Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

No More Books!

Mana rubbed her closed eyes a bit too excessively. The pressure inside her skull was getting uncomfortable but she refused to put the book she's been studying for over fourteen hours down. She stopped a couple of times only to make a pair of meals for Aporius and herself, only to be belittled for her lack of experience in the matter and be treated like a child. She was used to training by herself. When there was only her to scold herself because she thought she knew where to bite to make it hurt.

The knowledge inside this book seemed ancient to Mana, outdated and irrelevant compared to the ones she had read in the Konohagakure archive or the Academy textbooks. It did contain detailed and needlessly long explanations of the human brain, how it worked and how the application of chakra to specific brain points worked. It did contain some impressive knowledge like techniques meant for taijutsu users – applying chakra to their own brain centers to increase their own potential or temporarily boost their abilities without suffering the drawbacks of chakra augmentation.

That was mainly why Mana was still reading the book – every time she thought that the book was outdated and irrelevant, describing needless information in excessive detail she discovered a thing or two to keep her interest. Most of it was revision but once in a while, for a good four or five minutes, the magician found herself studying about an area of the brain she knew nothing about or stories of ninja who had a unique understanding of the genjutsu subject.

Despite those far in between interesting attention grabbers Mana felt like her limited time was being wasted on a book. The next morning Mana cut into her finger with the humongous kitchen knife and it was only because of her reconsidered stance on chakra augmentation that she was left with a shallow cut instead of parting with her whole finger. The old man only laughed at her and belittled her saying that her finger would still have needed weeks of being smoked and seasoned before he'd have considered putting it on his sandwich.

Despite Mana's growing frustration and feeling of wasted time studying a stupid book while her friend was being taken no one knew where for a deduced marriage that could have not even been a marriage, to begin with, such outcome was only the most probable, Aporius suggested helping the magician with lunch. His help would've come included with an actual example of how a good steak is cooked, steaks were not something of the sort Mana was used to cooking so the kunoichi's frustration grew even more – she was wasting time on things she never thought she'd need while her friend's kidnapping made time a luxury.

"No. I'll do it. I'll do it right this time. I still have reading to catch up on!" Mana rudely shut the old man down and gently placed her palm on his chest, never pushing but keeping him away from where the meal was being made. Aporius looked at her with strange suspicion, almost like he realized the magician was responsible for a murder somewhere but he soon relented and sat down on a criminally short and rusty metal stool.

"Don't forget the garlic. Rub it into the fried bread as well as the meat..." the old man croaked as if he was just forcefully sat down.

"The way this room reeks of garlic, I won't need to..." Mana mumbled under her nose as she had to bend her head down every time she entered the kitchen due to garlic hanging everywhere. It was a highly preferred seasoning and ingredient of the man as mentions of its necessity came with each passing lesson of the man.

After the lunch, surprisingly without a single complaint or demeaning remark from Aporius, Mana finally got a couple of hours to devote to the second book she was given. She hadn't yet finished the first one but she had to do something else, had she not tried a new book she'd have found a way to cut her veins open with a page and tore them out with her teeth if that meant liberating her from another book.

The old man entered her room, he didn't look too good – his usually slick grey hair was now messy and his bowtie missing, his shirt sleeves rolled up and his vest improperly buttoned as if it was done in quite the rush. One look at the man's pupils gave Mana a clue she didn't wish to tread deeper into. When the old man opened his mouth however it didn't appear to affect his mood at all, whatever made this effect on the man's meticulousness was no drug, at least not one that Mana was warned or aware of. The fact that she would rather recall the effects on the user's mood of all drugs she knew of showed how sick she was of studying people's brains and the art of illusion which was infamous for being gruelingly difficult both in theory and practice, especially compared with the rewards it granted of being able to create illusions.