Mana weaved her hands together in the shape of a hand seal. She was not casting ninjutsu, not exactly, not that she would be bothered by measly requirements like hand seals and chakra while operating inside someone's mind – in the mental realms the only fundamental truth that mattered was concentration. If Mana was concentrated enough she had no limits about how she could siege the fortifications of the opposing mind, she could materialize other people, objects and entities, she could use jutsu she did not know or ones she did know but on a scale that greatly exceeded her chakra resources. Concentration was all the mattered.

And concentration was something Mana was really good at. Still, she used hand seals often to assist her meditation. Concentrating her thoughts on a single focal point like that did wonders.

The magician did her best to blur her image, make herself transparent and completely untraceable. If Tokui's mind did not notice her invading presence, perhaps it could cease all those crazy lightning storms and colossal turtle monsters with skyscraper-like spikes on their shells. An eye the size of a volcanic crater opened up and glared at Mana with its blazing, tiger-shade eyes with golden flames erupting around its pitch-black, pointy irises. Rumbling and thundering with the sound most reminding of a falling building, the turtle-monster opened its mouth right in front of Mana.

The magician tried becoming ethereal or invisible again, to no use. This mind was a chaotic mess, an overwhelming pressure of air blasted out from the turtle's mouth like a fusillade of cannon shots fired at every direction, aiming to obliterate every enemy and every crevice of the battlefield. When all hope of phasing through the majestic roar of Tokui's mental fort failed, Mana just clutched her hands together and braced for the impact.

Pain. Cuts and lacerations all over that transitioned into flesh and skin peeling off of her bones, what pathetic skeletal remains were left soon turned into dust and got scattered by the emanating roar of the obsidian turtle monster. Mana's eyes shot wide open as a petrified with fear breath escaped her chest, one that she had been holding there for far too long, one filled with pain and fear that all left her body upon her rude awakening. Pulses of an emanating headache quickly reminded the magician of the unfortunate side of a failed attempt at mental interrogation.

"I thought you wouldn't resist…" Mana grumped out, rubbing her tired eyes and hurting temples. A light massage of the pulsing pressure points alleviated the pain as it always did when the magician practiced the technique, then again, she hadn't done so in a while. Interrogation through illusions and mental attacks weren't exactly high on her list of priorities during the training in the Rabbit Caves.

"I… I was not…" Tokui got worked up. "This was the first time I experienced something like this, it was just… Too weird."

Even when he royally messed up and forced himself into the corner of having to actually trade the information through good old speech, the Kumogakure ninja lacked the decency to apologize.

"Huh? What just happened?" Jagaimo squinted at the two. "Did you two "connect"? Shared feelings, something more intimate, perhaps?"

Tokui turned at the Kirigakure ninja with a death-wishing glare. "Can't you try again? I'm sure that I could hold myself back a little bit more this time."

"No use, the harder you focus on not resisting, the stronger you resist. It's tough to explain, it's just like telling someone to not think about anything doesn't exactly work out because they keep thinking about how they have to not think about anything…" Mana sighed. "Plus, you did a number on me there, even if I did re-enter your mind, my concentration and stamina would be much weaker than they were now. It would be even harder to relay anything."

"Oh, man… So I guess you really will just have to talk… Tough break, guys. A real downer, I was on your side the entire time!" Jagaimo shook his head with sarcasm so obvious it was pretty much pressing its thumbs against one's eyes and squeezing hard.

"Very well, tell me about what you know of the street rat's role in this event, about his plot to destroy the ninja system. Then, when I know you are serious and you give me some valuable information, I will tell you what you want to know, then, you can tell me about the monster attack on Konoha." Tokui suggested. It was tough to say if the man was ashamed at all over messing up the exchange of information because of how messy and worked up his mind was, however, at least it made him willing of compromise.

"Hey, wait… Why me first?" Jagaimo waved his hands up in the air erratically.

"Because you are an insufferable tit." Tokui closed his eyes and nodded in self-confirmation. "Every thought of causing you any amount of discomfort or displeasing and inconveniencing you while ruining your intentions in any way brings me unparalleled joy."

"You know, for a brute with such a chaotic mind, you're really well-spoken…" Jagaimo hunched up in humiliation.

This anger, even when everything in Tokui's words screamed of distaste for the Kirigakure native pestering him, barely any of it could have been seen on the man's face. Maybe that was why his mind was so passionate and anarchic. His repressed emotions in an attempt to maintain the stoic image of a hardened, experienced and always cool representative of the mightiest military force on Earth was what gave birth to that continental turtle and its unmatched power. It had no focus or finesse but so much emotion boiled inside its shell that once it all got unleashed, it completely quashed any attempts to infiltrate the man's mind.

