The meeting with the governor of Shukuba town could have gone better. Mana spent no time hesitating before admitting that to herself upon reflection. She could have picked up on a possible further lead to investigate, she could not have mentioned the name "Tanzaku" to the man and furthered the brief talk into a downward spiral of a rant about the place.
Then again, it could have also gone much worse. The way it had gone now, Mana salvaged her presence in Shukuba becoming tomorrow's morning news. In addition, she managed to convince Sho that the magician was not here to tumble whatever house of cards he had built here and was willing to join it by adding her own tower by the side. Granted, that was verily false.
While the magician's theory about a town-wide conspiracy of money laundering was only fed more biscuits, she needed a more solid lead to look into. Perhaps she could have lingered about the place, concealed herself amongst the civil servants and waited until Sho left his office, entered it and performed a quick scan of the man's drawers. For that to happen, the magician needed to have fewer doubts about her ability to remain stealthy, also, the possibility of a satisfying reward for the massive risk was minuscule – Sho may have been a goof but he was no idiot who kept his "uncooked" books in his drawer.
Mana played an innocent and spoiled little show business idol by playfully inquiring one of the public workers about the location of a bathroom. If she was to gain any leads, they would come from down below. If the leads did lead to Sho's office, in that case, the previous plan will be the current work in progress. Avoiding high risk for an improbable reward until absolutely necessary was a praiseworthy course of action.
After she safely concealed herself in the ladies' room, the magician weaved a hand seal, concentrating hard on a different shape she was planning to take.
"Transformation Jutsu!" she mumbled emitting a large cloud of smoke from the stall as well as a loud popping sound that signaled the transformation being completed. Mana disliked using generic jutsu or jutsu she did not invent herself but this time was one of dire need. She could not afford getting recognized and throwing the town square out of whack again. A more controlled and calm crowd was much more to Mana's liking as a working environment, easier to read, easier to single out people who may have provided her with information.
Mana left the stall and examined her new shape in the mirror. She was lucky that nobody was in the bathroom or the magician would have had to blush and explain the awkward sounds and smoke coming off of her stall. Luckily enough, the natural ninjutsu after-effects were quick to completely dissipate, unlike actual smoke, and left little to no trail. It would have taken a chakra sensor to identify after-effects of a distinct ninjutsu signature.
The transformation was a massive success. Mana had made herself grow a good half-a-meter, changed the color of her hair and made them short and curly. She also made her body more feminine and more complete, imagining Kiyomi's shape in her mind as something that she needed, as, otherwise, the magician would have been a tad bit inexperienced with the proportions. She did not change her uniform, however, changing clothes and maintaining that change using Transformation required a bit more chakra and Mana decided to be stingy with it, just in case…
Maybe it was fear of her network breaking down again, maybe it was paranoia of men in black watching her every step, one of assassins with hidden weapons looking to snuff the magician's curiosity out to protect some imagined wild conspiracy. Either way, this new Mana looked like someone she was comfortable working with. For a brief moment, the magician even wondered why Meiko could ever screw such a simple jutsu up when she pulled off much more complex feats of chakra manipulation that were not ninjutsu in nature.
Unseen by the public servants, Mana slipped out from the ladies' room and innocently trekked downstairs before leaving the building. It was a good thing that Mana had memorized how it looked like and where it was, something told her that this building would be quite useful to her in the future. She, in her new shape, may need to visit again just yet.
When she first set foot in Shukuba, Mana had thought about approaching a vendor owner with requests of information. One of the hundreds that thrived in Tanzaku town, gambling the ordinary townsfolk and passers-by out of their money with games and entertainment, before losing it all to ninja who excelled at those same games. Now, given the governor's distaste for the place, Mana knew better, she returned back to the square and while her slightly unusual attire and attractive makeshift shape attracted multiple curious glares, she did not stand out nearly as much as she used to in her original shape.
