Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Taskforce, Assemble!

With a stagger, Mana haunted the few steps between the closet and the sink in the bathroom chamber. Ignoring the crimson water in the first, Mana belched a mixture of blood and bile and wiped her mouth, staring at the mirror. She had abandoned the fool's quest of covering up all of her bruises with plasters. A row of bandages covered up her neck and it seemed like her entire body wore a layer of bandages as well underneath her uniform.

It felt at times as if they were a frame that kept her gelatinous body in shape. Stretching her aching limbs, Mana left the bathroom and stretched her arm and shoulder before the Stars that looked ready to leave on their mission.

"Are you sure you're good to go, Mana? I know you told us your training is complete but... You don't look too good." Damisan pulled the collar of the ragged cloak that covered his scarred body and prosthetic limbs.

"Speak for yourself. You're in far worse condition than I am." Mana replied. Even though it shut Damisan down rather effectively and a tad too cruelly than Mana would have liked, she scored a cackle from Endo's direction.

"I've done as much as I could do yesterday. I'll patch you up some more when we have some more time. Right now, we need to leave this version of Konoha." Shige-H nodded, acknowledging Mana's condition.

"We need to do it quietly too. The Hokage thinks that we're using the bridge to promote Mana's tour. If someone from the administration sees her in this condition, our previous excuses won't do." Skaven noted.

"Humph... How can anyone confuse Mana for anything else, her face is all over the buildings, the fences, and gates. Who could have known that being a superstar and a ninja would be a hassle and drag us down?" Endo sighed with irony in his tone.

"What else is new?" Mana said before weaving a hand seal and using the Transformation Jutsu to disguise her appearance. This simple technique should do for concealing her true state from the public, though if she ever had to use chakra for any other purpose and would disturb her concentration on keeping the jutsu active–she'd blow her cover.

The Stars hurried off the same hallways that they've roamed for the past four days. The leather-bodysuit-clad representatives from the Yamanaka informed the Stars recently that their job was done and that the right universe in the right timeline had been located already. A meek man in a lab coat roamed the chamber in the mountain where the elevator with a windmill shuriken-shaped ring stood. He had configured everything already by the time that the Stars got there.

"I take it you have found the right universe?" Shige-H inquired of the man.

"Yes, ma'am!" the man bowed. "Your contacts in Universe No. 2016 were a bit off the mark, though. It only took the locals a few years to invent a handheld version of the bridge technology."

"It must have helped that the people who had originally built it wore it as a decoration of their armor. It had been half-built by the time Shikamaru-san and the Advanced Technology Research Institute got to work." Mana noted. The magician approached the scientist and pressed her hand against his forehead, feeling up for potential influences left in the man's mind by Kiyomi or her men. Mana's eyes opened up in surprise as her focus on the man's mind made her lose focus on keeping up her transformation and her battered appearance returned.

"The Yamanaka... I don't sense any of their influence on you." Mana looked the scientist in the eyes.

"That's because they did not have to employ their methods of convincing me. There was no need. The roots of your work had entangled around my heart and seeded into it, Mana-san." The scientist bowed before Mana. "I was glad to help. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor with the Allied Ninja."