A lizard-like amphibian of a threateningly proportioned head and black scales pulsing with venomous pustules at their edges hissed out. With its mouth splitting open, it unleashed a trio of whipping tongues, all of which ended in a more substantial mass where a purple liquid swelled up. Upon being whipped about, the growths at the tip of the tongues became so overburdened by the swelling liquid that it splashed it about.
Endo, Mana, and Tomi dashed aside, observing the showering venom closely so that they could pull out of its way and not experience the adverse effects of famed ninja salamander venom. What neither of the three had expected was that the venom burst into hissing fumes the moment that it spent a good pair of seconds exposed to the air of the unsealed battlefield resembling a mountain cave slapped together from two intertwining rocky ridges rising from opposite directions and forming a cradling triangle of pocket air in between them.
The trio erupted in a fit of coughing as the burning air filled their lungs. The composition of the venom was tough to pin down, but it felt like breathing something hot enough to rend and unravel one's skin while something viler, more chemical corrupted the sensitive flesh, causing a very nervous irritation in one's entire airway system. Mana couldn't even hear the salamander hissing over her own wheezing and whining.
She wanted to cry out to Tomi, who rolled forward and jumped with her hands and feet open, latching onto the salamander's shield-shaped forehead in a manner similar to a hug as the brat rubbed her face at the enemy's. While the exact effectiveness of this method was yet to be determined, Tomi confounded the lizard greatly at the very least.
"I know you doing this whole thing right now, but I also know that you'd much more rather be burrowing around that soft, wet soil down under, huh?" Tomi muttered as she let go of the giant salamander's forehead with one hand and used it to rub it gently over its forehead. The amphibian croaked out with rippling bubbles of air, making Mana almost forget the fact that she had breathed in some highly irritating substances and try to keep her eardrums from rupturing for a few moments.
The large lizard smashed its head against the ground, grinding the rougher patches underneath to mushy dust as its relatively small for its colossal proportions, arms began burrowing and the amphibian disappeared from sight within seconds. Having dropped on her butt, Tomi just chuckled, marveling at the sight from down below as the floor cleared up for them to claim their prize and complete the training exercise.
"Humph… That's right, tuck your tail and run," Endo grumbled as he was regaining his breath and breathed in enough oxygen to get back on his feet.
"I've seen nothing like that," Mana's jaw dropped, half because of the surprise of seeing a lizard being defused by mere pets and cuddles and a very mesmerizing suggestion, another half because she was that short of breathable air in her chest to where it felt like being choked. The sooner they'd leave this corrupted, noxious field the better.
"Salamanders are just big goofs. All they want to do is burrow around and eat venomous maggots to fill up their reserves. The poor thing must have been so frightened to spit venom at us even though it didn't intend to eat us," Tomi made a worried face staring down at the hole.
"It would have absolutely eaten us!" Endo sheathed his double-blade weapon before exclaiming as the battlefield lit up in bright light and became just a fluid mirage that sealed back into the glyphs drawn in patterns over the ground. Despite the rather bland and unimpressive appearance of the default training grounds, it was preferable to choking in venomous fumes that were spreading and thinning out until the recruits leaving the lecture and sharing their impressions couldn't even notice it anymore.
"Nonsense, you're a mean-spirited human. Too nasty for most animal species to eat, though, perhaps, salamanders are a bit too silly to care for the good of their own digestion…" Tomi began pondering to herself as the trio waited for Stars to reassemble so that they could go back to their room together like they did on most days.
"How am I mean-spirited? That bastard would've gobbled us up for sure, am I wrong?" Endo bit his lip as he turned away with a bitter scowl.
Mana didn't reply to him, even though this was one of the rare few occasions when she would have taken Endo's view on the situation over Tomi's. She didn't want to offend the littlest and cutest member of Stars, who already thought little of the people around her unless they proved entertaining to her or her ninja animal friends. It took a few months until she started sharing food with the other Stars members that weren't Mana or her ninja rabbits that immediately struck Tomi's fancy.
"Well done," tutor Rissen a tall woman of strict facial features, posh, pale make-up who carried herself around with the most formal strut that still was only one foot over the edge into parody territory clapped after taking out her smoking pipe and putting it back in between her lush, red lips. "Learning to care for ninja animals and establish bonds between yourself and another living being is exactly what I'm looking for from recruits excelling in this subject. Just because Konoha's Sorceress and Araki Endo immediately tried taking Sanshohoru down as their first reaction, I will award the three of you a score of 18/20."
"Thanks, Tomi, after recovering, failing exercises and flunking tests is no longer an option for me." Mana nodded in gratitude.
"Are you kidding me? Mana-nee helped me out in all sorts of boring stuff! Don't mention it!" Tomi pumped her tiny, cute fist into the sky with a tooth bracelet ticking and clicking around her wrist as she did so.
"It's not like you're bottom of the barrel, Mana, what's with the sudden worry about your score?" Endo wondered with a grumpy look as he crossed his arms and gave the ninja magician a suspicious look.
