Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Of Spiders and Flies

Team Hokage settled down to rest and prepare for the upcoming stealth quest. Usually times like this could've been spent for training, particularly - Mana training Meiko in the art of chakra control and combatting illusions. While Meiko was no slouch in that department, Mana, and therefore any more skilled users of the illusionary art, could've easily sent a more complex illusion Meiko's way. The blacksmith was too distracted most of the times to pick up on more subtle temperature changes, absence of weather factors such as humidity and chills, etc.

It was tough to tell night from day when being surrounded by dark murky gloom all the time. The team rested when they felt tired, mostly coordinating their resting sessions through communication. Usually ninja wouldn't have needed resting sessions, eating, sleeping and other similar activities due to their enhanced metabolisms allowing them to bypass such natural limitations. Now, after so many battles and emergencies straining the girls' chakra network they could no longer ignore it. It was an endurance game as much as it was one of mind or body.

This time Mana wasn't training Meiko. The magician was washing her face and her older injuries. While a lot of her wounds and bruises were patched up haphazardly, they still needed to be observed. Some of the oldest injuries were already completely healed, some of them had old bandages singed, torn up or grinded into this strange gooey white mush that only made the injuries they covered more painful. The magician wondered if now with her chakra level taking a larger dip than usual she had to worry about infection. She didn't like being so weakened but it was worth it...

"Hey." Kiyomi's voice quietly alerted the magician of her friend's presence. The blonde had to be sitting on the watch. Being attacked now was a bigger danger than ever: they left the unusual safe-haven of the northern parts and the teams still remaining in the competition must've been more daring and desperate.

"I left Meiko on the watch. We have at least five minutes until she falls asleep or gets distracted and chases off a wild animal..." Kiyomi smiled as if knowing Mana's exact thoughts at the moment. She had all the reason to know them, even without her clan abilities she was a skilled and experienced ninja and therefore she'd have known what another experienced genin would've been thinking. Especially one she'd spend so much time with.

"Does this look familiar to you?" Mana blandly asked before lifting her fingers with the grinded white goo of the bandages on her wounds. Kiyomi just shriveled in disgust before observing where they came from.

"That thing spent a lot more time on you than it should've. You're patching same areas of the body over and over again, then the bandages get torn, burnt or cut off. You get pummeled with the amounts of force I dread even to think of... Frankly, this is kind of new to me as well. If you feel something... Troublesome, keep me updated." Kiyomi replied before helping the magician change the bandages spanning from her left shoulder to her pelvis and applying some ointment on her back.

"It was nice of Junipu-R to pass on to you part of her supplies." Kiyomi noted shortly before the magician finished washing the blood off her body and tending after her wounds. "Most ninja would've just fought her to the end and wouldn't have obtained those supplies. I think a lot of people are quick to criticize your way of doing things while they ignore the good that your way brings."

"Yes, R means a lot to me. She's the first person in a while I managed to defeat my way, without hurting her or ruining her life trying to help her..." Mana looked away before settling her sights on a large fish deep underwater, visible only when its gigantic head came thumb's length from the surface to swallow up tons of leeches out of the small lake and then dive back into the depths.

"You're still sad about what happened to the team you stole pills from." Kiyomi didn't ask that. She deduced it with a firm statement.

"How can I not be? If I've not taken those pills from them they've remained in the exam. Even more, I stole those supplies from them..." the magician sighed. "For someone who hates all criminals I'd have thought you'd be a lot less fine with this than you are."