Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Lost and Broken

"The bastard chipped my swords. Did he know how ancient these are?" Endo grumbled while examining the cracked hilt of the Sword of the Thunder God and the Sword of Thorns. The latter was a bit more useful when damaged since it was more of a baton that produced iron spikes in whatever it touched and Endo had already found it as a chipped piece of a throne of an ancient civilization in the Earth Country.

"Did anyone see Mana?" Damisan raised his head and peeked through his wet locks, only to scan the wet dump they've crawled off to.

Further and out in the clearing, Shige-H was patching Asuka up with the Mystical Palm jutsu. The vibrant emerald shine from the gleaming medical technique failed to brighten up the lousy day since the Stars ended up witnessing one of the rarer moments when the rain ceased in Amegakure and the sky had a chance to slip its nose through the clouds.

A handful of ninja in baggy clothing descended around the beaten squad of Allied Ninja pushed into the lower, flooded sections of the village and busy licking their wounds. The three that stepped out from the murky crowd of full-bodysuit ninja in gas masks looked the most casual, though the fact the village allowed them some semblance of identity and their advanced age relayed them to be more than your average batch of ninja.

"We'd like you lot to come with us for questioning," a stout man of a thick body build and a scarred and lightly wrinkled face said. He took the time to examine each of the Allied Ninja visually and saw no signs of an immediate threat to either of their lives, which allowed the Amegakure ninja to question them.

"Up yours, asshole," Endo stood up, pocketing the Sword of the Thunder God and sheathing the Sword of Thorns to pull out and connect two separate katana by their hilts into a double-bladed katana sword-staff. The swordsman sliced the flooded floor in front of him, spraying water spatter in front of him while scowling at the arriving Amegakure ninja.

"Endo!" Shige-H scolded her ally while nudging her head to the side to get a strand of hair out of the way. A female ninja with sand-colored hair and a black kimono over a mossy turtleneck approached the Allied kunoichi and kneeled by Asuka's side, gently placing her hands over the injured kunoichi and nodding to Shige-H as a signal that she was okay to take over the treatment of the young woman. Having reached a mutual understanding, Shige-H backed off and handed the baton over to the Amegakure medical kunoichi.

"We're Allied Ninja," Shige-H explained to the Amegakure higher-ups and tapped at the plate of a forehead protector that loosely hung as a sash over her neck. "We pose no threat to your village. We were passing through to the Wind Country and an unknown enemy force attacked us."

"I understand," the stern Amegakure ninja nodded. "But I'd still like it if you came with us for questioning. Even if Amegakure does not have a signed cooperation treaty with the Allied Ninja, we do not see you as a hostile force right now. If you elude our efforts at questioning you, however..."

"Have any of you seen Mana?" Damisan stood up and approached the group, standing side by side with his leader and giving the Amegakure ninja ample personal space so that they didn't see his question as an attack of some sort. "She's a relatively well-known stage personality, and she dresses in a way that makes her tough to miss."

"Nakotsumi Mana, Konoha's Sorceress?" an androgynous-looking man with a chain-mail shirt and an untied, loosely hanging kimono stretched to the flooded surface of the Amegakure floor tightened his look. "She's relatively known around these parts. Amegakure used to organize trips to Konohagakure to see her shows, so even civilians have seen her face on the posters. We'd have noticed someone like that."

"Isn't it ironic that, yet again, the person we lose is our sensor? The only person capable of finding other people we may lose..." Endo cursed, splitting his swords and sheathing them again now that he saw that a battle won't be taking place. With the biggest hothead amongst the Allied Ninja standing down, the rest of the gas-mask squad seemed to relax as well.