Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

The Third One

"So for how long are we going to wait?" Kiyomi pouted looking back at Mana who was patiently standing near the guard stand with her hands locked on her chest, staring at the village as if she still had hope that the third one would show up. After being asked the question the magician just sighed. 

"Don't know, you're the one with more experience, you take charge" she submitted all of the responsibility on Kiyomi's shoulders.

"Point taken, if I can choose between a ninja from our village and some mercenaries I'll choose a homie anytime. Don't really like those brutes anyway..." Kiyomi grunted out. The blonde didn't seem to be a very patient one but she appeared to at the very least be able to get over herself and wait if she needed to. Stepping over one's own character was a really good feature which the magician greatly liked in anyone she met. This Kiyomi girl just may have been a pleasant person to work with...

"You've had some bad experience with mercenaries?" Mana asked. She recalled her own experience dealing with the mercenaries that Hanada Katsuo hired to watch over his family. Based on that experience alone those guys weren't really trustworthy, yet that one guy who still worked for Katsuo seemed really happy to have moved past his mercenary days and settling down.

"Oh, come on, you don't have to have bad days with them to know they're trouble. Think about it, some ex-ninja and just all around brawlers, criminals, and killers selling their services, wandering in bands and settling down in camps all over the world. Anyone who defies a village and isn't loyal to something, willing to sell themselves over a coin is a scumbag." Kiyomi laughed out sarcastically, she really used a lot of irony and disgust in her voice.

This special dislike for people who didn't obey a village and didn't devote themselves to an ideal sort of hurt Mana. The magician wanted to talk to Kiyomi about clans but then she realized that her own origins hailing from the Wandering Ninja would've come up. Wandering Ninja must've been just as shameful and hate-worthy to Kiyomi as mercenaries. Mana pouted and tightened her hand lock trying to close that part of herself from her temporary partner. Suddenly the magician stood straight and started moving out through the gate.

Kiyomi jumped up and started running after Mana. "Hey, wait up, what got into you!?" the blonde yelled out. The young magician really hoped that Kiyomi didn't read minds casually, that would've been an invasion of privacy but that wasn't the worst part, Mana just wanted to keep her origins secret from a person who was a patriot and devoted to their village without question. That wasn't an unusual trait, Kiyomi deserved no hatred or dislike for it. 

A lot of ninja were just like that. Mana just sighed realizing that once again she was the black sheep, she would've always chosen her own ideals and freedom over the orders from a village, she'd have been willing to die for her ideals or lose her title as a ninja. She wasn't that much different from the mercenaries, she just didn't sell her ideals out, the ideals themselves were the coins for the girl.

"Did I say something?" Kiyomi ran up to Mana looking at the girl curiously, this at the very least revealed that Kiyomi didn't just probe people's minds just because she could. That just made the younger kunoichi appreciate her superior a little bit more.

"No. I got sick of waiting, let's move." Mana cut the dialogue down, she was really hurt and shut inside, maybe most because she admired Kiyomi and wanted Kiyomi's approval and this revelation that Kiyomi was one of those loyalists of letter of law and absolute loyalty to the village made Mana feel like in the eyes of her superior which she wanted to befriend she'd have looked just like those mercenaries – just a scumbag.

"Okay, the road is long, are you gonna talk to me, or not? How about you? Have you had any experience with mercenaries?" Kiyomi asked with that same tone of curiosity in her voice. The blonde must've already picked up on something bugging Mana, she also appeared to have related that to something that she must've said and it was evident that Kiyomi tried to somehow find out about what exactly rubber her partner the wrong way without probing her mind.