Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

The Great Land of the Waves Wedding

The seas were getting visibly more unsettling as the battle ashore kicked into a more intense gear. The foaming waves were dyed blood red as the constant aquatic washer tested and filtered the conscious and capable to fight and the beaten ones. Only the capable managed to withstand the alluring pull to the ocean's depths further from the beach of the withdrawing waters. The rippling outbursts of chakra created massive whirlpools that roared with all the might of a divine beast expelling geysers of water and throwing some of the washed away bodies in the air. Several were actually woken up by this aquatic baptism of the bloody foams.

Mana pressed a trigger under her sleeve firing off a bunch of cards from the deck compartments in her sleeve. The magician grabbed the handful of cards so she could utilize her own strength instead of the spring mechanisms and unleashed the storm of cards at several Kirigakure Demon trainees in her sight. Two of them used Substitution Jutsu replacing themselves with some of their fallen comrades and letting them take it for the living, another three took a pair of steel edged cards etching into their backs, bending and twisting their spines in pain and opening themselves up for the Imarizu's or Sugemi's counterattack.

Even if Mana wasn't fighting on the Imarizu's side, the dark skinned agents of death from Kumogakure were certainly eager to exploit the openings given to them by Mana. The magician moved her hand into an inner pocket of her jacket only for a splinter squad of Demons to branch out and rush at her from the side. Reacting to this attack, Mana's hand made the hand seals by itself firing off a mad air current below her and lifting the magician in the air as she rode it like a platform. Rising above the battlefield Mana unleashed a handful of steel tipped cards with chakra sealed inside of them, upon weaving a hand seal the cards released their contents exploding with the power of multiple explosive tags.

As Mana's eyes wandered behind her shoulder they fixed on a pair of rushing attackers. The pair of Demons used steel wire trying to latch onto Mana but missing and grabbing onto a top of a palm tree which elevated them well beyond the tree level. Quickly the kunoichi's head twisted sideways letting her hat slip off of her head and down her shoulder into her palm. The magician placed her hand onto its upper end setting off the seal and firing off a storm of various different cards sealed inside. Cards charged with Lightning Release chakra emitting a painful shock, cards with simple chakra lacking elemental nature that simply exploded or those with various ninja tools sealed inside. One of the Demons used the Substitution Jutsu to successfully evade the mess of epic proportions while the other braced for impact and plummeted back down.

These Demons were tough. Each one of these trainees was above the level of a common genin and while to an observer it may have looked like Mana and the others were fighting them all off, what was truly happening was they were merely postponing their confrontation – annoying the Demons, leaving injuries and blasting them back but not putting them down for their chakra levels allowed for sufficient enough chakra augmentation to make a compelling opponent for one of the Konoha team – each and every one of them.

A gut wrenching flesh piercing sound followed as Mana's gut got pierced by a hooking mechanism attached to a chain. A Demon below yanked on it pulling the girl down for a finishing strike but the shape erupted into flower petals that gently descended upon the battlefield. As the confused Demon wandered where the real Mana may have gone while she slipped into an illusion the magician kicked the man from behind at the back of his neck, just as the old man taught her in the Sun Disc arena, sending the Demon asleep.

This was troublesome – this trainee Demon forced her to move right into the fray of attacks, right into the middle of the messiest battlefield where fists and ninjutsu attacks were exchanged which the magician may not have been ready for. Mana uneasily looked around. And realized she's been noticed. One of the more battle damaged Imarizu followed a Kirigakure Demon as the two combined their effort in order to bring the elusive magician down.