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

Lessons Learnt Hard Way

On their way to the Konoha Administration building the pair of ninja could not fail to notice the number of wanted posters for disappeared people on the board near the gate. It was not in any way a spike for the phenomena but what troubled Mana was that the mystery of these disappearances was not yet resolved.

When it all began it seemed to Mana that it was something ground shaking and better left for the village officials and high ranking ninja to deal with but the longer the mystery remained unsolved and the more weird clues surfaced, the more Mana wanted a piece of it. She was not sure if anyone of the disappeared people had died, some of them were found perfectly fine, in the case of Tanko Shigin – even improved.

And yet... It was possibly the greatest mystery Konoha has faced in a while, possibly even one of its darkest and strangest historic moments since the Second Great Ninja War. Thoughts of taking a crack at it seemed almost like moments of foolish, youthful vanity to the magician. Who was she that she thought she would succeed with what the village was failing to figure out for a couple of years now.

The Administration building was about as busy as Mana had remembered it being at this time of day. Given how an order to bring Mana back was issued and handed to a chuunin, a relatively intermediate rank of ninja, the magician expected some odd remarks of weird glances coming her way but none were issued. The civil servants buzzing in the Administration just kept on stirring whatever the building was cooking.

The pair even had to wait by the closed doors to the Hokage office before Lord Sixth would even see them. While waiting Mana could not help but imagine a great hero bringing back a heinous S-Rank villain alive with them and having to wait by the closed door before the Hokage could give a mission to children where they would have to clean dishes in Ichiraku Ramen. For obvious reasons the thought made Mana crack a grin even through her tired state.

Once the two had made their way into Lord Sixth's office, the man wasted no time before asking Yushijin to report.

"As you ordered, I've brought Nakotsumi Mana back with me. She offered no resistance but due to her engagements in Shukuba she was injured at the moment of my approach and we had to wait until she was fully recovered." Yushijin bowed on one knee while reporting, after being addressed.

Lord Sixth barely even wasted a glance to look at Mana, it did not appear that he cared all that much if Mana was home or not. The magician was beginning to feel like her hunch on the man's issued mission being just a precaution in the case of her failure was just confirmed.

"Could you please tell me about those "engagements", Mana?" Lord Sixth wondered, still working on documentation while he addressed the magician. Despite being sore all over, Mana kneeled on one knee to report on her work in Shukuba.

"I've completed the mission objective given to me. After I exposed the ones responsible for the money laundering scheme, I found out that there were bigger forces at play that threatened the lives of the Shukuba people and I decided to stay there and help." Mana recounted everything she already told Sixth in her messages that she sent the man. Given the whole fiasco with people in Shukuba Security being replaced with plants of the Diamond Hand and the hawks being intercepted at one time, she thought that starting from the basics would be best.

"That does not seem like your job or your jurisdiction, don't you think? You could have easily spoiled our favors with the Shukuba Security..." Lord Sixth remarked with a sour tone.

"During my investigation, I found out that Shukuba Security was mostly corrupt and working with the criminal syndicate. They were even somewhat involved with the movie-making scheme too and the conflicts between the Security and the Diamond Hand threatened to spill over as both innocents and both sides were taking casualties." Mana tried standing her ground. She had clear reasons and felt justified in everything she did but, as always, her reasons were not always taken the same way by everyone else.