Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Chasing the White Rabbit

With decent pacing it didn't take Team Hokage that much time to reach the marked location where Mana's target was last seen by Team Dunyazad. While initially there was little holding back the trio's speed of movement, after they got a bit closer to the location the speed had to be diminished. One couldn't track their opponent moving at a breakneck place and thrashing the forest around them as they moved. Ninja could move at unbelievable speeds in combat but moving at anywhere near those speeds while travelling or tracking raised too many problems.

"We should've asked Tiwul when exactly they've spoken to Team Cirrus. Measuring time is important when tracking..." Mana mumbled out while observing the environment around her for clues.

"There are sensors in our clan. They're able to track people by the residual chakra signature leading them to the actual chakra signature far outside their range. Maybe you should try it?" Kiyomi shrugged. Her tone was strict yet not as strict as her eyes when she looked at Mana. Then again, the magician knew where she was going into when making the decision she made.

After a brief pause of hesitation the girl knelt down and closed her eyes. She placed her hands calmly on her thighs so that neither her feet nor her arms went numb in the lengthy process of calling for her sensory to surface. Sometimes accessing her natural gift came easier, sometimes it was incredibly difficult.

A good twenty minutes later the magician opened her eyes and stood back up, rubbing her tense shoulders and ankles she shook her head with sadness and disappointment.

"There aren't even actual chakra signatures within my range." She uttered.

"Oh well, you tried..." Meiko shrugged.

"Well..." upon Kiyomi's mouth opening Mana expected something offensive or edgy thrown her direction as there was no way that something as controversial as relaying intelligence on a Konohagakure's team would've been let go soon. "It's way too tough to tell time in here anyways. Even if we did ask Team Dunyazad about it we'd have received nothing exact. Then we'd only have that approximate to compare to our own approximate measurements. We'll need to fly a little blind with this tracking quest of ours." the blonde surprised Mana with her composure from being overly confrontational about how the information came into their hands to begin with.

Kiyomi had plenty of reasons to despise Mana's decision. Her own brother, the only person to look at her like something more than a delicate Yamanaka heiress, a soft and tender crimson rose surrounded by walls of thorns of much more poisonous and defensive plants, was killed by bandits. Those very same rogues had to obtain information about her brother, it was more than likely that Mana's sellout of Kouta's team ringed too close to whoever sold out her brother.

"Well... Let's go in a straight line, filter the surroundings, observe several branch layers. Watch for traces on the moss, as subtly and quietly as they went, we should pick up some tracks if they got too tempted to dash around at breakneck speeds at any point." Meiko suggested. Mana nodded in agreement submissively.

"I'll watch the upper layers, Meiko can watch the middle layers, Mana watch the bottom layer." Kiyomi shrugged before disappearing in a single leap up. There was an area of around five kilometers to observe for the smallest traces or damage on the tree bark or the moss that vegetated on the old as the Leaf Village itself branches of the Forest of Death.

Meiko and Mana scattered as well. The magician allowed herself to immerse in the plunging down, she knew that with proper balance she could've stopped herself by vaulting off one of the thicker lower branches anyways. The air whizzing by refreshingly by her cheeks and fondling her hair just felt too tempting in her greatly stressed state. A feat such as stopping herself close to the ground, as inhuman as it sounded, would've required no chakra augmentation from her part at all.