't she cut her hands off when making a sandwich or cutting fish? Kiyomi sighed, trying to push all rude thoughts away. After all she wanted to learn from this woman and demoralizing thoughts didn't help anyone


Hanasaku leaped up into the air and landed right on top of the dummy's head, settling down in a meditative position. She must've leaped well over ten meters into the air to make that jump and the precision was incredible. Still, a chuunin or a jounin could've made a jump like that. Kiyomi couldn't help but still be a bit sceptical, after all, most jounin level ninja she met were absolute geniuses not only in terms of combat experience and strategy but also in such subjects like geometry, mathematics, literature and philosophy, some higher ranking ninja were even world known authors themselves. They travelled a lot and saw a lot of what life had to offer after all!

"So
 Why do you want to be my student, Kiyomi? Don't you have a sensei? If I have to beat someone up to rip you from your old team I won't do it" Hanasaku asked seriously, she seemed to have dropped the goofing around tone, at the very least she could still do that much


"Actually
 I just want to train. I had multiple different sensei in just the last three months, some of them were actual genin, hired to play around with me, some of them were really good but my clan ditched them because they wanted me to stay safe" Kiyomi explained, she didn't lie, she told things how they were with all of the feelings and frustration intact with those emotions. Hanasaku smiled.

"Why would they do this to you? Why would they hold you back? That's a terrible idea, if you're a weakling you'll die outside the village walls!" Hanasaku asked viewing Kiyomi's expression of desperation and frustration as some manner of a joke. The girl pouted, she felt a bit offended that the woman found something to laugh at, this was her life, her pain, her deepest and most honest feelings, were they all just a joke to this brute!?

"Because they don't want me to be a real ninja! They just want me play one. Since the Academy I was bred to be some child bearing princess mare, I was never taken seriously. "Oh no, Lady Kiyomi, that knife cut your precious finger, let's fire your teacher who let that happen!" and bullshit like that was what I grew up with! It's more important to them how good I look in the royal kimono than how I can handle myself in battle..." Kiyomi's face switched quickly from anger and frustration and locked feelings of angst into teary eyes and sadness.

Hanasaku just sat on that dummy and looked at the Yamanaka for a while, her face was serious and she did look like she had a certain amount of empathy in her heart. She actually appeared to be lamenting the fact that Kiyomi was being spoiled.

"I won't teach you" Hanasaku declared.

Kiyomi leaped forward, trying to grab the woman but the brown haired fury just concentrated all of her chakra and let it go in a burst sending the blonde back as if a hurricane had just blown her way, the blonde's furious attack didn't even break Hanasaku's delicate balance!

"Why!? I thought we had an agreement!" Kiyomi shouted out angrily. She was both depressed and angry at the same time, she was thankful to whatever sick God oversaw this world that Hanasaku was a powerful ninja who could've taken all that Kiyomi could've dished out in her blind fury or else the blonde could've done something she'd later regret.

"Because you've been spoiled, it's been too long, you're a ruined child. I've no time to waste on you, there's a low cap of skill where even I can't help. I won't hold back, I'll give you all of the challenge right from the get-go because that's the kind of person I am. If I only used half of the teaching methods it'd be doing just what you hated – I'd be spoiling and pampering you. You'll either die when I get serious about training you or you will become a liar to yourself when I treat you like a little pampered lady once again" Hanasaku explained.

Kiyomi fell down on her knees, she clutched her eyes together desperately trying to restrain her tears. She wasn't a crybaby, she couldn't have been, it's just that all of it hit her so hard, so recently
 Her brother dying, the clan becoming even more annoying with the pampering than they usually were and now Hanasaku refusing the deal to teach her. The blonde pounded the ground, again and again, opening the wounds that she had on her knuckles from before, blood ran wildly on the rocky ground dyeing the whole training area crimson red, almost like a petal storm of roses had just been brought its way.

"I
 Brother
 I'm sorry I'm so weak!" Kiyomi shouted out in angst and frustration. She was literally shaking in tension.

"Brother?" Hanasaku asked curiously when Kiyomi shook her head, her wild hair slipped out from the hairband and flowed down covering the girl's crying and pathetic face.

"He
 He counted on me, he wanted that I became a real ninja, he always saved me, saved me from this stupid life of being just a toy, just a little doll heiress. Saved me from death and pain too
" Kiyomi couldn't stop crying, she stood back up and wiped her teary eyes looking at Hanasaku with brave and determined eyes.

"I wanted to become as strong as he was so that I could've been able to fight the people likes of which killed him. He died after he made an enemy from the wrong people, bad people, strong people. People who defy the rules and moral norms, people who are worse than scum! I want to learn to punish rogues, I want to learn to kill them like they killed my brother!" Kiyomi shouted out from the bottom of her heart. Hanasaku sighed and stroke her own wild brown hair.

"Well I guess then you have a motivation that'll keep you from dying. Let's make a deal, I teach you and go balls out on you, I'll literally break you and then pick up the pieces off the floor and grind them to even smaller dust. If you die in the process – it's on you, you'll be a disappointment to your clan and your brother, if you live that'll be because you have a determination to live to fulfil your goal." Hanasaku smiled extending Kiyomi her hand.

The blonde walked up to Hanasaku and the two shook hands, driving them together. Kiyomi shouted out in pain as her shoulder instantly shot out from its socket and her elbow twisted in a very grotesque manner snapping her hand in two. The girl fell onto the floor and Hanasaku forced her back up to heal her arm back. Even when the bones were being mended they hurt. Hanasaku was a lousy healer, her healing hurt even more than the injury itself, usually healing was supposed to feel relieving and good.

"We'll get there eventually
" she calmed Kiyomi down.

"It's fine
" the girl stopped whining and closed her eyes to endure the pain. "It's better to fall a thousand times and break every bone in your body while running than to keep crawling."

"You dummybutt, why would you crawl? You'd just get into more dog-poop if you're closer to the ground
" Hanasaku laughed.

"I
 It was a meta
 Why am I explaining metaphors to you
 Ugh
" Kiyomi grunted in frustration but then the sensei and the student shared a laugh. The two didn't even know each other for more than an hour and they already felt like friends, something about Hanasaku made her pretty easy to get along with. It had to be her insulting lack of intelligence and brutal honesty because of her inability to think of both the reality and her lie at the same time


"Hey, twinklefuck! Get up!" Hisako slapped Kiyomi waking her up from her glorious slumber she deserved so justly by passing out. "Do you have any idea where idol-bitch is? Did you see which direction she left at or maybe saw how she's doing? She's been away for a pretty long time and we see no signs like your burning forest to come to her aid
"

Kiyomi sat back up and shook her head.

Quack walked up to her and kneeled up to her level. "Did you at the very least get the bloody fucker?"

Kiyomi smiled, "I sure as hell hope so
 Hate rogues
"

"You and me both, blondie
" Quack replied quickly popping a pill of some sort. Must've been one of those crazy medication things he had, what could it have been for though?

"You're a damned rogue, Quack!" Kiyomi snapped at him angrily.

"Not if everything goes according to plan, babe, plan to legitimize myself right after we off those fuckers and bring the richboy back
 I healed the lives of you two lovelies far too many times for me not to become man of the year when I bring the three of you back." The young man smiled before coughing up like an old smoker. Black rings appeared below the youth's eyes all of a sudden, if those pills he was popping were so poisonous why would he take them Kiyomi wondered


"Not if Mana dies, she's an actual idol to the kids, Konoha's Sorceress they call her, heard her magic tricks ain't too bad
" Kiyomi smiled looking at the thickness of the forest.

"Pffft, please, kids idolize everything these days, they'd tattoo their bodies with all sort of bullshit if they let them. You've no idea how many tits I could've signed out here
" Quack looked pretty sceptical about Mana's ability, that couldn't have been helped, the last time he saw the girl she was unconscious and burnt up, with smoking rags in place of her uniform


A light tap echoed through the nearest acres of the forest. Mana gently kicked off of each branch in her way just to keep her moving. She was looking around and trying to see where the woman she was pursuing had gone, the swinging lady was incredibly agile and fast, she flipped around and must’ve possessed some degree of superhuman strength to swing around like she has been, she easily traversed the forest by perfectly adjusting her leaps using whatever it was she was using, it may have been a whip, a rope or a chain, either way the degree of speed, precision and agility was unmatched.

Strangely enough for the most part of their little game the woman didn’t even try to escape Mana’s sight, quite the contrary, the woman even taunted the girl, hanging on a branch upside down and gesturing for the magician to come closer. The more she taunted the more intimidated and afraid Mana felt, she was now all alone with none of her friends even close around to help her. She was chasing someone much faster and possibly stronger, this woman must’ve been in her early twenties at the very least since her voice sounded quite sultry and mature.

Sometimes when Mana got lost her voice came in to guide the girl, just something really weird and creepy like a joke or a direction where she should head. This woman could’ve been luring Mana into her trap or selecting a favoured combat environment, either way it wasn’t good. The magician did her best to look out for any traps but with the speed she was moving in and the absolute darkness around her it was impossible. If she stepped on a tag placed below the branch it would’ve been set off and Mana wouldn’t have noticed it until her leg was shredded to pieces and the magician was already in mid fall. Mana always assumed missions would be dangerous but she never thought she’d have to rely on luck and chance like this


Mana stopped for a moment, she’s been moving at the speed of a moving vehicle, leaping and flipping over branches, desperate to reach another branch on another tree which may have been ten or twenty meters away. The girl was tired, she may have been leaping around and running for an hour or maybe even two, this was getting to the point of ridiculousness
 Was the woman intending to run away from Mana or to fight her? Did she have the boy or not? Most likely she didn’t, several times Mana had come quite close to the woman but then the rogue just dropped and swung to the other end of the forest. It was getting quite ridiculous.

Mana was also quite worried about her friends. She had no idea how was Hisako or Kiyomi doing, despite Hisako’s most genuine attempts to make Mana hate her the girl still cared for the raven haired assassin and treated her as a friend. There was this thing that the magician had noticed in the woman, no matter how disgusting her swearing was, no matter how nastily she spoke or how she threatened everyone, when the time came Hisako did what was right all the time. She helped the three girls not to get themselves murdered when they first entered the mercenary camp, she saved the two from Hachi and had them healed, she listened to Mana’s reason. Maybe this nastiness of Hisako’s was just a façade, otherwise why would she had done everything right when things came down to it?

“Awww
 How cute, what’s the matter, are you lost, little girl?” the woman’s voice picked up. Mana heard the voice of a young man shouting in pain following the woman’s taunt shortly, her eyes shot up in surprise so quickly that the girl’s tired eyes shot out some tears. Mana hadn’t slept at all that night, she was running for an hour or two at the speed that surpassed her usual limits just to catch up to the woman
 Did she have the hostage with her? That changed everything! Mana leaped towards the voice.

Sharp pain emanated through Mana’s abdomen, she looked down and saw a cruel smile, the woman was dressed in all black, the girl didn’t even notice her jumping in from below and driving her elbow into her abdomen. The woman then grabbed hold of Mana’s shoulders and flipped over the girl using them as her support, throwing the magician after her feet landed on something solid. Mana felt a cold breeze and the howling wind close to her, what amazing strength! Then she moaned pathetically when something made of leather wrapped around her neck – it was that thing that the woman used to swing around the forest.

Mana realized what was going on, the woman tossed her down and wrapped this whip of hers around the girl’s throat, she counted on Mana passing out after hitting a tree and then her neck breaking or her getting hanged on the whip. The grey tree bark was closing in quick, Mana thrust her legs and activated the “Art of Tree Climbing” to stick to the tree. She then grunted again and felt something warm like blood or slobber shooting out from her throat when the woman pulled the whip yanking Mana off of the tree and once again falling down.

“Get out of that loop, get it off of you, you’ll die
 Come on
 Come on
 MOVE IT!” Mana ordered herself in her mind as her childish heart was pounding relentlessly inside her own chest, it felt like it’d hop out at any time, honestly. Finally, the loop tied around Mana’s neck went off just in time, Mana made some hand seals and activated her “Mystical Wings Jutsu” to break her fall with a powerful gust of wind. After Mana fell onto the soft mossy dirt she took a moment to catch her breath and calm her pounding heart, she almost had a panic attack there and it wasn’t helping. Had it not been for Mana’s experience with hanging devices and deathtraps during her magic shows she’d be hanging lifeless with a broken neck off of a branch right now


Mana swung her arms wildly tossing some steel tipped cards at where the woman was, Mana heard the sound of tearing and the woman grunting – she hit her! The woman leaped down, Mana noticed her jumpsuit having been torn up but it didn’t seem like Mana’s cards opened any bleeding wounds yet, she just scored some lucky close shots. The magician girl shoved her arm deep into her hat and activated father’s seal, she was just about running out of her cards and Mana didn’t intend to clean her resources just yet, she had to use some tools she sealed into her father’s seal.

The girl pulled out a new box of cards and shoved it into the device inside her sleeve, the intricate holster was now exposed since Mana’s uniform was all burnt up and had holes in it. The girl still felt cold and a bit ashamed to be walking with a torn up attire but that was not the time for being embarrassed. While cold would eventually kill her but currently it was only slowing Mana down, it was not yet a problem but the time when it’d be one was approaching.

The magician tossed another card, the woman leaped up and tied her whip around a branch up above pulling herself even higher up. The seal on the card activated firing off three shuriken at the woman from the back of the card. All three dug into the woman’s back and she hissed like a cat whose tail was stepped on. The woman hung herself upside down on the branch. Her hoodie slipped off and her short ginger hair finally slipped out, strangely enough two bangs right near her face were brown, while the rest of her hairdo was bright orange. She had some strange whiskers on her face and her teeth looked pointy, she reminded Mana of a cat version of Inuzuka.

“You play dirty, little mouse, this trap was meant for your delicate neck reaching in for the cheese
” she pulled out a radio from her back pocket showing it off to Mana and playing a recording of the hostage yelling in pain.

“I didn’t know Inuzuka also bred cats
” Mana bumbled back scratching her aching neck, honestly with how close that call was a little neck ache was the least of her problems


“I’m no Inuzuka, I’m a member of the Nekomata clan, just like my brother.” The woman angrily replied, it appeared that being confused for an Inuzuka was a pretty sensitive subject since there would’ve been no other reason for her to reply.

The woman then gracefully leaped on top of the branch and unwrapped her whip swinging it around, letting it crack and break off several pretty large branches of the trees and sending them crashing down. That whip may have killed a normal person if it as much as hit them once, even a hit on a leg or an arm would’ve sent a shockwave throughout one’s entire skeleton shattering bones where it made its way through. This was dangerous, Mana didn’t want to use chakra augmentation so shortly after using it to traverse but this may have been unavoidable.

The woman also was smart enough not to pull out the three shuriken that were stuck in her back, that’d have caused a pretty intense bleeding. The woman then laughed seductively and lashed her whip at Mana, the girl leaped back but the end of the whip bounced off and hit the girl in her chest tearing off more of her uniform and opening a gruesome gash, blacking the area around it almost instantly. Mana screamed in pain as her body froze, it hurt like nothing she had ever felt before


“Does it hurt? I bet it does, you’ve been a pretty bad girl hurting me like that, I’m afraid I’ll have to whip you around for a while before I kill you!” the woman then laughed as she swung her whip again. This time it lit up with chakra, piercing through the trees as it passed them, Mana leaped away from several falling trees and avoided the whip’s snap, while she avoided the tip of it, the middle part leaped off of a tree it was close to and once again hit the girl making her fly back into the rubble of fallen trees and screaming in pain. Mana desperately tried to crawl away from the rubble she was thrown at as she was a sitting duck in there. She took a brief glance at the wound – it was a pulsing reddish and black blunt force trauma. So concentrated but so strong! It wasn’t meant to kill, maybe if it hit her directly yes but
 The bouncing was made to torture. That whip was impossible to avoid entirely.

Suddenly the leather tied around Mana’s neck again out of nowhere, the woman yanked the whip pulling the girl in and applying pressure. Mana grunted pathetically, she had to get that stupid whip loose, she had to escape, do something about it or she’d die. She’d die when the woman felt like letting her die, after gruesome torture. Now Mana realized the point of that weapon – show the enemy that avoiding it meant to torture yourself. Make them refuse to avoid it and choose death by their own choice
 Such a cruel way to go


“Well? Do you like my “Cat’s Tail”, just relax, stop kicking around and I’ll hang you like a good little girl, I won’t need to whip you again!” the woman yelled at Mana, the girl kept kicking around and grabbing for stumps so that the woman didn’t drag her in close enough to actually hang her.

“As you can see, I am a long range fighter, I use my “Cat’s Tail” to keep my enemy as far away from me as possible. Long range is a pain in any ninja’s butt
 I’ve killed many chuunin like this as well so don’t feel sad about dying here, you’ve done well, now just stop struggling and accept it, it’ll come faster that way
”

Mana kicked around, her vision was becoming blurry and she felt like going asleep, no, that couldn’t happen, not now not ever, not until Mana finally changed the world! The girl pulled out a card out of her hat which she still clutched in her right hand, the other one was looking for a stump to hold to before the woman yanked her so hard that Mana’s bleeding left arm couldn’t hold on any longer. The magician swiped the steel tipped card at the leather whip, luckily enough it wasn’t enhanced with chakra then, the woman didn’t want to behead the girl, just to strangle her.

Finally
 Freedom, Mana tore the leather off her neck and coughed frantically, for the second time that day she almost died
 All that training she did, all that struggling and she almost died again. She became so much stronger but it still wasn’t enough. The magician stood back up once her blurry vision lined up and looked at the furious Nekomata woman.

“Actually long range is just fine for me
 Now I’ve shortened your range by cutting your whip in half. I’m really more of a long range ninja myself, I usually have to use my legs to keep the enemy at a much more comfortable range but you actually prefer long range which is great. I’m what you’d call your counter
” Mana huffed out once she regained the use of her voice.

The woman laughed maniacally, “Don’t joke around, kid, you should’ve just been a good little girl and died, now I’ll have to mess up your pretty body, that’s of course if they’ll even find it!” she shouted after raising her palms into the air and activating something – short chakra flames lit up on the woman’s fingernails.

“Man-Beast Formation: Cat Mimicry!” she yelled out as the chakra flames formed long claws where her nails would’ve been, her hair also stood up as more spiky and the woman leaned forward standing on all fours. Chakra was shooting off in jets of blue flames all around the woman’s body, it must’ve been quite the costly technique to sustain.

Mana’s arms went through the hand seals and shot forward. She had something new to try out, an improved version of her mostly visual “Magic Spark Jutsu”.

“Magical Sphere Barrage!” she yelled forcing lightning chakra to light up and crackle around her body before forming several sets of dozens small lightning chakra spheres and shooting at the woman. The Nekomata leaped at Mana trying to slash the girl but the spheres started collectively bombarding her, pounding into her body with enough strength to crack bones and then shocking her leaving nasty burns. A combination of small loud thuds and crackling lightning echoed lighting up the night’s sky briefly before the lifeless Nekomata woman fell from where she was. The tree she was on as well as several others and some of those she cut down were ablaze from Mana’s technique, the girl smiled, this version was so much stronger than her previous one, it actually dealt some damage and had some lightning properties, it wasn’t just all sparks and no burn


Mana gurgled up some blood and stumbled back, suddenly the burnt up and injured woman just appeared right up close to her and slashed her chakra claws, she was so fast! One moment she was lying around and the other she was up and close to Mana. The woman started wildly cutting at Mana, the magician tried to leap back and avoid everything but more and more cuts opened wounds on her, Mana was tired, injured already. This wasn’t looking good. The girl made hand seals but then changed the last one, she planned to repeat the previous jutsu, just try and power it through but the Nekomata slashed at her gut with enough reach to let Mana’s guts out, wind chakra shot from the girl’s legs throwing her backwards after she activated her “Mystical Wings Jutsu” again and landed further away.

The girl coughed some blood up and clutched her injured abdomen – the woman cut her pretty deep, not yet guts-out deep but one more cut would’ve done it. The woman leaped forward. Mana closed her eyes and felt her body tense. This was just like with the Demon back in Konohagakure – she wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t fast enough. She mastered her kicks just for situations like this, where she couldn’t keep her opponent at range.

Right before the woman’s claws dug into Mana’s intestines the magician’s knee dug into the woman’s cheek so incredibly fast that the woman who invested all of her effort into offense had no time to respond. Mana smiled as her eyes shot back open, her opponent was hit, stumbling and dazed. The magician continued to keep up her wild kicking combination, aiming for the burned areas, for the sensitive spots like the abdomen, face and nose. With a final jump kick to the woman’s gut Mana sent her tumbling back. She looked completely out.

Mana looked down, she heard her own blood tapping onto the leaves and grass below, the wound on her abdomen was pretty deep. Mana took off her covered with holes jacket and tore off her blouse tying it around her waist, almost instantly the white cloth dyed crimson red, then Mana wrapped the jacket around just to have some cloth on her so that she didn’t freeze to death. It was known to the magician that her natural ninja metabolism should’ve kept her going for a while, maybe just long enough until that wound didn’t bother her as much. Mana knew a lethal wound when she saw one, over that last year she pushed herself to the limit many times and this was not the kind of wound that the girl was ready to die because of.

A loud pop alerted her, Mana turned at the beaten Nekomata but she saw nothing else but a cloud of purple smoke. The magician stumbled back, worried it may have been poisonous but then when the smoke split there was nothing there but a small puddle of blood and torn black cloth. Mana weighed herself back and hit her back against a tree, she grunted as more bruises opened up when she slid down against the rough tree bark. Mana breathed heavily, waiting for the Quack or Hisako or Kiyomi to come
 Ten minutes passed, fifteen, half an hour
 Mana was all alone, left alone to die here.

“Well, if I’m gonna die, may as well die moving
” Mana thought to herself forcing to pick herself off of the ground and starting moving towards the camp. The night was already passing, soon the Sun would rise. Mana was moving so slowly, she didn’t know if she’d make it back to the camp or if anyone was even there. This was what the life of ninja was like, this was the world that Tanshu-sensei warned her of.

Mana wasn’t about to prove Tanshu-sensei right by dying with a bleeding gut wound in the middle of nowhere.

And so the agonizing walk back began


Mana took careful and planned steps so that she didn’t trigger the overwhelming onslaught of pain which would’ve sent her grunting on her knees. When the cut in her gut was moved it let itself be known by completely crippling the youngster. Each and every step was agonizing but it also took the girl closer to her team, to where she could’ve gotten help. Mana wasn’t sure how far away from her team she was. She’s been tracking the Nekomata member for quite some time and she was moving at her top speed which was nothing short of a speeding vehicle. Then again the woman could’ve lead her in circles


Mana didn’t know what was worse – the pain she felt with every step or knowing that an incredible amount of steps she needed to take was left. Each and every step took her closer to help but the number of total steps compared to each individual step just made her getting to her final goal that much more impossible. Mana tripped on a large root and fell onto the mossy ground. The girl whined for a while but picked herself back up. She felt pain but none of the release that dying offered – she was very much going to survive it but having the suffering in mind it was not much of a relief at that moment.

