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

Eyes Crystal Clear

A fusillade of explosions littered the Third Training Ground in Konohagakure. The outburst of destructive collisions between the duo who were training together caused multiple shockwaves that sent the water of the river rippling and washing at the forest to the other side. Given how the clashes were not so contained as to erupt only above a singular landmass, the violent training session soon turned the battlefield all submerged.

After one more, the most powerful collision, both combatants jumped back to their own respective sides landing atop of the barely sticking above the surface logs that the unruly or disqualified from the training genin often got tied to.

Mana checked on a nasty bruise on her cheek where her training partner managed to tag her with a smack of the back of her weapon. That was remarkable restraint given the rather bitter history between the two. The wound will do fine alongside the collection of other scars that Mana had gathered in this training session.

"You didn't even try this time. I thought you were trying to master some jutsu today?" The nagging voice of Budoki Erumo reached Mana's ears through the cover of her messy hair with some broken sticks still sticking out from within of their unruly embrace.

"Things got too messy. You definitely brought it to me this time..." Mana grinned with apologetic eyes. Usually, one would have perceived such a notion when someone tried to learn a particular technique but failed to even attempt to use it as wasting their time.

Without wasting any more of it than it already was wasted, the two girls rushed at one another. Mana gripped her treasured wand in her right hand as her sole defense against the kunai and other weapons that her opponent pulled on her at close distance.

Fighting this way was not Mana's forte. Clearly, neither was it Erumo's strong suit as a supporting ninja, maybe that was why she was a perfect training partner for Mana. Both of them weren't the greatest close-range combatants with Mana's close-range prowess being solely focused on deflecting or avoiding blows and tagging the enemy with counters whereas now she tried to add a particularly straining ninjutsu technique on top. On the other hand, Erumo was just plain sluggish, persistent and hearty but slow and lacking weight behind her blows.

Granted, that assessment only fared well when applied to a decent hand-to-hand combatant standard. Erumo's physical strength served as sufficient to make Mana lose breath and flinch upon being hit, often even dragging some augmentations out of the magician despite her dislike of using them in battle in general.

"Lightning Style: Magical Punishment!" Mana yelled out overcome by the strain of controlling and channeling her chakra just perfectly so close up to her opponent with such spontaneity. The terrifying sound of crackling lightning forced Erumo to attempt and withdraw, the last time she failed to do so against Mana during training she got shocked by Mana's Magician's Touch.

Strands of lightning chakra reached and branched out, wrapping and connecting with one another like a complicated web of solid lightning as it wrapped around Erumo's kunai and stopped just there. After Mana clenched her extended palm into a fist, the erupting lightning crackled and stormed in a mighty show of crushing force that was enough to chew the kunai in Erumo's hand into a pathetic chunk of steel. The resulting junk would have reminded a neutral observer more of a steel memorial to a chewed up piece of bubble gum than its former bladed shape.

Erumo gripped her burnt crispy red and broken palm with her other hand and fell on one knee. Even before she signaled for the end of the sparring session, Mana knew that it was over. Her genin training partner almost got humbled by failing to land properly on top of the water surface, leave alone thoughts of continuing the training any further.

Mana looked with a worried glare at Erumo's injury but the girl just placed some compresses on it to numb the burns and wrapped it in bandages from the basic supplies she had in her ninja pouch. After noting how wise her partner was for carrying similar supplies in what most genin used just to stuff it with shuriken, kunai, and explosives, the magician looked up at the location of the Sun hidden behind the clouds.