Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Date Night

"Lose your match and retire, are you sure"? Mana's father looked at his daughter in confusion. To him, this announcement must have come out of nowhere.

"Yeah. I saw today that I can help much more people as a performer on stage. Ever since I became a ninja all I've done was fail. I've failed Shimo, I wasn't there to help Sugemi in a tough moment, I wasn't strong enough to stand with Tanshu-sensei and help him survive that Kage Summit... I could sit here listing all the people I've let down and failed to save for days. Today I've seen how being a simple stage magician can help people, instead of foolishly dreaming of power strong enough to save the entire world. I've been told many times in the Academy and outside that I'm being childish with my dreams, maybe it's about time I take note of those remarks", Mana fired up.

The magician was afraid by how tough her conviction was. Her heart was ready to denounce what she had worked for over a decade to build and give it all up, just to push all of her chips on another passion of hers, one that usually worked alongside the first but now got neglected for too long.

"Okay", father nodded and rested his head back on a cushion, extending his legs and resting his scarred and shaking in pain hands on his hips.

"Okay"? Mana raised an eyebrow. She expected her father to argue, even worse than that, Kiyomi and Meiko will probably outright try to punch her back into the path of a ninja.

"What do you expect me to tell you? My life is never going to be the same because I was a ninja and walked that path to its end, do you truly want me to bully my daughter into taking the path that took away my arms, my night sleep and part of my sanity? All that will satisfy me and your mother is if you're happy", the man huffed out. "Unless... You want to be talked out of it"?

"No"! Mana firmly crossed her hands, "Although... I can't just quit the Chuunin Exams now, if I put up a good fight, Stea may still get promoted. It'd be really rude of me to back out and ruin her chance at getting promoted and saving her village".

"Her village"? Father asked the magician to elaborate.

"Yeah, she once said something about that... Her village is really poor and struggles with basic resources, they're in dire need of higher ranking and more famous ninja to attract more clients", Mana nodded. "Frankly, I'd feel bad about beating her even if I tried".

"It's not about that", father coughed, "Promotion in the Chuunin Exams has nothing to do with winning or losing, remember. It's all about impressing the Ninja Council".

"I know that, dad", Mana nodded before looking through the kitchen window further away into a wilting apple tree in the yard.

"Okay, if that's what you want to do, go ahead. You're making a fair fee from your shows, you'll be capable of living a pretty lavish life that way and we won't have to worry about some cosmic size pirate crushing our daughter alongside with the entire planet every week", father mumbled it out in a slurry manner. He was getting really sleepy so Mana just smiled, covered him with a blanket and quietly tip-tapped into her own room to call it a day.

Two weeks had passed, marking halfway of the preparation time for the final match, something that came completely unnoticed to Mana. The girl had been working double time on her shows, putting on a magic show every other day while working on said magic show during the days off.

Mana had to admit she was happier than she was in a long time. She had reconnected with her parents as her father helped her work on props with his amazing insight into engineering them. He even helped her make a couple of after taking some of those miraculous herb mixtures he spoke with Mana about before. Initially the magician was worried about her father taking unknown mixtures without consulting a medical professional but seeing him happy and tinkering like that swatted those worries away.