Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Spiritual Outrage

Buhakim's hands erratically moved around, doing the youth's best to get the partially downed giant Bodhisattva back on its feet and ready for battle. Nanaba grinned with energy and vigor before spreading her feet wide and leaning her body down, preparing for a powerful leap. The intensity of the chakra flowing through her body scattered the remnants of dust scattered on the ground and the fallen snow, as well as creating a violent vortex that blasted away the continuously falling snow as well.

"Fire Style: Shooting Star!" Nanaba chanted out, weaving her hand seals before breathing out a turbulent jet of flames, the stream of blazes formed a man-sized fireball with sharp angles, somewhat resembling a cartoonish star shape.

"Puppetry Technique: Solitary Perfection!" Buhakim ordered his puppet, before it could fully recover with three hands being occupied with pushing the puppet off of the barrier it slammed into. Lazily the puppet shot forward its palm, driving it right into the star-shaped fireball and pushing it right back at Nanaba. The size of the puppet's arm was too great for Nanaba to dodge, given how she had dashed at the puppet right after blasting it with the fireball, aiming to attack it physically as well.

This time the jutsu actually appeared to hurt Nanaba as her heart-freezing scream echoed through the audience and her limp, partially blazing body fired out of the resulting explosion and slammed into the arena wall.

"Puppetry Technique: Solitary Awakened Perfection!" Buhakim once again commanded Bodhisattva to attack the weightlessly dangling, stuck in the hole in the wall she herself left Nanaba. The upper right arm of the puppet lit up with blue chakra flare as it slammed its palm right to where Nana was stuck in. An explosion of blue flame vortexes and smoke erupted taxing the protective barriers to once again work overtime in order to protect the awestruck audience.

A loud popping sound made Buhakim's eyes widen in shock. Ripples and cracks started splitting all across the arm that slammed the downed girl deeper into the wall as splinters and larger chunks of wood and metal began blasting off of the splitting appendage of the Bodhisattva. As the pulsing reactive force of Nanaba struggling against the Bodhisattva reached the colossal faces of the puppet, the entire structure got violently jerked and tossed backwards, falling on its bottom and opening up completely.

Kiyomi had expected to see Nanaba leap out from the rubble of the crushed wall and fire away at the puppet, continue the endless streak of brutal madness that these two have created but it appeared that the Jinchuuriki girl couldn't quite do that. Wiping the blood off of her busted lip and nose, trying to open up her swollen right eye, the vibrant blonde stumbled out of the rubble, rolling large chunks of it aside of her.

*****

"She's fighting the puppet", Mana noted. Usually it would have been advisable to target the puppeteer, especially once the puppet was brushed aside, as it was twice already in the resulting brawl.

"She wants it to look good, she wants to destroy the puppet and see the audience's reaction to it. She wants to be seen and acknowledged", Kiyomi sighed.

"I can sort of relate to that, but that will cost her the promotion. Being acknowledged by the Council of professionals and being visually appealing to capture your audience are two different things. A true ninja is supposed to be the opposite of an entertainer", Mana shook her head.

"What do you know of her thoughts?" Stea sneered at Mana, it appeared that even the magician herself was surprised by the rather passive aggressive reaction from her opponent. "You have been an entertainer for the most of your life, from what I've heard. These people loved you since even before you stood on the stage, they spoke something about cardboard boxes and flowery dresses during your show. That feeling you have during your shows is the desire to selfishly indulge in that love you already captured, Nanaba wants to be acknowledged for the first time. She feels invisible and wants that to end. These two sensations are fundamentally different."