Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

A Descent And A Slump

"Is this really the only way to get to the Allied Ninja HQ?" a grumpy drunkard waved a half-empty bottle around over his head, splashing entire mouthfuls of the spicy and bitter to taste liquid found inside.

"Why am I not surprised that you'd consider Grass Country a good place to take transportation in?" a masked ninja with a full-body bodysuit shook his head while sighing at the troublesome journey alongside a handful of construction workers and engineers that Sunagakure spared for the Allied Ninja. "Lush bamboo forests, ravines, and swampland–and not a second's warning before the ground under your feet changes between those and only those potential options?"

"Ah, shut up ye homeless tool!" the wild-haired worker swung his large fisticuffs around thin air.

"You literally asked. Did he not literally ask?" the ninja looked around at his comrades for comfort. "Sheesh..."

"These workers are important to the Allied Ninja. More important than any missions we've been on lately." A tall and bulky ninja in a baggy, red cloak and clockwork-design mechanical gauntlets addressed his talkative comrade with a stern glance. "Just keep telling yourself that and don't start any trouble. We've got plenty of journey ahead of us before we reach Snow Country."

"We're going to Snow Country?" a thick and rich in the flesh, shirtless construction worker with a single braid resting over the top of his otherwise bald head wondered. "Isn't that really impractical? From the Grass Country, we could walk around the mountain range and the tundra from the west if we only head north."

"It's our job to get you to the Allied Ninja safely, sir. If I were you, I'd focus on your specialty and how you're going to help us rebuild the HQ and fulfill your contractual obligations." The stern ninja who, despite his tall stature, still stood an entire head beneath the round-belly worker said.

"Just calm down and don't antagonize the VIPs, Moku..." a female ninja in a white dress and red, elbow-reaching gloves smiled while giving her masked teammate a cute twinkle of her pearly teeth.

"How am I antagonizing them?" the masked ninja grabbed his head in frustration before turning to the half-wasted worker. "Do you feel particularly antagonized by me answering the thing you literally asked for us to answer?"

"Fuck you, you don't pay any taxes... You useless suckling!" The worker dragged his bandaged forearm over his moist with industrial alcohol mouth.

"Why would we pay taxes to Sunagakure?" Moku, the masked ninja, scratched his head. "We don't even operate anywhere near that place, our base is literally on the other side of the planet..."

"Moku... Antagonizing..." a frail ninja with a petite build, ground-reaching coal-black hair, and pale skin turned his froggy eyes to his friend and ally.

"What is that sound?" the tall, cloak-donning ninja looked around the endless grassland hills, trying to determine the source of electrical hum in the air that was becoming more intense and more thunderous by the second.

"Hey, look at Vaxel-chan..." Moku pointed at his teammate who had her black hair crawling up as if caught in a field of static electricity.

"G-Guys..." Vaxel, the kunoichi of the Allied Ninja accompanying the workers, looked around. "Do any of you feel funny? My belly's feeling all... Itchy and weird..."

A blinding flash of an amethyst pillar slammed from high above like a beam drilling into and through the grassland hills of Kusagakure. The intense beam drilled on and on into the ground, resonating with intense force as its energy beacon flattened the entire surface of the area without harming a single blade of grass. The edge of the town-sized pillar of energy drilled close enough to a kunoichi of the Allied Ninja in an indigo gi and a black bodysuit underneath to ruffle her baggy clothes and incinerate parts of them that touched the beam.