Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Survive!

Kouta wiped the sweat from his face. Judging from his calm and satisfied expression and a relieving sigh he managed to stabilize Shimo's condition. Mana had hoped that the Yuki would just pop back on his feet the moment he was healed but that didn't appear to be the case. The swordsman remained downed however his face changed acquiring certain tranquility and peace as if the young man was just catching up on his iffy sleeping schedule.

The magician thought to herself that if Kouta didn't immediately switch the healing targets he must've spent a lot of effort to heal Shimo. Mana looked at Meiko who had loads of bleeding injuries, swollen beatings and bruises. She may have given those pirates one hell of a fight but she came out of it on the pyrrhic side. Whatever small victories the blacksmith had earned couldn't have been worth the beating she took. The redhead needed attention but not as urgently as Shimo needed it.

Kouta realized Mana was staring at her friend and rolled back on his butt beginning to patch Meiko up, instead of using medical ninjutsu the young medical ninja used bandages, compresses, and patches soaked with herbal ailments. That told all that Mana needed to know about how badly Shimo was hurt, Kouta may have improved during this trip by leaps and bounds compared to the shy boy who could barely treat a cut in an acceptable timeframe but he was still no miracle worker. No. He actually was, it was just that Mana's definition of a miracle may have been stretched out to the limits.

"I'll get to you soon, Mana... Just hold on... Do those injuries hurt?" He huffed out.

Mana looked at Shimo, the knocked out lifelong friend of hers with that horrendous X shaped scar on his chest stretching out from his shoulders to the hips. Kouta must've not even bothered with the aesthetic aspects, a medical ninja could've patched scars up to where they were barely even seen by an untrained eye but it was an unnecessary hassle in the middle of a battlefield. The young man must've prioritized the internal injuries, the lacerations on Shimo's organs and the big blood vessels. Containing the bleeding must've been a handful all by itself.

The magician's sight wandered to Meiko who looked like an angered war orphan who just barely made out in time from a city siege. Her face was halfway bandaged, bits and pieces of her armor and her tracksuit cut, torn to pieces and mixed with mud and bashed. The redhead looked like a mess who was torn out of an actual war. Then again, looking at the ruined beach and the broken into jungle scenery it looked like the blacksmith had brought some of the war to the pirates as well.

Finally, Mana's sight met Kouta's tired and hazy eyes. The girl realized the severity of the situation – Shimo alone drained his chakra pool more than the boy had dared to admit and there was no way that the two of them would get treated properly. That meant the worst outcome – Shimo won't be able to rejoin the battle because of his still incapacitated state, Kouta was too worn by his duties as a medical ninja to fulfill those of a capable fighter and Meiko was just barely sewn and patched together to keep her from dying. A rough bump could've reopened all of those wounds. The team was done with the battling or at least so it seemed...

Mana picked herself up on her feet and extended her hand to Shimo. "Give me a needle and some of your medical string, a couple of bandages and patches..." She asked him firmly, she tried to sound strong but the pain must've made it evident that Mana was both afraid and in pain.

"You can't be thinking of fighting?" Kouta just barely breathed out, judging from his voice he had just run around the world a couple of times.

"I'm thinking of doing what we came here to do – I'm going to use the Box. Hachiro-san needs our help, he won't win alone." Mana concluded giving the fighting Uchiha a small glance to reassure her statement to herself before she made any rash decisions.

"You know..." Kouta said quietly as he removed the requested items from his bag and handed them one by one to Mana who just gulped imagining the process of quick self-patching that was still ahead. "I think there may have been a reason why Hachiro-san asked me to heal you first. I don't think he intended the rest of us to make it. He probably doesn't intend himself to make it..." Kouta uttered much to Mana's surprise.