Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Weed or Root

Whenever one treated Meiko to some food or, in this case, allowed her to treat herself, there was always the awkward moment when one was done with their food but, naturally, it took far longer for Meiko to finish gorging on her own treats. The blacksmith was the type of person to inspire worry if they could both eat and talk at the same time so Mana could recall just relaxing and watching her friend's finishing touches that lasted longer than her own full course.

Except, right now, there was nothing relaxing about hanging around the place any longer than absolutely necessary. Still, with Meiko, the fact that food was still on the table comprised all the necessary elements of that which was absolutely necessary.

Something that came off as a new experience to Mana was the fact that while she walked the evening Konoha streets alongside a friend, she received far fewer of the more abhorrent examples of disrespect and the disdain that the village felt for Mana's guts. The worst she got while walking alongside Meiko was a few sullen stares but that was about it and it was just the ground layer comprised of mere feathers compared to what Mana was used to.

"I was always wondering though, you make more money than both me and Kiyomi, right? I mean, maybe less than Kiyomi now that she's become all big Yamanaka princess and all but... Still... How come your arsenal has mostly remained the same, you still live in the same house and it feels like you can barely afford eating out?" Meiko squinted at Mana. If anyone else asked her that question, they'd have been smacked across the face with something mean and undeserving though this was Meiko, someone with whom Mana went through thick and thin and someone she could have always relied on and wished a similar relationship from the other side.

"Things aren't easy right now. My mother's business is suffering because of what I've done. One chunk of people walked out and never looked back when I got imprisoned, far more left when mother spoke out in my defense in the public. I mean... Our family name is on the title of the Nakotsumi Café, it was to come eventually that she'd have to speak her mind," Mana pocketed her hands. Focusing on kicking an empty can of conserved tomatoes helped her not fumble over her words or crash in embarrassment.

"Yeah, though... I wonder if anyone really expected your mother to have anything else but words of support..." Meiko scratched the back of her head. The blacksmith stood out so much with her blazing hairdo and challenging to the eye casual streetwear that nobody ever started off looking at Mana when the two were sharing their time together.

"Maybe not but things are rarely rational when human emotion is involved..." Mana sighed. "Case and point – my father. It costs my soul and then some to keep him alive and hooked up to the life-support machinery."

"Whoa, it costs that much?" Meiko freaked out. "Then again, it's cutting edge gadgetry. No other place on Earth has comparable medical technology to us and gizmos of pretty much any kind are expensive to come by."

Meiko intended on speaking up, Mana knew what she wanted to talk about and that was why she brought up this topic again. The blacksmith was never somebody that quivered in the face of difficult topics and she was always blunt even when she risked offending somebody though now might have been the first time in fresh memory that the redhead hesitated to shred it as she saw it.

"You think that we should let him go, don't you?" Mana did the hard lifting for her friend.

"Well... I mean... Look..." Meiko started stuttering.

"That's alright, if anyone cared, they'd suggest the same thing. Heck, the medical staff would have long since called it quits. This sort of stunt is not common, usually, people are just let go. It's odd that they even allowed us to bypass their usual policy and let us buy favorable medical opinions." Mana sighed.