An epitome of headaches fitting to be a description in the textbook of headaches hit Mana's head as she opened her eyes. She'd woken up from bad situations before, she's even once woken up from nearly dying, this couldn't have felt worse than that and yet somehow it managed to feel like that. It was like some device was placed on her head, similar to the snappers that snap the shells of nuts, that kept applying pressure to her temporal bones and yet barely not hard enough to crush it completely. This was one of the worse waking ups that the girl has had throughout her life.
Even if Mana felt the warm if not heated up sand beneath her cheeks and her hands as it shifted through them she could not see it. All that she could see was completely white, nor could Mana hear any sounds of the desert like the howling winds and scurrying little critters squirming around the sand. All that Mana could hear was loud shrieks, almost like two rusted pieces of metal rubbing against each other close to her ears, the girl could feel warm drops of blood making their way down her face and her cheeks from her ears, however.
She was blind, deaf, hurt and bleeding, without the ability to control chakra and in the desert. Quietly Mana spoke into the wind, asking for someone she knew, naming all of her friends but their names just went completely unnoticed as Mana couldn't feel any of them touching her, had they spoken to her or gestured for her she'd have not seen them but if Kouta was with her he'd have known that. She was all alone. Alone in a different country, in the middle of she knew not where surrounded by endless miles of desert spanning one-fifth of the entire land mass of the planet. This may have just been the worst kind of trouble she's ever been in.
Sitting on her bottom would've been the equivalent of waiting for her death. She could just vaguely remember the explosive cataclysm that transpired and despite the situation reminding one where most people would feel boredom, Mana felt desperation and worry. A worry for her friends. If she was to die here, blind and deaf, bleeding out on the sand she at least wished to know if her friends were alright. Slowly the girl rolled on her shoulder that ached the least and forced her body off the ground, picking herself up and stumbling for a while as her brain struggled to keep her body upright.
"I need to keep moving, I... I need to do something... I can't just wait here for death." Mana spoke silently to herself, at least meant to do so as she could not hear herself and couldn't really control her speech. If her friends were there they'd have stopped her but no one did, there really was no one there, no friends nor enemies. The only enemy around was the desert itself.
"This isn't so bad, I still have my skin, it wasn't singed off so I can feel with it, I can touch, I'll know when it's hot and when it's cold... I can manage... For a while." The magician thought to herself trying to confuse herself that somehow she wasn't in a total hole of the bottom, unlike any trouble she'd found herself in before that.
For a couple of hours the girl just kept on walking, feeling the sand in front of her with her fingers, softly letting it shift through it, she tried to speak to herself loud enough to alert any predators of her location, to sing or to just hum some melodies she could remember. Most snakes and larger predators of the wild were afraid of people, after all – people were armed, some of them could breathe fire from their mouths or employ lightning at their command or summon tornadoes and typhoons. People were out of the food chain and upon hearing a single tune of their voice most predators cleared out of the way. That way Mana may have avoided dozens of snakes that lurked in the sand burrowed in the sand she may have stepped onto and died normally.
Finally, the girl realized from her sweating and slowly scolding skin that it was becoming far too hot to keep walking. Mana helplessly wandered around trying to locate a rock to hide under, to see if she could find some shade but she could only find a cactus that she found in a rather painful way, luckily she didn't swat her hand at it too hard...
Mana removed her shirt and placed it on the cactus, placing the blazer that she carried around on it to make some shade. She was no survivalist, she was just getting lucky so far, there was only that much that she could do in her situation. She was just stumbling into things, lucky to not having been bitten and died slowly grasping for another breath of air as the snake's poison paralyzed her muscles and lungs... She was pathetic.
At the state which she was in currently, she was no savior, she was no hero that would change the world. No one would remember her story and be inspired to change their violent ways from the way she's been living up to now. A broken shell of what she once was chasing after days long gone, after life which was long lost. The only deed she had done which was remotely worthy of her final pride was that time she saved a child from being horribly murdered by Hisako, that being said that child was a murderous psycho who would likely grow up into an actual criminal but as long as he was alive there was still hope he wouldn't... Ironically, that very point was also when Mana lost herself, her identity.
The girl's body shook in a cold evening breeze, quickly Mana took her shirt and got dressed to protect from the breeze, she still had a couple of hours to keep on walking, then she'd have to somehow survive the coldest night in her life... Just that thought, that fear of her own uselessness and demise sparked something, Mana wildly shook her head around realizing that, finally, she could hear something. Her hearing was slowly returning to her, perhaps her sight would soon follow? The magician did feel a little ashamed of the fact that she relied so much on her sight but it was the sense she was the most accustomed to. She was a visual artist, after all, it only made sense.