"Yeah, even if you'd fail the prep exam, you'll be able to retake it after repeating the course and you'll already have most of the score gathered and lectures penned down so you won't even have to attend any of your repeated lectures with the next generation of recruits. It'd be a breeze, you could spend the whole time training…" Shige-H looked up almost dreaming about failing the exam and having loads of free time that's now being spent on taking lectures and earning crucial score points that will comprise half of the exam score.
"No. I've settled on a decision already. If I fail the prep course, I am not waiting for the next generation and preparing for six more months." Mana shook her head, looking resolute.
While discussing the matter, the Stars gathered around a clustered together table made of cupboards that they've pushed alongside to comprise a larger table when they needed to share some snacks or drinks while discussing matters, over small talk or bonding as a group. Everyone pulled out the food they had stashed with Mana, handing Endo his meatloaf and potato lunch she stored in a sealing dimension just because their room did not come with a fridge, and sealing dimensions tended to be known for perfect conservation conditions. How the samurai apprentice could eat something that had floated in a void alongside everything else Mana had sealed there was beyond the girl, but that was the hill that Endo would have died on.
"If I fail the prep course, I'm leaving the Allied Ninja." Mana sealed her decision by speaking it out loud.
"Huh? You're going to return to your village then?" Endo wondered. "Doesn't everyone there want you dead already?"
"Not everyone," Skaven replied, looking uncharacteristically intrigued by Mana's proclamation as his usual shroud of apathy had disappeared and he looked at the magician with a clue of life and interest that was very unlike him. "Though she'd be back in the same melting pot she ran away from, yes. Are you really okay with this, Shige-H?"
"Here, have some of my tea herbs, I insist!" Shige-H bowed her head, offering her unraveled sash of dried out leaves and roots to very confused Tomi who just slowly nabbed it and sprinkled a few into her cup.
"You're acting weird, boss lady, it's okay if you don't want Mana-nee to leave, none of us want that," Tomi observed as she shuffled the roots and herbs around with her finger and took a gulp of the tea. The brat stuck out her tongue and couldn't open her left eye from disgust. "Jeez, Shige, you drink that, it's so bitter!"
"Anyway," Shige-H punched her own chest a few times and turned to Mana. "I'd rather Stars wouldn't lose people as I've gathered you guys for a reason. I felt like this group could have helped each of us individually and done some good while working as Allied Ninja all over the world. But it's your decision and I'll respect that, as long as you have a plan and you won't just wander back through the Fire Country that's filled with criminal scumbags itching to cash in on the bounty on your head and get yourself killed."
"No. I don't want to go back to Konoha just yet. I'd probably just tour the world as a traveling artist, just like my ancestors, the Wandering Ninja, used to do," Mana shrugged. She hadn't paid that alternative too much thought, but she missed stage magic most of all right now, so she figured that was the best thing to focus on if this whole Allied Ninja thing failed.
"The Wandering Ninja? Didn't they all get snuffed out by Konoha authorities?" Endo raised his eyebrow. "You'd better find a more suitable role model. I won't even comment on you growing up serving a country that had your ancestors' group assassinated."
"Lay off Mana-nee, it's not like she had much choice after being born in Konoha and wanting to be a ninja!" Tomi wagged her finger in front of Endo's nose, prompting the grumpy ninja to turn his eyes away from the table small-talk.
Holding a scroll with the lecture notes she had copied off of Mana's notes in hand, Tomi drew blood from her thumb and weaved hand seals, driving her open palm to the ground in front. It had become a signature part of the routine for the little rascal to not looking at the resulting pop and the thick cloud of smoke that shrouded the summoned ninja animal of choice until her friend appeared in their full glory. Just so she could look cooler that way by not looking. Though now the fact that no pop or thick cloud of smoke even occurred called for Tomi's attention much sooner than usual.
Nothing. Tomi bit harder into her tongue, filling her mouth with her own blood, and weaved the hand seals so intensely that the blood she had drawn splattered in a circle of a few meters around her. The wild girl slammed her open palm at the ground before her, but nothing came out. Tomi smacked her palms together and jumped up, focusing her chakra into a singular pulse to leave her feet at the moment that her feet leave the ground to propel her upward but she touched the ground far too soon and after making far too puny of a jump compared to what she intended.
The stark contrast forced Tomi to stumble and fall on her butt. What was going on? Why couldn't she do anything that required chakra anymore? How? How was she supposed to make it now? No ninja owls to memorize her homework, no ninja elephants for piggyback rides, or ninja apes to box playfully with. No ninja mantises to practice boomerang throwing skills or ninja swallows to race! Nobody. She was all alone now.
Tomi looked around with a terrified expression. The recruits practicing their skills around her all wavered and flapped around in the gloomy evening lighting. Their shapes grew out of proportions as their gaunt arms and fingers became one with the shady trees and loomed over little Tomi. Just a few more inches and they'd grab hold of her. If she's lucky, they'll never let go, but if they're as evil as Tomi's experience dictated, they rip, scratch and claw, and slap…
"Whoa, whoa, what's wrong, do you need help?" a weak, masculine voice reached Tomi's ears as the little one snapped her eyes back open, realizing that she's been lying cradled on the grass. The other practicing ninja had gathered in a circle around her. Shige-H and Damisan parted them and helped Tomi get back up on her feet.
