Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

The Floating Jiangshi

Mana's eyes carefully weighed the curious case of a rogue ninja who stood and didn't move her eyes away from Meiko. In a lot of ways this young woman was very similar to the blacksmith, she was strong, her face was by default always in a curious expression, dazed and confused by a reality she couldn't comprehend before some trigger hit her senses changing the mask on her face permanently to the corresponding emotion of a fitting response for that trigger.

In many more ways she was different – overly tall and thin. Hair so long they absolutely had to get in her way unless she somehow incorporated their movement into her fighting style and so bright that they didn't really seem natural. Then again, hair colors like this were common to the Yoruma clan. Sometimes the color of one's chakra aura irradiating from them impacted the natural color of one's eyes and hair, that'd have made this girl an owner of an immensely bright colored chakra – a reflection of noble intent, sacrificial and pure hearted character which Mana doubted a nukenin to have. Even given her optimistic attitude towards people.

Similarly to Meiko the rogue was armored, however only in certain areas, choosing to wear casual light clothing where armor was not of prime necessity. All of her major arteries and sensitive areas where a skipped slash would've opened a battle or life ending wound were covered up: neck, shoulders, lower abdomen. Her stance with the sword suggested a heightened focus on protecting her chest making heavy chest plates redundant. She was already working with a lot handling that two handed longsword of hers.

Meiko playfully teased an attack, swinging a quick slash that was not as focused in its swinging force as it was focused on a quick return to position afterwards. Teia's feet danced beautifully placing her aside and avoiding a clash, in response she swung her longsword upwards aiming to chop off her opponent's hands. From a vibrant smile on the blonde's face it was easy to read that she didn't count on Meiko's hands dropping anytime soon. A brief metallic sound suggested that a very narrow part of the blade's tip did come in contact with the blacksmith's wristplates.

"Don't interfere." Meiko cautioned the two kunoichi in her team. "There's no need of wearing out our whole team. It's best we put this to rest now and play along." Her voice was unwavering and demanded to be held in some amount of authority.

"We could quickly beat that brat up and then assist Meiko in taking this plank-wench out..." Kiyomi pouted blowing out her cheeks in frustration.

"It's fine. We're not at our full power from that dash, while we observe this fight we can recover somewhat where we would exhaust ourselves even more if we involved ourselves. We'd be left mostly worn out, all three of us, against the odds of needing to fight three teams and fight off whomever comes for us." Mana grudgingly accepted Meiko's request. She didn't like this way of looking at things one bit but her own attitude had to be sacrificed.

"Good, I really don't like fighting that much. Seeing Galateia do it this often and put us in trouble makes it look like such a troublesome thing..." Aoi nodded looking a little relieved that the two kunoichi agreed to play along his friend's terms.

"Don't lower your guard. After this is done we're absolutely taking you in. Fraud of such high caliber and kidnapping of a Konoha villager, you're looking at years of punishment in Rengoku, you may even spend some months in Jigoku if the Tribunal feels particularly nasty that day." Kiyomi sneered at the little boy.

Looking at Aoi from the side it was difficult to say his age for certain. He may have been in his early teens but he looked that damn young and innocent. It didn't help that he was far too short for a teen and floated in the air using his strange weakened version of Mana's levitation technique. Honestly, he looked like a fairy or something.