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

Reconciliation

Mana had no idea why she was so surprised to see the Konoha streets bustling with activity. Ninja buzzing about performing basic rescue jobs and fixing what was broken. There did not appear to be any Senju working their magic just yet, the ninja working on the rescue still were not sure if everyone was pulled out from under the wreckage before the unsteady ground could be fixed and buried for good. There was probably still evidence that the Konohagakure Police Force could find useful.

A quick scan of her surroundings with her chakra sensory suggested to Mana that the Allied Ninja were not around. That was quite odd. The magician certainly expected a whole lot of trouble after surfacing and was beginning to practice what she would tell those international investigators after showing her face to them not too long after leaving them to face the Spliced ninja.

Mana remained on the dirt, letting Axolkin just lie helplessly nearby while the Congregation gathered one by one to the surface. At least the wait until all of the people she intended to rescue gather provided the magician with an excuse why she could sit down and regain her breath for a short while. Once more than a handful of the Congregation started emerging from the sewers, the Konoha ninja finally got interested in Mana surfacing with the people she intended to rescue.

They looked quite grumpy and hostile. Perhaps the Allied Ninja tipped them off about what Mana did underground? That would have certainly explained it. Regardless of their overall negative attitude toward the magician, the chuunin were as of yet unsure just what they were supposed to do with the magician. Some of them grabbed her by the girl's wrists and intended to capture her and bring her to the Police Force HQ, some of them thought she was to be taken right to the Intelligence Division for interrogation while others thought that before hasty judgment of Mana's betrayal was to be drawn she should debrief the Hokage.

There was a man Mana wanted to see the least, however she kind of would have had to. The intelligence she found out was simply too massive and over not only her but pretty much any head in the entire world. Guru Ayushi had gone mad and traveled the world with the intent of recovering his old and dulled fighting senses as well as gathering new power, created a cult and now intended on flipping the world table before placing his much fancier one in its place.

"They don't seem to trust you very much. You betrayed Guru, you turned your back at being a key religious figure in establishing the new order, you've abandoned the creation of your own world without pain or misery..." Axolkin kept on babbling. He must have shed quite a lot of the toxic waste in his system to be able to talk this intelligibly. Still, his skin color did not look good and his body pores still sweated and leaked waste so the ninja and the village were in no danger from him.

"This is one of the Spliced ninja. These poor people are what's left of those that disappeared around the village." Mana tried to let the ninja know before they settled on a fate for her where she would be unable to tend to the people she worked so hard to rescue.

"These guys need medical attention." A chuunin noted giving the Congregation a sorry glare full of disgust and pity for the people they once were.

Perhaps after months if not years of slow and steady medical treatment the Congregation could be returned to their initial shapes. The physical wear and tear would be much easier to heal, a little bit of mending, a little bit of proper sustenance and no menial labor as well as limits for the religious rituals they could undergo. The mental changes would be much harder to work with, an entire tirade of brainwashing programming was to be cleansed, almost their entire brains needed resetting. Could a person still come out intact after such intense work and a complete do-over, even if curing the Congregation's mental state could be done?

It did not matter that much if she would be brought to the Intelligence Division, spend some nights at the Police Force HQ treated like a potential traitor or face the Hokage, as long as the Congregation was properly taken care of. Then again, perhaps she should have cared? Did she not want to take part in fixing these disappearances to become a Sannin? To become a figure, not unlike that which Guru Ayushi used to be, someone strong and wise enough to perform the legendary role which Sannin have been playing for years – serve as a weapon that never needed to be fired in Konoha's arsenal.