The girl continued to walk, burrowing herself into her blazer by how cold the evening was. Usually, there'd be someone who would give her some extra clothing during those final hours of walking. She was still weak, she relied so much on the protection of other people when she yelled so loud that she'd be the one protecting everyone. Mana closed her blinded eyes and kept on walking forward, she shoved the depressing and wild thoughts away, forced them away. She had no time to feel pity for herself, she either lived or died.
Some walking sounds on the sand, Mana tried to yell for help but she could only hardly whimper. A loud animalistic sound came her way, similar to that of a bear's roar but since the magician knew that those things didn't live in the desert she just extended her hand forward. A slobbering wet tongue licked her hand before the animal's slobbery, wet and warm mouth let Mana's hand completely disappear into its mouth. It didn't bite her, it just held her hand inside its mouth and sort of flipped it around with its tongue before the girl pulled it out and wiped the slimy hand at the sand. Mana stood up and felt the animal around.
"It's a camel..." She realized, upon further feeling inspection, it appeared that there was a man with a bleeding wound on his head lying beside the camel. The night was getting cold, if he was allowed to stay down he'd likely die, whether it was from the cold or the predators. Mana was lucky that she laid at the edge of the explosion, the radiating heat warmed her, the emanating light must've scared animals away for miles. This man had no such luxury – he'd die here and so would Mana. The magician stroke the animal's fur and grunted after the pain took her over as she tried to lift the man up. The camel appeared to be a bit smarter than one would give it credit for as it bit the man's sleeve and helped Mana flip it onto its back.
The saddle on top of the camel didn't appear to be ready to handle two people at once, Mana would just have to grind her teeth through and have a bumpy and painful ride as just walking made her bones hurt like they were being kicked every second. The camel just shook uncomfortable after Mana jumped onto it but it seemed to be quite dealt with the idea that it'd be carrying two people wherever it was going. The magician lightly slapped the animal on its butt making it get the clue. The camel started rushing forward. This was going to be an agonizing trip, wherever she was going, but at least it'd be a lot faster.
A couple of hours in Mana was quivering, she felt cold needles digging into her fingers and her toes, she started feeling numb and sleepy. The magician needed to find something to warm herself up, the pure physical effort it took to not fall off was not enough. She was working out quite a lot to keep her body on top of the animal, if she fell off she'd have been done. Mana took the liberty of letting one of her hands to slip back and check for a blanket or something like that, there was something covering the merchandise that the camel was carrying which Mana removed and placed on her shoulders. She let a couple of bags to fall off just so she could secure her own legs into those belts and stay safer on the animal if her body ever failed her and the girl fell off.
She was quite right to do so as some time later Mana's eyes shot open and she realized that she was leaning to the side, had it not been for her secured legs she'd have fallen off and would've either snapped her neck going down or woken up far too late. Slowly the air was starting to warm up more and more – the morning must've been close. If that was the case Mana would need some water, she felt really bad borrowing some from the man as she already cost him a couple of bags of his merchandise. Only then she realized how much she relied on Shimo's Ice Style ninjutsu to create water in the desert for them and fill their flasks.
Mana screamed in pain as her eyes started watering. Bright flashes of light hit her eyes, whiter even than the eternal white she was stuck in and suddenly the girl realized that while her vision was still extremely blurry – it was slowly returning to her. Dying now would've been quite disgraceful, after all, she's made it through for so long with no vision or hearing. Forward was the only way, to ride, only to ride on. Judging from the brief flashes of light in her watery and pain ridden eyes the morning was slowly approaching as the desert Sun peeked from the horizon like a predator lurking on its prey, peeking at it from the tallest grass patches around.
Only then did Mana wonder about where her mission stood at that moment. She was stuck in the middle of nowhere without knowledge of her team, she was ruined and getting short on supplies again as she never carried much for the team, with all of her normal human carrying strength and all... Together with the worry for her team and the mission Mana couldn't help but feel curious about the place that this majestic desert animal was carrying her to. It couldn't have been too far from the location she was stranded in, they were heading east from Sunagakure and the explosion may have pushed her a little south...