The magician took a brief moment to examine her wound, it didn’t appear to be bleeding, it used to spit blood in torrents before slowing down, then completely closing in. Such was the ninja metabolism, injuries like this tend to heal quite fast as long as the ninja was out of battle and let their chakra circulation enhance the natural processes of the body and treat the wound somewhat. This wasn’t some sort of a miracle, it didn’t work in a middle of battle but it also didn’t take care of the wound, it just kept it from killing the ninja. One stronger bump, one irregularity in one’s chakra flow could’ve reopened the wound again and that would’ve made it all worse again.

Mana’s steps were trembling, her entire body was fighting off the impulse to take another step. Her mind was determined, completely set in stone with its decision to make it back to her team in the camp. Her body gave up however, it wanted for the pain to stop, the battle itself didn’t exhaust Mana but having to power through the pain of her various injuries tired her physically. Taking each and every step took a toll on her, it not only made her power through pain but convincing herself started to tire her mind as well, her iron will started appearing less iron every second.

“Ugh
” Mana grunted putting her back by a tree and sliding down on her butt, she looked onward into the darkness of the forest and felt the first gentle rays of light warm her cheeks. These weren’t her final moments, not yet, this was just a trial for her to power through, it was something she had to do, a pain that was inevitable for her to continue existing yet this trial felt so impossible. She may have tracked the woman for hours, how long it’d take with this turtle’s pace to come back? No
 It wasn’t worth it! She was just a useless weakling, she trained for so long yet she hesitated to fight the cat woman with her very best from the start.

“Really? Of all the people to prove me right, you’d disappoint me the most
” Mana heard Tanshu’s voice and noticed the man’s brownish locks and thick beard in front of her, wearing the same messy clothes he always did and looking with all of his disapproving glory at the teen girl.

Mana didn’t respond, she just turned away, that was how it happened, huh? At some point everyone encountered a challenge that was so strong and made one suffer so much that they had to turn away, give up on their lifelong dreams and become the grey mass that comprised this world.

“Where did all that bullshit about everyone’s life go? Were you just showing off? Were you just a filthy all-talk little shit!?” Tanshu started yelling at Mana. The magician was so tortured by her own exhaustion and pain that she didn’t even question the appearance of her dead mentor in front of her. Mana breathed in and out.

“Hisako-san and Kiyomi-san are alright, they’re stronger than me, they’re smarter and they’ve been doing this for far longer. Hisako-san went through more pain and loss than anyone deserves to, she’ll handle her trials, Kiyomi-san is the most amazing ninja of her age I’ve ever seen, if anyone can survive this it’s her and if she can’t I sure as hell can’t help her
 I give up
” Mana started mumbling under her nose, imagining that this phantom of her mentor heard her. That was it huh? That was her breaking point? What would her friends, what would Shimo and Sugemi think about her if they saw her broken like that?

Sensei’s imaginary phantom arm passed through Mana’s cheek, the girl’s mind forced her to turn her body to the side where she was slapped by her own imagination.

“This was never about Hisako and Kiyomi, this was about you! You keep talking about how important and sacred everyone’s life is, what about YOUR life? You’re throwing it away, you see a person with a sacred life inside of their heart dying and you’re giving up on that person, you’re giving up on yourself
 Stop embarrassing yourself, you know I’m just in your head, there’s a part of you that hasn’t given up yet, give in to that part, put it on the wheel
”

The teen magician turned at where the ghost was supposed to be but it wasn’t there, it never had been, it was just Mana’s injury that forced her body to start seeing things that weren’t there, things she’d have liked to see. Mana let her head rest at the rough bark of the tree, she looked down at her wound and saw that the blood mark was already darkening – the stain wasn’t fresh, Mana carefully removed what used to be her shirt from her wound and looked at it – it’ll make for a pretty nasty scar


Cold raindrops fell on Mana’s forehead, it wasn’t a rain but a drizzle, it took a great quantity of raindrops before they gathered into a big chunk of water that ran down Mana’s face.

“Not gonna make it easy for me, huh?” Mana looked at the sky, she used to believe that there was this energy in charge of everything, this certain Magic that gifted parts of its own being into each living being, giving more to some, less to others and those with more of Magic inside of them had a responsibility to compensate that difference by watching out for those with less of it. Maybe those beliefs formed little Mana’s hero complex


Despite not believing in that thing for quite some time, maybe there was still more of it inside Mana than she have realized? She still sometimes sarcastically spoke to something, something greater than everything else. She had the full understanding that her cries of pain, her questions and her sarcastic thoughts all didn’t reach anything, they didn’t amount to anything, they weren’t being listened to. No one cared about those things but it was so easy to believe that someone did, naïve but easy


Mana grunted and clutched her scar, some rain water running down her torn clothes washed some blood off of the wound, the cold raindrops sort of refreshed the girl to stand up and keep moving. Mana always loved the rain yet it wasn’t like the rain made her stronger, it wasn’t that some supernatural force of nature sent it there, it wasn’t that rain picked her up all by itself. It was just something that happened, despite being the simplest explanation, that there was no causality for this event and resurrection of Mana’s spirit, the cancellation of her inner surrender, it was much harder to believe in the simpler things because people hated the idea behind them.

The magician kept on walking, it hurt a little less now that she accepted this pain, this responsibility and no longer fought against herself. Fighting against pain and cold was much easier than fighting against oneself. Tanshu-sensei
 Tanshu-sensei’s phantom, whatever that was
 It was right. Mana’s life mattered, it mattered just as much as the life of anyone she strived to protect. That meant that Mana was responsible not only to someone else but also to herself, she was responsible for keeping herself alive, she had to become a hero for herself as well as everyone else.

All this time Mana knew it, she knew that gap in her logic that her own mind was just as sacred and that she was throwing it away. Throwing it away was the easiest thing to do, some part of Mana wanted to just change the world and die right after it so that she wouldn’t have to face that world. But if she gave up one herself that would’ve made Mana actually fail at the very least one person – herself. Even more, as the architect of this new world, one where all life mattered and was protected Mana was responsible for all of the problems in that world. She’d have to answer the cries of hatred of every mother whose children would be killed by killers who were left alive because of Mana’s ideals.

“Forward
 Only forward
” Mana whispered to herself, biting into her lip until blood was drawn, the pain was difficult to take but it was her responsibility, all of this was. The Fifth gave her an assignment to save that boy, she was integral to this three person team, without Mana the mission would’ve been impossible, or so Lady Hokage believed. Apparently the magician was also responsible for the mission, for the lives of everyone in her team and the boy kidnapped, she had to come back successfully.

Why was she so silly? Why didn’t she just explode with all of her new skills from the beginning? Why didn’t Mana just dropkick that tree down where the Nekomata woman was, why didn’t she blow her away by overwhelming her with her new techniques? The magician could’ve won that battle much faster, it was just her inner kindness that prevented Mana from unleashing that anger and power inside her. Once again, even after the lesson from Guru Ayushi and her own endless training and moralizing that she had to always fight with all she had and that it was OK to fight, Mana found herself holding back because she was kind.

Mana felt a bit warmer
 Almost like someone placed their hand on her shoulder. The magician turned to the side, no one was there, she was all alone
 The young kunoichi kept on walking until she heard a familiar voice.

“You’re so rude, Mana
”

The girl turned back, happy to hear that voice again but
 Something was wrong. Behind her stood Shimo with his usual messy dung green kimono and his significantly longer hair. This was not Shimo, it couldn’t have been, Mana imagined how Shimo would have looked now many times and she had imagined him just like that. This was her own imagination again, she must’ve twisted her gut a bit too sharply and caused her wound to bleed again. Mana stopped and coughed up, she was definitely going to catch a cold out there


“Fine, what do you mean?” the girl honoured her own mental projection with a reply. Talking to oneself seems like a really good idea when one suffers from a fever and is slowly bleeding out. Especially when one is out in a middle of nowhere and has to cover hell knows how many miles on foot without the ability to sprint.

“Your enemies, you disrespect them all the time, you play around and keep your strength back. Even if you believe inside that fighting is the right thing to do, face it, you know it! You already know that you’ll change the world by punching the person who wants to preserve its twisted ways out, that’s the only thing you can do, you are not a medical ninja, you’re not smart enough to write laws and make contracts between countries
 You’ll make the world violence free with violence, you’ll try to change it by fighting the people who threaten it. The reason you’re so bad at it is because you don’t just fight the people you need to fight, you fight yourself as well.”

“We both know Shimo calls me “Mana-chan”
” Mana replied lowering her head and avoiding the observation, her own mind was giving her a moral lesson and the girl knew that no one hit harder than her own mind because she knew exactly what was wrong with herself.

“Everyone’s life is sacred, there is no evil people, just people with different ideals and some idolize the entirely misguided things
 I get it, of all people I, who is part of you, really do
 But tell me, if they decide to fight you, what right do you have not to honour that decision? If a person decides to fight, it’s their decision, they bring the consequences upon themselves and that’s where your responsibility over their well-being ends. When the first punch is thrown, you make sure you beat them down, you do whatever it takes to win and then you decide if you kill them or not
 We all know which you’ll choose every time!”

Shimo’s last sentence sounded so soft. Mana turned back at the phantom with her face full of tears, her lips were shaking.

“Come back some time
 I miss you
 Aaaand I’m talking with myself again
” Mana sighed realizing that the man she had imagined Shimo to be now had disappeared already, her ninja healing factor had already fixed whatever was wrong with her, cleansed the minor sparks of infection, started working on that fever. It won’t cure those problems but it’ll make them tolerable.

“If they decide to fight, it’s their decision
” Mana repeated to herself again, continuing to walk on. The drizzle started settling down, it was so barely recognizable now that the magician could barely even feel the freezing drops of rain hitting her red and heated from fever cheeks.

A loud scream pierced the forest’s depth, Mana scratched the wound trying to pass around a bush but scratching her abdomen with a branch, she cried out pitifully again and stopped, standing by the tree for support. After a moment of precious self-pity Mana pushed her body off of the tree’s salvation, she could’ve just stayed by that tree and enjoyed its fake and treacherous sanctuary. That would’ve meant giving up, going back to all that responsibility shit. While Mana acknowledged all of the responsibilities she took by her own free will, that didn’t mean that she liked to be reminded of how numerous they were.

“I think the problem is in how you view the battles
” father’s voice echoed, it only made sense that Mana would once again start seeing things since she reopened the wound and even made it seem nastier after bumping into that bush.

“You view them as battles, you take them seriously which is why you always have that idea of possible outcome of killing your opponent. You need to find a way to trick yourself, make yourself think differently before you get used to that prospect that someone might die. There’s no shame in that fear, there’s no single thing more worth our fear in this world than death, whether it be ours or that of others
”

Mana didn’t reply initially, she loved to hear father’s voice, it reminded her of home, reminded her of the calm and cosy pleasure of looking through the window in her oversized winter sweater and seeing the bleak and gritty rain and cold from the warmth of her home.

“You mean like a performance? Stop having a giant divide between my magic shows and battle?” Mana then asked her father’s image but realized it was no longer there. She was alone, yet she fell for the illusion that she wasn’t three times in a row. The idea that there was someone in the world that gave a shit about your pain and your regrets was so tempting that it made one fall for the same trick three times and the magician was sure she’d fall for it as many times as it’d have happened


“I guess that was the idea the whole time, use ninjutsu as an art, not a tool of murder. May as well treat fighting as art too
 Look out world, here comes the girl who’ll pull a rabbit out of a hat in a middle of a fight.” Mana sarcastically mumbled under her nose.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Mana heard a familiar voice but she didn’t turn back, it must’ve been just another phantom. She just kept walking, it was then that the magician felt a cold hand on her forehead and someone picking her body off of the tree and putting it around her shoulder. Mana lifted her head and saw the Quack holding her straight.

“Whoo boy, seems like you got yourself messed up a bit, shit
 Here I thought I wouldn’t need to
 You know
 Use actual medicine. Sit down here, this has to be done here, just let me
”

The young boy reached for his speaker and pressed his ear, turning the headset on.

“Hey, my lovelies, I found our little magician, she’s injured but I can get her singing in a jiffy. Stay clear, I might need to use some medicine here, my stitching is a bit rusty, I just always popped some pills
 I’ve no idea how medicals actually do it
”

“Okay are you kidding? Tell me you’re kidding? I saw you down two flasks of what smelled like rice wine earlier! No way, I’m going there, what’s your location!?” Kiyomi’s loud voice could’ve been heard from the one earplug that was out from the Quack’s ear. The young man must’ve loved having just one in his ear as it let his other ear stay vigilant of everything around him.


“Fuck that shit, am I the only one alarmed by him saying “in a jiffy”? What sort of a jinglecunt says that?! I let this fucker treat my injuries! A man who says “in a jiffy” cleaned my infection
” Hisako’s voice also followed shortly.

Quack pulled the plugs out and shoved them in his small bag.

“Sorry there, lovely, I’ll just shut those two tigercunts up, the only thing I let to mess with my medical hand when I stitch is alcohol
” Quack sat down and made some hand seals, a small jet of water rose from the man’s little flask inside his bag and wrapped around his arms, it got blacker and blacker and then the water just darted to the side, black as tar.

“Alright, now you
” Quack made some hand seals and pointed his arms at Mana’s wound, more water shot out and covered all small scratches and the big gash on Mana’s abdomen. They all soon blackened too and then flew to the side only to disappear as they’ve been absorbed into the dirt. Mana felt her fever falling back, her wounds also somehow felt
 Fresher
 It must’ve been some sort of cleaning technique. Quack started breathing really hard, he must’ve been tired.

“How are the others? Are you okay? You look tired
” Mana got worried.

“Hold it
 Going in
” Quack silenced Mana putting his needle into her wound, strangely enough Mana didn’t see any thread in the needle, it must’ve been some strange ninja tool specific for Quacks. Mana bit her lip in pain, honestly when her entire body was pulsing and aching getting one’s wound sewn didn’t feel half that bad but it still made her wriggle a little bit.

“The two are peachy, well they sort of weren’t, I helped them get there, Hisako was a bit messed up and had her chakra flow all tangled up, fought some sort of a leecher cunt or something, the blonde got herself messed up pretty badly too so I wasted most of my chakra healing them. Sadly I’ll be out of commission for two days but the sword swinging one is adamant on hurrying with the siege of that damned bunker. That means I will be only as helpful as conventional Quack medicine can help you, no medical ninjutsu mumbo jumbo
”

As Quack explained he was almost done. The young man pulled some pills again and popped them, his skin paled and dark rings dyed around his eyes, the young man ran to the corner and threw something up, this was the first time that Mana saw him do that.

What exactly was going on with this young man?

Quack's finger gently ran down Mana's face down to her lip and examined it with its touch.

"Does it hurt? What is this?" he asked after finishing patching the magician's abdomen gash up. Strangely enough, despite there appearing to be no thread, the needle somehow still stitched the wound up and closed it with each puncture just like there would've been one.

"I bit it, accidentally from the pain
" Mana replied blushing a little since she was ashamed of such a stupid injury. Quack smiled and started examining the other scratches, moving away from the lip bite. He then handed the girl a purple pill, similar to that which he had been popping the whole time.

"What is this? Is this poisonous or something?" the girl asked confused, remembering quite well how violently the young man's body reacted to a pill just several shades different in colour. The young man shook his head, he looked a bit annoyed, must've been the notion of his patient questioning his judgment.

"No, lovely, the poison is for me. This is an immuno-booster, it boosts your short term ninja metabolism but it has a pretty nasty cooldown period, I'd suggest to refrain from getting injured for about four to five days starting after tomorrow
" the man explained. Mana nodded and took the pill, swallowing it without water hurt her dry throat a little but she took it down with moderate effort.

"So
 Why do you drink poison then?" the magician got curious, she guessed that the pills that the boy was taking was some sort of a drug or maybe medication from some sickness, apparently it was a poison which intrigued the magician a bit. Why would someone take poison in such continuous and prolonged periods of time, she could remember the boy popping the pill before sleep, he just popped one now just about when he'd have awakened under normal circumstances.

"It's a long story, lovely, a really long story
" the youth tried to dismiss the question but Mana shook violently, the medical youth then touched her forehead.

"You're getting cold, usually ninja metabolism counteracts the fever when it starts hurting the brain, my booster multiplied that reaction so your bodily temperature is now dropping
" the young quack explained removing his long coat and wrapping it around Mana, the girl was far too short and of quite different build to wear the man's long coat but she buttoned the top button and wrapped into it like it was a blanket.

"I guess we're not going anywhere
" the magician sniffed her nose and felt it clearing up, this immuno-booster thing just cured her cold during its starting stages within seconds. Obviously there must've been a payback, by now the magician had learned that whatever use the Quack's medicine provided it had an equal counterbalance to it.

Quack stood up and took a sip from his flask, Mana looked at the young man's frail body covered with merely a tight white shirt. His skin had no goosebumps or signs of cold at all, was the man immune to it? He also had no fear taking poisonous pills with alcohol as he only took the poison maybe twenty or thirty minutes earlier. Did he have a death wish?

"Umm
 Sorry if I sound annoying but
 What's your real name? I mean obviously you have one, you're not just called "Quack" right?" Mana asked shyly rubbing her freezing cheeks against the man's coat. The blonde rubbed his messy hair with his arm swiping bunch of rainwater off of it. He sat down and sighed.

"It's Eiju, Eiju Fuuhen" he grunted out, his voice sounded quite rough, he didn't particularly enjoy talking about himself apparently. Several minutes later the man angrily glared at the magician and asked, "Have you warmed up enough? I need to take a look at the other cuts and you're bleeding all over my coat, as sexy as I'd find a lady bleeding over my coat under normal circumstances, I'm not that much of a children loving person and you remind me still of a child
"

Mana removed the coat and looked at several bloodstains left on the coat, this made no sense, her ninja metabolism was supposed to have already clogged those minor scratches, was it some sort of a weird reaction to his medicine?

Eiju sighed and waved his hand, "Keep it, lovely, you'll find a better use for it for now, return it to me when you wash it though."

Mana looked down and rubbed her heel against the dirt making a small bow mark on it. "So
 Are we going to move soon?" she asked. The Quack shook his head and moved in closer unbuttoning and moving the cloak away from the injuries and started to look at Mana's cuts and scratches.

"No need, the two ladies will soon come to us, that's how I always like em
 Bloody hell, are those chakra burns? Well at least they cauterized the wound
 How did you get those cuts?" Eiju asked angrily, for some reason he still acted pretty rude with Mana, the magician didn't feel too comfortable with that since he acted like she was just a burden for him to watch over.

"A Nekomata woman did them, she has that jutsu that forms pure chakra blades around her fingers, almost like elongated claws." Mana explained looking at the scratches on her shoulders and all over the other areas of the body.

"Well the good thing is that you're going to get those completely removed by the time you're legally allowed to be hot. Blokes will line up behind you, chakra cuts and burns can be healed pretty easily as long as it's not an elemental release technique." Eiju explained and moved away from the girl giving her some time to cover up again and stop shaking from the cold.

"You're talking strange, I haven't noticed it before but
 I've never heard words like "bloke" and someone referring to people as "lovely", you're not from around?" Mana was almost too afraid to ask because she knew that Eiju would get angry again for bringing up his history, he seemed to hate being around Mana to begin with. Seemed to be a pretty common habit these days


"It's
 I'm from Kirigakure, a certain rich and snobby layer of society there speaks that way, "bloke" means a guy, "lovely" is how we used to refer to women." Quack rudely replied, his tone was still a bit rough but this time there was something different in there, longing for his home perhaps?

"And "jiffy" means
 Quickly?" Mana smiled at him moving her nose out from the coat for the first time in a while feeling warm.

"Yeah, something like that
" Eiju replied.

Mana's sad eyes moved away, suddenly she felt something tearing inside her chest, something pulsing and burning her from inside, some kind of profound sadness the source of which she couldn't initially understand but then she did and the realization of what it was terrified the girl.

"You know
 I could beat your story out of you, you look like an asthmatic zombie to begin with, even if I couldn't I could just tell Hisako and Kiyomi that you're from Kirigakure and they wouldn't trust you, they'd beat it out of you too
" Mana had no idea where this rude anger rose from. This realization that this man was from Kirigakure just angered her, somehow brought all the pain that the country was responsible for: hurting her father, killing Tanshu-sensei and the Fourth Hokage


"Well, fuck me
 Never thought little brat had thorns
 Don't expect me to call you "lovely" for a while, only blokes talked to me that way so I may start referring to you like that from now on, little bloke." Quack grunted back at her but for some reason Mana's negativity fuelled him, the man started to enjoy talking to her as if it was the magician's softness that made him dislike her.

"I'm sorry it's just
 Kirigakure
" Mana admitted lowering her head and removing one scratched up and beaten arm from the coat's collar to fix her messy and wet hair.

"Yeah
 I get it, kid, tough history, to you it may be the place that killed your whoever and had your mum through the bottom-hole but to me it was home, it was where I ate my crumpets and sipped my mum's tea so stick your hatred to your bumhole and push it down with a walking stick." Eiju replied, while the content of his words was hateful but they were delivered in a soft manner.

"Could you
 Talk to me? Like
 About where you're from, just until Kiyomi and Hisako comes, please?" Mana asked looking at Eiju with the largest and wettest puppy eyes she could make. The girl just wanted to hear how he was brought to this corner of the world from entirely another, she wanted to know how a young boy from Kirigakure's aristocracy could've ended up in Konoha as a Quack to whichever mercenary gang claimed him.

"Jeez, kid
 Fine. I'll talk but only to keep your mouth shut." Eiju started but Mana interrupted him.

"Don't lie to me though, I'll know
" she lied.

"Fine. So I guess I was popped from my mother's womb in Kirigakure, the high and mighty layer of society, crumpets and tea all day long was my diet until I was old enough to enter the Academy
"

Mana shook her head and raised her weak and wobbly palm from under the coat. "I'm sorry, what's a crumpet?" she asked.

"It's not like it's bloody ruining the story, kid, stay focused, that's not the detail you should focus on
" while Quack kept trying to explain the concept of his story Mana's eyes forced him to sigh and plant his slap onto his own face.

"It's a bloody dessert
 Okay? So the point is, a kid can only grow that large and that strong eating just cookies and tea, right? So I was a thin, sickly little chump, not unlike now but now I'm more plagued by lack of crumpets than overdose of em, anyways
" Eiju stopped, looking down, he pointed at Mana and then reached into the inner pocket of his coat removing a bottle of pills and showing them to him.

