Mana's head was buzzing with thoughts that hindered the situation at hand more than they helped. It made her movements heavier, generated that short and insufferable delay between her body ordering a movement and the movement coming out. Even more so than usual really.
Konoha was using her sword imbued with chakra coating and made to shine nature's green. Luckily whatever damage she had sustained from the previous combination attacks that landed on her had affected her speed somewhat, at least enough to where Mana could keep her opponent at bay.
Now was not the time to think things through, time was literally fighting on the opponent's side against them. Mana may have bought Chominu some time before the allergies set in and start swelling up his airway again but that was a temporary solution. They needed a way out and Usubane – their strongest physical hitter had already failed to bust out.
"Magic Spark Jutsu!" Mana chanted out, placing her palms up front and expelling a strong flock of puny sparks of Lightning Release chakra that was an annoyance more than anything else. Konoha covered her face up, the bright flashes and the stings of the bursting sparks had done their job once more.
The woman coughed out and grunted in pain while a powerful impact hit her in the back – Usubane had recovered placing a mighty dropkick while she was being ignored. There were a few things more spectacular than the lower body strength of a ninja rabbit, a direct hit like that must have driven all air out of the body of the rogue ninja giving Mana the most she could ask for – a chance.
The kunoichi leaped forward placing a stiff jumping front kick in the face of the opponent who was flying right at her after Usubane's kick sent her Mana's way. Konoha's body bent backward in a very gruesome angle making ground for a little hope to rise up within the magician's heart that maybe this struggle was finally over. The green glow of her chakra-imbued blade had faded away as well once the woman crumbled to the ground, hitting the floor with the back of her head first.
"Holy shit! That was an awesome combo, Mana-san and I play together so well!" Usubane shrieked out, overpowering the pain and the fatigue in her body.
"Bane-chan, please do not get distracted!" Mana pleaded the rabbit who just glared at the magician with a dumb face for a moment before recalling her role in this assignment.
"O-oh, sorry!" the female rabbit bowed half of her body in regret of getting sidetracked and leaped back to hammer at the slightly cracked dimensional walls. "Hot Feet!" she yelled out while her calves set ablaze with Fire Release chakra and the rabbit delivered a swift and thunderous combination of blows to the dimensional wall. Once again, the cracks widened and spread like webs of a spider all across the dark void but to no avail.
With each passing attempt to chip at the dimension, it seemed that the next hit would finally do it and set them free but every hit only repeated the same promise instead of delivering on it. It appeared that the Konoha ninja were out of luck that day.
"What a pathetic plan…" Konoha's voice grunted. "You idiot, you'll kill us all if you destroy this dimension. We'll be stuck forever in a space between pocket dimensions, that's if we can even survive the conditions of absolute nothingness and the dark flow tearing us apart at the tiniest of levels."
Mana turned at the rogue ninja, she was a bit surprised that Konoha could still stand let alone possess the will needed to fight. Her forehead was covered with streaks of red while bits and pieces of her cloak tore off with each mighty jutsu that hit her and bit by bit broke through her augmentations or every mean fall. The woman's hair was messy and scattered all over her face, slightly concealing the battle-worn condition the woman was in until the blood soaked into her sunny hair making them resemble the color of a cherry tree petal.
"Ninja Art: Formidable Will!" Konoha chanted out after slapping her palms together. A collection of popping sounds and a cloud of smoke emerging followed, the cloud that soon got blown away by a gust of wind carrying a massive collection of leaves, looking straightened like a strict, no-bullshit soldier and sharp like a deceitful blade.
"Ninja Art: Autumn Shower!" the woman grunted out through pain and wear while she spread her arms apart, sending the leaves scattering like knives flung in every direction. They were so many, that the leaves covered an immense array of angles and the blowback force was awesome enough to make the sharp leaves cover pretty much the entire dimension.
Mana fell on one knee from a slightly suspended in mid-air position while she was using her Magic Bubble technique to protect her from the barrage of leaves. She was not sure if the jutsu had what it took but it seemed to. The magician wanted to do more, she wanted to cover for her teammates too but that was too much for her current state. All she could do right now was to just survive somehow and hope that everyone else did the same.
Usubane's flaming feet appeared to have what it took to incinerate the leaves before they reached her too and the rest of the group was fighting much farther away, where the leaves had scattered in a much wider angle and left more blind spots to miss its target in. From the single glance Mana offered the rest of the squad, they appeared to have noticed the shower of blade-sharp leaves coming their way and from that distance managed to avoid it.
"No, you're wrong." Mana shook her head. She too, similarly to her battle-worn opponent beginning to feel the uncomfortable heaviness of her own body. She did not expect the struggle inside this dimension to take this long. "The purpose of this dimension is to store the pollen of the plant you have summoned, that means it must have a mean to expel it back into the outside world of our dimension. That path lies outside the walls of this dimension."
