Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Life is but a Wheel of Cheese

A heartwarming melody of a song, sadly sung by a less than exemplary singer, broke through the bone-chilling embrace of death. Pain equal to that of a bear trap snapping onto her skull worked hand in hand with the overwhelming grace of sunlight peeling Mana's eyelids open and showering her briefly opened whites with its almighty beauty. A feeling containing all the subtlety and softness of acid being poured into her eyes and working its way through the girl's nervous system right into her brain. Living often felt worse than dying in the first moments of one's rebirth, Mana should have known, of all people.

The girl jumped up and covered her body up with the cover she was snugged under. She was in a wooden cabin surrounded by smoked fish and meats, cheeses and homemade apple wine. The old man who was singing as he worked his butt off peeling layers of old wax off of his wheel of cheese noticed the girl and turned at her, seeing the knife in his hand Mana's body twitched energetically, life rushed back into her body and the magician felt her chakra being at its peak – a bad sign. She must've been out for a while for her network to repair itself completely.

"Don't worry, if I wanted to hurt you, you'd have already been hurt. Been laying here for quite a while..." the old man said in a rough and masculine voice, his eyes didn't waver or display the slightest sign of fear or weakness, on the other hand, his chest did move quite ecstatically suggesting that he may have even been relieved of the magician's awakening.

"Where am I, why am I alive?" Mana asked. She was no fool, remembering the exact sort of injuries she had sustained was immensely painful for her recently awakened mind but she definitely realized that she should have died of her injuries. The men working there made sure to leave no one alive, they were fast, efficient, professional and more than anything – strong. "What use can I possibly serve to you?" the magician assumed that she was somehow useful to this old man if he salvaged her dying body and nursed her back.

The old man calmly laughed out with class and restraint. He was clearly an old gentleman in control of his emotions, at least those he displayed in public.

"Well, you'll keep me alive, for one..." he appeared to try and jest but seeing Mana's confused expression he just sighed.

"That's what I feared, you're completely oblivious to what you've been involved into..." he spoke.

"Wait... You're... You're not Yamanaka Tenma, are you!?" Mana suddenly jumped up and on her feet, beginning to frantically look for her weapons and clothes.

"Your things are on that chair, luckily enough, you weren't wearing most of your clothes when... Whatever happened hit you. Those are some fancy robes though, you don't look like a Yamanaka snob to me. I'd really like to hear your story but I'm afraid it's more than it is my business to know..." the old man returned to tending to his cheese wheel, slowly peeling the wax off of the gigantic mountain.

Mana grabbed the clothes that were on the chair and got dressed while the old man worked, she was surprised to find pretty much everything she had on her at that time intact. Even whatever pocket money she had was completely untouched.

"I am beginning to believe that we both don't know anything about what's going on here, that means there's a third party involved, something connecting us. Mind telling me all that you know? All I remember is bathing, getting ready to go to bed and leave the Yamanaka Resort in the morning, go home. That's when we got attacked, my friend was kidnapped. I should've been killed – it's clear those men meant for me to die. In fact, they should've meant for Kiyomi to die too, at this point I don't understand anything at all..." Mana admitted.

"You've been brought here by a man, a hooded figure, his head was the only part I saw and it was covered in bandages – he said he had a whole bunch of fresh tattoos made and his skin was sensitive or something. He healed you completely back to life, you didn't look like you even had hopes of making it when he got you here. He said that you were lucky he had found you, anyone else would've not been able to help you. I was told that he did everything he could have and that you'd live, he told me that he'd kill me and everyone I have ever met or as far as exchanged glances with if you died. Apart from some very impolite talking, he was a pretty nice and exalted man. Said he was heading for Iwagakure... Not much more to tell you." the old man told Mana everything he knew.