"Basically I lied to you already but you didn't notice, so much for your lie detector skills, huh? I wasn't booped out my mummy's funnyhole like I said, I was lab bred because my mum was as sick as I am, you take a chunk of your daddy, you take a chunk of your mum, mash it into a mass and give it to a funky little bloke who does some insane and, quite frankly, illegal Quack work – you end up with a world's most handsome baby
 I suppose."

Mana looked up into the sky and then turned back at Eiju, the man sort of looked like he was finished but Mana's look encouraged him to keep going.

"Can you really do that sort of thing? Why would people ever have normal babies then if you can just make one? Why would it be illegal?" she wondered.

"Well there's one chick who never made babies, it's bloody fun, I'll tell ya one thing
 The point is that you don't simply "make babies", the result isn't random, you "create babies", you give them whatever you want them to have, you want them freckled, you have that, you want them blonde – easy. The prospect of just creating a human like it's a bloody chunk of clay is scary to some, having in mind what I've seen, there's a reason behind that fear
 Let's just say there were a lot of
 Less fortunate Eijus before I was bred, ones with funny looking heads and extra limbs if you catch my cold. Because the practice is so hated it didn't have time to be polished yet."

Mana shook from disgust imagining a laboratory somewhere underground filled with fail genetic experiments. If she ever actually saw one she'd probably be pretty messed up for life and started swearing herself.

"So why were you made? Why didn't your parents just make you the casual old way?" the magician got curious as to why one would go for such a risky and disgusting way to breed heirs.

"Because my mum was pretty sick and her sickness was very much hereditary, I've lost a brother and a sister before parents decided to model me in a tube. They asked the bloke who made me to program a tissue inside of me that constantly regenerates me before my body gets eaten from inside by my mum's sickness, technically I'm sick with what my mum had before her death, whatever killed my sister and brother, however the tissue counteracts it and heals me. That's both what keeps me alive and is a bloody nuisance
"

Mana shook her head, "Nuisance how? I'd really find such a tissue useful for my father's burns
"

Quack spat to the side and waved the pills he removed previously up in Mana's nose. "The tissue starts growing, breeding, it's basically a regenerative cancer, I need to keep popping poison to kill its excess growth, because of the fucking thing the poison doesn't work like it should on me. It feels bloody disgusting but the fucking thing always keeps me alive and kicking, always sacrificing its bloody chunks to survive as a thing, it's a living, growing thing. Well, at least I can drink as much as I bloody want, no fucking old hag will mess with my drinking habits cause every drip of poison I take, whether drug or alcoholic keeps me alive
"

Mana listened and struggled to believe in any of it, then again she did see the man down a pretty large amount of poison and his reaction was quite grotesque


"Okay
 So let's say that's true, how did you end up here though?" Mana asked for Eiju to continue.

"Eh, if you've been paying attention you'd piece it together: little bit of jealous aristocratic rivalry slipping the Mizukage some delicious info of an artificially bred child, an abomination of nature, a little bit of good ole discrimination and prosecution and violence and you've got one little kid on the run and two beheaded snobby parents
 I just didn't feel like sticking around Kirigakure or the Archipelago of islands around it, I got into a pirate ship, this medic there noticed my tendency to drink poison, initially he went all "Kid, don't drink poison, you'll die!" but then he found out too
"

"And? Did they cast you out again?" Mana asked sadly, she was starting to really feel bad for the difficult life that this young man had for something that just didn't seem a crime to her at all, more so not one he should've been held responsible for since he had no control over it.

"Nope, turns out pirates are a pretty merry bunch, they started teaching me stuff, the old medic on that ship was a rogue Kirigakure Hunter Ninja, he was a master at gutting people and harvesting their organs. He was also a dying fellow so he decided to try and gut my tissue out 'a me. Since I thought it was the source of all my problems I let him keep operating on me as much as he wanted, hoping that he'd succeed but then one day we both realized he won't, he found out that the tissue is linked with my body, he knew if he'd extract it I'd die so he chose to make the sacrifice and let me live
" Eiju started rubbing his eyes, Mana turned away because she noticed that the man tried to hide his tears, maybe he wasn't even crying but he was about to.

"Since I was a source of a lot of the old bloke's chopping sessions I picked a thing or two from him, he finished my training on his dying bed
 The pirates decided to keep me around, I was the best at cutting out and transferring organs. The only thing I was always shite at was actual medicine, medical ninjutsu, harvesting DNA and organs, entire bloodlines, that I can do, but stitching still makes my hand shake. Conventional medicine just wasn't the Quack way so I self-taught that stuff from spying on ninja on the field right before the muscleheads I was with decided to off them
"

For a moment Quack stopped talking, then he looked at Mana and back, visibly annoyed that the two other kunoichi were taking so long to get there.

"From then on it was just one gang slaughtering the other and taking me with them as their Quack and harvester, most didn't even know that I was good at it, they just used me as a Quack but this Hachi bloke realized my potential and forced me to do all the stuff he had on him, in the end he was more a weapon than he was a man, to think they called me an abomination of nature... I've no idea how he could even mate with women when I replaced his funstick with a kunai shooting cannon long time ago, must be really good with his tongue
"

"So we leave you for five minutes with a fourteen year old and your best idea is to give her the birds and the bees talk?" Kiyomi's voice thundered behind the two, Mana turned around and smiled at her friend. The angry blonde leaped down and examined Mana's wounds and heard Eiju's suggestion not to storm the bunker out.

"No! We may be wounded but so is the enemy, we can't give them a chance to regroup and move away from here, they're too close to the border, from here on it's just one day away." Kiyomi seemed to finally agree with Hisako on something, with a worried look she looked at Mana who nodded and stood up and gestured that she'll be fine.

"Well then, those fuckers woke us up, let's shove things up their asses so that their screams play us the anthem!" Hisako smiled drawing her blades and playfully spinning them around before sheathing them back.

Kiyomi squinted at the dark haired swordswoman, "I thought you told me you were going to try the whole "no cursing" thing
"

Eiju stood up and started moving east. "Yeah, not until she can cure whatever's causing the itch in her sandy panties
"

Hisako shrugged and then looked at Eiju, "Nah, I just don't want to wet turkey it
 Wait
 What did you just fucking say, fucktwig!?" she snapped and started chasing Eiju, it was impressive that the Quack could escape his inevitable evisceration so effectively.

"It's cold turkey, Hisako
 I'm starting to think you swear just because you are verbally challenged." Kiyomi sighed as she and Mana followed the trail of destruction behind Hisako's attempt to cut Eiju to pieces which resulted in a lot of trees being cut down, at least it was easy to follow


A strong gust of wind and a tap on the wooden border of the window alerted those in the nearest vicinity that someone decided to drop by. The sound was heavy, usually when ninja travel they make little to no sound at all. Now anyone inside the building and a decent distance outside would've been able to pick it up and distinguish that someone had decided to crash there. The two figures that arrived took their time to carefully step over and inside the bunker and approach the hole that lead to the lower levels.

As the two figures moved, the larger one tripped over and dropped some trash cans, making a powerful sound of tin and rubbish of various kind rubbing together and rolling all over the floor. The muscular male who caused this event cursed. The woman who was trying to lead him steadily holding him together gently caressed the man's cheek and looked over his trashed face and multiple beatings all over his muscular upper body.

"You still haven't told me how this happened, Roe
 the young woman tried to ask about the subject that troubled her, the man just growled angrily and sat by the hole.

"It doesn't matter, I'll have to give the briefing to Yellow anyways, what's the point of explaining it twice, I had my ass kicked by a little girl, it's not a subject one likes to discuss, you know!" he grunted out angrily. The man's whiskers shook and tensed up, his rage made his muscles twitch as if he was excited for an upcoming fight when the real fight had finished long ago.

"How about because I'm your sister and I care about you?" the woman asked softly blowing gently into the man's injured part of the face, the man roared like a large jungle cat but then the refreshing feeling of cold air being blown into his face alleviated the pain a little.

"Sorry
" the man replied softening his voice a bit, he tried to push his sister away but she kept holding him, after a brief moment he remembered that without his sister's aid he could barely stand. The man growled again, like a lion threatening another animal aiming at his fresh kill. "You know how Yellow is when we make him wait, he'll do something stupid again
"

"You're right, brother, let's report to Yellow and endure his punishment for failing, then we can plan our revenge
 Just
 Don't forget that Yellow is up there in our revenge plan as well" the woman in black once again gently rubbed her brother's wound and lead him into the hole, she extended her torn whip for him to land.

"Never. No one burns our family and forces us to work for him and escapes unscathed, repair your whip, do you still have the material?" the large man asked looking questioningly at his sister, his eyes burned with conviction and pride, ready to claw the heart of this "Yellow" who had wronged them and forced them to work for him out with his bare hands.

"I have mother's hair in the chest, the wax and the fats are there too, the supply is running out, if I can't use our mother's hair the material will not be the same, mother loved us so much, tapping into that love she left behind in her chakra makes my whip pierce through anything, makes it as tough as our mother's love
" the young woman explained to her brother who was carefully using her whip to climb to the lower level.

"And without it? If mother's hair runs out or if her chakra actually fades, we don't know why it is still in her hair so long after her body burnt to crisp
" the large man grunted, his voice was sad and disappointed, almost like that of a cat lamenting the loss of its owner.

The woman wrapped the torn up whip around her arm and then whipped it on a strong steel pipe, after the tip of it tied around the structure the woman leaped down breaking her fall using the whip and then removing it and tying it around her shoulder.

"I don't know, I can always use just a normal leather whip with my own chakra infused, even without it I can still use my claws
" the woman replied, she was a little worried about the supply of the hair that her mother cut off and gifted the woman before she and father were burnt alive by Yellow's ambition. The man claimed that he had nothing in common but the twins knew that he did, he was too sinister, his eyes emanated pure evil, he spoke soft and sweet things but his tongue was that of a demon, promising, kind and caring but his intentions were a different thing entirely.

The large man's muscular arms wrapped around his sister's frail body and then pushed her farther away. He had decided to move by himself after that display of affection. "Never, Cony, never take risks, keep using a whip, keep fighting from afar. I'd die of sorrow if I saw you getting hurt."

"You should've seen me, Roe, I was amazing up close, I totally destroyed that brat
" the woman tried to argue but a backhand slap tossed her figure to the other side of the narrow corridor. Her brother roared out angrily, emulating the sound of an angered feline predator perfectly. Realizing that her brother wasn't going to back down from his stance and would've rather lost the last memento of their mother than lost his sibling the woman gave up and just followed him to the lower level, then an even lower one and an even lower one, down to the final level which served as the basement and base of operations where Yellow did all of his planning.

A loud sound of a growling dog broke the silence and the Inuzuka who was standing inside the basement room turned at the new entrants, he placed his arm onto the top of his dog's head and calmed him down. While the canine had long since gotten used to the Nekomata twins, he always kept reacting aggressively at them, must've been their feline looks and mannerisms.

"We've returned, Yellow. The mission is a failure, they're coming here, now, with full force and pissed off
" Roe growled angrily back at the dog and grunted out at his superior who was sitting on a chair cloaked in a black hood.

"That's a lie, dear Roe, you injured them, no blood is shed needlessly, blood always serves someone's needs
" a childish voice came off from the hooded figure.

"That is true, Yellow-san!" Cony, Roe's sister, kneeled before the man and smiled at him after raising her head, happy that her boss found what to enjoy in their failure. "I've shed plenty of the young genin's blood and Roe just almost didn't bring you his opponent's head on his spear
"

Yellow laughed, "There, you see, my dear minions, your efforts weren't in vain, what Noji and Sunomaru told me that you just had a streak of bad luck – he faced off against a close range ninja, you, dear Cony faced a long range ninja who enjoyed your long range approach
 It was my fault as a leader to let you out there with no knowledge of your opponent's abilities, then again, obtaining said knowledge was the point, now we can carefully plan who will face who during their little siege
"

The Inuzuka who was called Noji nodded. "It is advised that I face the long range kunoichi, from what Cony told us it seems that she would be injured during our fight, also I love fighting ninja who focus on ninjutsu and other chakra reliant techniques and fight at long range, using my Inuzuka clan techniques I can close the distance between us easily. She wouldn't last a minute against me but I'd love to sap every little sip of chakra from her body as I'm quite tired and injured myself so I might take a while, rest assured, while I'll take a while to play with her I will win against such an opponent for sure with Sunomaru at my side
"

The large canine standing close to the Inuzuka barked out loud, almost like it was confirming the words of his master. The ninja hounds were quite intelligent, they were capable of understanding human speech but the only reason they weren't able to talk, not all of them at least, was because of their anatomy, not all of them possessed the needed voice box for such a feat.

Yellow nodded, "Sounds like a good plan, last time they beat you because they countered each and every one of your abilities perfectly. Let's reverse that advantage then?"

Roe growled angrily, he looked where he imagined Yellow's eyes to be in all of that black shadow of his hood. "No. I want to fight that blonde again, I am sure that this time I'll take her. We both made mistakes in that fight and now this is a matter of pride!" he grunted out, his sister reached out at him but her arm stopped just inches short to the man's shoulder remembering what happened the last time when she tried to argue with him.

Yellow laughed, "Well then, you always were about pride, I'm surprised you're not plotting against me, Roe, tell me how do you deal with me being in charge of you when you're such a prideful one
"

Roe wanted to react violently but his sister intervened by jumping in front of him and raising her arm.

"Very well then, I shall take on the close distance swordswoman who took down Noji. Short distance fighters are my specialty and I believe I can easily counter her abilities with my long range whip attacks once I repair it" she explained looking back at Roe and shaking her head at disapproval of his prideful antics.

Yellow's dark hood slipped forward covering more of the figure's face. "Very well, this sounds good. We expected that pulling this off would attract ninja attention, we just never expected that this attention wouldn't be shaken off after this first attack. I'd be very happy if these ninja found their most tragic deaths in here instead of the boy they are coming for. Now go, prepare for your approaching battle
"

Roe grunted and took a step forward, his eyes then changed from ones filled with rage like one's eyes would be after seeing the man responsible for the death of one's parents and subjugation of oneself and one's sister into a more ironic yet submissive stare.

"Perhaps if we get our butts kicked we can finally see the mighty Yellow show us a thing or two in combat?" he sarcastically remarked. So far he had never seen Yellow fight but the man carried significant influence, so extensive was his reach that it could've only been earned by either high status in society or an extensive knowledge in the art of combat.

"Hah, trust me, dear Roe, I could teach you a thing or two in combat, if you didn't believe that, you'd have killed me long ago
 Or maybe you're afraid you'd fail and that I rip the second dearest thing from you as I did the first?" Yellow returned the offence.

"SO YOU ADMIT IT!" the cat-hobo's figure tensed up as his muscles shot out and tensed in a tonus even Kiyomi didn't see during their last battle, the man pulled out a knife and tried to leap at the man but then stopped in his feet, kneeling before Yellow, not because of his own wilful submission, because his entire body was aching from the past battle.

"It does not matter now, I may have taken your family away but you will do everything I tell you to because you're afraid I'll take your sibling from you, that is how I obtained your loyalty, that is why I left the two of you alive, you are both my dear subordinates and my insurance policy against your sibling. Now go, prepare for the battle, if you are as pathetic against that brat during your rematch as you are now against me I may not get my chance to play the "I'll kill your brother card" against your sister, she's been much more submissive towards me, perhaps she'd already forgotten?" Yellow wondered. Cony's eyes filled with tears and she just outright dragged her injured brother out of the basement.

Once only Noji and Yellow remained the Inuzuka stepped closer to the hooded leader. "I've carried out your orders, now please
" he whimpered like a scared child.

A puny and weak arm emerged from Yellow's coat holding a small vial, Noji picked the vial with the purple liquid and shot it into his dog's body. The canine shook on its feet and barked happily. Noji sighed relieved to know that his canine friend will live another day, he turned at Yellow with an angry stare.

"You know, you should stop taunting those two. They're strong, fast and dangerous, even more so once you piss them off and trust me, burning their house with their family inside of it in front of them is pissing them off plenty
" Noji hissed out.

"It wasn't me, it was a wild bloodthirsty band of mercenaries like many roaming the Fire Country
 And why would you care? Maybe you care for me!? I am touched!" Yellow playfully acted out a scene with his tone switching from childish innocence to a playful question and a faked display of affection.

"Don't play around, Yellow, everyone knows you're the one who hired them and that doesn't make you less involved. Also, yes, I do care, don't mistake it for care about if you live or die, it's because you have the perfume with the herb that is vital for Sunomaru's survival that I care, I wouldn't under any other circumstances!" Noji explained showing his Inuzuka fangs for the hooded dwarf leader.

"Well
 I suppose I may have hired a certain mercenary army to gather me a couple of ninja for my band, that being said, I had no say in the course of their actions
 I mean
 You know how they are
 Romantics all of em, letting the family go ablaze while the kids work for me, just a bit more Romeo in their hearts and they'll start eating noodles in the moonlight with rice wine
" Yellow shook his arm.

"Whatever, I need you alive so stop making it so hard for the twins to not eat your throat out, they certainly have the fangs for it
 I need those perfume shots! If you die and leave Sunomaru without his medicine I'll kill everyone you care about, just know this in your final thoughts when you see Roe's fangs dig into your throat with your blood squirting on the walls
"

Yellow laughed with a high pitched laugh, "Ah, that famous Inuzuka bond of souls with their dogs, I've heard so much about that love, that kinship of hearts. It is said that once one of them dies the other suffers pain like none other, if the master dies the canine suffers so much that he dies of sorrow, if the dog dies the master is left in a crippled and beaten state that they never recover from
 It's so romantic that I am tempted to test that bond
 Maybe I'll ask you to track some Inuzuka for a test."

"Chew a dick, I'd never give in my own blood for your sick servitude
" Inuzuka changed his tone completely and started growling at the hooded figure himself.

"Oh? Would you do it for a perfume shot? Maybe for a whole box of them? Heh, I can't wait to see where the edge of your morals lie, call me a lover of the scientific method
" Yellow giggled playfully, Noji and his hound disappeared in the darkness of the corridor. The hooded figure pressed his slim blade tighter to his side, a cruel smile covered his face. This was so much fun, what would happen? Would the Konoha ninja kill his playthings, his precious family of subordinates or would the Konoha ninja get killed? Would one of his playthings betray him? Which one? Would they successfully kill him or would one of the others kill the traitor because Yellow had something they want
 This was so much fun!



*****



Silent taps of sandals passing through alerted absolutely no one of four figures entering the bunker through a hole in the window as the volume of their steps was just too low. The footsteps were simply too silent. Mana looked back at Quack and shook her head, Kiyomi and Hisako turned back as well. Eiju shrugged, "Bloody really!?" he almost shouted out in surprise after the girls asked for him to wait outside.

"Trust me, cuntcheeks, it's not cause we give a fuck about a fuck, it's cause we'll need a bitch to patch us up and I ain't trusting any of those two bitches to patch my ribs. As shaking as your drunk arm is when you stitch, it'll have to do. I don't care if you can fight or not, you're keeping your blond stubble outside." Hisako hissed and drew her sword pointing it outside.

"Fine, I hope you all have your bloody guts poked with a thousand dicks, thank you very much!" Eiju grunted as he slothfully crawled back outside.

"Yeah, we love you too
 Hope you'll be OK
" Kiyomi squinted at Eiju's annoyed expression of some weird kind of friendship.

"Plus you're my fucking Quack and I fucking own your ass cause I killed the last bitch who owned it
" Hisako couldn't help but bite right briefly after the youth left.

"If Eiju is pardoned in Konoha by the Fifth you won't be able to "own" him, plus, I'm not really sure if that's how Quacks even work from how Eiju explained it
" Mana smiled at Hisako reminding the raven haired assassin of her Quack's final goal.

"Oh, come on! Yeah, a rogue Quack gets pardoned and lives happily ever after, shut the fuck up, your optimism gives me cooties
" Hisako yelled back at Mana pushing her to the side playfully with her shoulder.

"We should've really made it a bet back when you said you won't curse anymore, Hisako, I'd have been a rich clan heiress right now
" Kiyomi sighed as the three threaded deeper into the bunker.

The three girls treaded carefully, Hisako was the most experienced with missions and so she was clearly supposed to observe the environment for traps. It was just so easy for one to set their foot on a floor tile that was sealed with some trap, it only took a genin decently skilled in sealing techniques to seal a simple explosive burst of chakra into stone tiles, hell, some could even seal entire techniques into scrolls that other people could use without learning the technique first-hand. Mana knew quite well how potent seals were, she wore a large pocket space full of tools that her father crafted for her after all.

Even if Hisako was overly excited about the prospect of upcoming slaughter Kiyomi did her part for the raven haired swordswoman. Luckily enough Kiyomi was quite familiar with stepping up and dealing with a sloppy leader's part of responsibility since she worked so long with Chestnut Hanasaku who, while being one of the most powerful ninja in the world, was quite sloppy and, most of the time, a complete idiot. Mana was glad that the Yamanaka had that experience, with Eiju tired out she needed that injury least of all things. Usually a ninja would just augment their chakra at the specific point to shield them from a blast or an incoming arrow but when they didn't know it was coming it wasn't that easy.

It was a strange thing, chakra augmentation. Mana and someone of her skill level, which was to say slightly above that of an average genin, should've been able of some degree of augmentation. The thing was that even if she could have done it and she could've just coated herself with augmented bursts of chakra shielding her entire body from explosions or sharp projectiles and it'd have not killed her or injured her that badly. However to shield oneself was to waste an overwhelming amount of chakra, also chakra augmentation had the nasty side effect of messing with one's chakra network already. It was best used just in short bursts and only when it was needed.

"Hey
 Look, what's that?" Mana asked and approached something that looked like a poster with several very distinct and darkened hieroglyphs, they were so clear that to the magician it instantly became clear that they were meant to be read. The girl was very careful and didn't touch it, just let her eyes run down it and waited for her friends to come check it out.

"Looks normal, don't think it's a trap, trust me, I've seen plenty
" Kiyomi examined the poster and carefully touched it, both Mana and the blonde augmented their bodies to emit a weak forcefield like shield that'd have protected them in case of an explosion and kept their limbs on their bodies or protected them from the penetration of a cloud of arrows coming their way. Those two were the most common types of traps anyways


"Tear me off and my friends at the same time or the perfume kid gets it
" Hisako read it out loud.

"So it actually is a seal, it's probably linked to a bunch of explosive notes stuck around wherever they're keeping the kid, if we try and act smart we risk blowing him and ourselves up or setting whatever trap it is
" Mana pondered.