"Getting smart with me…" Konoha grunted while she slammed her palms again and let the vortex of rotating leaves lift her in the air. She was cleverly avoiding a close distance fight in her current state, she had too much raw power and experience, everything within Mana's body begged the magician to stop postponing the inevitable outcome and free everyone from this dimension already. Her mind was running out of tricks to irritate her superior opponent with and it never had too many options for breaking out, to begin with…
"Ninja Art: Formidable Will!" Konoha yelled out as she summoned more and more leaves to flock around her and weaved another collection of hand seals. The woman had not even approached the halfway point of her chakra resources yet whereas Mana, someone with vastly more chakra than her peers, was well past it… Was this the battlefield of a jounin-rank ninja? The odds Mana would have to best if she was to ever even be considered for the rank of Sannin?
"Wind Style: Twin Wind Scythe Jutsu!" Konoha yelled out, she was clearly exerting some serious effort in her attempt to deal with Mana. The air currents flowing from under the woman's clothes intensified and collided, creating massive vortexes of wind around the pockets of vacuum, the edges of those miniature tornado-like forms had gathered the sharpened leaves and adopted them as a lethal weapon to its arsenal.
Mana made a handful of her own hand seals, hopping onto an air current to ride away from the rushing air currents and, just barely, her Mystical Wings managed to carry her away from them whereas she'd have been completely overwhelmed and torn apart normally. A fierce howling sound met the magician's senses, inciting great terror in her, the magician feared to look back to witness the cruel play that she's been subjected to but, at this point, it was more of a triviality.
The wind mass surrounded with sharpened with chakra leaves expanded in mass it surrounded Mana and lifted her off the ground. The magician did not wish to grant her opponent the satisfaction of hearing her pain but the assault of countless invisible blades tearing her body up and the sheer agony of attempting to augment her body through that so that some of it remained afterward made her scream out uncontrollably.
Everything around her was dark… Just for how long has that hell lasted? Days, weeks? Maybe just seconds but it felt like much longer… Overwhelmed by the worst pain she had ever felt in her life, Mana could simply not tell for how long she's been ravaged by the wind blades inside the merging vacuum pockets. All she could feel was the hard surface of the ground beneath her pressing against her and the warm feeling of blood accumulating under. She needed to open her eyes, even if she tried, her vision was blurry and focusing to try and see clearly only resulted in a kaleidoscope-like mirage of gloom enlightened once in a while with bright lights.
Before Mana could even dream about getting up, a sharp boot dug into her gut, flipping the magician on her back. The girl's mind begged her to move, that was the only, the commanding thought in her mind but her body could let nothing out but heavy breaths and meaningless twitches of her blood-covered fingers.
"Your resolve to stand your ground was like that of a rock, but the resolve of nature to survive, the sprout of a lonely plant sometimes bursts even through the rock." Konoha's blade lit up with the woman's signature emerald shine as she lifted it up in preparation to plunge it into Mana's chest.
"Y-You're wrong!" a pitiful wheeze squealed out from a slight distance away alerted Konoha's attention. It was not the sentiment in the voice that drew her attention from the victory there, ripe for the taking, it was the hilariously bizarre voice of the speaker that forced her to delay playing the triumphant hand.
"Mana did her b-best to help me…" Chominu wheezed, with every attempt to speak he was using out what little air he still had preserved in his lungs in the dimension quickly refilling with pollen that was once more settling down causing agony to the young Akimichi. "She bet her hopes on me being useful when we escape, she bet on protecting me against all odds… And betting on people, fighting for them and their place can never be a wrong reason!"
"You? You're useless… Just roll over and die already, what can you possibly do but sneeze?" Dill, Konoha's companion allowed himself to get distracted to mock the stumbling and swollen Akimichi.
"Even if I can… Only sneeze… I will sneeze… For the sake of the… Future!" Chominu released all the pent-up bodily ticks to sneeze that had accumulated over the vain effort to stand and talk. Emitting all of it in a mighty show of force and employing his strong thighs and feet to propel his body in a tackling motion.
"Human Bullet Torpedo!" Chominu cried out as the swell on his body only added to the massive mass he already possessed while his last resort attack sent the chubby ninja head-first rocketing towards where Konoha was about to finish Mana off. The speed and the acceleration of the rushing headbutt were immense, Konoha acknowledged that much as she turned her body to deal with the oncoming delirious Akimichi before she finished the magician off.
"I won't let you!" Dill yelled out attempting to charge at the Akimichi with his shoulder and send the sick ninja crashing aside harmlessly. Before he could, Pompomaru dug his tackle deep into the giant's jaw, releasing all the pent-up momentum at the same time and sending the rogue ninja flying aside and out of the way of Chominu's rush for victory. It was almost like Dill had canceled out all of his protective tattoos just so Pompomaru did not snap its little neck from hitting a brick wall of its protective measures.
"You cocky, useless… Ninja Art:…" Konoha grumbled out before a tight grip locked around her, forcing her upper body to bend forward while Usubane's arms encircled the woman's arms under the armpits.
