Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Stars that Come Down

A crimson curtain closed to a storm of applause and flowers. Mana sighed and still struggled to calm her racing heart. It's been a while since she was so ill prepared for a show and had to improvise so much. She may even have slipped in tricks she had used before, something that she wasn't entirely proud of but in that moment there was simply no other choice. Plus while all sort of ideas twirled through her mind there may not have simply been the props on the ready needed to act on those ideas. All things considered it was a good show...

"Never seen so many people entertained by simple ninjutsu..." Hiro scratched his greyed out and oversized for his build head as if the weight of the thing dragged his body to the ground like the overpowering force of gravity.

"It's not always what you show, context and presentation is equally important." Mana smiled. It was not unusual for the manager of the hall to come and congratulate the performer after the show but the man tended to avoid visiting Mana in her little smelly and soaked in darkness and tangled spider silk room. The man used to wonder if Mana would ever choose to take any of the larger and fancier, scarlet suede covered wall rooms he had offered her. By now he must've gotten the clue.

"Well... You're all about presentation, kid. Everyone's missed you..." Hiro nodded before opening the trashed and holey wooden door to leave Mana and letting her finish her after show preparations and head her own ways. "Did you see the Sixth sitting in the middle row? Stinking hell!" the man laughed out before waggling his short stature.

After a quick and frankly a bit lazy job packing her things Mana rushed off. She decided to change out of her uniform home. For some reason she just wanted to get home as fast as possible, while today was pretty rough, mainly because of this show, the next morning she'd have to leave for the training trip with one of Konoha's Sannin.

"Hey, Mana!" Kouta's voice reached the magician as she was quickly making her way through the endless hallways, already hearing the loud noises of the actor troupe preparing for their upcoming play. After that the entire hall was to be quickly adjusted, the lighting tools removed, the stage reworked into a cinema screen and a movie must've been airing. Mana would've always thought that if the Sixth ever attended a show, that he'd be more of a movie kind of man.

"Hey... Didn't know you'd be here today." The magician blushed a little, she'd have done a bit more careful job in the dressing room if she had known that her boyfriend thought of coming and finding her after the show.

Kouta embraced the magician and pressed her tightly. His control was impeccable, for a young man who could've crushed boulders of densest minerals with his hugs he was surprisingly gentle.

"So are we doing something after this?" Mana dreamily wondered. That night with the young Juugo before the survival drill really helped her getting her mind in order and appreciating what she had back in Konoha.

"I just figured I'd give you a walk home, see where we'd go from there." Kouta grinned before rubbing his nose, he tended to do that when he got shy or withheld something.

"Well, seeing how last time we did that we went to the stars, you've got a pretty tall bar to leap over." Mana teased the medical ninja as the two quietly walked out through the side of the stage, catching a couple of glimpses of the magnificent play being performed onstage.

The weather outside was much chiller than the last time they did this. As the cold streams of air ran down one's lungs it couldn't help it but pinch the entire way down. Once the air was warmed up and exhaled it was so warm that it felt like burning the chest all the way up to the nostrils. Mana quickly burrowed herself into her coat. Even if the air was a bit chillier than usual a surprising dance of evening snowflakes joined into the fray laying the autumnal Konoha streets and gardens with their own first yearly layer of snow.