"Smart girl
 Although Yellow is a guy who has a flare for the classic dramatics, he actually placed the boy in a glass of hardened glass and dipped him into a vat of acid, if the seal is set off the boy will take the last skinny dip in his life, probably still better than one in Serenity Lake but he'll die anyways
" a voice echoed through the bunker, all three girls turned and saw a Yamanaka dressed in a white zip-up combat jacket and smiling with his wolf-like fangs and his trusty dog by his side.

Hisako flashed at him almost instantly, moving at incredible speed but her blade got stuck in the fangs of the Inuzuka's dog. She smiled ready to once again rudely pull the sword out and leave another wound in the dog's mouth but then the Inuzuka sighed and yelled out.

"Wait, each of us can set the seal off ourselves, you three will play by our rules and the rules are – the fancy Nancy smartsy pantsy here fights me, you two can go to the lower floors. If you want to set the boy free you'll each beat the ninja protecting the seals in each room and remove the seals at the same time. How you coordinate this is none of my concern
" the Inuzuka explained waving his arms frantically and smiling confidently.

Hisako looked at Mana and closed her eyes, suddenly the swordswoman realized how hopeless the situation was – the enemy had complete control of the situation here and they just walked into a far more intelligently crafted trap than they had any right to expect


"You'll die, idol-bitch. This guy is a close range Inuzuka who can drain your chakra, he combines the peeling and overpowering Inuzuka clan techniques with the usual Chakra Absorption Jutsu. He's a perfect counter to your style" the swordswoman explained looking at Mana, she may have already realized that whoever was waiting on the other floors would've also been a similarly crafted match-up.

Mana gulped and shook her head, then faked a smile. "Nah, it's fine. You guys go ahead, if I die it doesn't matter because you can just beat down those other guys and come back here and finish him off. We need to save that boy no matter what, no teen deserves the experience of being kidnapped and put into a glass surrounded by acid
"

Kiyomi walked up and opened the hatch, after a brief glance down she looked back at Mana hesitant to leave her friend behind in such a pickle. "And if it doesn't work? If this is all just a ruse and the seals don't work?" she asked to which Mana just faked another smile.

"I'm a stage magician, glass cages sinking in acid are my specialty, I'll get him out either way, still, might be a better shot to try the seal method first." Mana tried to calm her friend down but she struggled to hide her fear. She wasn't really afraid of being beaten down or killed, she was afraid of failure, she was afraid of dying knowing that the boy would die too and his father would lose his son. That was what scared her the most.

Hisako nodded and leaped down, apparently cool girls didn't use ladders
 Kiyomi gave Mana an encouraging thumb up and slid down the ladder. Just like that it was just Mana and the Inuzuka.



*****



Kiyomi looked at Hisako after the two girls dropped to the lower level. The blonde wanted some support, she wanted a teammate whom she may have talked about having just left a young and inexperienced and naĂŻve girl in a situation she was sure to die in. More so Kiyomi wanted to make a plan or something, playing the way things were was just not at all right, they were playing by the rules set by the opposing force.

"Stop being such a fucking momma-bear, that's idol-bitch's role. If she survives that shit anyways, if she doesn't – she's not cut out for this work. Situations like this happen all the time, one fights in fights where things are stacked against one's favour all the time!" Hisako angrily hissed back at Kiyomi looking out for the other member of the enemy group letting them know the rules of this floor and whom he had selected to be their opponent.

"Yeah but
 Mana's already injured and a bit tired from before, none of us had much sleep and lived through fights that nearly claimed our lives, one of which was with you by the way!" Kiyomi yelled back angrily

"Oh, please, I knew you'd augment your gut and not just get your gut poked out
 I have a feeling for those things, it's needed for a swordsman because if you don't predict it and put too much force into a strike that's gonna just hit a chakra forcefield it'll break your wrist." Hisako explained, still looking for someone to see in all of the darkness.

"Well
 Lucky shot for you, I guess, but I just want a teammate to talk with, I just want to be sure that Mana's gonna be alright. She looks up to me like I'm some goddamned hero or something and I guess that somehow made me feel responsible for her a bit" Kiyomi explained, soothing her tone down and softening it up, appealing to Hisako's humanity.

"Pffft, you and your fucking responsibilities, take a responsibility for not being such a condescending cunt once, why won't you!?" Hisako suddenly broke out reaching for the handle of her sword.

"What was that all about!?" Kiyomi also prepared to punch the black haired assassin in the face.

"You know what it's about! Ever since we met you're always just yelling and talking about how fucking messed up I am and how my clan is somehow not worth the shit dripping from their assholes. "Oh, Hisako is such a bitch, she wanted to test her teammates she'll have to trust, oh Hisako is such a bitch, selling her cunt to save the lives of her team!" Guess fucking what, Princess, your shit doesn't smell of gold either!" Hisako snapped back drawing her blade, Kiyomi took a dash back seeing the alarming rage accumulating in the assassin's eyes.

"Look
 I'm sorry, I just
 It's clear we both have issues. I hate criminals and people who do things that while legal in our line of work aren't ethical, in other words I hate cunts and
 Well
 You're a bit of a cunt
 You also seem to have some psychological issues that I clearly stepped on and I'm sorry, let's just agree to never work with each other and trust our lives to each other and keep going. This mission is bigger than our quarrels, Mana was ready to sacrifice her life for this, let's forget this for at least until we're back home. Then if you still want to have a go at me, I'll take you on in the Training Grounds
 Sound fair?" Kiyomi carefully tried to calm Hisako down and with a depressing sigh she realized that the assassin relented.

"You're right, you're a good ninja but we can't work in a team. You hate people like me, I hate people who hate me for no other reason than just hating me because of my clan or what I do. We're meant to cut our throats out not to fight together, for all I know those guys are doing us a favour splitting us up." Hisako sighed a couple of times and sheathed her swords, only to grab their handles again and deflecting a bunch of knives flying right at Kiyomi.

"Thanks
" Kiyomi uttered surprised. She never heard those coming, that could've only meant one thing – that annoying cat-hobo from before.

"Leave me and the Yamanaka alone, I'm sure that Noji explained the rules already, my sister will take you on on the other floor. This between me and the blonde is personal, it's a matter of my broken pride! Make sure to let my sister kill you, if one hair falls from her head I'll make sure to stab you everywhere but where it'll kill you for it and leave you to bleed out!" the man roared out. His lion like growling and powerful voice was something to admire as it instantly covered all of the room.

The man looked like Kiyomi's boulder gave him quite a beating – his powerful and muscular chest was covered with several deep and nasty bruises and purple as prunes blunt force traumas. His hair also was no longer worn in dreadlocks but was wild and all over his half naked body. He still wore several belts full of knives, Kiyomi would've loved to see him take Hisako on as both of them had similar fashion senses with belts of knives being the dominant accessory.

"Awww, I didn't know it hurt your feelings, big guy. Maybe if you asked nicely I'd have let you off with a tie
" Kiyomi taunted the man with a smile as she removed her kunai from the pouch and let Hisako leave. It appeared that the assassin didn't even need to be encouraged further, right when the lion-man stated his conditions the assassin was gone.

"My name is Roe, I was an heir to the Nekomata clan and I plan to cash my claim in once I kill everyone who stands in my way. My father was unfairly dismissed by his stronger sibling who took my father's spot in the line of succession, I must be the strongest there is to take my claim back! You've beaten me and that makes me respect you a great deal but I will kill you, I must to become the strongest one there is, to become a man worth inheriting the leadership of my clan I must remain undefeated. Only such a man is worth the Nekomata name!" the cat-hobo growled angrily drawing two knives and spreading his arms and legs out wide, preparing for a fight.

"I'm Yamanaka Kiyomi, an heiress to the Yamanaka clan, if my uncle doesn't miraculously have a son that is
 Anyways, there are things I must prove also, but not to you nor myself, I must save the child you keep down there and prove to my stupid sensei that I am worthy of a promotion. A heir of a clan who doesn't believe in his own strength and needs to beat someone to trust his own claim doesn't deserve to lead a clan."

Roe roared again, proudly and pounded his chest with the handle of his knife. "You fool, the leader of a clan must be the strongest there is, only by remaining undefeated can I trust my claim, only those who protect their family, their clan and are strong enough to never lose to anyone are worth leading a clan"

Kiyomi shook her head angrily, "You're wrong, leading a clan is so much more than just being a muscle-head and killing everyone in your way. Strength has little to do with that nonsense, it's all about the will of being a leader. All about love for your own blood and putting the interests of your clan in front of those of your own. All about the responsibility of always doing the right thing and if you do a wrong facing the repercussions, because that's who a leader is"

Roe stepped back and disappeared in the shadows, Kiyomi prepared for the rematch, that inevitable second clash between her and this crazy and stealthy cat-man of the Nekomata clan. "One clan shall lose their future head today, only symbolic that you'll lose yours as well!"

Kiyomi turned behind and blocked the man's knife, leaping backwards to avoid his slash with the other hand. She fought this man already and knew his style, she knew he favoured striking at her blindspots and disappearing again unless he felt a relentless assault could've earned him his kill.

"I'll show your head when I claim my position! It'll show the Nekomata that I am willing ready and able to bring the clan above even the Yamanaka!" somewhere from the shadows the man's voice still reached Kiyomi's ears and while the cruel tone still froze her body in intimidating fear she loved the fact that he now had his feelings hurt and was emotionally involved into this fight, it may have been what would make her come out on top again




*****



Hisako carefully and silently walked around the third level of the bunker, it had a bunch of cargo crates in there which begged the assassin the question of how they were carried down there. This place may have been the basement and it only had doors that lead further, not lower. This floor must've been it – the main base of their leader's operations, just who was this "Yellow" guy whom the Inuzuka spoke of? Surely it couldn't have been that woman with the whip from before, Yellow sounded like a nickname based on some detail like a dominant piece of clothing or the man's hair
 It could've been a man or a woman
 They haven't even seen the leader which was odd to the assassin, why didn't he or she attack with the crew? If the leader was present in at least one of the battlefields he or she would've meant the difference between victory and defeat
 Maybe this Yellow guy wasn't that good of a fighter, that would've explained everything.

"Well, you've come" a seductive feminine voice alerted Hisako of her challenger sitting on top of a stack of cargo containers, playfully dangling her legs and smiling with her blood red dyed lips and greasy purple hair. She looked like a countryside whore with a fancy ninja jumpsuit, if it was Hisako's guess the bitch must've looted it from some kunoichi, no way she was worth the reward which would've been needed to make such a fancy piece of attire, maybe it was worth snagging from her dead body


"Wow, it's like you're a fucking detective or something
 How did you guess, I'm fucking stumped! May as well give the fuck up, no way I'll beat Mrs. Perception over fucking here
" Hisako snapped back at the woman. It was clear that her snark hit the mark.

The woman leaped down and swung her whip around preparing to lash out at the assassin. "So you're the witty tongued one, you talk a mean talk for a bitch who couldn't catch up to me earlier, even the idiot dressed like a magician caught up no problem
 Isn't it a bit too early for you to get old? I guess you are how you feel
"

"You know fucking what? I'll strangle you with your own fucking whip, how'd you even get to "Last Boss" status anyways, did you fuck that other cat-guy? You look alike
" Hisako angrily snapped back taking a fighting stance and preparing her blades for a fight.

"You bitch!" finally the whip wielding cat-lady with those stupid cat ears dropped her sultry façade and got angry, maybe she'll make a mistake or something
 "He's my fucking brother!"

"Yeah, he may have said something like that
 Didn't listen to him much, he's hot but I don't fuck much with airheads and I don't listen to people I don't plan to fuck or kill in the future and guess what, I'm not a lesbian!" Hisako smiled leaning back for a charge, intending to settle the fight with a single swipe.

For a brief moment the entire room where Mana faced off against the Inuzuka was completely silent and the two remained perfectly still. While Mana was afraid, somewhere, on a very deep level, she didn’t let it affect her too much. The fear she felt was not the kind one always naturally felt when a battle was about to break out, this was not the natural threat of dying that was inevitable when one decided to fight someone. This felt more like a test the likes of which the girl had never had yet.

Mana was a little bit tired, she didn’t have much sleep those couple of last days, she also faced off against Hisako and Hachi, also she had that nasty brief run-in with the black jumpsuit wearing purple haired woman with that peculiar whip. While the injuries from the first battle were healed by her medical food pill and those from the second one were taken care of by brief rest and Eiju’s best medical ninja efforts, the third one still gave her some weight to trip over. The injuries from those battles were patched a long time ago and her natural ninja metabolism was quickly patching them up every second the girl was not engaged in exhausting use of chakra manipulation, that being said, they still ached and kept her down.

The knowledge that Mana was not at her best wouldn’t have been nearly as frightening if this young man wouldn’t be, at least according to Hisako, her natural counter. The three exchanged information before coming here, they were formulating complex strategies and battle plans only for it all to go to waste after they fell for this strange game. The enemy completely dictated the rules, even if she would’ve gotten the upper hand, what could’ve stopped the Inuzuka boy from just activating the seals that’d kill the boy anyways? This was the worst situation there could’ve been, greater ninja died in such scenarios than Mana.

“It is a custom for ninja to exchange names when they face off in a fair one on one fight, it is so that once one of them survives they can spread the tale of the other and if the other becomes someone special, his opponent, if they survive, can brag about having faced that person in battle. I am Inuzuka Noji and this lovely doggy here is Sunomaru. We fight as one, as do all Inuzuka clansmen, as a Konoha ninja you should know that, my kind hails from the village, so don’t feel like this is unfair that we’re taking you on two-on-one.”

Mana remained silent for a moment, just trying to stare her opponent down, her wounded and cut up lips then gently moved.

“I’ll give you one chance to back away, one last chance to leave, I am no longer the girl who left the village several days back, I no longer hold back. If you decide to do this I will cause harm to you, as much as possible but not enough to kill. You may not enjoy your life after facing me but that pain will be on you. I am Nakotsumi Mana and I am the one who will beat you to save that child, that is the only reason we are here and I don’t care if you walk away from this. Capturing rogue ninja does not interest me.”

Noji’s body blurred, Mana knew what it meant, this boy moved so fast that he left an afterimage but this was no longer the Konoha’s Sorceress who played around. The magician’s thigh lifted up to block the entire barrage of blows tossed at her using her feet while keeping the Inuzuka at her leg’s reach. This was an efficient strategy, she didn’t let him get too close, always kept kicking at his blindspots and kept Noji at her foot’s reach. It was then that the dog joined in on the offensive. Mana started dashing back, giving space. She skipped a couple of punches, the dog’s teeth went dangerously close to her chest and neck a couple of times and tore several holes in Eiju’s coat which the magician still wore.

Mana huffed heavily after their exchange of blows ended, this was hopeless, this young man was leagues ahead in terms of hand to hand combat, while keeping him at leg’s length was a pretty good way to go the dog joining in changed it, Mana couldn’t keep up with both of them and had to lower her legs for balance, she had to move around and for that to happen she couldn’t kick around. It was either stand in place and let the dog maul her, or move around until she runs out of breath and let the Inuzuka deepen his advantage.

A powerful shock of pain emanated through Mana’s chest, the girl coughed and fell on her knee, several drops of blood dripped from her mouth. Mana shook in pain and stood back up. So this was the “Chakra Absorption Technique”? The girl had heard plenty about it in the Academy, it was a very well-known and somewhat common technique among hand to hand experts, it wasn’t too great on higher levels because it required its own style, in order to sip one’s chakra at relevant amount one needed to make full palm contact, in other words, the more of one’s arm contacts the opponent’s body the more chakra was taken.

This was bad, the outcome of this battle was inevitable, even the way things were Mana would run out of breath, she’d tire and get completely sapped of any semblance of her chakra within several dozens of brief contacts like this, even worse, chakra was her life-force also, the more this teen would absorb out of her the more her body would break down like this. In the most extreme cases she would barely be able to move which meant he could easily come in for the kill.

Mana’s arm went into her pocket, quickly she pulled a card and tossed it at the Inuzuka, she wasn’t fast enough and the boy just leaned to the side smiling. He saw that it was a desperation move. This was bad, without her uniform Mana couldn’t utilize the card holsters, she couldn’t use her dispenser devices – she was just a kid reaching into her pockets to pull out tools, that was significantly less tricky and much slower. While Mana’s uniform was called out to look very impractical and stupid it was another weapon of hers, it didn’t matter that it was very tight and hard to move in, it had a bunch of card holsters, hidden pockets, small switches to shoot cards out from her sleeves etc.

The card Mana tossed emitted a loud beeping sound and then a loud pop came out of it. Transparent gas started emanating from it and the Inuzuka grabbed his nose shouting in pain, his dog started howling and rubbing his nose with his little paws. While it was spectacularly cute and Mana was barely restricting herself from shrieking she had to treat that dog as an enemy. It was large and able to kill her with a single bite.

Without wasting any movements Mana leaned forward and dashed at her opponent, Noji’s arms lit up with the same blue flame that signaled that he activated his “Chakra Absorption Jutsu” but Mana knew that as an Inuzuka he was impaired and his dog was completely disabled. The girl caught his punch in between her powerful thighs and leaped over him flipping over the boy’s shoulders behind him. Something snapped and Noji yelled out loud in overwhelming pain. Mana’s arm shot forward to keep her from bashing into the steel floor face first and her legs started working on Noji’s back sending him tumbling forward. After that the girl simply swiped at the dog who was still writhing, augmenting her lower body strength to send the dog into a bunch of crates further away.

Mana jumped back at her feet and caught her breath, this was an impressive attack but it was unlikely it’d work again. The Inuzuka smell was impressive, it was many times superior to that of a normal man or even of a ninja, it was approaching that of a canine and the senses of an Inuzuka dog was even beyond that of a normal canine. Inuzuka were unmatched in terms of their smell and that served as both their strength and their weakness.

“What the hell was that!?” Noji grunted, shouting as if he was in a loud room despite the fact it was dead-silent.

“It’s a smell-card. I use it when I fake my own death, it’s usually used in my magic shows.” Mana humbled her opponent by responding to his attempts to get her talking for the simple reason of needing to take a breather, she just performed a pretty impressive movement for someone who wasn’t known for their physical prowess.

“Shit, I guess I should stop taking you lightly
” Noji cursed, his face suggested that he was really serious and he looked to the side looking at his dog trying to get up and walk away from all the wooden pieces of the boxes he slammed into. The Inuzuka leaned forward and stood on all fours, chakra started flowing from him erupting from the teen’s body and forming an aura like burst around his body, it was wild and powerful. Mana didn’t like it one bit.

“Come on, Sunomaru, get out of there!” Noji yelled at his dog who was still inside the boxes, then the dog yelped and walked out covered in purple goo, the canine shook frantically getting the strong hitting perfume off of him.

“What the
!?” Noji suddenly broke out of his stance and covered his nose again, wildly scratching at the point on the back of his head as the powerful smell sensations took his body over.

“Shit, Suno, you hit the fucking perfume supply! Goddang it, go find somewhere to wash yourself, I can’t sync with you like this!” Noji complained yelling at his beloved dog who just barked with a small speck of guilt in his reaction. The intelligence of those Inuzuka dogs was really something else! They could easily understand human speech and respond to commands as the dog quickly ran off somewhere leaving Mana alone with Noji and finally giving her a chance for once.

The girl didn’t even have time to get serious as Noji leaned forward again and resumed his strange chakra concentration technique. His voice got more feral and rough again, reminding much more of a wild growling dog, a large one.

“Don’t think you stand a chance just because you lucked out!” the young man growled out at Mana. He reached for his back pocket, Mana tried to intercept him with a quick draw from her upper left pocket which contained the simple steel tipped projectile cards but she was once again too slow – this coat was making it all so slow!

The young man popped a smoke bomb and soon a dark cloud started to cover the entire area. It wasn’t poisonous as poisonous clouds all had a clear purple shade to them for some reason. It didn’t really make sense for all poisonous clouds to be purple but they were, as someone who didn’t even dabble at the medical ninja arts and had little knowledge with poisons Mana didn’t dig too deep into it but it was just common knowledge and taught in the Academy. The cloud dissipated at the point where Noji was only to reveal him activating some sort of technique.

“Four Legs Technique!” Noji growled as the smoke once again covered him. Mana placed her projectile back into her pocket as there was no way she’d hit anything with this smoke all around, fighting in an enclosed space made smoke bombs just that more powerful.

Mana hunched over and flew backwards from the force of Noji’s impact, once again the pain in her chest pulsed all over her body as her chakra was torn from the girl’s body and absorbed by the Inuzuka. This was bad. This technique that the young man activated made him incredibly fast and dangerous, it was like chakra augmentation of one’s speed and strength without the actual downsides. It was all just because of his clan heritage!

Mana felt a sharp pain in her back, by the time her body recovered from the last hit she managed to augment her endurance but she couldn’t believe how fast and strong this Inuzuka was. He was completely dominating her in close quarters by closing her vision while he could easily keep track of her by smelling her in the smoke. Noji continued to kick the girl around, his single kick sent her to the other side of the room making Mana hit the steel walls with such force that her body bounced off of them but the Inuzuka was fast enough to already be there for the follow up kick, he was just playing around kicking Mana all over the place.

With each hit the magician had to re-augment her body because each hit absorbed the chakra she spent augmenting it, it was incredibly dangerous to use chakra augmentation against an absorption technique user because they were able to absorb not only the amount of chakra they usually absorbed through contact but also an excess of chakra one spent to augment their technique. In a blinding blitz the Inuzuka continued to juggle Mana in the air before growing bored and kicking her up, Mana ran out of augmentation and she felt a powerful blow from the man’s elbow to her back. She screamed in pain as her powerless body flew right down but before she hit the floor the Inuzuka’s knee dug deep into Mana’s gut almost making her throw up. The only thing that kept her from dying instantly after that final hit was her pathetic attempt to re-augment her body again.

With another weak kick the Inuzuka sent Mana to the other side of the room, rolling on the steel floor pathetically. She stood no chance. Still, the thought of a boy trapped in a cage of hardened glass and stuffed into a container with acid all around him with no hopes of escape motivated the magician, it gave her strength to stand back up and fight. Mana’s shaking arms got her body back up, the smoke started to clear, finding even the smallest crevices and vents to dissipate into.

“Just know, Mana, that I take no pleasure from this. I only fight to regain the chakra I lost previously and because Yellow told me to. It hurts my heart to kill you, it really does but it’s either you or Sunomaru
” the young man growled back at Mana, the girl reached into her pocket and pulled out a card. She wasn’t about to honor this man with a reply or pity him, he chose this fight, she would fight until she either ended it or died trying. This was Mana’s new way, protection of those she loved by beating the enemy but never crossing the sacred line.

