Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Gentlemen of Luck

Konoha was just about reaching the point where it was at its peak of activity. That was mainly why Mana tried avoiding the big streets in her rush for the village gate. Too many people would've recognized her if she ever appeared in the main central districts, an entertainer appearing on the entertainment districts where people went to relax would've made the magician never leave that place unscathed. Sure she could just deny all requests and questions but she was way too nice for that. Mana knew that if someone asked her something or to do something she'd most likely do it, it was just the kind of person she was.

A couple of weeks after Mana brought all the things Shikamaru gave her to bring home from another universe the intelligence division of the village devised a new device. Similar in many ways to the clumsy and large devices used to take pictures but much smaller, dozens of times lighter and naturally some tech shop obtained the license to sell it for commercial use. People recently were almost demanding Mana to take pictures with them which, while entertaining to see and do, would've taken too much time.

The magician stopped suddenly and moved into an alleyway between two living blocks, closing her eyes and focusing. Maybe if she could just filter out all this noise, all those talking people... She was fast enough to have stopped and moved faster than they could track, something she was painfully familiar with, having her current troubles in mind. There was no one close enough to disturb her but a part of the trouble of being a ninja was the higher degree of perception.

Finally, Mana achieved total clarity, after a slightly longer than usual pause the magician managed to successfully convince herself that the noise of the active and pulsing with life village was just as usual as the silence and comfort of her own room. The magician couldn't sense anything, she wasn't sure what exactly she was looking for. Maybe Kiyomi would've spoken up to someone, maybe she had a particular Yamanaka garden smell to her? A smell of those strange autumnal blooming flowers. Nothing.

Mana dashed off once again disappearing from the eyes of the villagers. Avoiding bumping into anyone took the most of her concentration at that speed. It was like speeding through a forest at dozens of thousands of kilometers per hour with trees and rocks coming in from every side but Mana was nimble and graceful, also desperate and in a hurry. Had it not been for Kouta's training in evasion and Meiko's training in perception she'd have never been able to successfully cover most of the village in such a short amount of time.

Mana stopped right by the gate to see if she was stopped, moving at her breakneck speed would've been a detriment to her goals. After all the guard ninja were of higher rank than she was which meant they were most likely stronger, faster and could perceive and react to much faster things than Mana. They'd have stopped her and she'd have been in too much trouble to even bother speeding out the gate for. In the middle of the day, people weren't stopped from leaving the village. Maybe that was why there were so many nukenin wandering the outside walls? The village hardly tried keeping ninja in, what worried Konoha the most was keeping those they feared of out.

In a casual and slow step, Mana left the gate and looked around. She remembered being told that Kiyomi headed the Ceylon road to the east. It was troublesome having only one exit from the village, only one gate. The magician sighed and began heading forward right up until the cross. Mana rushed it, her pace was unsteady and her breath was chasing but her newly reacquired ninja stamina held it. She could've fought at her peak for hours before running out of breath...

Mana stopped by the cross sign examining the signs directing at the different roads: Rooibos, Roiyaru, Ceylon, Pu-her, Oolong, and others. Just as the magician decided to take the Ceylon road her foot stopped – something was wrong. With a quick back dash sliding across the sandy surface of the forest road Mana avoided a long streak of shuriken flying at her from the bushes. It was ballsy for bandits to lurk so closely to the village walls, they must've been inexperienced or very desperate. Mana could've taken on anyone who had so little experience so she calmed her racing heartbeat and listened in.