Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

The Oldest Rock in Wrestling Entertainment

It took some time to explain exactly what the written test was about to Meiko. Someone who just stumbled through the dark throughout most of it and then just somehow, just barely, managed to luck out and come out with the right answer, even though what she actually thought she had done was give up. After the whole point of the test was explained the blacksmith seemed to catch up quite fast.

Mana really had a great deal of respect for her friend, the feeling of being completely oblivious of everything that's going on was a genuinely scary concept. Just sitting there for almost an entire hour and observing a test one had no understanding of and people all around you work their way through it must've been absolutely terrifying. So many people would've seen such a scenario in their absolute worst nightmares and yet Meiko managed to overcome that, through sheer luck, maybe, but still she did the right thing.

Then again, the magician was a little biased in her blazing adoration for Meiko's success that's been set ablaze in her chest. She was spared entire years of being stuck at the lowest grade and getting no closer to fulfilling her dream. Mana was already feeling ready to begin working her way up to trying and living up to her nindo, she no longer felt like a child nor like a child ninja. Even if everyone around her kept amazing her and making her feel like everyone's so much superior to her in so many ways, Mana still felt obliged to charge at her dream and reach out for it. She'd seen too many people suffer and die around her while she was struggling to become a strong enough ninja to change that.

"That's kinda lame though..." Meiko pouted as the three made their way and settled down on a bench with some chili snacks in hand. "I expected a bit more... Something, that's something rather than nothing." She scratched her blazing red hair that were beginning to grow a little longer and more feminine than the manner she had them in when Mana first met the blacksmith where the hairdo looked more tomboyish and under all the armor she wore Meiko could've easily been confused for a young man.

"If it was something – we'd all have failed." Kiyomi laughed it off still breathing full lungs of joy and failing to get over how lucky they all got. Even if the answers of the test had not yet returned, for some reason, none of the girls questioned the answer Mana gave them. To the magician it felt flattering and a bit frightening, Meiko tended to have utter and complete trust in Mana's calls and Kiyomi was so obsessed with her weird shaped friendship with the blacksmith that she just went along with it just to see Meiko do things in her own way and giggle at that.

"Not Mana... She would've gotten it right." Meiko suddenly got all dreamy and serious as she relaxed on the bench and just looked at the murky noon sky.

"We'd all have failed." Mana repeated Kiyomi's words seconding the blonde. "The Chuunin Exams are all about the team. It doesn't matter how smart one is, how strong one is, what techniques they know or what bloodline they come from, as long as the team fails to keep up with them and the standard of ninja that become chuunin – they're not passing."

"Hmmm... Your dango are chili flavoured, gimmie some!" Kiyomi yelled out before munching all over Meiko's arm nearly swallowing the blacksmith's entire fist with it. An impressive feat, having the redhead's physical strength and rather buff physique in mind.

"Goddamn it!" Meiko shouted out peeved over Kiyomi's affections over the blacksmith's chili dango.

"I thought you hated spicy food..." Mana wondered as her mind slowly began to float away from the written test and prepare for whatever may have still been to come. Even if she didn't want to feel overly confident, something told her that the Team Hokage had it in the bag.

"Yeah, but Meiko's hand tastes like sweet potato so it evens it all out!" the Yamanaka cheerily explained, still struggling to speak over the amount of food she stole from the blacksmith.