A loud bark from behind her froze the girl’s heart in her chest – the dog was back and he must’ve not smelled so much because Noji smiled and welcomed the canine back to his side. Mana’s arms flashed through a bunch of seals, still clenching that card in her hand so hard that the steel edges cut into Mana’s own delicate childish hand sending a couple of drops of blood down her hand.

“Just give up, let me take what’s left of your chakra and I’ll kill you fast, you won’t have to suffer any more than it is needed. Sunomaru is a born hunter and he can end it fast, just one bite and it’ll be over.” Noji asked her, no, he almost begged Mana to give up, looking right into her eyes. His eyes were kind, they were genuine and it was clear that this Noji was a very kind man, had Mana been who she was before she’d have completely shut down, just like she did with Sugemi
 No more.

Mana would no longer make it easy for her enemies by talking to them, by letting them hurt her and by extension her friends. Her friends would no longer have to fight the battles that the magician lost because she was too scared to injure her opponent too much or just too scared of her own strength in general. This was the time she proved that she had grown, that she not only became stronger but also that she was ready to fight the hard battles.

“Look, I know you don’t want to give up but this is just cruel, Yellow has the supply of perfume that cures Suno’s sickness, he was born with a disease that needs a really hard to get herb, they’re no longer even selling that herb, it’s only found in that one kind of perfume which Yellow has and I need it, I need it to keep Suno alive because he’s all that I have left! Please, don’t suffer anymore and just give up, you fought bravely, you’ve done all you could and stood up to an opponent you had no hopes of beating but
 Come on
”

Sunomaru barked, he wasn’t angry, it was a bark of agreement to what his master said, it was strange, Mana couldn’t remember the last time she fought a battle like this, a battle in which her opponent was not her enemy, who didn’t want her to suffer and die. This was not a conflict between a good person and a bad person, this was a conflict between a person who needed to save one person and another who wanted to save his friend, his soulmate. Hisako was right, Noji was Mana’s natural counter but not because of his skillset, it was because he was a genuinely good person. The Mana whom Hisako thought she was would’ve never fought such a person and died needlessly. Hisako must’ve counted on that, it must’ve been the assassin’s plan all along


Mana’s arm moved up, her steel tipped card still being held firm. Slowly the girl moved her arm right up to her throat and swiftly pulled the card. Blood exploded all over the cellar, splashing all over Noji’s face and spoiling Sunomaru’s snow-white fur. It was almost like a petal storm of roses all over a field of daisies. Noji just kept standing still, completely dazed and still struggling to believe it.

Mana slit her own throat and collapsed on the floor.

With a loud thundering roar of battle Roe charged at Kiyomi, this was a completely different approach coming from the Nekomata. The hunter was now treating this fight less like a hunt and more like an actual duel, he didn’t want to simply plunge his knife into the Yamanaka’s heart, he wanted for fate to determine the more worthy heir to lead each of their clans. It may have seemed odd that Roe was so determined to best an heir of a clan completely different from his own but this Roe guy seemed to be all about pride.

After leaning back to avoid Roe’s quick swipe Kiyomi threw a quick jab at the man’s jaw, she was terrified to see that the jab barely even fazed him at all and the cat-hobo continued to throw knife swipes at her. First, his knife holding hand moved back, trying to rip out a good chunk of the girl’s flesh but Kiyomi’s arm was already back on the defensive and she managed to duck under his swipe, throwing a combination of blows at the man’s gut, all of them were absorbed by his powerful body. Suddenly the man bolted back like he had seen his own death or something.

For the first couple of moments Kiyomi had no idea as to what exactly may have scared the man but then she noticed strands of her blonde hair slipping carelessly onto the ground like petals of a flower hit by a strong spring breeze. The Yamanaka smiled, now she’ll have some of her hair on the ground ready to unleash her secret clan technique. All she needed was to catch this man unprepared
 The bad news were that Roe also seemed to be quite familiar with this technique since it was used on him previously.

One thing Kiyomi wasn’t a fan of was their environment, they were located in a steel basement which completely disabled any of her attempts to use Earth Release techniques. She couldn’t submerge underground, she couldn’t even fling boulders at the big guy which proved to be so successful the last time. Kiyomi gently giggled, “Punching you hurts me more than it seems to hurt you, I thought after hitting you with a boulder I’d have softened you up a bit
” she tried to taunt the man.

“If I fail this assignment Yellow will have my sister’s head. As a good sibling I must protect her!” Roe charged forward swiping with his gigantic knife. That explanation of Roe’s determination stunned Kiyomi, she dodged the first swipe but then the man’s knee dug deep into her nose. While the girl managed to augment her abilities so that her skull wasn’t crushed with that single kick she was still thrown back, just barely did Kiyomi manage to roll around and pick her body back up off the ground.

“This guy is just like Kenji
 He’s just trying to protect his little sister
 Shit
 I need to get my mind into it, I’m having a hard enough time as it is!” the blonde started scolding herself and trying desperately to get over the realization that she may have been fighting a representation of what her most beloved and admired person in the world may have been like. “If I kill him, will I then be just like those thugs that killed Kenji? Will I make life as tough for his sister as those rogues made it for me?!” she wondered without noticing that Roe was already behind her and with a powerful horizontal kick to the girl’s back he sent Kiyomi tumbling forward.

The Yamanaka coughed, she stood up all shaking and afraid to fight. Was it always like this for Mana? When one viewed all of your opponents as someone one didn’t want to fight? When you want none of this violence, when all of it brings back this sickening feeling inside you that you’d want to puke if you landed another punch? Poor girl
 No. She wasn’t poor, she was stupid, she wasn’t fit for battle, no one feeling like this was fitting for battle.

Kiyomi’s hands went through a bunch of handseals, she just barely made them go correctly, just barely she managed to not mess them up. Her chakra had already taken a huge hit after protecting her from instant death that each of Roe’s crushing blows would’ve delivered. Kiyomi had no more chakra to waste.

“Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!” Kiyomi yelled out shooting a powerful and invisible blast of wind at Roe. The man’s body flickered, he then appeared right before Kiyomi holding his knife up and ready to impale her on it when the wall of wind hit the man head on and sent him crashing into a bunch of boxes.

The blonde staggered back and placed her back right at the ladder to the upper floor, taking a moment to look up. How was Mana doing? Was she OK? Of all places Kiyomi wanted to be there the least. Fighting someone who reminded her of Kenji so much was so difficult that she was almost ready and more willing to die than cause more harm to this man who was a living memory of her brother.

“Let’s stop this, there’s no use in fighting further for the two of us, you just want to protect your sister and I can help you with that
” Kiyomi yelled, then a strong smell of flowers caught her nose, the girl tried to move out of where she was but a strong elbow slam pinned her to the steel wall and lifted her in the air, trying to smother the life out of her. Roe was just so fast! The man growled with his cat-like fangs right up in Kiyomi’s face.

“It is true that my sister is the reason why Yellow even got me serving him, but the real reason I’m fighting you is because you hurt my pride, the pride of an undefeated Nekomata heir. My sister’s life will be saved by the same action that will satisfy my pride – your death and your head on my belt.” Roe almost whispered right into Kiyomi’s face.

“Normally I’d say
 Ewww for your breath
 But
 Is that tulips I smell? Did you get perfume spilt on you?” Kiyomi taunted the cat-hobo who was covered with some strange purple goo from those boxes and hat shards of glass all over his muscular frame. The Yamanaka then lifted her feet and kicked at two shards digging them deeper into the cat-man’s chest making him let her go and roar out loud in pain. The heiress took a couple of seconds to roll to the side and catch her breath.

“No. He’s nothing like Kenji, Kenji only cared about his village and his family, he never let personal feelings get involved in it all. This man is all about pride, he is a lot of things but Kenji he is not! I’ll just have to try not to kill him, I don’t need this sibling vendetta on my consciousness
” the girl thought to herself coughing out and standing back straight.

Roe slammed his arms together, “Nekomata Clan Secret Technique: Roar of the Prideland!”

Kiyomi was blown back almost instantly by some invisible force, it was like the man’s voice got multiplied a thousand times and made into some strange ring of pure force that grinded and threw objects around. Once again Kiyomi felt her chakra taking a huge dip. She’s been abusing chakra augmentation but there was no other choice here – any single of these blows would’ve killed not only a normal person but it’d have been enough to level a mountain. As the shockwave of Roe’s roar passed through casual objects it completely grinded them to dust, not even a single shard of wood remained – the shockwave completely disintegrated everything by its intensity.

Kiyomi felt warm drips of blood running down her ears, she got back on her knees and then back on her feet. The girl looked around – the entire room was demolished, there were absolutely no objects to substitute with, even the steel was completely wrecked, the whole room was bent up and just barely holding together – the shockwave must’ve ran out of its own range, otherwise it’d have demolished the entire room and buried both of them beneath the upper floor. This Roe guy was a madman, he was ready to destroy everything just because he felt prideful.

Kiyomi’s arms went through a bunch of handseals, she noticed that Roe slipped into the shadows again trying to hunt her down again but this time she’d be ready. This time the cat-hobo was all covered in perfume, this time Kiyomi knew of his abilities and she’d be ready for him. With a tap of her knuckle the Yamanaka set off a genjutsu, Roe leaped at her but his body stopped suddenly, he then just fell down on the floor straight, the girl went through even more handseals but then her jutsu failed, no, the blonde stopped it in time – she was running out of chakra slowly, she needed a breather.

“You changed the appearance of the room using your genjutsu, making me believe that I was charging at a steel wall when actually it was just you
 Stop postponing the inevitable, either fight me or die proud!” he shouted out reaching for the loops of some wires. The cat-man pulled on them setting off an excessive trap. Kiyomi did her best to move backwards, to try and navigate so that she didn’t get caught but it appeared like this whole place was set up to become some sort of intricate spider web when those two loops were pulled.

The girl felt tight steel wire wrapping around her wrists, her elbows and her shoulders, her body, thighs and the lower leg all the way to her feet. Just barely the Yamanaka heiress managed to avoid having one loop tie around her neck, if it did, this man could’ve beheaded her with a single pull on the right strings.

“Remember? Last time you caught me in a trap just like this, I prepared this specifically for you.” Roe’s fangs grinded together angrily and his peculiar whiskers moved up and down as he exclaimed what he thought was his victory speech.

“Awww, you shouldn’t have.” Kiyomi tried to keep the talk going so that she found at least one way to escape this tight spot without losing any limbs or dying.

“Normally I’d just stab you through the heart and end this, maybe bite through your neck but
 You beat me, you crushed me and insulted my pride!” Roe charged forward bashing into Kiyomi’s body with his shoulder. The girl screamed out from the depths of her lungs as the steel wire dug deeper into her body. She heard the horrible sound of steel being pulled from its sheathe but this fool had already made his mistake – he messed with his own trap by bashing Kiyomi in it, he may have opened a bunch of wounds bursting with blood but
 That was what Kiyomi was trying to avoid, now that he did it she was ready to just struggle a bit and pull out from there.

Roe’s fists flew freely, he kept punching at Kiyomi’s side and the girl kept augmenting her chakra to keep herself alive. A single free punch could’ve destroyed her, a single punch would just killed her instantly and sent a shockwave through her body strong enough to grind her bones to dust. This man wasn’t playing around. Kiyomi kept on screaming and taking all of his punches but then it happened – one of her hands got free, the steel tore off a nasty chunk of her flesh and opened a pretty bad wound but it let Kiyomi pull out her knife and swipe at the man. With a click of his fangs he broke the kunai into shards of steel. Kiyomi didn’t stop, she roared in pain and pulled her legs and the remaining arm out getting cut up and injured and swept at the man’s legs after landing taking him down for a moment while she ran to the corner to examine the extent of her wounds.

Kiyomi disappeared in the same shadows where Roe used to hide. She was hiding, trembling and just barely restraining her weeping from how much her whole body hurt from that nasty trap. The worst part was that Quack was tired out, he won’t be able to heal all this
 Darn it, Kiyomi needed to win this, she needed to win this fast and go help Mana, the hatchling depended on her, she looked up to Kiyomi and the blonde needed to live up to that trust.

“There you are!” Roe’s thundering voice echoed as his figure leaped out from the darkness, Kiyomi had sensed him coming, he still couldn’t get rid of the smell, the area was so dark that the Yamanaka was only able to barely distinguish the hunter once he got very close up to her. Then again, it was quite likely that it was the same with the Nekomata member. That gave the blonde an idea, she avoided the swipe of Roe’s knife by observing the steel as it reflected the feint rays of light emanating from the other side of the room, Kiyomi rolled under Roe’s feet and then disappeared again.

“Stop hiding! Darkness is my weapon!” Roe roared out. Two punches into his lower legs sent him on his knees, two swipes from Kiyomi’s kunai left gashes on his back. A flip over his head followed by a double kick right to his face made the man roar in anger. Kiyomi couldn’t believe this was working, she was tired and in the process of bleeding out yet she somehow managed to find out that the man’s greatest strength was also his greatest weakness, after all – who hunts the hunter? Finding out stealthy opponents was really not his strongest suite.

Suddenly an iron grip locked around Kiyomi’s throat just before she could knock Roe out with the back of her knife. The man’s face remained looking somewhere else, it was just his arm working completely independently yet so incredibly precisely! Kiyomi moaned pathetically as her body was effortlessly lifted up in the air and she felt air starting to leave her body, she tried to jerk around, struggle, kick the man a couple of times but it didn’t work.

“Did you really think that I couldn’t see in the dark? I fucking fight in the dark you stupid bitch! Which part of “cat-like physiology” was so hard for your little brain so hard to understand?” Roe roared moving Kiyomi’s face, still gasping for at least a little breath of air closer to his own. He then laughed out.

“No, not like this, you’ll suffer more, you injured my pride, you won’t die enjoying yourself like this!” Roe shouted out tossing the blonde aside into the light.

“We’ll play the same game we played last time! You look around, desperately try to find me and fail! My knife plunges one organ after another until you give up and die!” Roe’s voice came from somewhere in the darkness. “Last time was just a fluke, I’ll prove it to you, I am the world’s strongest hunter! No one can find me when I don’t want to be found!” the man’s voice kept echoing.

Kiyomi coughed up and stood back up, she saw blood dripping from various wounds all over her body from that stupid trap. This was so close! She was just about to stab his eye out! The blonde still clenched that kunai in her hand, she got caught completely unprepared but she managed to get her kunai ready to poke the cat-man’s eye out before he decided to kill her differently
 If only he behaved in a logical manner and proceeded to try and choke her out. His illogical behavior was making it pretty hard to plan all of this.

There it was! The dreaded smell of tulips, Kiyomi turned around and flipped back to avoid the knife. Silence once again took over the room, she knew this game – he’ll tire her out, either that or she’ll bleed out. No part of this game was going her way so she had to change the rules. Kiyomi felt up her own chakra, tried getting the general feeling of just how much she had in her, just how much more fighting she could take. It wasn’t that much, she had it for several more techniques, maybe a couple of augmentations too but that would be pushing it
 She’d need to conserve some chakra on that augmentation, maybe augment a little bit less, it was a really big risk but it was a necessary one.

Kiyomi staggered back avoiding another slash. The man’s body flickered and disappeared again, he moved much faster than the girl’s perceptive ninja eye could see. He must’ve been one of the most amazing ninja the girl had ever seen and yet Hanasaku could’ve taken care of this joker so easily.

“Just do it how Hanasaku would, take the hit – hit him back harder
 I’ll just augment my body, just in case
” Kiyomi thought to herself right before the figure of the cat-hobo appeared from the darkness charging in with his knife up and ready to cut through the Yamanaka. Kiyomi felt chakra bursting, surging through her creating an invisible armor to protect her from things that’d kill her normally and she raised her arm like a shield, with a little luck the man’s stab would pass right through the augmented arm and hit the floor opening him up for a finishing blow, a stab to the neck should do it!

A loud flesh piercing sound echoed and a burst of blood shot out all over Kiyomi’s face. For a moment the girl just stood there and looked at the gruesome sight of her hand being easily penetrated by her assailant’s knife. It was then that the overwhelming pain hit her and Kiyomi screamed in an inhuman-like voice throwing a mad kick to get the cat-man further away from her. The pierced arm shook wildly, blood was squirting from it and Kiyomi didn’t care about standing there and fighting, she was bolting, retreating into the darkness to tie something around that arm.

Roe stabbed so hard he cut through her chakra augmentation! How could’ve she been so stupid!? Reserving chakra on something as integral as toughening her arm up
 Right as Kiyomi tore the shoulder off of her top and started wrapping it around her arm she begged whatever forces there may have been overseeing this battle that this mistake would not be her final one.

“Yeah, that’s right, run. Run. Run, little lamb!” Roe’s annoying voice echoed all through the darker parts of the room once again, Kiyomi knew he was coming for her soon and she had to be ready for him, she had to get ready for him!

It didn’t take long before the whip wielding Nekomata youth named Cony started her offense. The woman winded her whip around and smacked it at Hisako’s location. The raven haired swordswoman didn’t wait around, she decided to utilize the time that it took for Cony to wind up her whip and before it made a full circle and to gut the young woman before it happened. It was a good plan, normally the whip user would’ve had the advantage of long range on Hisako but Hisako could still utilize her speed right? Kill her enemy before they could press on that advantage. This cat-lady must’ve had some impressive abilities to rough the magician kid up after all, Hisako always knew that Mana had it in her to be a pretty powerful ninja.

The main reason why the Yoruma thought like that was because of the magician’s skillset. She just used the least normal and the weirdest ninja arts: ninjutsu and genjutsu. Ninjutsu techniques were some of the most destructive ninja arts utilizing chakra to perform supernatural larger than life abilities. Most of the ninja considered the best by today’s standards were also ninjutsu experts at least on some level.

The other one was equally as tricky. The girl used illusions which was an exceptionally annoying but also a complex subject. No one knew that well about it, everyone just knew what was passed on by their ancestors but few bothered to delve too deep into the art of illusions, there were some Jounin who focused in it but their illusions were just meant to be distractions for their main techniques. No one used it as their main skill quite like Mana. As much as Hisako hated Mana, she acknowledged that the kid would one day make an exceptional or, at the very least, very annoying to deal with ninja. For that reason anyone who could inflict those injuries onto the girl deserved at least Hisako’s actual effort to gut them for having earned that amount of skill.

A brief sultry laughter broke Hisako’s mad dash, the girl felt pressure on her feet and suddenly a blunt shock on her head – she was tripped. Hisako looked down glaring at the whip and seeing a knot tied around the Yoruma swordswoman’s leg. The raven-head decided to cut at the whip but with a strong yank to the side wall the effort was interrupted. Hisako just couldn’t get a mean enough swing, her half assed swings seemed to bounce off of whatever that whip was. It wasn’t ordinary leather that much was for sure.

“I really wish I could bash you more and more but
 Sadly you seem to have eaten one too many butter cookies.” Cony playfully taunted the Yoruma. It was a big mistake to taunt a Yoruma, those people only knew hatred and violence, taunting only made them delve even deeper into their own insanity.

Cony moved to the side and grunted in surprise and shock – a knife dug deep into the steel wall. A knife of exquisite Yoruma bladework, thrown using the unnatural strength of an assassin.

Cony looked back at Hisako trying to find her opponent but the black haired woman was already gone from the loop, she was leaping all over the blade, her body was just a blur and her continuous leaps were just distractions. She moved at such inhuman speeds that her body wasn’t even visible, only loud clangs and thuds on the wooden boxes and the solid steel structure alerted of Hisako’s movement.

“My father used to say
” Hisako’s voice echoed ominously from multiple areas in the room, while she finished that brief sentence she managed to move all over the room making her words more ghostly but also much clearer.

“It’s not how you throw, it’s how you stab and twist!” Hisako’s body blurred and flashed up to Cony finally confusing the woman with her upwards thrust of the two blades that the raven haired woman wielded. Her leather jacket tensed and emitted most awkward grungy squeak from the pressure.

While the whip wielding rogue managed to avoid the impaling double thrust, Hisako’s foot followed almost instantly digging itself deep into Cony’s stomach and sending the woman back into a bunch of boxes, the woman’s body bounced off from one box to the other before painfully bashing into a wall and then back on some of the boxes she fell on. Hisako leaped forward driving her shoe down to slam Cony and crush her into the box and whatever was in it.

After a deafening thud the swordswoman fell into a bunch of bottles and flasks, most of them got crushed and instantly Hisako felt being submerged in some sort of sticky purple fluid. It smelled
 Weird
 To a trained Yoruma assassin only the most normal things like flowers and pies felt weird and unnatural. This goo was
 Perfume? Why would these rogues have entire basement loaded with this purple goo? They kidnapped this kid, this perfume tycoon’s heir but they already had entire basement filled with perfume shipments. Something here felt off, Hisako’s mind started wondering away from the fight, trying to desperately put together what could’ve happened there.

The woman heard something loud and screechy, Hisako tried to leap outside that horrible mixture of glass and perfume but the explosion sent her body blasting off from one side of the room to the other. Cony must’ve avoided Hisako’s stomp and then moved in back to having the tall ground advantage as well as being able to just attack the assassin with her projectiles.

“You know
” Cony laughed looking at Hisako standing up and tearing the burning and torn leather jacket off of her body, looking back at the rogue with the furious stare coming from a face covered with blood from cracking her head into the steel floor and perfume. “You don’t really strike me as an assassin. I mean looking at your weirdly dark shade of hair, those scars on your face and those clan tattoos on your face and cleavage
 You’re Yoruma huh? Anyone could recognize your foul stench. Strangely clear and exotic hair color, clan tattoos and love of scars. There’s a reason why people treat you as dirt, because you treat all life as dirt. Right now you threaten the life of me and my brother and I’m having trouble to decide if I want to kill a Yoruma shitstain or a woman whom I was ordered to kill by a man holding my beloved brother ransom, forgive me if my feelings confuse you, Yoruma. Emotions are something only a human would understand, not a Yoruma trash like you.”

Hisako’s body was shaking in sheer rage. “I’m not an assassin. Assassin is just a word for simple minded fools who fall by our blades to call us!” Hisako lashed out straight out shouting her words.

The woman’s body flashed forward, no more distractions, no more leaps or anything silly like that. Her body was injured by the explosion, she had multiple broken ribs and several burns. The glass of those perfume bottles cut Hisako up pretty nastily when the assassin just tried to use her senseless aggression to kill Cony. None of those things mattered. Yoruma were rage, pure desire to kill, pain was one level below that.

Hisako’s leg swept at Cony’s before the woman even noticed Hisako having moved a finger. “I am a murderer,” The Yoruma’s leg then kicked Cony upwards bashing straight into the ceiling of the lower floor with utmost ruthlessness and violence “I am a slayer, decapitator and a ravager,”. Hisako’s bloodthirsty frame kicked off the ground dashing right at the plummeting opponent and passing through her in mid-air “I desire to kill everyone I see except those I want to fuck with, that is the Yoruma way. The word assassin doesn’t fully capture that”. A heart freezing scream pierced the temporary silence as a nasty X shaped gash covered Cony’s chest, from her groin over her chest and ending by the neck.

