Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Don't Ask How Sterile the Balloon Is

Surveying the battlefield was a bitter pill to swallow. The giant round crater jawed where Laoch blasted at Team Hokage in the beginning with trees continuously falling and sliding down as the inverted orb continued to sink further. Blood, rags and small fires didn't paint a better picture either. Mana just sighed before turning at Meiko.

The redhead just sat in dizziness spitting blood aside and doing some elementary battlefield patching up. She didn't look great but she was in no danger of dying like before. Kiyomi, on the other hand, switched between passing out and just laying sprawled in the dirt with each passing moment.

"Everyone's out cold, we did what we wanted to do..." Meiko smiled at Mana with a half toothed smile. The blacksmith was going to have quite a night at some point in her nearest future, teeth were painful to grow back – Mana had first-hand experience with that.

"No. We were stupid." Mana realized looking back at Kiyomi and then back at Meiko before examining her own injuries. Feeling up her own stamina and roughly how much chakra she could still spend informed the magician that she escaped this fight pretty cheaply. Most of the highly devastative moves just blasted her aside or barely grazed her and Meiko consistently protected Mana whenever that wouldn't have been the case.

"Why?" the blacksmith curiously looked at the magician, her eyes were almost childish. She really had no idea what Mana meant but she didn't object the magician but instead wanted to understand her position and maybe learn something. It was an admirable trait in a person.

"We kept on fighting well past the reasonable limit. This wasn't a life or death fight, we should've just retreated at any point, they should've also. This test is tricky – it punishes over-extending oneself. The clever strategy would've been for them to escape, heal themselves, while keeping our tracks in mind, before attacking us again. We have no medical ninja – we were at a disadvantage." Mana sat down as her own thighs were beginning to burn up with fatigue.

"That's their mistake..." Meiko shrugged before falling on her back and extending her arms, letting them sink into the softened and grinded dirt and ashes, picking it up and letting the mix sip through her fingers.

"No. It's ours as well. We were fooled by their relentlessness. At some point we lost the track of what's at stake. We won, but what did we win exactly? All we did was remove a person who may have attacked us to take me out but we didn't advance in the test at all. This isn't the winning strategy of this exam..." Mana complained before reaching to her pouch and removing a handful of medical food pills she stole from a team of genin previously.

"And you know what is?" Meiko wondered lifting her head off the dirt, her hair was messy and sticky as the ash and grinded sand mixed with the blood which her hair was soaked with.

"I am beginning to get a feeling... It's blitzing this exam – just like those two guys we met by the northern exit did. A team that wishes to pass shouldn't engage their hunters, they should evade being found while simultaneously diverting their efforts and resources into what's absolutely necessary – the targets. It's an exam of all that is essential to a ninja – the ability to evade enemies while completing an objective."

Mana continued to stare at the pills in her hand, rolling them around and playing with them like she played with marbles as a girl. She wasn't the most popular kid, she had few friends so she mostly played marbles with herself at home. The small group of friends she did have liked playing ninja anyways...

"Hmm? Anything wrong?" Meiko curiously hummed after stumbling back on her bottom and curiously staring at Mana's distress over the food pills she clenched in her hand.