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

Grass Roots Negotiation

"Well... Now that this is over with, Hanshin is going to ask you all to clench your bottoms and leave this building. Hanshin would bet that the locals are just about accustomed enough to the chaos reaching out from this place to come and check it out. Provided they're pissed enough about the mess we've made here, which they must be." Hanshin demanded with a stern look at the frozen scene of the Iwagakure kunoichi glaring at the gruesome takedown of her leader with shock and uncertainty.

The Yordalaran collaborators were just shaking in their boots, refusing to play their parts any further than they already have. It was likely the fate of the frightening Iwagakure spy that petrified them, the man they considered the most dangerous one in the room based on his fearlessness in resorting to violence.

Mana wasn't sure at first where Hanshin was going with this but once the realization hit her she couldn't help it but have her jaw drop open. He was trying to defuse the situation without killing anyone, just like they agreed. That was surprisingly mature and jounin-like of the Konoha ninja, that being said, something made Mana just feel lucky that she somehow chose a path of life that Hanshin valued enough and that all the conditions fell so neatly into places for this to play out just right.

The only way that this would not have ended in a bloodbath.

Mana weaved a single hand seal. "Fire Style: Hitsuke!" she huffed out through moderate struggle. The contract, which the party of spies from Iwagakure and the Yordalaran collaborators were so busy drafting not too long before, lit up in flames. It was something obvious and silly to point out that Mana had little chakra left, however setting a single stack of papers ablaze did not require all that much effort. With the fire swallowing up the fated contract swallowing it up, Mana fell on her front, just barely having enough strength left to stop her fall with her arms.

It was beginning to feel like the gravity around her was intensifying, sweat dyed with blood was dripping off of the face of the young woman. It took notable strength to even lift her head up and look at the main scene in the northern part of the hall.

"Nicely done. A useless technique in combat but... Will do the job." Hanshin smirked like a smartass parent would smirk after their child had finally learned to draw the cheeky Sun in the corner of their painting.

"Now... Out you lot go." The special jounin turned back at the groveling schemers with a stern, death-inducing glare. "Don't forget to pick up your broken friend here too..."

"If you think for a second that this will break our Will of Stone..." the female Iwagakure spy rebelled. She pulled out a kunai and took a defensive knife-fighting stance. She clearly intended to score no victory here but considered throwing her life away preferable over the alternative of seeing her home burn down and the mountains that gave her home and put food on everyone's table leveled by the world's largest cascade of lightning bolts.

"Oh? Amusing..." Hanshin smirked again. He looked at the shaking Yordalaran politicians. "Maybe you intend to take me on all at once as well? After all, you guys are Yordalarans, you must have some fighting spirit in you and I am fairly winded after all this fighting... Who knows, maybe you all have a shot?"

Mana knew how cruel her superior's taunt was. These people had no chance even with their now completely paralyzed comrade who probably preferred his fate to still retaining his senses as the agony he would be in at the moment would have made him beg for death, no matter how stern and sturdy the Will of Stone was.

"You do know that it is more than likely the other settlers will kill you, right?" The special jounin taunted the groveling men some more as if taking some sick kicks out of it. "May as well go out swinging right now..."

"Even if it means death!" the Iwagakure kunoichi declared, charging at the opponent who now had his hands pocketed and just smirked with confidence. His eyes looked gleeful enough for a neutral observer to realize that, given his level of advanced perception, he was following every twitch and every smallest movement of the Iwagakure woman.