It was far too fast for the woman to even have the time to augment her strength and endurance. Taunting Hisako was something she really shouldn’t have done. While in mid-air Hisako pulled two scrolls out of her belt and unsealed them, she attached it to the a wire device that held it with two wires and spun them like one of those spinning toys that the young ones liked to play with trying to see which one would spin the longest.

“Secret Yoruma Hijutsu: Blooming Petal of Death!” Hisako shouted as just when her body started to land down the rotating scrolls started to fire off automated barrages of weaponry: kunai, shuriken, various small daggers probably meant better for opening letters than killing but all of that fired off all over the basement.

It was like the woman’s whip rose up and formed a protective twister deflecting each and every projectile thrown by Hisako. The assassin kept emptying her supplies, firing off everything she had sealed inside those scrolls, literally thousands of small weapons but all of them just bounced off and fell by the woman’s sides. Right when the technique ended and the scrolls together with the detached strings fell off of Hisako’s wrists the woman pulled her blades back out throwing them at the circling whirlwind of leathery whiplash.

The blades bounced off as well flying back at Hisako but the woman caught them in middle air and then with a wild roar dove back down, if she couldn’t penetrate this wall with her onslaught of these weapons she accumulated after emptying her wallet in the Yoruma Black Market she’ll gut the bitch herself. Personal was always her approach anyways!

It appeared that Hisako was especially lucky, the woman’s skydive back down appeared to time properly with Cony’s whip running out of its supernatural juice and falling down the boxes below where Cony could reach. The woman moved to the side skipping just one sword. Hisako’s left sword penetrated Cony’s side making the woman scream out in pain and spit out some blood into the assassin’s eye. Hisako staggered back giving the injured cat-woman some time to drop down for her whip.

Cony’s laughter echoed through the basement, it was this bloody and terrifying combination of fear, pain and also pride and joy. It was clear that the woman was injured, probably close to dying and in a lot of pain but she also felt really proud of something even while being afraid to die at the same time.

“So this was my mother’s will then?” Cony’s voice echoed.

Hisako cocked her heap and cracked her knuckles picking her swords back up and licking the blood off of her sword. The woman always did that, it helped her realize if she was back from her murderous rage. If she cut her tongue that meant she was hyperactive, too jumpy to act straight, still in a rampaging mood. A clean and soft lick without injury meant that Hisako’s mind was back to being its bitchy cold self. “The fuck are you on about now? I don’t think I stabbed you in a spot where you’d start to get delirious.” The assassin asked.

“This whip is made from my mother’s hair. Yellow hired mercs to take me and my brother from my family several months back, those mercenaries separated me and my brother giving us just a couple of final words with our mother, our father was killed after he opened the door. Mother just gave us her hair, she didn’t say what it was for or anything but she was a ninja and we felt the chakra in them, then they burned our house down even after her death the hair continued to harden my whip, act like it had a will of its own.”

So that was it? That was why Mana was so busted up then? The dumb kid-idol just couldn’t deal with the whip having a mind of its own while also being coated with chakra and completely invulnerable during those moments of free will? If that was all it took the kid was of no challenge to Hisako, not even worth staining the blade of her sword with the kid’s blood.

“I didn’t realize it up to now but
 Mother’s goal was to protect us, it must’ve been some special seal she placed in them, to not fade before it saved both of our lives. If I died right now Yellow would’ve killed my brother too because without me he’d have no use for him. Because of that my mother’s will inside that seal acted by itself and protected me, now that both me and my brother are safe her soul moved on into the Afterlife. Her lifelong goal of protecting us is complete.”

Hisako laughed out in the most ironic and sarcastic laugh she’s ever had and lunged back at where the woman’s voice came from. A nasty flesh tearing sound followed Hisako’s flashy assault, the woman managed to augment her chakra right before the blade entered her body making it just inflict a wide but incredibly shallow cut, barely passing the skin. The second cut was blocked by Cony’s knife. The woman leaped back dropping several more marbles with explosive notes stuck all over them. Hisako rolled back avoiding the explosion.

A powerful whiplash hit right into Hisako’s jaw from the smoke, then another and another one. The ruthless combination continued before the whip wrapped around the assassin’s neck and the rogue ninja slammed her opponent’s head into the ground again and dragged her body up closer. Cony’s foot slammed on top of Hisako’s head leaving a large dent on the steel floor and making the young woman’s body twitch creepily and emit a powerful scream of pure pain. Hisako managed to augment herself to avoid having her neck snapped but Cony continued to stomp on her face. Again and again until the augmentation could barely even protect Hisako, until her nose broke and fired off wild torrents of nose bleeds.

With a strong backroll Hisako stood back up and then dove forward slashing right at Cony’s shoulder, augmentation helped the woman only receive a small cut to what would’ve been a nasty injury. Cony twisted her whip around once again in a wide circle whipping at the Yoruma’s jaw again sending her broken nose into blood spilling overdrive. Another whip hit Hisako straight into her groin. The woman yelled out in agonizing pain and fell on the ground scratching the cheaply placed shot.

“What’s the matter? I didn’t know you Yoruma felt pain at all? What was that bullshit about you being all-killers before!?” Cony shouted out in a pathetic voice of an injured and desperate woman who was ready to reach out to dirty shots for survival. The woman swung her whip up in the air aiming straight at the last hit spot.

“Let’s make sure world sees no more filthy Yoruma babies!” she grunted out before stumbling back in shock. A sword was etched into her gut, one thrown in a desperation move by Hisako.

“Shit, fuck, cunt, ass
 You fucking sodomized pirate whore cunt licker!” Hisako writhed on the floor before picking herself back up off the ground and dashing to her opponent, with a swift movement she pulled the sword out of the woman’s gut and then grabbed hold of her whip cutting it in half using her other blade and kicking Cony back to die in agony.

“I’ll suck the cocks of a clusterfuck of dickwhistling dead men before I’ll let you win!” Hisako yelled out completely having lost all fucks to give.

Cony appeared to not even plan to die yet, the woman kept crawling back, leaving a bloody trail for the raven-haired assassin to follow. She must’ve used chakra augmentation to keep her blood loss contained as much as possible, in the most extreme cases chakra could’ve been used to prolong one’s death but it was rarely ever used in battles, it was used as a last effort to receive medical help whereas here was little to no hope. Cony’s arms raised up and blue flames flared up where her nails were forming long chakra claws. The woman’s body burst up with chakra, transparent blue flames of pure chakra started flooding off from her spiking up the woman’s hair, straightening and sharpening her whiskers and her cat-like fangs.

Cony lunged forward, wild red stripes started cutting everything to pieces, Hisako leaped back a couple of dashes looking around. The impossibly fast claw swipes seemed to pick up an object and utterly shred it to smallest chunks. They appeared to be somewhat random so the assassin barely felt threatened but she had to make sure, the shredding barrage of Cony’s chakra claws intensified, the barrages started multiplying and suddenly it started seeming like there were more and more of Cony as if the woman was so fast that she started leaving afterimages.

Hisako leaped into the midst of that clawing madness and raised her blades up. With a bold right step forward and raising her blades as a wall Hisako managed to impale Cony onto her swords. The chakra flames went out, Cony was just about to die, her wounds were too numerous and deep even for chakra augmentation to sustain. Hisako dropped Cony’s powerless and weeping body on the floor. Tears started gathering in the woman’s eyes, her previously seen pride in her mother’s final will was now gone after finding just how pointless her mother’s sacrifice was.

“Come on
 Tell me how pathetic I am not to welcome death
” Cony started crying in her final moments, “Tell me how inhuman I am to not desire death upon myself!” she tried to scream but she only spat up more blood from her torn stomach.

“There’s nothing inhuman in not wanting to die. I’ve never met anyone who wanted to die when I killed them. Death is the ultimate bad ending, it’s only normal to hate it, to wish it upon everyone else but you. In some ways that’s where me and the magician-bitch are real fucking similar. We both accept that death is bad, the worst, in fact. I don’t know what sort of monsters you imagine Yoruma to be, but even we know that, that is why we kill so much – because death is the worst we can give our enemies and life is the most precious that we can take from them.”

Cony tried to move but she managed to only twitch pathetically. “At least I’ll meet my mother in the Afterlife
 I just hope Roe makes it
” she uttered.

“There’s no Afterlife, you die – that’s it, nothing beyond that. No praise-hungry God to suck his dick off for eternal salvation, no meeting your lost ones. To say that there is something like that is to diminish all that the Yoruma do. To belittle a killer.” Hisako picked up Cony’s whip and looked at the woman.

“What are you doing?” Cony cried out in horror after Hisako wrapped the whip’s remains around Cony’s neck and started applying all of her superhuman pressure, just barely holding herself back from snapping the woman’s neck.

“Being the kind of monster you think I am. Wouldn’t like for you to be a liar in your final moments now would we?” Hisako snapped back at Cony angrily and held the pressure before the woman stopped moving, after a powerful press on the whip the leather snapped and so did the woman’s neck already after her death.

“Well that’s demented. Even I wasn’t that twisted
” a voice reached Hisako from the back of the basement, it belonged to a short cloaked figure with strings of blonde hair.

“You fucked her life by making it a living nightmare, you were a fucking creditor of her fucked up slaving life and if I hate one thing more than being whipped into my genitals that’s fucking creditors. At least I had the decency to finish her off, I was just as sick as this world is and not sick enough to be the sick fucker in this room
” Hisako replied pointing her blade at her next challenger – the mysterious dwarf called “Yellow”

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
”

Kiyomi kept creeping around through the dark edges of the room. Her mind was all over the place, jumping from her own bleeding arm back to one floor above, wondering how Mana was doing. More and more the Yamanaka started wandering off. Maybe it was a genuine worry about the youngling’s well-being or perhaps more her wish to not confront a young man that resembled her brother a little. While the realization that Roe was more prideful than protective did help Kiyomi look the man in the eyes, she still had several bonds that needed to be severed.

“My friend down there, the one facing your sister is a cruel and violent killer. She’ll kill your sister and she’ll do it very slowly and very gruesomely. It’d be for the best if you left and went there to save her.” Kiyomi grunted out, her voice still sounded a tiny bit whiny over the pain and losing all that blood. Roe leaped out from behind Kiyomi, his feet kicked off of the wall giving the young woman some time to react properly and roll out of the way, clenching her tied bleeding arm.

“Cony can handle herself and if she cannot she isn’t worth my clan’s legacy. She is of royal leading bloodline, she has no right to die against a filthy Yoruma and if she did that’d be on her. I love Cony but it’d be her wish that I killed you and rebuilt the pyramid of my pride which you’ve toppled and made myself whole again” the man shouted out angrily. Trying to step back into the light when loud clangs and sparks of shuriken being deflected by his knife lit the area up for some time while Kiyomi moved into the light.

That was it – that severed all of the bonds, all of the similarities between Kiyomi’s late brother and this man. Her brother was a little bit arrogant but more in a confident kind of way, he’d have never allowed his pride get in the way of his family. He even gave up his life, his promised dream of being the next greatest Yamanaka shinobi to ever come from that bloodline by fighting multiple opponents whom he had no hope of beating. He trampled on his own pride by choosing to lose, by choosing to risk it all for his little sister and his family. Now Kiyomi could fight this man at her full power without holding anything back!

“Multi-Shuriken Jutsu!” Kiyomi yelled by firing off a continuous barrage of shuriken that multiplied from the ones that she had already tossed, it was a simple C-Rank technique that most genin learned right after the Academy, one that didn’t clone the user but cloned the tools they used to be used in larger quantities. Roe continued to deflect the shuriken, skipping just a couple. Kiyomi’s chakra was large, larger than most genin in the village so she was able to fire off a much larger barrage than most users of this simple technique.

The cat-man pulled several ninja stars out of his shoulder and chest, the small spikes of the shuriken left small wounds but it didn’t appear to reach beyond his muscles and cut any blood vessels which was unfortunate. Kiyomi hoped to sever one by hitting Roe in the shoulder’s soft spot but she didn’t hit it deep enough it seemed
 The Yamanaka slapped her hands together channeling chakra through the hair she had cut previously, just in time she rolled to the side to avoid Roe’s throwing knife that he tossed right at the center of her skull to intercept her technique.

Having faced off against the Yamanaka once already, Roe knew that she couldn’t just pull her techniques off quickly and easily. Kiyomi needed a moment for her chakra to reach the hair and then connect the channel to her opponent, she needed time to fire off her clunky soul-like hollow figure when she used her clan techniques and missing it left her wide open. If Kiyomi only used those clan’s hidden techniques she’d have never survived this long, it was only due to her physical prowess equal to if not surpassing that of her fellow genin that she managed to excel.

The girl grabbed a kunai in her other arm, holding the bleeding and injured one carefully in a cast-like position and lunged at Roe. He was injured and bleeding now, the girl needed to press that advantage and make him lose more speed, then when the cat-hobo is tired and bleeding out she could hit him with a clan technique and it’d all be over once she did. Roe’s knife clashed with Kiyomi’s the two clashed several more times in the darkness. The shadows of the room were occasionally lit up by the lethal dance of knives of the two ninja, now that Roe was injured Kiyomi could somewhat manage to not let up to him up close. Kunai style of knife-fighting only used one arm anyways so Kiyomi’s injury didn’t hold her back that much.

Roe leaped back – there it was again, the same trick twice. Just like the last time the cat-man let Kiyomi believe she could contest with him up close wishing to make her confident before he speared her gut. This time the Yamanaka leaped to the side and the spear got stuck in the steel piercing halfway through the floor and getting stuck in it. Seeing the spear tear through solid steel halfway in made Kiyomi shutter remembering that pain from before, it was a good thing that the three met Quack in this mission or it’d have been all over for the three of them ages ago.

Kiyomi pulled out a scroll from her belt, she opened it and slammed it onto the ground. The girl made the handseals and bit her finger until it drew blood dragging it across the scroll’s surface leaving a bloody mark. Roe wanted to intercept but he had never seen that scroll or what was inside it, he was worried that his reaction was just what Kiyomi wanted when in fact it was the opposite. The Yamanaka predicted such a line of thought and had no defenses against that counterattack, that was why she simply played the right psychological game and got a little bit lucky to unseal what was inside that scroll.

“Lightning Style: Proximity Mine!” Kiyomi yelled out unsealing a technique she asked her friend seal into the scroll before she left on the mission. It was one used by her Inuzuka friend from before and it was one of his early favorite techniques. Having jutsu of both of her past teammates sealed in the scroll felt like they were always there for her, almost like they watched her back. Such thoughts were poisonous, those two goofballs were gone! Kiyomi now had a different team, it may have been just a temporary team but she’ll be given a real one until the Chuunin Exams. While the young woman got rid of the toxic bond with her brother, finally being able to let go of his memory, she may as well have spilt it all out.

The lightning style sphere flew slowly at Roe, waiting for Kiyomi’s order to dissolve into a larger storm of small shocking bolts that’d have been both a pain for the cat-man but also briefly stunned him giving Kiyomi an opening for a wounding close range attack. Roe jumped into the air tossing another spear to the ground finally ridding his body of those long and dangerous weapons. Kiyomi activated her teammate’s technique but the spear acted like a lightning rod and absorbed the bolts inside of it burning up and dissolving into black dust and the tip playfully clanged as it got torn off of the steel floor and spun around from the force of the explosion. Just like that one of her teammate’s memory was let go of!

Kiyomi dragged her finger across the scroll again letting her blood touch another symbol on it. Suddenly violent shocks erupted through the steel starting to tear it apart leaving large fractures and fissures – only the Earth Style of her sensei could’ve able to rip through steel. This was just Hanasaku’s last memento for her student – a powerful A-Rank technique to pull her favorite student from a sticky situation when she’d need it.

“Earth Style: Tearing Fissure!” Kiyomi shouted when the fissure exploded from the pressure built inside the steel tearing large chunks of the floor and firing it off at Roe who was still in the air, descending. The cat-hobo covered his chest and head so that one of the sharp chunks didn’t dig into his skull or heart. Toughening his body, augmenting it as much as he could so that the explosion of pressure on the floor didn’t kill him, the shrapnel all hit the man but none of them drew blood, they all just made him yell in pain and leave sharp looking blunt force trauma all over but none of them impaled him like they should’ve – must’ve cost a lot of chakra. Once Roe’s feet touched the ground the powerful force that was tearing the floor apart finally hit his body too. The lion-man lifted off from the ground yelling madly as his body contorted in the strangest of shapes, it genuinely looked as if the force would just rip him in two like a strongman ripped phonebooks.

Sadly the aftershock of the technique was not enough – Hanasaku’s memento was also let go off. With the third stroke on her scroll Kiyomi sent the third technique – a large fireball, the signature “Great Fireball” technique of the Uchiha clan. Roe covered his body and took it all. The raging flames weren’t that powerful, they were just an overflowing tongue of flames wrapping into a circle shape, not yet on the higher ranks where it formed a powerful projectile of a wrecking ball that exploded in a violent firestorm upon impact. A powerful dissolution of flames appeared to eat Roe up but once they cleared up it became apparent that they didn’t.

The man continued to stand with his hair and his beard completely singed with the short remains of the hair still being in the process of it. His body was covered with burns from heated up steel tools that he carried around his body pressing against his skin once they’ve been heated up but the man’s chakra augmentation protected him from getting third degree burns all over his body. Still, the injuries he took were huge, he also augmented his body multiple times as evidenced by his hyperventilation after the technique dissolved. Even after the flames had ceased Roe stood there with an X shaped block to protect his vital parts, slowly his twitching and smoking arms were pushed back and he took a fighting position again.

With a powerful fling Roe tossed a couple of throwing knives, Kiyomi was too tired, she only had the option of making sure they didn’t poke her brain or heart out as she let them get stuck in the least-vital areas she had the time to pick for the projectiles to hit. The girl screamed out in pain and stumbled back. Roe’s body blurred and flashed up to her, his kick aimed to hit Kiyomi in the side of her head knocking her out or outright killing her but the Yamanaka leaned under the kick avoiding it.

“Just go down already!” she grunted in pain throwing a strong uppercut under the man’s raised legs straight into his groin. She needed to resolve to cheap shots, she needed to target his eyes, groin, any weak spot she could’ve found. She was stabbed by those throwing knives that while pretty short and slim still left their mark and would bleed her out in minutes if pulled out, she had multiple pretty deadly injuries and her chakra was approaching its limits.

Roe screamed out like Kiyomi had never before heard men scream. It was a similar scream to a wild cat being dragged across the pavement held by her tail. The man tried to toss several desperation counter blows but Kiyomi carefully dodged them, every time she twisted her belly or sides that had those knives in they burned like Hell itself but the Yamanaka persevered and kept on swinging. Several punches hit the man’s face sending him stumbling back, then a finishing large punch to knock him out! Sadly the blonde lacked the physical strength to do so, even with slight augmentation she only sent Roe stumbling back even more where she intended to knock him down. The cat-hobo leaped back, Kiyomi stepped forward but something was wrong, she looked down and realized how lucky she was to have noticed the slower and almost alluring speed decrease of her opponent.

On the ground in front of her laid makibishi – small spikes used by ninja to pierce through their opponent’s feet and either ruin the hooves of a mounted opponent or disable their opponents feet by making walking a living hell. Roe kicked off the ceiling after his leap, doubling his speed after realizing that his opponent saw through his clever trap, swinging his knife at Kiyomi. This wasn’t good, the girl pulled out her own kunai, she couldn’t move around much because she could’ve missed some of those pesky spikes – she couldn’t move around as much as she wanted and was forced to just slug it out with a physically superior opponent. The knives of the two clashed, they were both extremely worn out – Kiyomi had a bleeding arm that she could only use for handseals and several knives stuck in her body, she was slowly losing chakra and blood and had more bruises than she could remember. Roe was also beaten up but also had severe internal bleeding from Hanasaku’s sealed technique and was quite worn out by tanking that fireball with his body, something that also left numerous burns all over his body.

Kiyomi pulled out three kunai and tossed them forward. Roe leaned to the side avoiding all of them and letting them get stuck somewhere further in the wall behind him. Kiyomi pulled on the string making the string tied to the three kunai attached to the string in the blonde’s hand tie a painful loop around Roe’s foot. The girl then tied the string in her hand up to another kunai and tossed it to the ceiling getting it stuck in the wiring of some lights. Avoiding another desperate blow from her tired opponent and using the last of her willpower Kiyomi tied the wire with her final string pulling it hard while augmenting her arms so that the tearing and cutting steel wire didn’t cut into her hands.

The result was her opponent hanging helplessly tied to the hanging trap on his one foot. The man tried to reach up and cut it loose but Kiyomi’s punch knocked several of his fangs out and made him lose his large knife. Roe closed his eyes and made a calm expression.

“Your willpower succeeded. Kill me, your clan is found to be superior by fate, you’ve been selected as the victor.”

Kiyomi turned around. “No. I don’t want to, it’d probably be a good idea having in mind that I could pass out at any moment but
” the girl stumbled to a wall and slid down onto the floor leaving a bloody trail on the steel wall. “A greater punishment for you is to hang here until you regain your physical strength needed to tear the steel wire apart, you’ll live the rest of your life knowing that I beat you fair and square twice. Maybe then you’ll lose this stupid idea of pride and being the strongest and finally spend some time with your sister, I’m sure that she loves you and cares about you a great deal. Don’t waste either of your lives with this bullshit, it’s too short in this world of ours.”

Roe relaxed before a wild burst of tension and his final powerful burst of chakra, that outburst of rage caused a powerful gust within the room that made Kiyomi cover her face and look aside. Once the rage burnt out the cat-hobo passed out and finally the prey had overcome the hunter. Kiyomi sadly grunted having realized that her enemy probably had learned nothing in the end from this encounter. The blonde closed her eyes and let the pleasant release of sleep take her over. Was this just her losing it or was it death? In her current state of mind the Yamanaka couldn’t know or care.

“Shit
” she heard a familiar voice. “I think we’re losing blondie here, I’ll see what I can do but I may need to wake her up
” it was Quack’s voice. Wait. Wake her up!? The Yamanaka heiress suddenly remembered the method used by this quirky Quack to wake his allies up and her eyes shot wide up, “I’m awake, I swear, I’m awake!” she yelled out.

Mana, all beaten and covered in wounds, having torn her cloak and standing there in her tattered remains of what remained of her uniform and some weird mechanisms that held decks of cards in them and were attached to her fingers that were now exposed. She must’ve won, even though it didn’t look like it happened easily.

