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

A Single Gun and a Badge on the Table

"Thank you for your time and effort. You've done a remarkable work, far beyond what we've expected to get when we ordered that mission." Boss Midoben spoke in a tough and official tone. Mana felt like a miserable soldier who lost everything they had and stood in front of a spokesperson who just told them how grateful the village was for their sacrifice.

"Little Honda. There is no investigation on him, is there?" Mana spoke with bitterness in her voice. The last days working for Village Protection were spent patching up barriers and getting bled dry of her chakra to the point of exhaustion where she barely even wanted to chase after Honda at the end of the day.

"If you ever decide to work for us in the future, and, obviously, we'd like to see that, you could use some attitude adjustment," Midoben observed. "You were at the front of the line this whole time, working on the field, observing the chakra signatures on the system, watching the barriers. You were the investigation all along. I thought that after checking every nook and cranny you would have gotten the clue already. Age is an ugly thing. Holding back such potential."

Mana looked up to meet the eyes of the boss of the Village Protection. She was not sure if she should feel pissed, used or surprised by the way she's been used and how exactly the Village Protection was searching for Honda.

"Honda is a monster, was that not what you reported to Lord Sixth? An abomination of experimentation with the size of a house and the mind of a toddler, does that strike you as the type to evade our detection? The reason why we're not all over Little Honda is that he is not a threat to the village, because he's no longer inside the village." Midoben stated, pouring with boldness and bluntness.

"Did you pick up on him leaving?" Mana wondered.

Midoben turned around, he refused to entertain this topic any further. The man showed as much after he picked up Mana's documentation and handed it to her. A report of everything she's done for the Village Protection, a glowing recommendation for a future application and a little something that Mana noticed carrying a sealed envelope stuffed in the middle. It most likely would not have submitted to attempts of being opened without the handiwork of the Hokage's Assistant.

"I look forward to employing your services in the future." Midoben turned his head halfway back to let Mana know she could leave anytime she chose to.

"That's only if I choose to work with the Village Protection in the future." Mana almost growled out. This was not quite her way of talking to people or handling things but if there was one type of people that pissed her off more than people that enjoyed taking lives it was people who looked the other way while declaring themselves stout defenders of life.

"You will have no other choice. Your dream is to go high, is it not? Jounin, Sannin, Kage... Whatever it is, you are not from a clan influential and powerful enough to get you there without a proper specialization. There is more to being a Kage or a Sannin than just leaving on field missions. Sometimes, to gather trust and influence, you need to sit down and grind a little." Midoben turned his head back at his candles, he may have been smiling or gritting his teeth, from where Mana stood, she could have never told.

"Nothing builds more trust than the cooking ninja. You can't eat empty promises of protection." Mana was getting sick of the office and the man running it. Midoben was not a bad man, likely he was not even a bad ninja but Mana wanted to confront Honda and bring him back home so much that, the way this man has been holding her back from it, he embodied every obstacle in her way.

The head of the Village Protection did not reply, he barely twitched a muscle but Mana could have sworn he was grinning even if she could not see it. It was a social feeling of understanding that went a bit beyond just seeing or sensing something like one's chakra signature. It was much more ethereal.