Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

The Daisushi Brothers' Gun Show

„Stay back, Mana." Junichi hissed at her while the Allied Ninja dealt with the prospect that this unexpected roadblock knew who they were and possibly a great deal more.

"No way," Mana shook her head. "I'm not letting any of you get hurt on my watch."

"Any of us get hurt... Your watch?" Junichi mumbled to himself.

"I'm afraid I must side with the young lady here, Junichi. There are four of us and four of them – young Mana is quite a tie-breaker." Cailar chuckled to himself, realizing that after all the time he disagreed with Junichi just to piss the old man off, he now genuinely felt like he was wrong in holding the young recruit back.

"We can handle it. She lacks training and can easily turn out to be a tiebreaker for the other side." Mollay felt the necessity to open his own rarely opened mouth.

"Come on, let's let Mana loose and see the wild soul that kicked the crap out of Guru Ayushi himself, huh?" Shitaka snickered.

"It appears that our Allied Ninja fellows are too modest to face us. Why don't you encourage them, brother?" one of the four road-blocking ninja turned to another, prompting him to step out and flex his massive arms beside his beefy chest.

All four of them were impressive specimens in physical training. They were also well past the age when they were supposed to appear as if they surpassed the conditioning of the human prime and yet they defied all odds in displaying remarkable bulk when one overlooked their grey hair and thick beards. Their attires were rags though all four had a penchant for jewelry and minor junk accessories that didn't give out the slightest chakra signal at all, suggesting them to be mere visual elements and nothing more.

"Wind Style: East Scorch!" one of the four monk-like rogues clapped his hands together and spun his head around while breathing in. Once he exhaled, the Allied Ninja had already scattered, being fully prepared for the man's attack.

A road-clearing tunnel of a barely visible heatwave reduced the trees in the way of the Wind Release favoring rogue ninja to dry husks. The drying effect was so potent, in fact, that Mana's vision began to blacken at its edges and shortness of breath persisted well outside of the immediate range where the tunneling heatwave blasted.

"You seem to have us at a disadvantage, what with knowing who we are..." Junichi spoke to the ninja blocking the path with a bemused expression that accurately portrayed the irritation he felt because of the fact that the enemy had enough intelligence to ambush them like this.

"Yeah, we'd appreciate a heads-up in case your heads are worth a detour to the bounty exchange office," Shikata winked at the enemy four of whited out eyes and thick hair.

"And why would we bother telling you anything at all?" one of the four stepped out in front of his hot-headed and heat-breathing brother while fixing his wristbands and preparing for a good bashing. "You're all going to be very dead soon enough."

"Arrogant as you may be, it's not like you four gentlemen are absolute idiots. Taking on four Allied Ninja all by yourselves is a daunting task, likely to cost you some effort and trouble. Wouldn't you like avoiding that trouble if at all possible?" Cailar teased the four, remarkable old men, appealing to their values as a quartet of possible ninja monks.

So, the prevailing theory of the Allied Ninja was that these four were indeed ninja monks. It wasn't at all difficult to imagine why a group of ninja monks would wish Mana's head after what she's done. After all, Guru Ayushi might not have practiced all of their various religions practiced on various ninja temples, though he was a highly spiritual man and a sworn non-interventionist. Just the kind of man that the ninja monks would respect.