Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

The Next Stage

"An Advanced Bloodline? I've been trying to pull it off for a while now but I've not gone one step further than where I've started at. It might just be that I'm not talented enough for it," Mana replied to Shige's seemingly preposterous proposition. "I've even asked around of other ninja with Advanced Bloodlines and it hasn't really cleared up for me."

"Nonsense!" Shige-H flexed her arm with a cheerful expression. "How many Nature Releases have you picked up on by now?"

"Three..." Mana scratched the back of her elbow, looking away. While she knew that having control over three entire elements in ninjutsu was not a common trait amongst ninja, where many struggled to master one and the more experienced ninja settled on two, somehow this only made her feel worse about it. Almost as if nature dealt a much better hand to her than most and still failed to even begin touching up on her Advanced Bloodline ability.

"And, if memory serves, your Elemental Affinity is Fire Release, right? And yet it was the last Nature Release you've picked up on... That means that you've learned two whole Nature Releases other than the ones you had an affinity for before you've tapped into the right one." Shige-H pointed out. "That's basically unheard of amongst ninja."

"Yeah, I've had a lot of trouble picking up ninjutsu. I've been pretty average in the Academy and even after I've graduated it took me a long time for my ninjutsu to be anything but flash and smoke," Mana shrugged, still failing to find Shige's eyes. "Others seemed to pick up on a handful of ninjutsu techniques, even a few of their Elemental Affinity right out of the gate whereas I've been hanging my head against the wall up until the last days in the Academy."

"But you broke through that wall! Not only did you tear that wall down, but you also did it in style. You've picked up on two whole elements and you didn't let a ridiculous rule like your distaste for jutsu other people created get in the way!" Shige-H raised her hands over her head. This must have been the first time that she has worked so hard to convince someone to let her teach them something as incredible as an Advanced Bloodline.

"Sure, I've had over a dozen jutsu thought up after the Academy, but it took all the way until the finals of the Chuunin Exams for me to polish them. They were just a child's first, smoked pancake in the pan. I couldn't stop myself from nearly getting killed or even worse–getting someone else killed." Mana shrugged it off. She looked down and to the right, tracking an invisible dotted line up to the murky skies as she wondered why she was resisting this much against something she wanted so hard.

Maybe it was just that this is the closest she's ever gotten to professional help in the subject. If this fails–that would seal the deal. That would mean that Mana was officially useless in this department and that an Advanced Bloodline simply wasn't in the cards for her. It wasn't like her genetics were entirely a dead-end. She was, after all, a sensor ninja. Several Nature Releases available to ninja were also part of their genetics as well, at least half as much as talent and hard work was. And yet... An Advanced Bloodline was a gold nugget of a whole other category to those things.

"It doesn't matter, you were barely ten when you worked on those jutsu, of course, they'd be a bit lacking by your current standards! My points still stand, Mana, like it or not–you're crazy talented and you're a hard worker too! The sky's the limit in where you can get. Just because you're not a part of some amazing clan doesn't mean you can't be amazing in your own right. Everyone's born a little amazing in some way. Being born plain is about as unlikely as being born a once-in-a-generation genius. Don't lose faith in yourself and your abilities." Shige reached out to Mana.

"When I've spoken to Mollay-san, he taught me a thing or two on where to start with Advanced Bloodlines. He told me that in order to even begin training an Advanced Bloodline, one must master the composing elements to where using them is like waving your hand. I've been honing my elemental ninjutsu during training but... It just doesn't feel like I'm much further than I've been six months ago." Mana pouted, shutting in on herself.