"Now, I'd like to talk a little bit about the Kumogakure international relationships. It's by far the most radiant point on today's geopolitical map so if you remember one thing after this course is done with and the exams are handed in – let it be that," a man with lively, dark hair and a full beard, donning a white gi and black hakama gestured toward the map of the world behind him.
Before the course started, he took some sweet time to place some pictures depicting various international relationship talking points as he now had both the means and the excuse to prod his bokken-like pointing tool at the location of Kumogakure and the picture depicting the Raikage's office in the middle of the day pinned nearby.
The general vibes in the room were pretty tense. There were plenty of Kumogakure ninja recruited to become Allied Ninja and the entire organization had their headquarters based in the Land of Lightning – a country best known for containing the entirety of the Cloud village within it. Mana had expected that perhaps these geopolitical courses would have a scent of Kumogakure bias because of it though she was pleasantly surprised by how fast things went right to the point of the problem.
"Yeah, I guess it's a bit unfortunate that I have to hammer this into your heads, after all, I used to be a Konoha ninja before joining the Allied Ninja so you might think I've got a personal agenda in dumping hot takes on Kumogakure external politics. That's a fair point for you to have, Konoha does have plenty to gain in criticizing Kumogakure who is its main rival in military power who isn't afraid of using said vast military power in gaining an advantage in other areas where Konoha has it beat. That being said, I am no longer a Konohagakure ninja so I just like I respect your right to take my opinion on the matter with a grain of salt, I'd like you to also humor me and at the very least hear it out," the tutor reading the course said.
From what little Mana had experienced of the prep courses so far – they had a rotation of Allied Ninja reading them to the recruits. Contrary to what she initially believed, the Allied Ninja did not employ people to just work as teachers and staff for the headquarters, instead, all Allied Ninja were staff when the need was present. Whoever wasn't out on a mission at the time might have been called up to watch the recruit hallways at night from trespassers, do yard work or teach classes to the recruits. Mana had chills running down her spine imagining teaching classes to recruits in the future, she could only hope that her experience working with an audience could supplement the lack of knowledge that she now felt like she had.
"Hmm… I expected Endo to be a bit more hot-headed about this topic but he seems perfectly calm," Mana whispered to Shige-H and Damisan, the tall ninja of the crew who preferred to wear masks and prosthetics and cloak his severely burnt and covered in scar tissue body from the Land of Wind whom she had a chance to meet since the crew first assembled.
"Heh, nice, Mana, glad to see you're keeping your eyes on the prize," Shige-H snickered, it did not seem like the failure to assemble the entirety of the squad she had in mind deterred the Kumogakure ninja in any way. Quite the contrary, she appeared to be even more determined and excited to get them into her crew now that they had a whiff of her intentions to recruit them.
"I'm… Not…" Mana's cheeks started feeling warm as she fumbled her way through the whispered words. "It's just an observation, he is from Kumogakure, Land of Lightning, around those parts, right? Kumogakure ninja are very stout, defensive, and patriotic about their race and their legacy and it doesn't seem like Endo is like that at all. That is all I meant."
"Sure…" Shige-H snickered with a full-teeth smile.
"Are the Kumogakure ninja any more nationalist than say Konoha's Will of Fire though…" Damisan wondered, his mechanical voice was not at all suited for muzzled conversation which immediately caught unwanted attention. Shige-H and Mana gave the absent-minded crewmate of theirs warning looks.
"It seems that this course is inspiring discussions already, that's good to hear," Sarutobi Takuro, the tutor of that day's geopolitics course couldn't have missed the booming of Damisan's mechanical voice from his elevated position on the stage before the entirety of the class of recruits. "Recruit Mana, why do you think that the other ninja villages, perhaps even other countries and their Feudal Lords are so hesitant to condemn Kumogakure's decision to annex Iwagakure outright instead of claiming their spoils of the coltan mines after the coltan conflict?"
"W-Well…" Mana jumped up. She wasn't at all keeping attention to what was being discussed by the tutor these last couple of topics so she felt glad for the fact that tutor Takuro voiced his question, improvising it from the current topic rather than having Mana answer a question they've already been discussing. "I believe that it is because of the coltan supply that Kumogakure is now controlling in its hands. The remaining world doesn't have the luxury to criticize and spoil the relationship with the leading export of coltan and military technology, also, the only manufacturer of radar technology in the world. It appears that on the political stage, the economy and trade is more important than basic decency and human rights."
"And don't you think that Kumogakure's vast military power plays any role in that? Perhaps the countries are merely afraid of Kumogakure to point their decimating Chakra Cannon towards them next and are bullied into silence or agreement?" Takuro wondered.