"Full Nelson!" Usubane yelled out after a successfully applied hold on her opponent, forcing Konoha to remain helpless while she observed the Akimichi passing her by like a rushing locomotive with a crashing headbutt right at the center of the glowing spider-web of dimensional crack.
Mana heard a loud shattering noise, it sounded like a house of glass had shattered after getting hit by a hammer, an intense feeling of attraction lifted her off her helpless position writhing on the ground and sent her spinning through a massive warp hole in the dimensional crack.
"People! People came out from the creepy flower!" a voice of a frightened villager ringed in the magician's ear. A familiar warmth fondly caressed her cheek while the girl lifted her head up to try and pick up any surefire signs that they have finally escaped from the storage dimension and were now back home.
"Outta my way, murderers! Are those leather sandals on your feet you bastard!?" Dill was making trouble with the locals, he held one unfortunate soul up in the air with his fist cocked back and ready to strike. Even if they had successfully emerged, it may still take a little while before the stronger Konoha ninja arrive. Some low-ranking ninja Mana had never seen tried subduing the animal-loving giant in his attempt to escape with his partner on his shoulder.
Nearby, the rest of those escaped from the storage dimension were slowly getting back on their feet and preparing to finish the job. No. This could not go this way, Dill could not escape! Mana smacked her palms together, generating a powerful wind current that sent her sliding forward where it would have taken her an hour to stand back up. She screamed out in pain and bit her lip hard enough to draw blood when her body dragged across the ground with little to no chakra left to augment herself and sustain her consciousness but a handful of Dill's pants ended up in Mana's grip.
"You!" Dill grumbled out, lifting the helpless girl up and winding up his punch to bash Mana's face in while she glared him in the eyes, her bloodied hand placed firmly on his forehead in a meaningless gesture of defiance. This man was so loving to animals and plants that he failed to realize the threat of Pompomaru until the dog did him in and cost him the entire plan but he would have stomped Mana's face in without a moment of hesitation. That was if the magician was not so determined to find out where Dill would be fleeing to and sieging the giant's mind.
"Ewww, look at that! It's a toad! Squish it!" the noise of childish banter ringed in the darkness while Mana found herself floating inside the yard of the Ninja Academy. A handful of kids were surrounding a chubby child that was twice each of their sizes but was merely weeping in front of them.
A pudgy sound, like the sound that wet mud made when one mushed it in a heavy rain, getting it all over one's shoes.
"What a disgusting thing, it's all over me!" one of the kids yelled out before kicking the crying chubby in the side of his body with the same mucked up boot as if it was compensation for messing up one's boot with something one just killed.
"What a loser, only a dweeb like Dill can make friends with toads…" a girly voice of a faceless crowd of children rang in Mana's ears as she could not stop glaring at the poor weeping giant with pity. She could feel tears forming in her own eyes.
"In his defense, toads are the only things a loser like him can be friends with." Another girl replied to which the entire brigade of Academy students laughed out.
"Geroppi, no!" Dill wept on his knees in front of his barely twitching pet.
The weightlessness of her fall pushed Mana out of Dill's mind. She had still a long way to go in reading people's minds and interrogating them using mental attacks but in this moment of desperation, she managed to slip inside the giant's mind and scold him enough to let go of her. Sadly, her still apparent lack of skill with the jutsu made her snap out of it during a fall.
One of the ninja gathered in the alleyway where the interdimensional flower once budded grabbed Mana and stopped her from hurting herself any more from the fall. She must have already looked like she'd gone through hell. Dill was shaking and roaring into the air, his eyes were closed and he looked pretty determined to keep them that way. It was still difficult for strong men to show tears…
"They were wrong! The village is wrong!" Dill roared as he tried flexing his muscles and throwing the ninja detaining him around but he was too shaken, too worn and the ninja holding him were too considerable to simply be thrown around. Konoha's partner must have viewed Konoha, a figure of authority and significant power that sometimes didn't think what got sacrificed as a cost for its own growth in power similar to those bullies…
"They were wrong…" Mana muttered to herself. "They were stronger but they were still wrong."
Usubane kept pestering the ninja helping Mana up and trying to move her to the hospital. The magician's mind was hazy, it slipped in and out of consciousness like when her father laid on his armchair watching movies back home during late hours at night, spending more time cold asleep than he was watching anything really. Once in a while, a sip of conflict between Usubane and Kidenshi about who was obligated to carry Mana to the hospital more sifted through the limited intake that the magician had of the environment around her before she nodded off asleep.
"Seems like an awfully inconvenient way to live. Promises, responsibilities. You can and deserve to get whatever you have the drive and whatever is within your capacity to take. Everything in between what you want and you is just a test for your mettle." Yamata's voice ringed from deep inside Mana's consciousness.
The Yamata no Orochi was powerful, insanely so, but what if he was also wrong?