The Supreme Leader came two days later. Until the leader of the Allied Ninja could interrogate Mana herself, they only allowed her to stay in the designated tent and she had a tail of two ninja following her around and checking on everything she did. In terms of being imprisoned or suspected of something, Mana has gone through far worse, though it was relieving to see that she'd finally get the chance to settle it with the boss lady.
"Hey, you've licked your wounds yet? The guys watching you told me you've been training a lot, so I figured I could see you now." Supreme Leader pulled on the beak of her hat. "Apparently, your training includes just sitting around. I'd like to know if you weren't communicating with anyone mentally or in some other way."
"Communicating? Genjutsu is a mental art. It requires mental fortitude, focus, and profound skill of execution. I was meditating." Mana replied. The attitude of being believed when she lied but taken skeptically when she told the truth was not lost on the Supreme Leader.
"Figured. It's just you bored the fuck out of your tail that's all…" the woman shrugged before pulling a chair for herself and settling down on it in a less than elegant pose, both military-style boots on the table while the woman sat flippantly and leaned back on the chair. Her eyes showed all the subtlety of a delinquent gang leader.
"You should ask Endo how he feels. You guys still haven't let me treat him. A human mind can only take so much punishment. Eventually, he will slip into a coma, you know." Mana let it be known to the Supreme Leader. It was just a way to transfer the responsibility and care over her friend's well-being. It ate at the magician on the inside thinking that she left Endo that way, now that the person in charge knew the risks. If she denied Endo his help, it'll be on her entirely.
"So you're saying you can treat him? Curious… Our medical ninja just tossed their hands in the air and all signed off on it. They say it would take an S-Rank medical ninja to even attempt at pulling the guy out. And yet here you are saying you can help Endo… I know little about genjutsu, it's very fucking convenient for you that few people do, but it seems to me like the only reason you could dispel the illusion is if you cast it on him in the first place, isn't that right?" the Supreme Leader weaved her fingers over her abdomen while she sneered at Mana, sniffing at any signs of shock or fear. Her glare focused in on the slightest twitches on Mana's face and she had some tracks to sniff on–Mana didn't expect this much awareness from someone who claimed to know nothing about the subject.
Still, she had a few days to settle on a story and a way to tell it.
"The way I would use to pull Endo out is not by directly dispelling the illusion for him. That might be possible, but it would be beyond impractical given how it might be an A or S-Rank illusion. The strain one has to go through to dispel a genjutsu technique can reach up to twice what it took to cast the illusion. Instead, I'd like to enter Endo's mind and work with him dispelling the genjutsu himself from the inside. If he realizes he is under an illusion, understands what is going on, and gets a grip on himself mentally, it'll demand far less chakra to break out." Mana pointed out.
"Are you telling me that illusion is so potent that Endo hadn't figured out he's under an illusion in the first place for two days?" Supreme Leader focused her look until it was sharp as a drill. "That makes it one fancy-pants motherfucker that's after our fresh graduates."
"Not necessarily. From the way Endo acted, I take it that the genjutsu manipulates one's temporal sense. That's to say, it meddles with one's understanding of passaging time. If Endo doesn't believe that even one second has passed–his body and mind had no time to even work on identifying the jutsu. A technique like that would be impossible to dispel by only the affecting target and would require another party." Mana explained.
"Frightening shit… Before I let you anywhere near Endo, I'm gonna need you to help me understand what had happened. Based on what the others have told me, you've woven yourself a fancy and fucking ludicrous boloney and you just can't stop serving it wherever you turn." The Supreme Leader sighed, settling into a more official posture on the chair as hers was annoying her muscles and joints. "Your capacity for lying is like that of a four-year-old, Mana. The irony of a mistress of illusion and stage magic being a fucking abhorrent liar isn't lost on me."
"I haven't lied about anything. You must understand, I've gone to that place expecting to creep on a guy and I ended up fighting for his life, and my own, then questioned by the organization I work for… An experience like that can crush someone and make them seem standoffish…" Mana tried slithering into her boss' pocket but a hammering thud made the magician jump up.