“Alright, though no way you’re moving anywhere, blondie, I’m keeping you here and alive. With a couple Sanguine Pills and stitches you’ll be up on your feet in a minute or thirty” Quack sighed with a shade of annoyance in his voice.

“Wait, how did it go, Mana?” Kiyomi looked at the girl, she was the one with the least experience facing off against the hardest odds as the man she fought was supposed to completely crush the magician’s style of fighting.

“It’s fine, I knocked Noji-san out and let his dog carry him back home. The dog needs Konoha’s help with some medicine so it won’t run away. I’m going on forward to help Hisako-san, the dog said there’s something really important I had to know but I didn’t speak dog
 Whatever that language is called, if whatever it said was so important Hisako might need help, you stay put for now while Eiju-san patches you up” the magician explained with a worried and friendly voice.

“What did it sound like? The dog’s message?” Kiyomi asked, her teammate was an Inuzuka, after spending so much time around the two she picked a couple of things from the two. When she linked herself with the two of them on the mental link she could compare the thoughts to the words they said to each other which helped her grasp the basics of the Inuzuka communication. Dogs had a system of howling, barking and growling that formed words, they were responded with normal human language which they understood. Kiyomi knew the basics of the Inuzuka dog language, she hoped that maybe she could’ve helped.

Mana tried to repeat the message with the best of her effort. Kiyomi slapped her face making Eiju who was stitching her up look at the Yamanaka angrily.

“The underwear is what!? I don’t think you said it right, try again
” Kiyomi growled angrily at her friend. Mana apologized and tried again.

“Okay this isn’t even
 You didn’t even get a single word, none of those are words dogs say
” Kiyomi grunted again.

Mana concentrated harder. Repeating the growls and barks and howls perfectly.

“Yellow is hospice?” Kiyomi wondered repeating the message out loud. Mana’s eyes then shot open instantly. She jumped onto her feet and rushed to the lift, bashing at the button that was supposed to activate the mechanism to murder the hostage. Kiyomi tried to jump up and yelled at Mana but then a hidden door opened at the center of the wall with light emanating from below leading to the deepest underground floor.

“What does this mean? Why would the hostage killing button do this?” Kiyomi asked Mana who turned back at her friend with horrified eyes.

“It’s not “Yellow is hospice”, it’s “Yellow is the hostage”
” Mana explained, “If he tries something on Hisako-san she’ll freak out and when Hisako-san gets freaky she gets murdery, she’ll kill our hostage. Even if he is this “Yellow” guy, we need him alive, our mission is to bring him back alive!”

Kiyomi tried to stand up but as her wounds and her stitches burst more blood shot out making the blonde dizzy. “You can’t go there. If Hisako does indeed go mad
 You’ll be getting in her way – she’ll kill you.”

Mana looked at Kiyomi and then at the staircase. “She won’t. I saw her fight, I know her moves, she’ll be tired and I am no longer the Mana whom she faced back in that forest. I need to save the life of the horrible bastard that manipulated us all so I absolutely won’t lose.”

Just like that Mana ran off, her body disappeared in the confusing downwards spiral of the staircase leading down.

“Well
 Magician’s dead
 Too bad, she was kind of cute, may have tried something with her in a couple of years.” Quack gruffed out in an ironic tone making Kiyomi squint at him angrily and then grunt in desperation – she had to be there. She had to help Mana. No matter where she’ll end up – facing Yellow or Hisako, either two of them were bad endings


“I thought dark haired girls weren’t your taste
” Kiyomi angrily shot back at the medical rogue fixing her wounds, right now he was her only hope of getting back at her feet and helping Mana solve this nonsense once and for all.

“Are you mental, lovely, all girls are of my taste, I must’ve been high when I told you that, or I’m high now, could be either one really
” the Quack replied in his weird dull and annoyed tone while he stitched Kiyomi’s stab wounds.

“Is there any use complaining about your work ethics now?” Kiyomi asked ironically.

“None. I’m too poisoned and drunk to remember it in the morning, in my defense, you made me wait your fights out until I saw that dog. It was cold
” Quack replied finishing another stitch.

At the other end of the tip of Hisako’s extended blade was the little man everyone was so afraid of and hating at the same time. It would’ve been just so easy for the woman to flash forward with all of her speed and cut that person down. Just when the Yoruma started wondering what was the use of having that hooded dwarf alive, Yellow reached for his hood while his other hand held firmly on the handle of his sword that he wore by his side. Hisako was pleasantly surprised that she may have had the pleasure of killing yet another person that day, by now she had made peace with the idea that she may have only had only the boring part of traveling back with the hostage to deal with.

“Aren’t you worried about your friends up there? Go on, rush to their aid, you won didn’t you?” Yellow’s squeaky voice came from under the hood right as he pulled hard removing it and tossing it aside in an overly dramatic fashion that made the dark cloth linger around his face in the air for a while.

“No offense but you’re a really bad fucking backstabber. I see your intentions from a mile away, the tip of my blade is all you’re getting, I’ll reserve my back for someone I decide to get fucked from behind by.” Hisako grunted angrily still pointing her sword straight at Yellow’s face from the other end of the room.

Finally the hood hit the floor, right on top of Cony’s emotionless corpse covering the poor young woman up. It wasn’t that Yellow cared particularly about that yet another victim of this cruel messed up world, it was more that his garment landed there by sheer luck covering the unsanitary and slightly frightening sight of death up.

Yellow stood there looking Hisako straight in the eyes. The dwarf behind the cloak turned out to not be a dwarf at all, his short stature was not because of a disorder that the man had but instead due to his age – Yellow was just several years into his teens. His nickname must’ve come from the kid’s golden colored hair and strange, almost purplish hue of his eyes combined with his golden locks made the kid look almost a little majestic and regal. He wore quite unusual clothes for a rogue, wearing a white shirt and a strange leather vest, that was not an attire of a combatant, not of a ninja anyways. He looked like an overglorified jockey.

“Well?” Yellow shrugged his arms, moving them away from his long but incredibly slim sword sheathe. Hisako blinked a couple of times in confusion.

“I’m sorry, are you expecting a fucking compliment of your looks or something? Sorry, kids aren’t of my particular taste, between the categories of “fuck with” or “kill on sight” they lean more to the latter” the woman replied.

“You stupid bitch” Yellow cursed not really suiting his young age, “I can’t believe someone can be so incompetent! I mean I sort of expected ninja peasants to be as dumb as a cow shit sniffer but not to recognize your own mission objective personified is beyond hogwash!” the little runt yelled back at the woman angrily.

“Oh, so you’ve escaped captivity and dressed like a goddamn opera villain, good for you, let’s go home now” Hisako swung her swords around getting ready to sheathe them when all of a sudden Yellow leaped at her pulling his strange sword out and thrusting it right at her eye.

With a near effortless movement the Yoruma leaned out of the way, getting a bit of a better look at the boy’s sword. It was a sword possibly as long as two thirds of his whole body but it was as thin as a needle. Hisako was almost intrigued to see just what sort of toy-sword this toothpick was but she was surprised by how quick its thrusts were and how the blade became near invisible in mid-movement making it look like quite the trouble to block or dodge properly.

“You stupid poohead!” Yellow shouted out thrusting again and again, Hisako dodged each and every thrust without much trouble, resisting temptation to yawn playfully somewhere in the middle. “Is it that hard to understand that there is no crime lord named “Yellow”, it was me all along, me using the money of my father behind his back to hire mercenaries to intercept perfume shipments, to find me a rogue ninja band, to neigh like blasted horses when I tell them to!? I did this, it was me all along!”

Hisako leaped back with a graceful, almost dance-like pounce and straightened her hair out which was starting to get into her face from all the leaning to the left and to the right quickly. “Okay, “poohead”? We would’ve needed a lot of vocabulary training to teach you how to fucking curse. So wait
 If you’re a criminal that means I can just kill you, right?” Hisako wondered to herself, barely even looking at the young man who was giving his all trying to kill her.

“That’s right, you could because I’m really dangerous! I managed to muck up father’s business enterprise by working through my mercs from behind the village walls, communicating only through children who were daring enough to venture outside for a hundred ryo or two. I am the worst criminal in the history of Konohagakure!” Yellow boastfully laughed lunging at the woman who just moved to the side and slapped the boy with the back of her hand sending him down on the floor.

“Well, you’re technically a “criminal” so at least you got that part sort of right
” Hisako smiled to the sight of the infuriated child getting back on his feet and grabbing his rapier again only to continue his offense. Hisako had to hand it to the boy – he was sort of fast for someone not at all familiar with chakra augmentation or actual ninja physical training, he also had that strange thin sword that disappeared from her vision after reaching a certain speed of movement in mid-air.

“And now that I pit you three wenches against my band of unbeatable rogues who weakened you before you beat them I shall pick you off one by one using the skills I acquired planning for this day. This is all going according my plan!” the teen laughed out with the same degree of arrogance in his voice that he had made his own in those couple of exchanges of words with Hisako.

“It’s a terrible plan, you planned for your rogues to get beaten? What kind of a retarded leader plans like that? Why would you plan to lose?” Hisako taunted the kid dodging several of his thrusts again when one of them actually nicked her cheek, that invisible sword was starting to become a bother and she actually was getting slower despite what she may have wanted everyone else to think.

“You hypocritical wench! How dare you of all people, a Yoruma, tell me sacrificing one’s pawns is a disadvantageous move? That is exactly how Yoruma plan: sacrificing one’s allies to land cheap blows, getting hurt just to find an opening in one’s opponent’s body! I’ve read many strategic guides and those written by Yoruma were simply the easiest to understand, give up something insignificant for something great!” the boy continued thrusting again and again until Hisako was forced to draw her blade and actually block the boy’s attack or else she’d have had it pierce right through her mouth.

“And now that you’re weakened I shall kill you and leave the bodies of the three of you here, then I’ll melt one of my subordinates in the bath of acid I’ve prepared supposedly for the “lonely and scared hostage” so that everyone will think that I am dead. This will be the perfect withdrawal underground!” the teen started laughing as he continued to explain his plan, particularly acting up and mocking the part about him being the scared and lonely hostage. He finished his relentless assault of thrusts with a swing from his elbow right in Hisako’s abdominal area but she barely felt it, it was just because she had wounds from the previous battle that it forced her to stumble back a little and get even more on the defensive.

Hisako drew her second sword and took a fighting stance, it was about time that she showed this young brat what exactly he was dealing with. Hisako lunged forward pushing the boy’s counter thrust with one blade and elbowing him straight to the nose then kicking him to the other end of the room. She reckoned that’d have been enough to crack his skull and cause some serious injuries before the two other slackers got there and they could’ve decided what they wanted to do with this.

“Your “flawless” plan has one flaw, among many, I am not weakened. Not by a wide enough margin for someone of your skill to even leave an actual scratch. The only tags you can mark on me are those that I let you achieve” Hisako’s body blurred leaving multiple afterimages in the air wherever she moved. From each side the girl’s real body mixed into among the afterimages and started pummeling the boy using her punches and kicks, she pulled them severely, just what she deemed enough to teach this arrogant and murderous brat a lesson.

After Hisako finished her assault and watched the brat’s knocked down body for signs of fighting spirit she noticed him getting up again. With his nose busted up and bleeding, with several bruises and black spots all over his face and wherever he had skin exposed to hit he was standing.

“My tutor was a foolish woman, I hated her with all of my guts and told her many times I need no lessons from her. I kept fighting using my own style of fencing, I assume in this tough spot I may give her lessons a shot
” the brat mumbled out wiping blood off of his lip and nose. The boy’s body shot forward multiple times faster than he was before, Hisako’s eyes widened in surprise and adrenaline rushed her tired body to deflect the countless thrusts. Using both of her blades she managed to do that but the boy’s increase in speed surprised her, if he had this much strength in him, so much talent, this fight may have excited Hisako, this may have just been on!

What a strange boy this “Yellow” was. He had the talent and was taught skills of exquisite and quite exotic swordsmanship he called “fencing” yet he used his own stupid and sloppy style. Improving his posture and legwork according to the instructions of this “tutor” of his as well as holding the toothpick sword of his properly made so much difference he may as well have been a wholly different person. As blood and tension flowed through the woman’s body she realized that the excitement for battle would make her lash out, attack the boy with all she had and that would’ve only ended one way – with his dead body by her feet.

A painful puncture made blood burst out from Hisako’s shoulder. The boy was reckless and in a lot of rush so he missed her vital blood vessel but he stabbed her successfully. Had his sword been heavier, had a wider edge, it may have actually taken the assassin out for good. No. Fuck holding back, this brat brought this, he was too good to fuck around with. Hisako decided to let herself off the hook, unleash herself and throw everything she had at the extremely thin and wobbly wall hoping to tear it down, no, she knew it’d fall.

Without even flinching the woman’s cheeks dyed red with rushing blood, her pupils dilated and she lunged forward with a swing of her curved sword. A single swing from the left, blocked, another much stronger from the right, blocked again but the boy was struggling, his small sword was quite puny and transferred much of the force right into his arm, he couldn’t have kept on blocking for long, some pressure would open him up like an Academy girl after giving her a daisy and calling her pretty. Hisako’s swings widened, she repeated her left and right double swing combination, this time putting more and more force into it and the boy stumbled back falling on his butt.

Hisako spun like a whirlwind making Yellow fall on his back and hope that her arc didn’t cut him in two. Bunch of his hair flew all over the place and were shredded to bits by Hisako’s two bladed spinning attack. Yellow crawled back and picked his sword up again. He was breathing heavily, yes, Hisako knew that face, those eyes, those pale cheeks and that tremble – he was afraid to die. Had it not been for his much hated woman tutor he would’ve long since died. This kid had so much talent if he was able to defend against one simple combo from Hisako just relying on lessons he ignored during his training. He was so much talent and so much arrogance with no hard work put into it. Yoruma training would’ve destroyed the youth, it’d have killed him. Or it could’ve made him stronger, after all, Yoruma trained their children by fighting them for real, if Yellow picked his hated fencing lessons style up because of threat of death, maybe he’d have excelled being pressured all his life instead of being pampered


“Tell me, kid, who is your “tutor”? If she was able to give you this much skill just on lessons you ignored, she must be quite formidable, sort of makes me want to fight her instead of wasting my time on you
” Hisako looked at a bunch of golden hair floating down on the floor with a cruel and devious smile. The kid gathered himself back up and took a more defensive stance.

“You would not know her, she is a swordmaster from the Land of Snow
 The only person I’ve ever seen wielding this kind of sword.” Yellow replied preparing for another clash. “She was strong enough to thrust her blade so swiftly that she made air itself into small projectiles, she called it “Air Bullets”, to me it was quite stupid obviously, my own stances were quite superior to hers in all ways possible but I would like to try it now if I’m honoring her
”

The youth swung his slim toothpick of a blade around raising it above his head. Now he pretty much was just looking to get his gut itch scratched with a point of a blade. Hisako dashed forward with all of her diminished speed attempting to impale the boy on her swords at the very end just as she had nearly done so to that Yamanaka previously and as she finished that whip using woman before. All of a sudden Hisako’s blade just froze in the air, it was like air itself formed a cushion to absorb her sword. With a quick jump forward and a thrust aimed at her chest Yellow attempted to take Hisako out. The girl grunted.

A loud flesh cutting noise echoed through the floor, followed shortly by a noise of a liquid splashing on the walls. Only those that would’ve been close to the two combatants could’ve possibly seen what was going on inside there.

*****

Mana kept on running down, for some reason this shortcut wasn’t nearly as short as she had previously thought, it went around several different rooms, one had a large container filled with what appeared to be acid, at least Mana’s visual inspection of the large container could’ve explained that much together with the story that the band made up about the hostage actually being locked in a container similar to that one. It also had several strange empty rooms, some of them had dog hair and uncleansed dog poop, the other one was much different, much more personal.

It had two beds placed on the differing ends of the room. The rooms didn’t have much furniture but this one had two bed cases with pictures on top of them. While having little time for such matters the magician took the time to give the pictures a brief glance. They had strange images inside of them of some people she had never seen previously, a young boy with quite exquisite and excessive for his age body hair, looking similarly to that man which Kiyomi had knocked out on the second floor. The other people inside that photo were: a little girl, just a bit younger than the long haired young man and two people – a man and a long red haired woman. They looked so happy
 Mana could only wonder what may have happened for them, knowing the location where those photographs were held on only suggested that nothing good. Most stories in this twisted world had sick and depressing endings so the magician decided not to go too much deeper into details of the rooms. Maybe she was better off not knowing.

Mana continued to run down the staircase, she saw another room on the way down, some strange room that looked almost like a throne room of some kind, she saw several like that before. Sometimes the downwards spiraling staircase changed into a long round corridor leading her in circles and then starting to spiral down again. There were many of those strange confusing throne rooms in those corridors. Whoever designed this bunker really liked to sit on a different chair every couple of hours


While rushing to her friend’s aid Mana wasn’t exactly sure what she was rushing for or what she’d find when she makes it down. She believed that Hisako could best her challenger, after all both Kiyomi and Hisako were such powerful and amazing ninja, if someone like Mana could beat her challenger who was perfectly placed there to beat her, so could those two. On the other hand could Hisako best the brat’s plan, what could’ve his plan been? Would he come at the assassin himself? Would she find the two at each other’s throats or one having recently killed the other? Mana dreaded that last thought the most. She was determined to save everyone’s life in this, she refused to even thing about the prospect of someone dying while she wasn’t there. She’d just blame herself, blame herself for not winning faster, for not going down there faster and not for preventing that death. Despite exhaustion and pain all over her body Mana kept on running


The sound of blood dripping on the ground repeatedly ran through the ears both of a young woman kneeling and struggling to keep her body on her feet and a bratty teen behind her. Hisako looked at the expanding red stain on her shoulder and grinded her teeth in frustration. The technique that the brat used was way too advanced for him, once again it must’ve been something he was showed by his tutor but something he never perfected by himself. Both his execution and follow up of the technique was highly questionable, for a moment it may have gotten dangerous but the Yoruma assassin was ready beat that technique of his.

He used chakra manipulation, people untrained in manipulating their chakra could do it, obviously, but their control was all over the place. They couldn’t sharpen their techniques, their degree of polish was pretty much non-existent and they wasted much more chakra on the simplest of techniques. It was only because of chakra’s nature as an energy that all living beings produce using their chakra network and chakra nodes inside their bodies that this kid can even use such impressive moves. Most likely he himself had no idea of what he just did. Losing against someone like this would’ve been pathetic at best.

“What’s the matter? Your heart gone soft?” Hisako taunted the kid by grunting out her insult through her grinded teeth. That fool leaped at her right when her blow was absorbed by the pillow of air that his strange sword movements formed. It was an impressive technique – using circular motions of one’s sword to form a pillow of air by combining natural air circulation with chakra manipulation. The pillow was at its toughest at the sword’s tip and got softer as it went deeper, that meant that it was perfectly crafted to absorb all blows and thrusts – the tough shell blocked and softened the blow while the weaker air mass inside absorbed the shock.

“No, I just felt like showing you the superiority of my form over the lacking one of my tutor’s
” Yellow returned the reply after a brief moment – he was breathing much more heavily, as suspected even a single small use of chakra drained his untrained body and taxed it unreasonably. Had this kid listened to his teacher he may have been a pretty tough swordsman, he has impossible one-in-a-million kind of talent for it but he lacks desire to hone it, he also is incredibly arrogant considering his own flashy but stupid moves to be superior to those of his tutor’s.

“You fool, you could’ve stabbed me straight into my heart the moment you absorbed my blow, that’s the way in which the technique is used – you form the wall of air to cushion the blow and then when the enemy is open you thrust it. You could’ve killed me yet you played around.”

The brat reacted with arrogance to Hisako’s explanation. He remained on his knees even going as far as to sheathe his sword for a moment and turn back at her. “Oh, so I assume that now you can understand my complicated forms and counter them?” the kid asked with a confident smile. Hisako was wondering what to do further. The arrogance of this kid made him impossible to fight, he was basically giving up. He wasn’t strong enough to beat Hisako even at her worn out form, even if he took it seriously but he was toying around too. This fight was completely useless and so stupid that it completely squished any desire of Hisako’s to kill this idiot. She’d probably do it anyways but she’d take no pleasure from it. Murder just for the fucks of it, that was a new one for the raven haired assassin.

“I do, I know how to beat it too” Hisako informed the kid deciding to end it quickly. The young woman pulled two throwing knives from her belt, the knives that the Yoruma used were not the usual kunai knives, they were much thinner, almost like made from a thin single layer of steel. That way they had much stronger penetrative power than the usual kunai that rarely went all the way in. Swinging the knives around her hands on the rings at the end Hisako quickly launched them at the boy. Yellow drew his sword and blocked the knives, Hisako repeated the movement tossing more and more projectiles at him.

Eventually the kid spun his rapier once again and blocked the knives using the same technique again. The tips just barely broke through the thickest layer of air and got bounced off by the softer part of the protective cushion. The knives were flung right back at Hisako, the woman leaned to the side to dodge her own deflected knives, one of them hit the wall and fell down far away from Hisako but the other one hit her in the cheek leaving a cut. The Yoruma touched her cheek and looked at the blood on her fingers. She was getting slower, her reaction time was falling significantly. Fighting two strong opponents would do that to a person, even if the second one is more lucky and talented than he is skilled.

“I guess you got jack squat after all” Yellow laughed out before breaking into a streak of huffing heavily. He may have noticed it already – his untrained body failing to keep it up.

“Nope, I got you. Usually I’d just stand here casually bombarding you with knives from afar, shrieking like an Academy girl on her first date each time you tax yourself to that technique trying to block it until you eventually either die of exhaustion or a knife is stuck into your eye. Then I’d just come in closer and disembowel you like a hunted down animal up close. Strangely I feel little excitement about killing you so I guess I won’t play the enjoyment game, I’ll just end it
” Hisako spoke out in a cold and indifferent tone. The assassin spoke of murder as if it was just as casual as washing her dishes.

The brat swung his sword around and tried to force an arrogant smile. “I’ll believe it when I see it” he replied. Hisako drew both of her blades and playfully spun them around in her hands pointing their tips right at her opponent.

“Yoruma Hidden Technique: Dance of the Night” the woman mumbled under her own nose, her lips twisting so briefly that one who didn’t listen carefully would’ve missed the woman naming her technique. The dangerous thing about weaponry techniques and taijutsu techniques was that some of them used no hand seals which made them difficult to see coming. One had to be looking for signs on one’s body or one’s mouth, pronouncing the name of one’s technique to alert their own body, to sort of use it as a mantra to get one’s body into a mode fitting to perform the technique.