Completely by accident, Tokui may have created a powerful defense against mental and illusionary interrogation. Genjutsu was another thing entirely as it did not require as intimate and probing of a contact between the two minds but attempting to extract or deposit anything but general streams of chakra inside the man's system would have resulted in nothing short of a disaster.

"Jagaimo has been sworn into service to an unknown party to testify and force or persuade the others to testify in a way that would destroy the ninja system," Mana spoke quietly enough to not cause an unneeded ruckus but loud enough to be heard in the cacophony of a crowded waiting room. It was dangerous sharing secrets out loud, pretty much anyone interested in hearing anything Mana had to say could have listened in. Obviously, they had to consider or know that Mana had something worth listening to firstly…

"Mysterious party? I may need more intel than this…" Tokui grumbled. "Whom is this party loyal to? A village? A criminal organization?"

"Unlikely. It would not make sense for any of the villages to hit their own crotch while styling with their own nunchaku. Most criminal organizations are also obsessed with power and have no problem with the ninja system, the most radical ones would like the system to be even more hardcore than it is now." Mana shrugged. "The only clue I have is the slip-up Jagaimo made with the "crooked vampire-man"."

"Crooked… Vampire-man…" Tokui mumbled while scratching his chin. "My next suggestion would have been the samurai or the pirates. None of them like ninja all too much but… Crooked vampire-man sounds like neither of those things when I imagine one…"

Mana blinked a pair of times in rapid succession while observing Tokui slipping in and out of his imagination, imagining tall and crooked, pale, hairy and classic clothing adoring old men that probably owned their own castles. The imagination squared effect of Tokui scratching his head trying to create a profile from just about the vaguest amount of information while Mana working her magic on imagining just the kind of things this hardened martial artist with uncontrollable and shut-in passions would have imagined was worth the price of admission alone.

"I have not heard of such a man either…" Mana nodded. "Regardless, despite his ambition, he is not the first threat on my mind. If Kumogakure wants to take him to themselves, they are free to chase him to the ends of the Earth."

"Hmmm? I would have imagined the bright and cheery Konoha's Sorceress to be more heroic…" Jagaimo made a silly face that to him associated with girls and pop-idols on television, no doubt. Calling it a "cute" face would have been to stretch the word to its very limit dangerously close to snapping the poor bastard.

"His ambition is not associated with human lives. They are purely political in nature. Money, politics… These things may matter to the men in the Council and the village administration but not to me." Mana closed her eyes in irritation. This was the first time that she learned how Tokui felt around the goofy Kirigakure ninja all the time as his aloofness was beginning to get on her nerves. "The only part around this "vampire-man" that interests me is the pure curiosity, the puzzle."

"I'm afraid Kumogakure has other things in mind right now…" Tokui closed his eyes as if already admitting defeat to this as of yet unexplored case. "Until the matter with the coltan market is settled…"

"Here it comes…" Jagaimo poked Mana with his elbow.

"What?" Tokui squinted at the shorty beside him.

"You're about to ask Konoha and Kirigakure for an alliance, just like I'm looking for the destruction of the ninja system, you've come here for an alliance to crush Iwagakure decidedly with." Jagaimo leaned back, the laid back and completely unprotected stance of the young man shocked Mana, it was not too long that his life was threatened.

"I will do no such thing! As if the strongest military power in the world would bring itself down to the level where they would ask other, weaker militaries for help!" Tokui raised his fist up and shoved it all the way into Jagaimo's face, threatening the Voice of Kirigakure with it but not doing more than try and intimidate and irritate the young man.

Something in the blatant denial of the notion and the amount of offense taken by the martial arts fanatic made a thought pop into Mana's mind.

"But you were asked for it by the village? Maybe not ordered but instructed to do so." Mana pointed out.

"I have been, yes…" Tokui deflated like a stabbed balloon.

Jagaimo broke into a rude and overpowering wave of laughter that washed away the entire hall. Almost immediately after, the street rat got all serious all of a sudden and extended his index finger right up to Tokui's face, just an inch shy from touching the giant's nose.

"Now, it is my time to repay Konoha's Sorceress the favor!" Jagaimo let out an elegant laugh of a children cartoon villain, at that moment the magician was sure, if he had a mustache to twirl, he'd have undoubtedly twirled it. "The Honda attack happened three years ago in Konoha… It was about a monster and… People died and… It was pretty horrible… But ninja were there… And they had adventures and… I guess they killed it… Or something…"

It began seeming like the more Jagaimo spoke, the more it became evident to him that he knew pretty much nothing about the Honda attack. He heard bits and pieces from Mana but the absence of the more specific details made those few details he had pointless. It was now, being cornered to the wall by this practice of informational warfare that the Kirigakure ninja learned the crude lesson about how information trading worked that Team Hokage learned during the Chuunin Exams a handful of years ago.