"Not at all, the coltan conflict has caused a strain on the Kumogakure economy that already was not its strong suit. Also, it has forced Kumogakure to pay a toll in military losses which has elevated Konoha as the new top military power in the world, as both of its strongest rivals – Iwagakure and its superior in Kumogakure have sacrificed that advantage for becoming the head of the coltan trade. I don't think that military plays any role whatsoever as most countries have means of fending off military campaigns from the weakened Kumogakure at the moment," Mana replied.
"Well… I see that some of you already see these courses as a mere formality. Whether you've been fighting knees-deep in these international conflicts, or you've just been hitting the books pretty hard – keep doing it, it's having the desired effect, recruit Mana." Sarutobi Takuro commended Mana on her reply and permitted her to sit back down before continuing his lecture.
"Hey, Skaven, have you heard Mana in that geopolitics course? She took that drill like a titan, don't you want to be a part of our crew? You'll be getting first-seat access to Mana's notes if you do!" Shige-H kept on hassling Skaven who appeared to be wanting less and less to do with Shige's the crew the more the woman tried enlisting him.
"No thanks, I'm good on that front myself," Skaven replied. He was. Nara clansmen were notorious around the world for their skill in strategy, research, and keen intellect that was never absent, just sometimes not developed and worked on in the case on the brawlier members of their clan. Mana had not a single doubt that Skaven would have graduated the prep courses without any of her help if not rivaled her own knowledge on most subjects.
"Finally, we're gonna see some real action next! Hey, whatcha readin'!?" little Tomi pointed her finger at Skaven as if he was a part of her crew and a good friend of hers. Something that Skaven was all too eager to deny with the glare that he gave the young teen. "You silly, didn't you know that you can't get better at warfare from reading a book!?" she chuckled.
"Shows how much you know…" Skaven hissed at the little kid. "You're lucky that Takuro-sensei didn't report you to the Supreme Leader and booted you out of the prep course for just standing up, growling at people, declaring that the class is boring and walking out."
"Yeah, what the heck was that all about? We can't afford anyone of our crew being booted out, we've got to stick together, Tomi," Shige-H postured at the young teen like a motherly figure which looked almost ironic given Shige's very risqué choice of style and attire as the striped fur coat didn't add her any style points in the classy category. "I know that the courses might be boring to you but at least try to sit through them."
"What's the bother? Didn't you hear? Mana-senpai has got this course thing on lock. All we have to do is use her notes for our homework and study them for our exams and we're through!" Tomi chuckled, leaning her head at her hands crossed behind her back.
"You know, you will be working on the field one day. This information might end up saving or ending your life…" Mana tried a different, more reasonable, and worrisome approach with the youth but she got laughed out of the circle for that even if little Tomi was the only one laughing. Her hyperactivity was sufficient for there to be no need for anyone else to laugh.
"Fine, I'll stop telling those teachers how boring their courses and topics are and will just nap the whole way through if that makes you guys stop making my back itch…" Tomi dismissed the concerns of the rest of the crew.
"Foul mutt witch, I wish to converse with you at once!" Mana's head twitched as a vociferous proclamation rung throughout the entire waiting room in between the large field where the war games and the military courses took place. With a slight hitch, Mana turned her head around to see Araki Endo scowling behind her. There were quills being sprayed from the youth's glares though they rushed in all directions, he appeared to be hateful toward himself just as much as he despised those he was laying his eyes on at that moment.
"What was it that you called me?" Mana asked as she approached the spiky-haired pupil to one of four greatest swordsmen in all of the world and looked him in the eyes.
"You are indeed wicked for the sins that you've committed. Had you not served a sentence for your misdeeds, labeled as a suitable one by the Ninja Tribunal, I'd have a moral duty to slay you where you stand at all times. You are a mutt for you have no legacy to call your own. Your only clan is that of swindlers and thieves and if there was any distinct heritage to the group you hail from, they've spoiled it by refusing to keep their bloodlines pure. Lastly, you do practice foul acts of trickery and deceive your opponents rather than overcome them, that makes the title of a witch and a trickster, a deceiver even all apt to describe you. Which part still confuses you?" Endo pouted his lips as he did not flinch for a second when looking Mana right in the eyes – something that proved perilous to him the last time he engaged in it.
Mana didn't feel her fists clenching, she first became aware of it only when her hands drew blood from her nails digging into the flesh of her hands with shallow cuts. It felt like the tips of her teeth would begin flying off in chips that would burst forth through her stiffened lips as something wet and chunky got stuck in her throat. It was a nice cost to pay for the tears that began forming in Mana's eyes not to surface. The magician turned and walked away. Nobody going out of their way to be this eager to thrust at her heart as many times as possible deserved anything more than that. She didn't even care particularly as to how Araki Endo came to know about the clan of wandering ninja that Mana's mother was from at that time.
