Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Shadows of Greater Things

Reading on history of the Great Settlement period was always quite the fascinating subject for Mana. After all, while reading the words "Great Settlement period" made it sound so ancient and integral to the entirety of the ninja village history, truth be told it happened less than four hundred years ago. Compared to the totality of the history it was a completely meaningless step that barely even lasted enough to be seen on a total scale of the cosmic totality. A miniscule space-dust in a vast universe that to the magician glowed deceitfully brightly because it was integral for her own existence.

Even if four hundred, give or take, years didn't sound like much on the historic scale, actually it was quite something in the hectic mess of recent history. The Hokage came and gone, from Fourth to Sixth, the reign of the Fifth breezing through in a record shortage of time. Most of the early heads of villages ruled for their entire lifetimes which were quite impressive. More impressive still having in mind their hectic periods during which they lived.

"Hey..." a shy voice alerted Mana that someone had entered the archive and wanted not to consult an old book but instead to talk to her. After the magician took a glance back she decided to close the book and divert all of her attention to Meiko who was tapping her foot impatiently. Normally the blacksmith would have annoyed the folks doing their research here with the annoying and repetitive foot tapping but she was lucky that it was sort of work hours and very few people fit the criteria of both being off work and giving enough shits to read ancient scrolls in the Konoha Archive.

"Oh, you're back already?" the magician exclaimed in surprise as she pointed a seat nearby to her friend. Frankly, it should've looked a bit confusing and offensive. After all the place was damn empty so if Meiko wanted to sit she needed no pointers as to where to settle down. Sometimes Mana did some technically understandable things that, given the social context were just too embarrassing to remember for no reason at all and this may have gone under the shelf of moments not unlike those very ones.

"We were just gone for a weekend. I mean tomorrow's the sign-ups for the exams... How have things been on your side?" the redhead asked. Mana had to get used to Meiko's moves no longer causing clangs of her armor clanking against other pieces as the girl was now wearing a much more casual tracksuit and not a single steel plate in sight. Meiko even looked a bit thin, if not somewhat tomboyish, without her armor, the magician was used to seeing this firm, stiff and masculine brutish shape whenever she looked at Meiko's armored frame which now simply was not there.

"Well... The Zairyo thing was kind of a bust. Picked up one new skill in particular but... Doing my own training most of the time, you?" Mana went on to be honest without going into too much detail. Maybe she should've – after all Meiko was a teammate and would've benefited from knowledge of the magician's ability to call on ninja animals as partners. Still, knowing Meiko, she'd have simply gone off rail and overly hyped over the animals and the ninja rabbits were so cute that Mana would've simply never shook Meiko off her tail, begging to summon more and more cute bunnies until Mana would've been dry. Mana knew her friend at least that well...

"Oh... Too bad." Meiko looked away extending her lips into an artificial duck beak with her eyes jumping all around the place. She smelled of ashes, oil and coals but also something sweeter, something very honey-like or waxy. If calls were to be made Mana would've guessed from Meiko's change of attire and still blackened cheeks as well as the collection of smells on her that she was working in the father's forge.

"How was training with Hokage-sensei? I bet you guys left me in the dust..." Mana tried lightening up the mood by commending her friend on her implied growth but she was very wary about treading those grounds. Normally, Meiko would've been training so close to Chuunin Exams, if she wasn't, and instead spent her time in the forge, it meant that either the work was of profound importance or that something really bad had happened out there.