Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Death to Love, Birth of Strength

Meiko disappointedly trekked back to Konoha through the brief dirty path that stretched through the endless woods of Land of Fire between the Training Grounds complex and Konohagakure. While she did feel somewhat clearer about what she needed to do, the "hows" of the matter still remained a mystery. She was lightyears away from inventing her own techniques and her most innovative jutsu was a simple storage seal. The two towering pillars of Masen's chakra imbuement technique and the Eight Gates loomed atop of Meiko's head, as if a dragon over the mountain, spitting flames at her direction and taunting to come with something stronger.

"Hey, it's you again"! A slightly familiar, cutesy voice attracted Meiko's attention as the blacksmith raised her eyes up and met an unexpected pair of ninja. "You stay away from us, Teia, let's get the hell away from this girl, don't even think about challenging her again"! Little Aoi Yuki exclaimed, pointing a finger at Meiko as he hovered in the air like a weightless snowflake.

"Whoa! Just the person I wanted to see! Let's fight again!" The blond swordswoman shrieked out as she enthusiastically rushed up to Meiko and grabbed the blacksmith's hands, pulling them on her chest. The redhead could feel Galateia's heart just pounding with excitement, despite Meiko beating the young woman there was not a hint of malice in the girl's eyes, just a desire to fight it out again.

"I thought the two of you were captured, or something..." Meiko squinted pointing fingers at Aoi, by far the more reasonable of the two nukenin that traveled around together looking for people to fight.

"We were, turns out that we aren't actually wanted in the Fire Country for any actual crimes and the international relationship between Konoha and Kumogakure isn't cohesive enough for an extradition." The floating pale kid locked his arms around his chest, feeling immensely annoyed by his experience in the Konohagakure Detainment Facility and the interrogation in the Police Force headquarters.

"Tee hee, he said "cohesive"..." Galateia giggled innocently before Aoi floated above her head.

"It's not a bad word, Teia, it means the characteristic of possessing cohesive properties"! Aoi shouted out right next to Galateia's ear. The tall blonde just stared into the eyes of her angered short companion in innocent confusion.

"You know, it's a really lousy explanation to someone who isn't aware of what the word means..." Meiko grinned with a shrug.

"Whatever, anyways, it was either execute us or let us go, they had no reason to keep us detained, on top of that, Teia's been deemed hopelessly stupid and the Police Force officers thought that executing her would've been like putting down a disabled person", Aoi explained. "They tried to pin kidnapping on us but Gwido just gave them an ominous stare and told them he did it just for the kicks of it. He'll probably land into some public works for being such a badass though".

"They did tell us to leave the village, that's too bad, there were so many strong ninja just walking around", Galateia dreamily stared into the sky.

"I may begin to understand why they insisted on you leaving the village", Meiko noted before getting an idea. "Are you two heading anywhere specific"? She wondered.

"Not really, we're kind of wandering, wherever the mood takes us. Teia's mood changes all the time so as you may guess – that's all over the place", Aoi managed to complain with his answer, something that flew completely over his oblivious companion's head as a little sparrow landed on her shoulder plate to rest.

Meiko stared in hesitation, for a moment, she felt truly psyched out and thought that the blonde-haired young woman would crush the poor bird but the silly girl just kept on staring at the little thing and just giggling.