"Welcome back to the field, recruits. It is the time to see if the skills that you've accrued from reading the memoirs of a Haoru of the Four Godly Swords and his experiences in the Second Great Ninja War will be of any use to you. Since we've got two whole hours to spend, it is time to put those warfare skills into practice. I understand that you may have been tricked into thinking that reading strategy books and studying combat tactics is all that we'll be doing here but you were wrong – this will be one of the few practical assignments, recruits," a familiar face that was there to try and subdue Sekita, riding in on a horse and using a spear in an attempt to defeat the expanded and empowered kunoichi, spoke to the group of recruits.
He was the second of the tutors teaching this course. The first one was the old man with an ushanka-style hat, familiar to Mana from that same clash as well. The magician was glad to see both him and this staunch and strong-sounding man survive the ordeal and recover fast enough to be able to teach courses again. Whereas the old man teaching the course before was much more into battlefield tactics and strategy, this one appeared to be keener on practical assignments.
"It is important for Allied Ninja to always have a step ahead of the village ninja in terms of strategy. In their missions they are often found to be unwelcome, always outnumbered by the local ninja and the sad reality is that it is all too difficult to have a village ninja face justice for a violent undoing of an Allied Ninja. That is why you must draw from the advantage of being able to study from the experiences of ninja from all over the globe and learn the lessons their strengths and defeats alike can teach you. It is a sole advantage you will have to leverage over the village ninja so it is important to make it a considerable one. Just to show you the difference that this course makes, I want to have a little bit of a survival exercise here today, more like a type of war game." The tutor spoke to the lined-up recruits.
The lined-up recruits were already bustling over the declaration of this war game. Some of them bustled in unease, Mana caught a glimpse of Skaven who seemed especially bothered by the fact that he might end up having to fight a bunch to pass this course and that he could no longer be rewarded through his keen intellect and skills in research as well as learning.
"I believe that this war game will demonstrate the difference between a group of ninja who have learned the adequate lessons of warfare and those that rely solely on their own power and the knowledge that they could have only gathered in their own background. I cannot take all the credit for this idea, for it was a group of graduating recruits who proposed this idea to me. They wanted to test the mettle of new recruits though they've requested a specific handful of them," the braided tutor with a spear, wrapped in leather, hanging on his back explained.
As if sensing that it was their cue to enter, a group of four ninja appeared in the doorway leading back from the field and into the waiting rooms. It was a quartet that was so familiar to Mana that the magician couldn't help but not to exclaim her disgruntlement and shake her head. She had a sense that she knew already where this was going the moment she saw Shogito, Joshipa, Baiso, and Stein take the field.
"Hello, new recruits, we are your senpai: my name's Shogito, this is Joshipa, Baiso, and Stein. Thank you to Mauma-sensei for giving us this word and this time," Shogito nodded his head with a slight bow. Judging from the look on tutor Bauma's face and how he raised his index finger up to argue, he might not have entirely agreed with the young man's sentiment to take the reigns over from him but he then relented, realizing that young Shogito may just explain this better than he would anyway.
"We've suggested that Mauma-sensei pits us against a group of promising new recruits just to demonstrate the type of difference that this course makes, just so you lot can get on board with the program and don't pout too much about all the reading you have to do for a course called "warfare", am I right?" Shogito smirked at the confused group of new recruits as he tried to get some of them to identify with him on this. "In any case, what we are proposing is a little war game – you'll be doing plenty of those here for your tests and the final exam too. It is a survival game of four against four. This field shall have four objectives put into place and the group that manages to pull off all four of them takes the cake. War games are a four-on-four affair which is why the four of us have come here to compete in good faith against four of you."
"I can see you guppies pissing your pants already!" Baiso pointed an accusatory finger at the very confused bunch of recruits who might have been taken aback by this but only because of how out of nowhere this war game was. "But we've selected the four of you to take on for this war game already so the rest of you can sit back and enjoy the show!"
"That's right. The four of you that we've asked Mauma-sensei to face in your first war game is the team of Nakotsumi Mana, Shige-H, Araki Endo, also, we're not sure what that guy's name is but… That guy too…" Joshipa pointed right at Damisan who let his steel and plastic prosthetics show from underneath his cloak as they planted over the mask covering his face while he gasped with a mechanical expression of surprise.
"What an unexpected development! Crew, our senpai appear to want to face the four of us. How fortunate that they've lumped us all together!" he turned to the rest of the crew, looking excited to be included in the first war game alongside his crew.
"Hmmm… You seem to have prior affiliations with that crew, Mana. Are you sure that you can face them in the war game on our side? I'll understand if you cannot," Shige-H glanced at Mana.
"Oh, I'm just eager to be done with this," Mana nodded her head, looking plagued by the constant presence of those four in her life here with the Allied Ninja. Just when she came to view them as her friends, they immediately formed attachment issues and decided to act upon whatever sick sense of ownership they believed to have over Mana with this stunt.
"Well then, now that your senpai have explained everything, let us make preparations for your first war game, recruits," Mauma pumped his fist out into the sky.