Hisako’s figure leaped forward, almost twice as slow as she was before, incomparably slower than the flashing dark blur she was when fighting Cony. However this decrease in speed was not due to her exhaustion or numerous injuries, it was instead because of the technique she used. She was purposefully moving slower, she wanted her blade thrust to be blocked, it was how Dance of the Night worked. A single block would cause Hisako to quickly boost her speed, forcing the opponent to block again and again, causing them to be locked into an eternal circle of blocking until they tire or open up for her finishing strike.

The boy blocked the first strike from right, he was as dumb as the Yoruma perceived him to be, or perhaps more arrogant, those two often treaded side by side. Using her second blade Hisako swung from the left, blocked again, then another swing from the right which was blocked also. The boy was at least smart enough not to use his dangerous defensive air wall technique – he realized that Hisako saw it. She saw through the technique, she knew that techniques that focused on less concentrated strikes and much more on continuous combinations of strikes had chance to outlasting the technique and also leaving the enemy without a chance to counter the first block.

Hisako’s lean and strong frame jumped slightly up in the air, letting her blades and arms extend and spin. She acted like a masterful dancer, her strikes were so precise and while she gave the boy a lot of openings she was picking speed up. That was the nature of her Dance of the Night – while the technique was incredibly slow to begin with it picked up speed at dangerous pace, within moments it made the speed even greater than the maximum speed of the user was before. A skilled Yoruma could contend with even the highest ranked opponents. Even a sword-wielding Sannin could’ve found the technique troublesome to keep up with. Still, it came at the price of reduced speed early on, as well as taxing the user’s chakra and body continuously even during its early stages.

The spinning attack was also attempted to be blocked but Hisako’s accumulated strength was too great, each attack that was blocked, avoided or otherwise did not hit its mark only boosted her speed creating an endless offensive loop. The puny and thin sword of the boy bounced off hitting him in the face, if it hit him with its blade and not the blunt part it’d have cut into the bone, quite likely, now it only drew some blood from the areas that were cut by his own blade. Within seconds, no, fractions of seconds Yellow’s face was covered with blood. Hisako’s momentum could no longer be stopped by an easy block. She was becoming a problem.

The Yoruma swung from the left, Yellow leaned back, his defenses opened up. Hisako could’ve finished it right there, just thrust her sword lower and stab him in the chest. Still, she wanted to finish the dance, if she attacked him right now she risked leaving him alive, she didn’t want that, she’d finish the dance, she’d let it go until her momentum can sever the boy in half, then she’d cut at his limb and chop him down with an annoying weed.

Double slash from the right beat the sword out of the boy’s hand, using both of her swords and both of her arms doubled the increased momentum crumbling the boy’s blade. Yellow pulled a short shoto blade from behind and tried to use it to defend himself. Hisako leaped into the air, spinning both her arms and legs, functioning almost like a horizontal propeller. There it was, the air pillow again – while Yellow avoided possible decapitation and evisceration he still used out his ace defensive technique, his shoto was too slow and short to properly counter Hisako and the woman had gained far too much speed. It’d all end there.

Another double slash slamming the boy’s shoto out of his arms and making him scream in pain from the shock of the impact. It caused small shockwaves to emanate and bust smaller wooden debris into dust further away – it must’ve busted several bones which was the source of the boy’s violent reaction. Hisako spun again, Yellow ducked and moved in behind her but he didn’t have time to properly counter. Even if he did, what could he have possibly done being stuck in this endless loop of death? While he was still winding up his punch Hisako’s speed which had gathered to degrees no longer comprehensible to the boy helped her already leap onto her arms tossing the sword up and catching them by their handles using her thighs and shins. Using her arms to spin her upside body around Hisako made a powerful tornado of death. Yellow squealed like a pig being thrown backwards and falling down covered with wounds. Blood started accumulating on the floor forming a small pool.

Hisako breathed out and kicked her own swords up, flipping back on her feet and catching them. She took a small breather to catch her breath and approached the boy, ready to finish it by thrusting her blade through his heart. Just one effortless motion and all this bullshit, all of this suffering of having to put up with those two other bitches would be over. Hisako raised her blade and thrust it right at the boy’s chest. It’d all end here, this useless mission, her having to put up with Mana and Hisako, everything! Technically it’d be considered as a failed mission because their only objective is to bring the boy back alive, still, Hisako was never the one to care much about objectives.

The woman’s arm froze for a moment. Seeing the boy frozen in place, beaten and awaiting for her finishing blow to end it all reminded her so much about her first mission. It was common among the Yoruma to invite youngsters like Hisako had once been, right after Academy, to accompany an older and more experienced assassin into their assassination mission. It wasn’t that the kid did much, mostly the dirty assistant work, sometimes the older assassin sacrificed their little assistants if they got caught and booked it themselves leaving the youngster for a painful session of torture, humiliation and death.

The man that Hisako accompanied was this really big and important assassin. He was old, maybe closing in on a hundred years yet his lack of facial hair or any hair in general combined with his strangely small amount of wrinkles made him look twice as young. The man had trouble walking which made Hisako wonder just how could he assassinate someone. His cane had a hidden blade inside and he used a lot of strange knife sealing and unsealing techniques to compliment it but that was for fighting scenarios. Assassinations required one to be lightning fast, agile and incredibly fast on their feet.

And so the man did the usual Yoruma thing, he activated a seal in the middle of a town square unsealing bunch of hidden blade dispensers firing knives straight at the target, enough to kill him multiple times over. The target died before realizing what had happened however just as Hisako suspected he sacrificed her to grant him escape, pointing at her and informing the guards that she was the assassin and just carelessly walking away. Why would the assassins not buy it? She had hair of such dark hue of black that it was weird enough to be that of a Yoruma, Yoruma were known for their exotic and extreme shades of hair colors. Her face tattoos and multiple scars over her body also testified it, who cared about something a Yoruma said or did, right? Who cared if the girl pleaded and swore her innocence? She was just a Yoruma, just a child born in a filthy clan of murderers and assassins who had no human feelings, what could she have ever felt? Yoruma had no right to feel fear or pain, just kill or get killed themselves, being bad mouthed by their living clansmates as being “useless”.

Hisako killed them all, each and every guard, the more they badmouthed her, the less they thought her to be a human being with emotions and feelings, feeling betrayed and afraid of her own life. The less they treated her a human, the less human she was. With each offensive word her hatred increased, with each drop of hatred her strength flared up even hotter. That was a trait very common to Hisako, she felt like a person, she felt pain, regret, wanted to love and hate like normal people but the less she was treated as such, the more she rebelled. If someone called her a “monster”, “Yoruma filth” or similar, they only saw that same side of Hisako. People expected her to be a monster, someone beyond the range of human emotions and so she acted like that. Entire life just stretched to fill the human expectations of her. Sacrifice of her own humanity, trying to please everyone around her, trying to fit the grave dug for her and failing. The more monstrous she became, the more other people treated her as monster. An endless cycle of losing her own humanity.

Hisako’s blade was thrown out of her arm by a small projectile accelerating and hitting right at the place between the blade and her arm. So close to her arm that it left a small annoying cut on her hand that held the sword and was exposed to the assailant. Hisako quickly leaped back picking the sword up on her way and turned at the source of light that came from a corridor. Just outside that corridor and having just entered the basement floor stood a girl.

A relatively short girl, even if Hisako was short herself, a slim one. The girl’s hair was black, not as black as Hisako’s but much messier, maybe she was running for a while before she got here? Her clothes were torn up, she once must’ve worn a white shirt of which now only strips remained, she had some strange mechanisms around her arms and several on her chest, they were connected to other pockets, other mechanisms, it looked like some early stage of an exoskeleton suit designed to help a person to walk but it was filled with small switches and boxes. The boxes had small traces of projectiles being placed inside them, the projectiles looked like
 Cards. Hisako’s glance turned at the card that got etched into the ground after cutting her hand and making her drop her sword. The girl who looked almost like a magician, wearing a top hat which strangely enough avoided any damage that ruined her attire and left her body covered with bleeding wounds and bruises was just standing there, angrily staring at Hisako with pouted lips.

Mana finally got to the lowest floor and faced Hisako, stopping her from killing the boy


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 :)

Fourteen and a half years ago:

A lonely man was sitting on the armchair. His place reeked of cheap alcohol, there were several clay flasks of emptied sake all over the floor. A mass of unfinished lunch that reminded more now of slime than it did of waffles which it began its existence as lay dormant on the table, just couple of hours short before life would flourish on its surface making it dangerous to eat. It wasn’t that the man cared that much of safety hazards of the edible food variety. In his line of work tainted waffles were the least likely thing to kill him.

The man flipped the flask of sake tied down to his arm, it was comfortable to drink it that way for drunks. One didn’t have to constantly hold it in their arm, one flip of the flask, just a gentle movement of arm and the disgusting flammable devil’s elixir poured all over one’s mouth. Filling one with that feeling of disgust and regret but at the same time relief, satisfying one’s desire for self-destruction, making their self-pity somehow feel better. As if the drunkard screamed to the world: “I’m miserable, so what, you may hate me but I hate myself even more, so fuck off”.

Even with the more comfortable drinking mechanism on the man’s arm, his arm twisted in a way that let the booze spill on the floor as he forgot to close the flask before lowering his hands. The man cursed but ultimately felt too drunk and lazy to fix it. His apartment already looked like a shithole so what’s a little sake on the floor? If anything the liquor will serve as a decontaminant for all those bacteria and insects on the rarely cleaned floor and carpet. That furry thing was there before Nakotsumi Tsukumo could remember, belonged to his father, or maybe even his grandfather.

The man decided to pour his next drink, he spilled the contents of the flask on the floor, clearly he was too drunk for that kind of drinking to continue so perhaps a change in habit could somehow slightly give him some sharpness of thought back. He hoped desperately that this night would be nothing like the nights of the last eight weeks, nights when he drank himself until passing out, waking up covered in his own vomit, cleaning himself up and going to work. People looked at Tsukumo and hated him for being a drunkard slob, they called him a mess. They were afraid of him and pointed fingers. They didn’t hate the man half as badly as he hated himself. He drank because he wanted to kill himself but lacked the guts to cut his own throat. Sometimes he got so drunk that the guts toughened, the man tried to kill himself in one of his traps, “Konoha’s Great Trapster” they started calling him after Tsukumo became one of the more notable genin and approached the day he’d be called a chuunin even.

Yet every time the man tried, every time he failed – a drunk mind just couldn’t properly set the darned thing up and Tsukumo always passed out. They called him a mess, how does one not become a mess after being involved in a literal genocide? Following and gathering intelligence on a band of people tied together by bonds of family – “Wandering Ninja” they called themselves. It was Tsukumo’s information that helped their entire tribe to be killed, just snuffed out, stabbed and slit their throats in a coordinated fashion one rainy night. All of them but one woman, Hokage was merciful enough to spare her seeing how Tsukumo got involved with her. The worst part that it wasn’t even Tsukumo’s word that saved her, it was Hokage’s own skills of observation.

“Tsukumo” he said, “I’ve heard you’ve been hanging out with this Kei of the Wandering Ninja”. At that point the genin was ready to admit he was involved and slept with her numerous times, he was ready to let go of her, he was that sad and pathetic. Admit it all and let her die with the rest of her people, “Don’t worry, Hokage-sama, it won’t be a bother” was the best that fuckwad which was Tsukumo could come up with. Hokage allowed her to be spared, he said that even the Daimyo was fine with one woman surviving, after all – one woman was not enough to keep the purest form of bloodline alive. Even if those muts could be considered a clan before, with all of their mixed blood, they certainly won’t be now, not for real.

A loud bang woke Tsukumo up, it must’ve been early morning. The man wouldn’t have woken up if it wasn’t, booze tends to knock him out good. The genin looked at the pieces of his glass and the damaged wall, he must’ve flung the damned thing pretty hard, he was proper pissed last night
 Slowly dragging his feet and feeling worse than a dog having swallowed a bucket of banana slugs and a toad on top he staggered to the door, Tsukumo’s head was spinning, he felt like he was going to literally pour out his stomach and innards on the floor if he as much as thought about it or opened his mouth. It’s alright, he deserved to suffer, he deserved death for what he was responsible for


Tsukumo opened the door. There she was
 Short, dark purplish shade of long hair reaching the lower parts of her back. Kei of the Wandering Ninja. Tsukumo tried to slam the door but her hand got in the way. The man pulled it tougher, slamming the door on her hand and pressing hard, the woman grunted and barely restrained her scream of pain but she held it there, the bleeding hand was shaking but the woman left it there – she was desperate to get in.

“Look if you want to kill me for what I’ve done – be my guest
 I’ve been trying to but I’m too much of a dirtbag to throw myself off of a cliff. Fucking excuse me for not having the guts to off my stupid face.” Tsukumo spoke, he was right, just as he opened his mouth and opened the door he threw up close to the woman’s slippers. She stepped back letting his torrent of vomit just barely slip from hitting her wet and transparent white shirt. Kei locked her hands on her chest and helped Tsukumo get back on his feet.

“I can’t kill you, I wanted to, I mean
 But you saved my life, similarly to how you can’t end yourself I cannot kill a man who loved me so much that he saved my life from
 That
” Kei spoke softly. Her hand moved onto her stomach. “Also, I can’t kill you until you help raise my baby
”

Tsukumo’s eyes widened, he jumped back on his feet and looked at the vomit, trying to swallow the following up reflex to throw his poison up again. “Scuse me, what?” he asked looking at the woman who gently took him by his elbow and dragged him inside his own home to hide both of them from the rain and closed the door.

“The child, two months
” Kei smiled looking at her belly with those most lovely eyes that Tsukumo got in love with.

“Fuck
 Two months? That was
 Fuck
” the man cursed stroking his lengthened hair and nearly clawing his own eyes out from dealing with the shock.

“This child was started on the worst night of my people, it’s either going to be someone great or someone genocidal, either way, it’s gonna mean something, I just know it” Kei looked at it before tears started bursting down her face. She turned away and crept up closer to the door, gently tapping her forehead to the tough wood and starting to cry for real.

Tsukumo cursed again and hugged the woman from behind, gently stroking the belly where his child was growing. “What’s wrong?” he asked, he didn’t feel nearly well enough to be dealing with the hormones of a pregnant woman but that was his life – responsibility and hatred. Hatred for himself for taking that responsibility up. He was warned about what that mission to gather intel on the Wandering Ninja would do to him. Still he went with it
 He wanted glory, he wanted a shortcut to the next rank and being someone who caused a genocide in the name of the village was that shortcut. This world awarded the worst scum there were and if that was the truth, Nakotsumi Tsukumo was the worst there was. Maybe even worse than those who actually carried the mass assassination out.

“I can’t, Tsukumo, can’t you see? What kind of an ignorant ass would bring her baby into this pathetic and sickening world?!” the woman cried out, her heart was still aching, she still hasn’t forgiven Tsukumo’s betrayal. After all the man got involved with her while working behind her back to gather intelligence on her people which was then used to slaughter them all out just because the Daimyo didn’t like them and the fact that they were people who loved freedom most of all things.

“You’re right, this place sucks, everything about it is disgusting and it may be for the better if that child would never be born to see it how it is. Imagine the hatred and grief in that child’s heart when they hear that they were started on the night that all of their people were slaughtered for refusing to be subjugated. Imagine its disappointment when it learns to not even belong to the tribe of their people, that anger for its own roots when it learns to be the child of their only survivor and the man who handed the dagger to their killers
 We’ve failed our child before it was born, we’ve failed to give them a world to live in, only this
 Just as we were failed by our parents and the list goes on
” Tsukumo rambled stopping a couple of times feeling like he was about to throw up again but barely managing to keep it in.

Kei turned back and hugged the man she loved, even with all that he did, she still loved him. “Then give me a senbon and I’ll end it. We’ll spare our child the suffering of being born, we’ll spare it of the realization of the failure of our ancestors and its own parents
” she cried out pitifully.

“We have no right” Tsukumo’s voice thundered it out, this wasn’t the voice of a drunk who was responsible for a mass murder, it was the brave and strong voice of a future father.

Kei’s shocked and surprised eyes looked her lover right in the eyes. She kissed him passionately and then shook her head in disbelief.

“I mean
 Our child will probably hate this place, they’ll probably be the cruelest and meanest bastard and let this world seep into their veins. I’m sure them being started on the day of a genocide isn’t a good sign but
 If our child will hate it or love it, it’s a fifty-fifty chance. If we decide for our child it will be a one hundred percent disappointment and death. It may be too young to know anything yet but it will still be failure. We’ll let this cruel world get to our child before it is even born, we’ll show them the twisted side of this world before they even understand what is happening. No. I’m going to accept this responsibility, I’ll answer for what I’ve done, I’ll raise this child and be the best father at the same time while I fix this somehow
 All I ask for is that you also give me the chance to be your husband. Look at this place, without you I’ll fail. Please give this a chance
 I’m not asking you to forgive me for what I’ve done, it’s unforgivable. I’m just asking for your help in fulfilling this responsibility.”

Kei hugged Tsukumo and kissed him again several times. Right after her sweet lips moved away from those of the genin he felt a powerful blow and saw a broomstick in her hands. “Look at this dump, clean yourself up, my future husband!” Kei laughed out through her tears handing the broom to Tsukumo who laughed out and picked it from her hands.

*****

Several Days Ago:

Kiyomi looked at the sleeping body of her teammate, her chest just barely lifted and deflated showing some signs of life. She must’ve been cold. The girl crawled up to her friend and covered her up with her own jacket. Kiyomi looked at the fire and moved in closer. She was fortunate that the Quack and Hisako saved the two, they’d have died if they didn’t butt in and heal them. That Quack had the craziest healing methods but at the very least because of him Mana and Kiyomi are currently alive. Despite having met him just a day ago the young Yamanaka already trusted him more than Hisako, not that it was a tough limit to beat


The young man looked at her and took a pill of some sort. He squinted his eyes and his skin got paler, for a moment it looked like he was dying as he started to choke and struggle to breathe and his blood vessels shot out but then just that moment later he started breathing again and his pulse got back to normal, only his pale skin still reminded the Yamanaka of this young man’s strange ritual. She looked at him with a questioning glare. While Hisako was out getting them food she may as well have gotten to know the guy.

“Sorry, lovely, not your damned business
 If you’re a junkie of some sort, you can’t have any, it’s mine and I don’t like to share” the young Quack replied, it wasn’t that his tone implied rudeness too, he appeared to feel more annoyed than anything else.

“Story for a story?” Kiyomi smiled. The Quack laughed out sarcastically as if mocking the blonde, he must’ve doubted that she had an interesting enough story to deserve his own.

The blonde looked down, she was acting out of line, this man was just a rogue. Even more he kept on treating her and everyone else like dirt, he didn’t even as much as look at Mana after stabilizing her condition, she may as well have died on his watch and until Hisako or Kiyomi ordered him to look at her he wouldn’t have cared one bit.

“It’s poison, I need it to kill something worse inside me, something that together with killing me is also healing me so that it can thrive and kill me longer, that’s the short version, lovely
” the Quack replied quickly, he moved up closer to Kiyomi tightening the belt of his coat. It really was a cold evening. The rogue medic reached for her cheek.

“What’s this?” he asked looking at it, “Looks black, bleeding black’s the color of “I’m fucked through the bunghole” he examined it.

Kiyomi pushed his hand away and wiped the dirt off of her cheek. “It’s just dirt you dum
” before she could finish her sentence the young rogue kissed her forcefully. Kiyomi’s fist dug deep into his jaw sending the man down and rolling a couple of meters back. She was ready to kill him before the man lifted his head and spat a couple of teeth out before giving her that innocent missing teeth smile.

“Now you’ve paid for that story, lovely
” the Quack laughed out. He then came back to where he was sitting, Kiyomi kept on squinting angrily at him preparing to punch him in the face when he as much as twitched his damned lips. A goddamned rogue! He may have felt bad about it and he may have been forced into his servitude and he may have had no choice, he may have wanted to justify his ways and legitimize his work becoming a medical ninja but he was way out of line. She was an heiress of one of the most elite clans in Konoha. She should’ve killed him where he sat!

“Although now that you mention it
 I mention it
 Whatever
 I guess I’d kind of like to hear your story. That punch felt like
 Yeah, that didn’t feel “stop kissing me, you creep!”, more like “you killed my daddy, prepare to die, criminal scum”. As sad as the story sounds, we’ve got plenty of time before the dark haired bitch comes back, may as well share stories while we’re at it.” The young man shrugged.

“Fine, but if I see as much as another movement I don’t like I’ll shove a handful of those poison pills down your throat, you may need them to survive but I can’t imagine you liking that much of them!” Kiyomi whipped back at him angrily.

“Aw, don’t be like that, lovely, you know how we criminal folk are, don’t have lot of time to live our lives so we get right to the point. No need to feel bad if you don’t like rogues, once I’ll legitimize and start treating you, maybe wear that fancy doctor uniform I’ll be all yours, I give you a 66% promise” the Quack winked at Kiyomi. The Yamanaka just wanted to punch him, beat him, maybe even kill him but
 He was a medical ninja, a rogue one but still she and Mana owed him their lives. He may have been a womanizing scumbag but he at least deserved several more chances Kiyomi gave most not to piss her off.

“Alright, since you wanted to hear it, listen up
” Kiyomi started her story, telling the Quack all about her early childhood. All about her mother and her days of tending to the gardens and being pampered like a little flower by the clan elders, being prepared for becoming the next heiress. She went on to tell the young man all about her brother, how strong and amazing he was, how he took it upon himself to fight every enemy of the clan, how he took the responsibility of training Kiyomi and helping her graduate and become an actual ninja. Everything about him. How he eventually became a Justicar, an international version of a Hunter Ninja who didn’t hunt for the profit and convenience of the village but instead to uphold the various international codes and laws of justice written before the villages were even built, some of them even by the First People, and how he died protecting his family after some criminals wanted to get at him.

Kiyomi did get a bit invested in her story, her eyes started watering and her body started shaking. She didn’t even notice Quack’s arm wrapping around her to calm her down. After finishing her story she took a couple of moments to realize it still. Kiyomi’s elbow slammed right into the young man’s face sending him down again. Whatever skills he had with medical ninjutsu seemed to heal his facial fractures and injuries quite fast, maybe it was the same skill that helped him overcome his poison? Either way, once again he stepped over the line. The blonde stood up and walked towards Mana intending to check up on her. “Stop this nonsense before you get hurt. I’m an heiress of the Yamanaka clan and one day I’ll marry someone of high status as well
 I’ve no right nor the desire to even look at a rogue medic like you, be it play or actual shot at me
”

“Heh, never say “fuck off, criminal scum” before you see me in a medical ninja uniform, lovely
” Quack writhed out through the pain of fixing his broken nose.

Kiyomi didn’t want to admit that she cracked a grin and just barely restrained her giggles.