Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

I'm Gonna Be Hokage! Shimo's Decision!

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 historical 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 in 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, especially 'round these 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!? Is that bag 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 a 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.