"Oh no, I'm heading the wrong direction, I don't need to go south..." Mana thought to herself. Then again, the mission may not have been the exact priority realizing the situation she was in. She needed to find a stable way of getting her through a couple of nights, then think of a way to let her friends know of her location or find them in any other way. Still, she needed to head to the Land of Sound and Otogakure, maybe her friends would head to the objective thinking she'd catch up to them? No. They knew of her condition, they'd never move on without finding Mana previously. They were too worried about her well-being, or just as worried about hers and Mana was with theirs.
After several more hills and the morning finally hitting its peak Mana noticed a shadow on the horizon, it wasn't too large and yet it was no oasis. It must've been just a mirage but then why would a camel head that way? Camels should've been smart enough to tell mirages, weren't they? Where exactly was this animal bringing her? The magician checked the man's vitals finally enjoying the complete and returned vision. That last day navigating without sight or sound and just pain there to remind her of how painful living actually was couldn't have been described differently than a living nightmare. The man was alive but his bleeding head injury that was slowly drenching his bandage which Mana made sure to apply after tossing his turban away was worrying her.
As expected the camel slowed down almost to a halt once it had reached the large settlement it was heading towards. It was filled with clay buildings similar to Sunagakure but was much less fortified by natural barriers of rock. It appeared to have more guards patrolling the place but they didn't look like ninja, they reminded much more of raiders or rogues. This may not have been the best place to be in but...
"A woman, a woman in Agbarah!" a loud yell through the street alerted the surrounding settlers and even the guards to the point where they approached Mana drawing their crescent shaped blades and threateningly pointing them at her.
"She's torn up and injured, a beggar maybe? Does she wish us to put her out of her misery!?" another settler angrily ranted before picking up a rock and tossing it at Mana, with her human reflexes the girl could just barely lean to the side avoiding it.
"Look, I'm sorry, I don't..." Mana tried to speak but a guard leaped at her at an inhuman speed blowing her down from the top of the camel and ramming her at the sand below. He placed his sword by her throat so close that it almost drew blood, he had his sword at her throat the entire time, for someone to be so precise and controlled as to not sever her head with a rushing move like that... It told Mana a lot about the skill of these guards, she may have been able to face several in a fight if all of them were like this man but she'd be overwhelmed by a larger group even with all of her defensive skills and evasion skills.
"Speak once more, woman, see what happens..." the man spoke up once more, he had a much longer beard than the other guards, it was so long and thick that it almost ran down and touched Mana's face and the guard on top of her appeared to be much older than the others, maybe he was the leader or at least the most skilled one? In that case, she had a slightly better chance at fighting them off...
"This woman is carrying an injured merchant. This camel has never seen women, he'd have not allowed her to ride it if it didn't think it necessary – she saved the merchant's life I presume" a guard stroke the animal's head and slowly lead it away, Mana could follow the guard and the camel no longer after it was taken behind a corner, to follow them visually would've meant to turn her head in a way that would've slit her throat and Mana has done that before – it wasn't a fun experience.
The guard holding her down examined Mana for a while, he pressed her harder to the ground looking if she'd resist but Mana didn't. She would've only tried fighting if there was literally no other way to survive. Maybe they wouldn't kill her still, maybe they would imprison her and escaping binds and prisons was what Mana did on stage for a part of her living.
A settler walked up to the girl and looked over the guard's shoulder. "This woman isn't a woman, she is a child woman" he uttered. Something told Mana that these people have not seen that many women around but definitely for a reason as they didn't appear to be overly fond of the kind. That begged the question of how did this settlement sustain itself but that was not the most pressing matter to find out. Mana tried to flip her tongue to ask the guard where she was but she remembered the man's threat and reaction to her speaking before.
"Ten or twenty years don't make you grow a sack between your legs, a child or not, she is a woman but we can't kill her as we do with the others. She seems of fit shape and she did save that man's life. Let us bring her to the Sun Disc. That seems a fitting end for this little woman" the guard chained Mana's hands and sheathed his blade before standing up. The man took Mana's chains from behind and slowly lead her towards this "Sun Disc".
All around Mana could hear people whispering and pointing fingers at her, some tried to spit at her or fling rocks at her but the guard appeared to be quite adamant about not letting her get too wounded on her way there. He carefully turned her aside from the spitting folk and moved her away from the flying rocks.
"A woman in Agbarah Sheikhate?! How dares she!?" shouts of this and similar manner couldn't cease as Mana made her way through the place.
The guard leaned up to Mana's side after a young man tripped her over and picked her up, whispering to her.
"Welcome to Agbarah"