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

Down With the System

"The entire shinobi system?" Mana asked. "With stakes this high, it is not something I'd like to read from a file about. I will need as many details as possible."

"That is understandable. There is to be a summit between the Feudal Lords and the representatives of the Ninja Councils of every village as well as the select representatives from the civilians of the more notable establishments around the world. It will take place in the Orome resort on the farther end of Camellia road. The main question of the summit is – are the ninja still necessary in this day and age and perhaps it is time to tear down the shinobi system." Seventh said with a grim and serious expression.

Usually, from what Mana remembered of Uzumaki Midoben, he was a man who either had a smirk on his face or implied with other social cues that he had something up his sleeve that would give him an advantage in any unfavorable situation related to the conversation at hand. In the present case, he was completely serious.

"Why me specifically?" Mana wondered. "There are loads of more competent ninja around. From what I can feel, even Kusagoro Juugo is back in the village." The magician spoke with her eyes closed and her sensory expanding with perceptive tendrils that matched if not surpassed the degree of mastery over the ability that Gasco Patura had during the Chuunin Exams.

"True, however, skill is not the defining characteristic that the Feudal Lords are looking for. The instructions were very specific not to send an exceptional ninja nor a newbie incapable of putting their case into words or one that hasn't seen much of what they are talking about. The villages were instructed to send average ninja, as close to the definition of average as possible." Seventh sighed while leaning back in his chair.

Mana swallowed a bitter figurative pill. Being called average stabbed at her chest worse than being called miserable or terrible would have. It was quite likely the most efficient blow possible to deliver to the magician. It was tough to say why it irked her that much, perhaps it was just her nature of preferring flashiness and entertaining an audience during her free time that made being called average feel worse than being belittled or criticized. Lord Seventh's face was clear – he did not mean it as an offense, then why did it never stop feeling like one?

"Very well. If the entire ninja system is at stake, I have no right to refuse." Mana bowed her head before approaching the desk and taking the mission file.

It will be a pain filling it up and then submitting it back to the desk once the mission was over, thinking the whole time about the fact that she's been singled out as the definition of average. After everything she's seen and everything she's done, in this crazy world, she was only as good as the definition of average... Almost as if any other given ninja was notable for successes and failures quite as notable as those of Mana's. Then again, perhaps it was the balance of successes and failures that helped her find her place in this uncomfortable category?

"Wow, they did not waste any time," father grumped out. He turned his eyes away looking irritated, the physicality and self-evidence of his grumpy state did scare the magician.

This was a man who had lost his ninja career to a crushing injury, then learned to manage the pain with the help of black market herbs and elixirs concocted by a freakish cult of rogue ninja and just flat out criminals, before learning to deal with his pain in other ways – by helping the magician with her shows, only to have his daughter constantly brush that off as well. It felt guilty dismissing father's pain like this, always thinking that it was a problem for another time, that after this current thing Mana was occupied with was done, she'd be all into her shows and her father would once more have a place beside her...

And yet that was never the case, there was always another thing after that one thing, ad infinitum.

"I've been away for three years. That's a lot of time to have someone employed but not working for. Especially in the ninja line of work, where people often barely see their adult years." Mana sighed. There was no other way to do this, she could simply not sacrifice the integrity of the entire ninja system and then also bring shame to her village by not showing up. Her name and data would be immediately sent to the responsible parties hosting the summit so they would know if she simply sat this one out.