The girl kept working her eyes overtime, looking far and wide for popular spots of attraction and, curiously enough, an ice cream vendor had caught her attention. For a little wagon selling milky sweets, it was doing surprisingly well in terms of public attraction. This ice cream man looked like a person who knew and saw a great many things.
Mana had plenty of time to stare out and observe the ice cream man. He was very clearly not from around this town. Likely an immigrant looking for a comfortable place to do business, one who stayed, apparently, as he often interacted with locals and their children, oftentimes even using names and their popular fancies for particular flavors. Finally, Mana's turn had come…
"Take pick, ma'am", the man spread his large and quite thick arms out, almost reaching across his entire wagon with their width. From far away Mana had not noticed how large the man was. That accent too… Just like Meiko's father's, he was likely from the more southern parts of Kumogakure or the Land of Snow, made sense why a man living on the edge of the two would know a thing or two about ice cream.
"Ugh, I just don't know what to pick…" Mana playfully placed a finger to her luscious lips, just as she had seen fellow actresses do during plays when they took the roles of attractive or ambitious women.
"They all winners, trust me! Yak milk not make losers, ma'am, I guarantee it!" The man laughed out before beginning to show off different flavors to Mana.
"Yak milk? Whatever happens, don't taste that goddamn ice cream!" Mana screamed out desperately in her own mind as she just toyed around with the man nodding and acting surprised when seeing a new flavor. The magician was quite surprised by how patient the back of the line was with her antics. It obviously helped that three or four people standing behind her were male and didn't mind the artificial distraction.
After Mana dismissed every flavor for various extremely idiotic and verily made up reasons, the man just sighed. "You're not from here, right, ma'am?" the towering ice cream man wondered.
"Just passing by. I'm a stage magician you see, looking for a place to perform in." Mana recounted the made up story about a made-up person she became.
"Well, this place might be too close to Konoha, may want to move further, maybe all the way to Wind Country?" The man walked back to some room at the back of the wagon to pull out more samples of ice cream he had for sale. Some kids in the back, who were previously beginning to grow impatient, now ran up to Mana and asked to see some magic tricks. Likely, they knew all about the Konoha's Sorceress and wanted to see the next best thing. Mana could have used a defusing mechanism for another demographic in the crowd so she showed them a pair of tricks until the ice cream man returned.
"Awww, boo, Wind Country is so mean, sand gets everywhere in my clothes and my magic set. It ruins my cards every time I shuffle, rubs the pretty pictures off." Mana playfully rubbed her eyes, leaning over the counter. "Although that Konoha's Sorceress does seem to be killing the industry by leaving no place for competition."
"So I've heard. You talked to governor about start-up?" The ice cream man wondered.
"Start-up?" Mana raised an eyebrow, dropping the airhead act for a moment.
"Yes, entertainers come flocking in Shukuba for start-up. Few get seen by governor but very good conditions. Magic may be bad business, try movies." The ice cream man pointed at some idiotic poster, made so by the fact that it featured an alien spaceship crashing down through the Hokage mountain and some young and busty actress snugging it out with what appeared like a green-skinned alien.
"I see, thank you... You know, maybe I am not in the mood for ice cream after all. Thank you for your help though!" Mana thanked the ice cream man leaving a handful of ryo that would have paid for a cone of ice cream before walking off. She could hear a bunch of displeased women chattering about how ungrateful and rude Mana was holding the line like that only to leave but if that was the worst of the fallout from Mana acquiring this information about "start-ups", that would be just golden!
With a little bit more chipper in her steps than it would have been advisable when on an assignment with an objective to blend in, the magician rushed back to the Administration building. She was curious to see if "start-up" was some sort of a trigger word for the Shukuba governor. She was beginning to get a bad feeling about where these Fire Lord's funds were going, bad being a very subjective and dependent on one's point of view kind of claim.
Almost like a child, afraid to check under their bed after hearing a sound at night, Mana was a bit reluctant to let the wild conspiracy theories in her head take a solid shape. She needed more evidence, more leads, something more solid before she could point fingers. Her objective was to find the leak in the way the Shukuba funds were managed, a single sheet of paper validating her suspicions would have been enough.