"What happened, Tomi, we heard you screaming bloody murder from all the way on Training Ground No 46," Damisan pointed over his shoulder.
"My friends… I can't… I can't reach them… I'm all… All alone!" Tomi cried out.
"Hold on, you're not making any sense here, what's going on?" Shige-H kneeled by the little rascal, trying to ease her into explaining what was going on properly.
"I… I tried summoning Fukugane to memorize the notes I copied from Mana so that I could then train, but…" little Tomi struggled through her words as sniffling and irregular breathing made it difficult for her to talk. "But I couldn't… I couldn't reach any of them. I'm all alone! I've got no more friends!"
"Whoa, calm down there, little missy. What's the point of being in a super cool, special, exclusive membership-required group if you don't have any friends? We're all your friends, Tomi, and we're here for you." Damisan leaned down and patted little Tomi's head with his prosthetic hand.
"B-But… I had thirty-two friends already and… Now I only have five. I will never have a hundred friends like this." Tomi sniffled again, somewhat settling down as she pulled down her furry wristband to wipe her runny nose into.
"Okay… I'm officially lost about what she's talking about but… Maybe we should take her to the infirmary, see if any medical brainiacs over there can figure out what's wrong with you? Maybe you took a nasty bump or something? Don't worry, you've got all your arms and legs, as far as I can tell, you're gonna be just fine!" Damisan gave his thumb up to the frightened girl.
"I don't think that's necessary," Shige-H shook her head. When Damisan turned his shaky cylinder stuck to his head at the Stars leader with, what Shige-H assumed to be bafflement, she explained herself, "Look at her, the last thing she needs is some scary looking half-militarized lab-coats doing tests on her whole night. I'm sure that she'll be just fine and that this is nothing. In the meantime, why don't you just try socializing a little."
"Soc… Socializing?" Tomi muttered with her face going pale and her lips turning blue as they became so stiff that they quivered in terror. "B-But… I don't know anyone…"
"That's the point of socializing, isn't it?" Shige-H smirked and winked at her fallen little friend, helping her get back up and dusting her fur and rags dress off. "If you feel anything bad, just come to me and I'll check you up with my Diagnosis Jutsu. For now, just try to talk to people. Make some connections."
"Can't I train with you two?" Tomi poked her fingers together, looking away in embarrassment. "I don't know anyone else here."
"Sure," Shige-H sighed and wiped the sweat off of her face. All the droplets that she squirted out trying to point out that this was exactly the way making friends worked. "We can make it work, I think."
"Heck yeah, you can train with us!" Damisan bent his right arm and flexed his bicep made of steel skeleton, plastic accessories, and inflatable, gelatinous material simulating human muscle. "You might not be able to summon your ninja beasties anymore, but you've still got one wicked aim and a bunch of your weapons, right? You're still one mighty kunoichi, even if you can't summon anymore!"
Little Tomi screamed out, grabbing ahold of her head as her untrimmed fingernails threatened to rake right through her soft and fleshy childish skin that no longer received any emergency chakra augmentations. The teen jumped up and bolted toward the shade of the forest in the direction where the Allied Ninja headquarters building stood.
"You really didn't need to say that so many times," Shige-H shook her head, letting out a hefty sigh off her chest.
"Huh? Did I say something wrong?" Damisan pointed to himself, acting confused about the entire situation and what might have set his friend off and translating his feeling perfectly despite his face being blocked by the hefty accessory he wore over it.
Bit by bit, inch by inch, Tomi peeked from the cover of trees. Who knew how much time had passed since she fled for cover? Minutes, hours, how many? The novelty of her breakdown had grown thin with people returning to their usual practice routines. There was a group on the center-western part of the training ground, one to the north-eastern…
"H-Hey…" an insecure mumble distracted a pair of recruits exchanging kicks and slashes while armed with kunai. The pair stopped practicing and turned for the shy and unnerved young teen behind them. "Do you guys need help?" Tomi wondered with a wide and moist pair of eyes that wanted to add more numbers to her list of friends, but somewhere deep down begged the universe for those two to dismiss her.
"Sorry, girl, this is a sort of one-on-one practice drill…" one recruit scratched the back of his head, wondering how to send the little brat packing without being too rude or mean on her.
"Say, aren't you from the Stars? I'm sure that your crew's gonna take you in, why don't you go talk to them. Some of them are still practicing on Training Ground No. 46. I think I've seen one or two of them practicing by their lonesome too but I'm not sure who or where…" the second pressed his finger to his chin before scratching his head with it deep in thought.
"Mana-nee is in the library," Tomi turned around, looking at the glowing windows at the upper floors of the headquarters building. "That's where I left her. Maybe she'll… Wait, maybe she'll summon the ninja rabbits for me?"
Tomi's face brightened up. There was still a way for her to meet some of her friends again before the turbulence of the next day's lectures sets in. Maybe Shige-H and Damisan were right and things weren't as dire as they initially seemed? With a quick shuffle of her feet, dashing on all-fours, at times, leaping and vaulting over the many thick branches of the forest area and hurrying toward the shoreline clearing where the headquarters building was, little Tomi made a desperate dash toward the library.