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

A Mouthful of Bitter Snow Pills

Kouta's head turned to the right to follow after the light sound coming from that direction. Unlike Mana, the young man still reacted to things a fraction of a moment after it happened and while for the magician it was no trouble at all to see these types of reactions, it happened to be a whole different matter when flipped the other way around.

"How many died?" Mana asked. It may have seemed cold to most that she would not try to reaffirm if her own boyfriend was okay after an invasion of some of the craziest and most brutish tribes of killers and raiders out there but the simple truth was that she did not have to. She had not a hint of doubt that something of this level would not threaten the Jugo in the slightest.

"None." Kouta grinned. "Yushijin and I joined forces. His illusion was crazy effective on those guys and whatever minor injuries I did see are treated. I wanted to help Yushijin fight those guys off but he insisted that I served my purpose a different way."

"You fought them off all by yourself?" Mana's eyebrows tilted in respect for the leader of Team Fir.

"I didn't do anything you haven't done." Yushijin shrugged before pointing at the magician's bald companion with his chin. "Friend of yours?"

"More like an itch I can't scratch. He's far faster than I am meaning I couldn't lose him," Mana lamented. She probably could have given this Kumogakure ninja the slip by using genjutsu on him but she chose to save her chakra for the upcoming encounters with the tribe or if these Kumogakure ninja actually decided to stir trouble.

"You're so mean!" the freaky baldy leaned back while placing his hands on his cheeks as he shrieked it out like some classic cartoon character. Mana may have chuckled if she hadn't seen this man disembowel dozens of people with a single swing of one of his lightning whips.

"She is right though, we are under no obligation to make friends here." A more disgruntled declaration echoed from the left. Mana turned her eyes to face the Kumogakure ninja she had not sensed before. A tall and moderately athletic in build youth with tall and spiky blond hair and a handful of feathers sticking out from his headband that did its best to streamline his hair. "We just share a common objective, that is all."

Mana had to hand it to this person. While the blood dripping from his tekkokagi claws disgusted the magician, the fact that he managed to not only survive but thrive during the invasion while suppressing his chakra completely was impressive. Suppressing one's chakra meant not only becoming impossible to tell from a civilian to a sensor – it literally meant becoming as strong as a civilian for the duration of the use of the suppression technique. The genius of battle and skill required to overcome hundreds of super-human level opponents while suppressed to such an extent was remarkable, even if it was a talent for murder.

Mana's eyes turned to above. Where the one with the clawed gauntlets did his best to sneak up on the magician, this incoming one tried nothing of the sort. It almost seemed as if though he just decided to drop by. This was the sizable signature that the magician had sensed blocking off the escape before. The fact that these four offered one of them with the largest chakra signature for such a meaningless task almost proved amusing had Mana's mood not been soiled by all the blood that's been shed.

The ground under the kunoichi's feet tried to spit her up as if refusing to hold her any longer. This rejection felt a little more forgivable given how a heavyweight brawler who appeared to not be interested in wearing a shirt smashed right into the middle of the square and demolished a handful of damaged buildings that were doing their best to survive the attack. Mana had never thought it for a second that these four cared about the wellbeing of this settlement but this sort of recklessness pushed her irritation scale further still.