Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Honor Among Ninja?

Next morning Meiko was cheerful and running about like nobody's business. It was like any injury or infection had never happened with the food pills healing all the damage completely. Granted, the green or black ones were quite capable of preventing even more lethal injuries from claiming a life so the potent effect of the pills was not at all surprising.

"So what are we waiting for?" the blacksmith flexed her muscles after treating herself to some powdered soup that revealed its true taste and colour in heated water. "We've not taken down a single target yet..." she pouted.

"It's like she doesn't even remember what caused us this setback in the first place..." Kiyomi sighed after whispering it to Mana's ear.

The magician just sat there with her head down and her hands wrapped around her bent bruised knees. More and more often she snapped out of the chain of deep thought only to discover she's been staring at a blank point and creeping her teammates out but she didn't feel like lightening the mood up at all.

"I feel really great, I call dibs on being the first to get to hunt down her target!" Meiko yelled out energetically, quickly pushing away temporary wondering about why Mana was so down.

"Slow down there, how do you even plan on taking your target out in the first place?" Kiyomi squinted in suspiciously motherly eyes as Meiko was acting overly childish not to deserve a scolding of a more paternal nature.

"We'll just jump at them and kick all their asses, three on three!" the blacksmith grinned with her signature ape-like smile.

"You know it'd be much smarter to somehow separate your target away from their team and take them down that way, that'd save us trouble, chakra and time treating injuries..." Kiyomi once again kept on fighting Meiko's instinctive impulses. Was the blacksmith really to be blamed, she just woke up feeling chipper after a quite scary injury followed by even more terrifying infection taking its place.

Kiyomi's warm hands dragged Mana back to the world at hand instead of the mental one she was exploring. The blonde examined Mana's bruises on her wrists and then without bothering too much about common decency checked the wound on Mana's chest.

"It's still pretty red in there but having in mind the state it was in..." she noted. "We have a whole bunch of normal medical supplies, bandages and ointments, they may ease up the irritation and pain, if you want. Clearly they're no million ryo costing food pills but..."

"I'm fine." Mana turned away.

"Really?" Meiko smacked her forehead against Mana's to check for fever. "You don't really look fine. I mean you look fine but you're not acting fine..."

Even in her grinded to the dirt mood the magician couldn't help but crack a small smile seeing Meiko's rude and careless manner of checking her teammate's temperature. She must've thought that the only suitable way to check someone's temperature was to check with the same place of one's body which was why she almost cracked the magician's skull with that headbutt that was supposed to be a kind and playful gesture.

"Don't dig too deep. While I watched you yesterday Mana ran off and stole some medical food pills from some team, must not be quite up to her almighty moral code or something." Kiyomi shrugged while digging into the instantly prepared food cup she was yet to eat. It was simply too hot right after preparing and the Yamanaka was one of the people who let her instant soup or stew chill the longest, at least she didn't gobble it all down like Meiko and then complain of a scolded mouth...

"Really? Good job!" Meiko commended Mana by smacking her back.

That was the way it always went. Praises for things that should never receive praise, Mana bet if she started killing people she'd be commended for that as well. It was always the best killers, the best thieves that rose above the rest. Those that not only stole the most but also got caught the least. Somehow it wasn't the act of stealing that was a moral stigma but instead the misfortune of being caught. Instead of hurting other people and taking away what was theirs, what they needed and they've earned, what was a crime instead was lacking the skill needed to get away with it.