"I'll stop now…" Jagaimo followed Tokui's pathetic gesture of his entire body deflating into a pathetic sag.

"No, please, you're doing great…" Mana crossed her arms over her chest while teasing the Kirigakure ninja. It was then that she realized that she herself did not fancy all that much talking about the Honda attack too much. For three whole years she stayed right behind the corner of the attack, training and looking ahead, telling herself that looking back was nothing really, when, in fact, behind her lurked darkness that'd have enveloped her whole the moment she stopped scurrying across the dark alleyway and shaking for her well-being like a lonely girl walking home at night.

"It's your turn now." Mana pointed her chin at Tokui, encouraging the ninja to share his part of the trade.

"Why do you care about this Limelight incident at all? What makes it different from Tsuki no Kuni Inferno or other matters discussed in that procession?" Tokui squirmed. It was very unlike this young man to slither this way. From what Mana had seen and heard of him, she took him for a more adamant, both feet on the ground type of guy.

"It's a jutsu that has the capacity to pull the table from underneath, take away everything I hold dear and everything I live to protect. Why would I not want to hear about it?" Mana pocketed her hands. It felt a tad demeaning needing to justify her interest like that. She needed an ace, an encouragement of sorts, something that no aspiring martial artist with the warrior's code in their hearts could resist – a woman's tease. "If it's too painful for you to talk, I'll understand. Incidents that claim many lives make me tear up too."

"W-Wh… It's not that at all!" Tokui yelled out, greatly surpassing the volume that the trio was sharing information in normally. "From what is known, Limelight was initiated by a group of missing ninja, selling their skills to the appropriate payer. It was a handful of reformationists that hired the group of ninja, hoping they could take power but feeling too weak to take power directly."

"Reformationists?" Jagaimo lingered on the word as if doubting what he was hearing.

"Yeah…" the Kumogakure ninja nodded. "Ones advocating open borders, more active cooperation between all the ninja villages, paleskin lovers…"

After noticing Jagaimo's raised eyebrows and Mana's rather disappointed glares, the Kumogakure ninja shook his head and palms erratically. "I mean, not that there's anything wrong with paleskins, or anything but… I'm not the crazy one for thinking they don't belong Kumogakure administration, right?"

"You're going off-topic." Mana closed her eyes and sighed. "At this pace, you'll manage to offend most people in this room."

"Anyways, it was a pretty smart plan when I think about it. Reformationists have always been good at that crying with their hands holding together type stuff, they'd have picked the village right back up from ruin with that. Took over after a catastrophe. We were lucky that FADE still knows how to do their jobs, they're not like your Konoha's ANBU, they don't need different units for the under-the-table shit." Tokui began going off-topic again, then again, praising his own village and its ninja was pretty much so typical of him at this point that Mana would have thought somebody was impersonating the man again if he skipped a chance to do that.

"Hmmm… If they stopped those missing ninja, how come it's called "the Limelight Incident"?" Jagaimo wrinkled his face, making it look like a dried out prune but he asked the right question.

"They didn't kill off everyone in time. Limelight is initiated by drawing the line of four barriers that interconnect and form the target. One of them managed to set the jutsu off, it was no Limelight, not really, but it was still a solid bolt of lightning that permanently blinded as many as it has killed." Tokui explained.

"So what's your involvement in this thing anyway? Why did the Tribunal ask you about it?" the Kirigakure ninja wondered.

"I-It doesn't matter…" Tokui grumbled. Something about this topic was still forcing the young man to experience great shame, he wasn't putting all the cards on the table but dragging all of them out at this point, from a guy like this, would have been impractical.

"You wanna probe him again?" Jagaimo turned at the magician, poking her with his elbow.

"No need. He's told me everything I need to know. As long as Konoha has no schism between its relevant political figures it will be safe. There is a fat chance of four missing ninja slipping into the village at the same time, the only way they'd get in would have been if they were let in. If that happened, Kumogakure's experience pointed out the way to minimize the damage. Limelight is of no threat to Konoha." Mana affirmed.

"Do not be so sure. Hasn't your Hokage resigned, the first and, as of yet, the only public official that's lost their post due to plummeting public confidence? The Red Hawks are also a fearsome group, a rogue Uchiha splinter group is not to be underestimated." Tokui grinned with the face of a man that knew the fragility of his existence and chose to smile in front of it. More so, he encouraged his peers to do the same. "Now, how about you shed some light on the monster that singlehandedly bested the second strongest military in the world?"

"Come on, it must have used both hands, at least…" Jagaimo joked.

