Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Slither In

Mana had forgotten that trek to the Forest of Death before. Back when she first made her way there with Team Oak she saw it as a lengthy and exhausting trip all in of itself. Since then she had travelled much further and wider and after expanding her scope what was supposed to take a couple of hours of casual strolling now seemed like just a blink of an eye away.

Finally the two had reached the place and the familiar fences covering up a gigantic forest that was dark on the inside due to the incredible competition between its towering trees for sunlight. A couple of hooded ninja stopped the two ninja but and requested to see their documents. It greatly surprised Mana, how could have two at least Chuunin level ninja have not recognized a Konohagakure Sannin? Zairyo must've been away quite often and for lengthy periods of time.

Once the hooded ninja saw the man's documents they began bowing and apologizing erratically which was quickly dismissed by Zairyo who just rubbed the back of his head and sighed as if all of this was just a big pester. The magician felt a bit bad for those two, Konoha ninja had a feeling of comradery and honor between each other. Everyone was ready to lay their heads for their comrades just to bring honor to their families and their service. Something like that must've stayed in those poor guards' hearts and pressed against their chests for some time to come. Embarrassment was not a pleasant companion.

After being let inside the fenced off area through a large wooden gate Mana looked around and made sure to breathe in as much of the outside weather as possible before the massiveness of the forest overwhelmed her. Almost instantly the magician felt the painful sensations of insects trying and suck her dry, something that shocked the girl a bit as she had never went through a similar experience with an accompanying Sannin before. Then it hit Mana, something she didn't notice feeling, or rather not feeling before.

"You don't have Killing Intent, do you?" the magician realized. Then again, she never checked if Chestnut Hanasaku had one either, the girl was just so used to Tanshu's absolutely crushing Intent that one had to combat every moment of being nearby that man that she just assumed Hanasaku had one. The warm and epic sensations in her skin when facing that woman could've been just her status reflecting on Mana and not her Intent.

"Oh no! I'm a pretty swell guy, when you're as chill as me it's literally impossible to get that..." Zairyo laughed out with a bit of embarrassment. "I recall the last time you've been here with Tanshu, right? That must've saved you a lot of trouble..."

"Yeah... It wasn't as trouble-free as you might imagine, he left us alone to fight for our lives." Mana recalled still struggling to decide which trip was worse, the last one where locating the archive was comfortable and safe but she was left to die facing off those gigantic centipedes or this one.

"Heh... I'm sure that's not how he meant it to be seen. Still, didn't you run into the inhabitants? For a kid that young fighting off even the insects that live here must've been a hassle!" Zairyo whistled with surprise.

"It doesn't matter..." Mana puffed up her cheeks in embarrassment remembering the dip into centipede goo that she had to go through last time. "Anyways, I find it really hard to believe that I could've missed an important scroll. I know a lot of common dialects of historic periods: Uluru, Anansi, Anchel and several more... What could've been stored there that was so important?" the magician lifted her eyebrow with some bitter memories flooding through.

"Oh? Can you just read normally though? It's supposed to be written on the scroll "Bailong – the White Dragons"." Zairyo explained with a bit of hesitance before revealing the object he was seeking.

"Is it a history scroll? Bailong are legendary animals, you can read plenty about them in the legend and tale scrolls I've brought back and countless others..." Mana still couldn't wrap her head around what exactly the man was after. She took it a little bit personally when the man implied she could've missed an important scroll after she took so much care in selecting the ones to salvage.