Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Into the Maroon Light

Mana gave off a breathy sigh. Her hands could not stop trembling, her abdomen kept burning up. The magician could remember feeling less intimidated when her life was literally at stake. Maybe because in those difficult times there was simply no time to feel worried, it was always just do or die. Now, meanwhile, the magician was left to wonder, keep thinking everything through to the point of overthinking. Her own personal issues did not help things, Mana was still really anxious and down about her break up and Meiko getting badly injured.

"It's going to be alright", Kiyomi smiled in encouragement after patting Mana's shoulder to which the magician just backed up like the eye of a snail after being poked. "You're the most resourceful person I know and being resourceful is what being a ninja is all about"!

It was true that Mana already knew the tiniest bits and pieces about her opponents, due to Jean-D's desperate grasping at straws, the magician already knew of Jon-D's signature technique. From his frustration, after it was revealed, she could put together that beside that jutsu, the young swordsman had little else to focus or rely on. In that, way he was very much like his sister, an incredible master of one thing only.

Team Alto was so much more difficult to comprehend. From what Mana had seen about Oto-B, he was the small and plumpy little man with a massive hi-tech looking backpack that may have contained just about anything. The first guess of the magician would've been that it contained a puppet, but puppetry was a rare craft in Kumogakure – the native land of the world's greatest swordsmen and crude but effective grappling style of wrestling martial arts, also – the Nimble Style of taijutsu that greatly contrasted Konoha's Strong Style.

"See? You're overthinking it, this isn't some sort of the end of the world scenario. If you fail now, if you see it's too difficult, you can always just back down and try next year in another country. No one will blame you, this year's exams are crazy with the insane teams and ninja competing"! Kiyomi tried consoling Mana differently. She must have still been oblivious to the falling out that Mana and Hanasaku had just before the exam.

"You wouldn't quit", Mana mumbled out.

"I mean... Yeah! That's because I've been a genin for what seems like eternity. I'm stuck here and I feel like I've been ready to move up for ages. No matter who I end up facing, I won't stop until I prove it to everyone"! Kiyomi grinned raising her fist into the air energetically. "But you're not supposed to be anyone else. I know you used to look up to me as someone you could be but you don't owe it to anyone to be anyone else but yourself".

"I owe it to me to be better than that", Mana replied before looking Kiyomi in the eyes. "I owe it to everyone in Konoha, and everyone in the whole world to become the person that'll be great and amazing enough to change the world through example. Someone who will appreciate all life, and be so skilled, that everyone else will follow them and learn to appreciate life for themselves. A person who fails the Chuunin Exams is not such a person, a person who gives up before they do everything they can is not such a person. This exam is life or death to me, just like it was for Gorm Cleiti, if I fail, nothing else matters".

Kiyomi looked away trying to get into Mana's shoes but she appeared to struggle to do so. Just about at that time, Erumo Budoki from Team Fir stumbled around with the help of her teammate Yushijin, as the girl, now adorning a pair of bandage stripes and plasters, passed by Mana and Kiyomi, the new Konoha's Trapster gave Mana a nasty gesture before the two walked past them.

"I know you are used to being cheered on, what with all of your Konoha Sorceress gig you have and all, but don't be surprised if you won't have any home spiritual support advantage, besides me, of course", Kiyomi grunted, feeling that Erumo's attitude towards Mana would be somewhat reflected onto the others of these past few Ninja Academy generations. Given how popular Erumo's gimmick and antics were. Before now, pretty much every Konoha examinee had a significant amount of rumbling and incoherent support from their fellow villagers, similarly for most other villages. The Yamanaka wanted the magician to not feel too surprised if that was not the case with her, given her choices in the Forest of Death.