"Three, actually… Maybe even more. I was really badly pummeled for the most part so my memory is still as hazy as the nightmares I've gone through since that day." Mana massaged the back of her neck. It didn't feel comfortable, talking about Honda, not at all. Mostly because she had to stop moving forward and look back at the darkness she's experienced. She had to face all the deaths and failure she's thought to have left behind and she's experienced. It should have been easy, Mana told herself it would have been…

"You don't seem scarred, want to see my burns from the Tsuki no Kuni Inferno?" Tokui was about to open up his armored top and lift up his black shirt. As tempting the chance to see a buff chest with a pinch of small, lingering battle scars that medical ninja refused to waste their time on, Mana had to interrupt.

"I was swollen like a pufferfish and one of my eyes was pretty much crushed and left inside for days after the event." The magician sighed.

"You have both of your eyes now… Are the conspiracy theories true then? Has Konoha been cultivating organs from Guru Ayushi cells in secret? Keeping the poor man locked up in a basement somewhere?" Jagaimo spoke too much again. Where before the street rat had managed to elude Mana's irritation, now he was firmly in her crosshairs. It was a stupid joke, all he did was share some empty conspiracy theories that people outside Konoha spread about the politically influential and decently powerful in terms of its military establishment.

"No. A Rabbit God healed my wounds and those of my rabbit friend." Mana shook her head slowly, trying to dig her irritation and the emotional trigger that uttering Ayushi's name aloud brought up under layers upon layers of mental dirt.

"I've changed my mind. I want to hear about the Rabbit God now." Tokui declared. "You mentioned a rabbit friend of yours, it doesn't seem like it would be a pet of yours, it is most likely your animal contract. Does that mean that you're partnered with an S-Rank rabbit, one to fit the category of a "God" that the ninja animals use or was it just an artistic interpretation?"

Mana sighed, feeling a bit relieved that she had the chance to move away from Honda, especially when she could share such a non-story like her encounter Usushika.

"No. Sadly, I failed to free Shika-chan from his entrapment. It was a part of my training, I could not have been bothered to wait for my wounds to heal before I started training and I felt obligated to heal all the rabbits I brought into the Honda conflict. That was when I heard about Shika-chan and decided to bring myself and the wounded to Shika-chan." Mana shrugged. For an encounter with a Rabbit God, her immediate recovery that allowed her to skip no time and start her grueling training immediately was rather uneventful.

"Wait, you mean you brought all the wounded to him? The Rabbit God doesn't live with the other rabbits?" Jagaimo scratched his head.

"No, Shika-chan has been trapped centuries ago under a Great Deity Gate. Even after it had healed all of our injuries, I was unable to leave as much as a scratch on that thing." Mana pocketed her hands and leaned against a wall behind her. Admitting a failure to save someone was not something that she could smile through, not even with a fake smile.

It was of no surprise that Mana could not do anything to a Great Deity Gate, it was an ancient jutsu that was forgotten in time. All of the eleven Great Deity Gates in the world were a testament of the jutsu's previous uses centuries ago, none of them showed as much as a hint of decay… Something of such legendary status would take one of the First People to break one apart, anything less than that would be disrespecting the fearsome might of the ninja history. One of the millions of the great secrets that littered the ninja world still…

"Hmph… I look forward to meeting you again, Nakotsumi Mana. Hopefully in the Sun Disc arena, where I can have the honor of testing my mettle against an arena champion." Tokui grinned, extending his fist forward. Mana felt a bit baffled. For all of her study in ninja history, she had not encountered such a gesture. Then again, common sense suggested that she merely mirrored what the other person was doing when saying farewells, she extended her own fist and pressed it against that of Tokui's.

That seemed to please the Kumogakure ninja so Mana acted like she knew what she doing all along. Before she could see the muscular back of the Kumogakure ninja disappear behind one of the old yet well-maintained trees surrounding the location of the Summit for the fate of the entire ninja system, Jagaimo stepped out in front of the magician's face, intruding her seeing this polarizing figure off.

"Don't forget you still owe me a game. When you perform in Kirigakure, don't just stay in those fancy, elite districts. Visit us, little people, too sometime…" Jagaimo grinned, putting together an oddly well put together farewell for someone as aloof as him.

"Who knows… May have loads of time if one of my two jobs miraculously disappears the next morning and I stop getting the summons." Mana joked. Even if the Tribunal had not yet voiced their decision, given how the plan of the "crooked vampire-man" was foiled, she had a pretty good feeling that the ninja system was there to stay twice as long as it has persevered up to now.

After all, ninja were those that persevered. An embodiment of the persevering system. There may have loads of surprises in this Tribunal session that was supposed to just be a talk in front of a bunch of boring old people, but Mana somehow managed to leave the mansion with its fancy garden behind wearing a satisfied smile.

Who knew, if the entire ninja system could have been saved by just some people talking to one another, perhaps, one day, the wars and the killing truly would end… Maybe, one day, fighting would seem as odd and mysterious to the people in the future as the proud and tall Great Deity Gates of the past…