Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Drawbacks of Recklessness

"I bet you're wondering what's so funny, eh"? Kres-T finally spoke up, interrupting the awkward yet brief standstill between him and his opponent.

"Not really, more like admiring the degree to which you're taking your refusal to cooperate with your tag partner", Jean-D replied before lunging at her opponent. For the Kumogakure kunoichi this was it – she saw her opponent getting tricked with her hidden technique. She smelled blood, both figuratively and literally.

The kunoichi danced with her knives without stopping, inserting quick kicks into the equation to both disorient and fill the rhythm of her attacks with new notes and beats so that it didn't become too stale and predictable. Mana curiously turned her head aside and looked at Jean's brother, wondering if he employed a similar fighting style. Something stroke her as immensely odd about Jean-D, namely her affinity for useless moves.

Then again, oddly enough, Kres-T was playing along, employing seemingly pointless parries and dodges into his own routine, as if he was fighting both the Kumogakure kunoichi and an invisible ghost of some kind. Both contestants utilized so many unnecessary moves in their arsenal that one was left to wonder if they were lacking the very fundamentals of close range combat or if the observer was not quite on their level and simply oblivious to what was going on.

Kres-T's hand shot forward, locking firmly onto Jean-D's scarf and pulling her in for a strong elbow strike. The kunoichi grunted as she forced herself out of her neck accessory and desperately worked on moving backwards, she then was gifted with a strong jumping knee strike, which, while blocked with her arms, was strong enough to throw her off balance and force the kunoichi to stagger back instead of gracefully sliding back into a gracious fighting position.

"See? I figured out your trick, you're done for now"! Kres-T grinned with a full-teeth smile which kind of made Mana feel bad about staying oblivious to what was happening, given that Kres-T didn't appear to be the most perceptive and intelligent of combatants.

"What's he talking about"? Mana wondered, finally giving in to the pressure and realizing that outing herself as unable to fully perceive everything that transpired between the two genin in the arena was worth learning something new.

"I'm not quite sure..." Kiyomi shrugged.

"He's talking about her Dimensional Blade technique", Hanasaku enlightened both girls, something that surprised both of them as their sensei wasn't really the kind to overthink any battle. Usually her complete excess of power, speed and endurance warranted an automatic advantage in any battle, enough so that she had survived to this day, even though not all of her battles may have been victorious.

Given that both of the girls just stared at the woman in confusion, Hanasaku sighed and elaborated. "I once fought a man in Kumogakure who possessed a similar technique, he stood in the way of my objective as both of our villages had issued us conflicting mission objectives. After a long fight and tiring out of hitting me with his dimensional techniques he withdrew".

"Yeah but... How does it work"? Mana wondered.

"It's fairly simple, the user just opens up one seal, then opens up another. They attack the first seal, the hit comes out through the other hole", Hanasaku explained, oversimplifying things, as always. She looked pretty content explaining it that way too...

"There's nothing simple about it", Kiyomi angrily squinted at her sensei, "You're talking about Space-Time Ninjutsu here, Hanasaku-sensei. One of the most elaborated and complicated jutsu to pull off".

"Not if one is transporting a very simple projectile through a very limited space and in a very short time", Mana pouted her lips as she often did when deep in thought. "If someone was skilled enough in Ninja Arts ninjutsu, and with grueling training, one could, in theory, pull it off on something as short as a kunai or a shuriken, all the previous limitations in mind".