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

Do Combo

The escalation of the talking stage to when the team sparring session broke out came without any bells ringing or clear cut lines. Before Mana would even properly enter her fighting stance and properly evaluate the scuffle she got herself into she felt that familiar feeling of disruption in her own chakra pathways, not only that – she sensed it also in Kouta's system. Yushijin had activated his Last Resort genjutsu again, this time, without warning.

Even if they proved to be completely ineffective fighting together, just having Kouta beside her helped Mana a great deal as it gave her another target to identify potential genjutsu on. Even as a sensor, Mana could not sense her own chakra per se unless she controlled it in a very specific way to where so much of it leaked out that she could pick up on the leaking signature. By having Kouta there beside her, she would have a blank slate to go by.

Busting through Yushijin's illusion came more and more naturally, Mana had almost expected to catch her opponent unprepared by managing to shatter it for both her and Kouta with a disrupting influx of mental and physical energy flowing through her body, in just the right amounts to derail Yushijin's influence on her and Kouta's system too.

Something was wrong. Yushijin had not advanced one step forward, surely he had a short opening while he activated his illusion and before Mana had dispelled it. While it may not have been enough to exploit properly, even with Yushijin's speed, he should not have known that... Unless... Just blindly swiping his still sheathed sword to bust some bones was not his intention.

"Thanks for that!" Kouta declared and shifted his stance into a more offensive one, preparing to commit the greatest mistake in the last couple of hours. Mana threw her hand back to press it against his chest and stop him.

"Stop." She uttered.

"What's wrong? Let's go at it. If you don't want to fight you can just stay behind me and break Yushijin's illusions, that will be profoundly useful all in itself." Kouta objected. Since when did they question each other's judgments?

"Where is Erumo right now?" Mana tried to make her eager to rampage boyfriend think.

"Hmmm... Good call..." Kouta finally realized after looking around with a frantic look, wishing nothing more than to verify Erumo's location so his charge would be justified but after failing to find them and realizing the danger of not knowing for certain where his teammate was, calmed down somewhat.

"It appears we've entered a stalemate... Neither of us will advance..." Yushijin grinned.

He wished it was so. Sure, he was smarter than to attack one against two when his ability to handle Mana alone was still in question, obviously neither Mana nor Kouta will attack while the second incarnation of Konoha's Great Trapster in the making was still lost, regardless, every second wasted standing around was time given for Erumo to set up for her favored type of battle.

"Can you do something for me?" Mana asked Kouta without turning her eyes away from the direction of the enemy. Her sensory could vaguely track Erumo's location despite her greatly improved skill at concealing her presence visually, minimizing the sounds she made and neutralizing her smell completely in just the brief split-second it took for Yushijin to distract the two opponents of his.

"So... Are you going to tell me what?" Kouta raised an eyebrow. "I can't read your mind, you know..." he uttered after an awkward pause in between anyone speaking up.

"Sorry about that, to think that I'd get used to the mental link after just one mission..." Mana cracked a grin to compliment her genuine apology. "I'd like you to distract him".

"B-But I thought I wasn't to..."

"Long-range..." Mana whispered, Kouta may have been a goof at times but he appeared to read her lips just fine and nod in excitement. The Juugo halfling aimed his extended hand at the enemy allowing its shape to shift into that of a large cannon from the elbow down, dyeing almost wooden in texture but Mana knew from experience that the material that the Juugo skin morphed into was incalculably sturdier than mere wood.