Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Games of Body and Soul

No Rest for the Weary

Mana bit her lip and cried out in pain. A stitch that Yushijin applied happened to touch another bruise by accident. One that she had acquired during the week. Due to her ongoing exhaustion, lack of time to eat properly or do anything but fight crime and meditate on how to better fight crime once that time of the weekly routine came, Mana found her wounds rather hesitant to heal by themselves as they normally would have.

"Sorry. Kouta usually did this stuff. I did not think you'd get as reckless as to body-shield the guy you're after." The young chuunin sighed. Regardless of his lack of experience in such matters, he was quite determined to patch Mana up by stitching the deeper cuts and applying the bandage. She was his responsibility to bring back to the village after all.

"Can't you do that time-freezing thing? If you time it right you can trick her mind, can't you?" Thumb exclaimed like a lazy cat, she was just hanging around the Security office without a clearly defined reason or destination at this point.

"Stitching is troublesome enough as it is. I don't think I have the focus to spare, also it would exhaust my resources quite extensively to use a technique this complex again and again just to make her skip the painful bits." Yushijin replied with patience.

"I could do this myself, you know." Mana pouted her lips.

"No. Your time is up. We're heading home after I'm done. I cannot stand any more delays or distractions." Yushijin cut it down.

"You guys did get pretty lucky that the monks happened to help out when they did." Sora finally approached the two Konoha ninja and a party of as of yet unclear allegiances. The officer was holding a bunch of documents, the present officers were working hard to protocol all the arrests and write up cases for the Diamond Hand Rings who were arrested.

"It was not just a matter of luck. It was something I figured out would inevitably happen after I heard the warnings from the monks who were relaxing in the gallery. Donyoku-san certainly overplayed his hand and overestimated his welcome." Mana shook her head. While she should have reasonably admitted that luck did play a part in how the higher-ranking monks reacted to the escalating situation in the top floor, she still wanted the credit she deserved for guiding the situation where it went.

"So that was why you got cut so many times on purpose? To make the monks more friendly towards you three?" Yushijin raised a curious eyebrow.

"Not quite. I genuinely did not want to just stand and let Donyoku die if I could have done anything about it. It was just that both factors played into each other," Mana shrugged, making the chuunin tending to her wounds prick her with the needle again. By now Yushijin had apologized to Mana enough times to this time just shrug it off and continue with the task he himself was so firm to complete.

"Things ended up quite well, all things considered. Apart from the small tension between the Shukuba Security and the Fire Temple over this scandal... I mean you three still were fighting inside their mansion after all. They're still not peachy about that." Sora insisted before walking off with his documents and getting back to work. All this hustling and paperwork would be something Mana would see for the final time as her need to stay in this village was now gone with the Diamond Hand finally being behind bars.

"Yeah, Itemi-san being brought to the hospital, the monks a bit mad but less so at us than they are at Donyoku-san for reneging on their deal and Donyoku-san resting in the cells and Raitoncide and Index in the Shukuba arrest house, ready for Tribunal..." Mana recounted.

"So the monks had some sort of a deal with the administration of Shukuba to have property here? Sounds a bit too shady for them to complain about it and raise too much noise." Yushijin sighed after tying the last knots of bandages around Mana's wounds and stretching his tired body out. He had plenty more wounds to take care of than he had initially thought when he demanded to let Mana check her wounds for a safer trip home.