Problem was, Sho was unlikely to keep records of these "start-ups" if they truly were the leak. Even if they were, the paperwork was likely cooked in a way that made them seem inconspicuous upon inspection. Finding proof of this leak may have just been the most problematic aspect of Mana's assignment. The magician felt like she was expected to bring tapes that a murderer kept of all his murders, which felt illogical at best.
"Hello, I'd like to speak to the governor, please." Mana used her soothing and playful voice again, unfortunately to her, the reception was handled by a female secretary and as much imaginary credit as the magician attributed to her flawless transformation, this time she'd have to actually work for any credit to be added to that account.
"Please sit down right there, he'll call you up when he's ready, ma'am." The receptionist smiled at Mana with cutesy and confidence that matched that of Mana's, but with beauty that was much more natural and down to Earth.
And so the wait began. The magician saw people coming and going, apparently, all of them had "appointments" or were "emergency meetings", as explained by the receptionist the whose sass was beginning to ruffle Mana's feathers. Before that torturous afternoon, Mana had considered herself a patient and very composed person. She was not afraid to sit patiently and wait for all she knew, sadly, it had appeared that the bureaucracy of this place had broken her.
Mana sighed and decided to try something desperate, this was completely not her style. Stealth and the typical ninja activities were not technically Mana's forte and the magician had very poor grades for the lightness of her feet in Academy. What else could have been expected from a girl who had joined the Academy out of responsibility to use her abilities to help people and change the world instead of actual talent for the craft?
After the receptionist disappeared for a coffee break, or something of that sort, moving for a brief moment into a small room behind the chair from which this crow oversaw her domain of the Administration reception, Mana stood up and moved her increased in volume hips around. Moving in this changed shape required a bit of getting used to, just another disadvantage for the madness Mana was about to attempt.
When the receptionist returned to her post, she found that the curly haired blonde in a magician's uniform was no longer waiting in the saggy and deceitfully soft armchair where the woman was last sighted. She could not have possibly made a big deal out of it for the poor thing had been waiting for hours until her breaking point. Somewhere in the record that the receptionist kept in her head, the woman had attributed the curly haired one a surprising amount of points for perseverance.
There were people all over the place. Wandering the corridors, sitting in cubicles that looked just as recently renovated and just as deluxe as those that Konoha's civil servants had. What was extremely vexing, despite the irony of it, was that nowhere was this inequality reflected upon the lower layers of society. Even the lowly townsfolk looked happy and content, lullabied to a sweet slumber by the entertainment, good food and luxuries of their home.
Reflections on the junk district and trashy neighborhoods of her own village residing at the western and eastern edges of the village haunted Mana as she quietly danced the waltz of the ninja step. Moving surprisingly light on her feet and unnoticed by the weary and bored eyes of the administration workers. The zombified looks on their pale faces suggested that none of them truly wanted to spot Mana.
With resounding success, the magician had made her way to the round staircase she had walked with the governor all the way to the top floor. The magician listened in to the steps and casual conversations that were supposed to keep the staffers intrigued in the second part of their busy workday. If these office rats did not feel like squirrels running in spinning wheels, they had a poor way of showing it or could deceive their beholder better than Mana ever could…
The magician slipped off her jacket before slipping to the wall and weaving a hand seal. With the help of the Cloak of Invisibility Jutsu, she had perfectly camouflaged to the boring glass wall that rotated all the way to the top. Despite a pair of difficult and close brushes with being discovered, like someone's hand accidentally slamming against the magician's face as they tried using the glass wall for support in their descent, Mana had moved past the busy staircase and onto the top floor.
Quickly, the kunoichi slipped her cloak of invisibility off and slipped her arms into its sleeves again. She ended up crossing the principle of general distaste for generic jutsu twice that day. The very thought of it made Mana feel uneasy and ashamed. It was a similar feeling to how one felt when they consumed something fatty or plenty of somethings past their dinnertime. Maybe that was the reason why Mana was so careless with the flowing motion of her jacket and how it ended up smacking against some office plant and knocking it over.
