Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Making Senpai Notice

The dojo owner lifted his arm up preparing to call the beginning of a sparring session. Usually, Mana would've politely refused from a sparring session but after her experiences in the quest for the Box of Ultimate Bliss she had learned to appreciate its value, as well as the value of martial arts in general. Before Mana thought of it only as an art of hurting people – something completely opposite to her ideals. It took a lot of hardship to change that around.

The magician prepared for a tough battle – Kiyomi was a fellow genin who was actually above the rank she was in. Apparently she was supposed to have already participated in the Chuunin Exams but missed them due to unfortunate circumstances. That all by itself made it completely impossible for Mana to underestimate her friend's abilities. The whole time the blonde held that precious role of Mana's elder, almost like an older sister or an upperclassman, in a way.

True, this was not an actual one on one battle, the two merely wanted to train which meant that they won't be trying to fight each other – they'll just be using moves and abilities that they wanted to try out, compare or perfect. That was much different from how real battles went. Still, it would give Mana a rough idea as to where exactly she stood in comparison to other stronger genin which made her feel a bit intimidated. The magician was rarely excited by a challenge, she was more of the kind to feel fear of challenge and tackle them with their best, respecting it as something of great importance and not some sort of a game.

Once the dojo owner lowered his hand declaring the beginning of the sparring session Mana and Kiyomi bowed to each other before making an honorable hand seal of confrontation which symbolled that they've challenged each other to battle they proceeded to go through hand seals. Mana completed her set the first by a significant margin – that made the magician's intimidation fade a little bit, she began realizing that she won't be a weak underdog in this battle completely overshadowed in every way by her superior by age and experience.

The magician removed a blunted blade which the dojo used for training and pointed it at Kiyomi. Despite the fact that the blade was made of rubber, unless it was specially insulated through specific chakra sealing techniques it couldn't at all insulate lightning techniques. Knowing that quite well Mana pointed it at her friend who was still working on her set of hand seals. The entire exchange of techniques would've happened almost instantly and completely unseen to a neutral civilian bystander but to Mana, each fraction of the millisecond felt like entire minutes.

"Magical Shock Jutsu!" she shouted out channeling lightning chakra through the rubber blunted kunai that fired off a beam of lightning chakra aiming to shock and paralyze her opponent. While it wouldn't have left much lasting damage to an actual ninja, the pain and paralyzing properties of lightning chakra would've given Mana time to properly set up her following attacks.

The beam extended on and on, moving just a tad bit slower than natural lightning but Mana's worried eyes began feeling a bit bored by seeing the crackling sparks extend out from the beam as it extended towards her friend.

"Earth Style: Reverse Hacksaw!" Kiyomi finally finished her technique right before the beam of lightning hit her right in the chest, such an outcome would've burnt right through anyone without the ability to control chakra like a civilian, unless Mana specifically weakened the technique. Knowing the skill level of her opponent the magician pulled no punches.

Kiyomi leaned down, the beam crept up closer and closer until to Mana it seemed it was almost touching her gi. The blonde's palms smacked into the ground erecting man-sized rock pillars from the ground that lined up and headed towards Mana. The very first pillar blocked Mana's beam breaking it down completely. The ball was now in Mana's court and understanding that as well as wasting no time for being surprised that her friend successfully protected herself from Mana's attack, breaking her ninjutsu like it was a brittle breadstick, the younger kunoichi prepared her own response.