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

Collective Mentality

"He appears to have run away..." Meiko observed with nonchalant innocence that was almost admirable and whimsical.

"No, really? Hanshin couldn't tell over the deafening silence to his call." The special jounin wrapped his hands over his chest and looked away, pouting his lips and souring his eyebrows as if posing for a photo of a momentous occasion.

Meiko grinned, stretching her face out to the sides like a simian. She was pretty amused by how irritated her superior got over something this trivial.

"Well? Can you tell where he's gone?" Hanshin turned to Mana.

"Not quite, his chakra remained suppressed the whole time and he doesn't appear to be using the mind controlling weapon anymore. It's almost as if he's realized what was giving him away." Mana shook her head. She had to hand it to the spy, his use of the Chakra Suppression Jutsu was impressive. The magician had no trouble picking up chakra of civilians yet it was troublesome to tell the chakra of this man from a rock.

"Figures..." Hanshin sighed. The man placed his palm to his forehead and rubbed his temples. A sign of frustration of having lost the enemy after managing to disrupt their plan somewhat, now it was back to square one. "Look out for surprise attacks. He might not even be gone, if Mana cannot sense him either way, we won't be able to tell."

"Huh? Wouldn't just revealing himself be really stupid right now?" Kiyomi pondered, questioning Hanshin's judgment.

"Maybe, then again, Hanshin knows nothing about that eel. When you do not know the enemy's plan, any course of action might seem crazy, because you don't know what they're doing." Hanshin replied.

Mana was too embarrassed by the fact that after all the chakra sensory sharpening and specialized training she still managed to lose a target, even one with quite refined skill at the Chakra Suppression Jutsu, Kiyomi and Hanshin were too busy with pity banter, trying to bite each other in the behind to notice Meiko casually walking up to the unconscious, jawless spy and reaching down behind his belt. Only when the blacksmith pulled out a shimmering, metallic plate attached to a piece of damaged and damp with blood red cloth did the Konoha party notice the genius in its simplicity discovery of the blacksmith.

"It's a headband protector..." Kiyomi yelled out in disbelief. "I can't believe how stupid those guys were!"

"It's not like the headband was in plain view. The spy was trying to conceal it under his clothes. He likely trusted his comrades to dispose of his body if he ever got taken out." Mana tipped the front of her top hat so that her eyes could better examine the shiny accessory. She had hidden most of her upper face to hide the embarrassment she felt over the failure to track the spy and prevent his escape.

"I wanted to nab this earlier, it would have given Hanshin an opening. Imagine how flustered those two would have gotten..." Meiko laughed out with wickedness in her expression. Without a shadow of a doubt, the scenario she had described was flashing through her eyes. Given the concentration training that the young woman went through with Mana, her imagination was vivid.

Just about everything associated with this fight gone wrong. Mana got her mind all tangled into some strange method of mind control she couldn't immediately shake off despite all of her devoted illusionary training tempering her mind to where she could do complex problem solving while affected by brain-melting fever. Then she hurt a whole bunch of these poor Yordalarans who were also, not unlike her, puppeteered by the foreign spies...

"Ummm... Excuse me but... What the hell is going on? What about the election?" one of the still conscious Yordalarans approached the team of Konoha ninja with the question that undoubtedly singed in all of their minds.