With her cheeks dyed red as a bell pepper, Mana looked at a young office worker holding a multiple men's worth of paperwork in his arms. The man came up to the embarrassed magician before placing the paperwork on the windowsill before examining the wreckage.
"Don't worry about it, ma'am, this is just a little teaspoon of nature's green to spruce up the boring environment, I'm sure someone will offer a sample their personal flora for replacement. Where were you headed, exactly?" The man inquired.
"I was supposed to see the governor. I have an appointment." Mana lied.
It was painfully evident that the man was about to have none of it. And yet he was standing still, thoughts shifting through his eyes as they rolled about, shifting from Mana's changed shape to the busted plant on the floor. Leading curious sightseers outside of the top floor was clearly outside this one's job description as he made it painfully obvious.
"I don't think you do, ma'am, please leave this floor or I'll be forced to inform a security officer." The clerk was being a good sport.
Mana could take this guy out and cover him with her jacket, crossing her principles in more than one way. Just a quick, restrained and precise blow to his gut could knock the wind out, a fluid motion into a "Cloak of Invisibility Jutsu" and it would be done. No one without a significant ability at superhuman perception could even register it before it was already done… She could see the governor right now.
No. That was what everyone meant when they pointed fingers at Mana and laughed. Every time she claimed she'd change the world, every time she talked big about being kind and not hurting or killing anyone. Situations like this were what everyone had in mind, everyone expected Mana to cross every principle in her book for the sake of success. She was already halfway to proving them right. The magician bowed her head submissively before turning to the staircase.
As she was considering leaving, thousands of possible thoughts of infiltrating the governor's office ran through her head. From scaling the walls of the Administration building to using her Mystical Wings Jutsu to control her descent from the roof. One dumbed than the other… How many people would see her scaling the walls? Could she move fast enough to evade sight yet restrain her speed enough to make a quick stop at the top floor? Why would the governor even offer his time to someone who entered their office through the top floor?
Maybe there was one more thing she could try… Right as her body hid from plain sight in the staircase, Mana weaved a hand seal, dispelling her Transformation. If the governor would not sacrifice an hour of his day for the Konoha's Sorceress, this venture would indeed be hopeless. Just for the sake of fending off association between Mana and her transformation, the magician had transformed again, this time only changing her clothes.
A handful of security officers and the young civil servant from before rushed into the staircase, taking the smoke and odd noises as a sign of fire, instead of that, seeing only Mana.
"Sorry about that, I bumped into a very clumsy woman on my way up here." The magician smiled. It would take her best act and a little bit of good luck to talk her way into the governor's office.
"And I'll tell you what I told that woman, this place is off-limits to civilians!" The ticked off office worker was having none of it.
"Wait, isn't this Konoha's Sorceress?" One of the security guards raised an eyebrow.
"Sorceress or not, she's civilian and this is an off-limits floor." The persistent office worker ranted.
While Mana severely hated his guts at that time, she had to admit that he was very devoted to his job. With public servants this dedicated to their duty to serve their people, it was tough to imagine why this town would be suffering a case of Fire Lord's fund laundering.
With the official sources being walled off as if Sho was beginning to suspect something, Mana was forced into a different course of action, a more indirect and improvisational one, yet one with much greater chance of proof. She could have played a big ninja girl with this security, pointed out the close ties between Konoha and Shukuba and barged into Sho's office. Still, all it would have lead to was the utter destruction of her facade as a peaceful entertainer looking to join in on the money laundering and seeing a whole bunch of clearly cooked accounting books.
She needed to see the lights of the Shukuba pleasure town, examine some cameras and not be afraid of a little action to find where the movies were taking their funding from. Once she had something solid, she can force her way into the governor's office and stop relying on his mercy and will to see her.
Mana was different from the other ninja, she'd do this thing her own way, without killing anyone or violating anymore of her principles. She needed to stop trying to be and act like someone she was not and embrace who she actually was.