"Cut the fucking crap, bitch!" the Supreme Leader yelled out. It took Mana multiple checks on her mental notes that the Supreme Leader was prone to severe overreactions and cussing tirades that didn't portray her mental state accurately to not die of a heart attack. "You're the absolute fucking worst cheat I've ever seen! Endo's fucking trouble. I have my doubts about kicking him the fuck out of my corps but I really don't want to give you the boot too. I don't think I can, but neither of us wants to find out how things are gonna be when I want to use you, but I don't trust you enough to let you out of my sight. You better open the fuck up, for everyone's sake."
"You can punish or torture me, Supreme Leader, but then you'll only get the answer that you want, not a truthful one." Mana stood her ground.
"What I'll fucking get in that case is abso-fucking-lutely nothing. You'll just shut-in, meditate throughout the whole thing and give our most fucked up bastards a wink after they're done. It's a genuine pity that you can't be bothered to be truthful with us. Especially now, when I need your truthfulness the most. I need the Stars on a bunch of missions that need to be done as fast as possible but I won't let you out of my sight if I can't trust you wholeheartedly." The Supreme Leader sighed and pushed her chair back under the table.
"I saved all of your lives. Doesn't that warrant any trust?" Mana didn't want to play this card, but the Allied Ninja left her no choice. Even now, it felt putrid inside to gloat over something like that, but Mana wanted to solve this matter and work like in the old days without having the Stars bleed out any members. It has already lost one too many.
"Bitch, that's the only fucking reason we haven't booted your candy ass out in the middle of the Lightning Country at the worst possible time to be a Konoha affiliate near Kumogakure." The Supreme Leader turned around and stepped toward the exit from the tent. She stopped and turned back to Mana with half of her face. "Let's just hope that Skaven corroborates your story. As bat-fuck bullshit as that crap is, it'll have to be made official if there's no less poppycock version."
How was Mana supposed to take that? The woman's voice seemed calmer than when she was ventilating Mana's veins with her booming voice earlier. Was it Mana's reminder of what she has done for the organization that soothed the Supreme Leader? Someone as sharp as this woman must have known this the whole time. Either she was just venting her soul here, or it was a sort of challenge for Mana to pull off the grandest trick of them all and have the unconscious Skaven corroborate Mana's story. After all, the circumstances testified to him having seen who beat him up, the medical ninja all believed that.
Mana slapped her open palms together, focusing on her chakra until it turned into a flaming aura around her. The young woman willed her energy to form a pair of spheres that would satellite the central pillar of booming energy, trying to interweave the destructive elements of Lightning Release and Fire Release together but only a pair of fiery spheres continued to rotate around Mana, dissolving after the magician sensed the ninja watching her come closer.
"The Supreme Leader wants to see you. Skaven woke up." The Allied Ninja said.
Mana ceased her Advanced Bloodline training with an uneasy breath and followed the two Allied Ninja with little fuss or back talking. Mana wasn't sure how this would pan out. She hadn't seen Skaven because she had a tail of ninja far more experienced and skilled in the art of stealth than she was on her the entire time. It would have been beyond suspicious to try and see him, let alone try to enter his mind and settle on a story. Especially with all the medical ninja watching over his improving condition all the time.
Most of the Stars, the Supreme Leader, and the new quartet of Regimental Commanders were all there, surrounding Skaven's bed while the medical ninja checked up on his condition and determined if the Nara could go through the questioning. They didn't seem to have any objections. Since Endo wasn't there, Skaven didn't seem all too jumpy and looked ready for a few questions. He'd be going on one of those missions that the Supreme Leader needed to be done in a few days if these early indicators of his condition were to be believed.
"Good fucking morning, you limp bastard. We need a few things straightened up for us since your teammates got into a whole heap of dogshit and can't seem to help us sift through it all and help them out of it. Can you tell us what the fuck happened to you?" the Supreme Leader crossed her arms, brushing a medical ninja aside as she stepped out in front of Skaven. The Nara sat up and rubbed his still sleepy eyes and moved his hair out of the way. He looked at Mana and then scanned the room.
"Yeah… A nukenin attacked me. Called himself a Snake Dragon God King, or something. I don't think he hates the Allied Ninja. He seemed more of the type to want to prove his strength to everyone and it just ended up that he stayed in our backdoor for some time." Skaven explained. Mana bent her head to the side in befuddlement. He was such a good liar that even Mana felt like believing him and would have questioned what she saw and knew to be the truth after looking at the conviction in his eyes. "Why? What happened while I was out?"
"Snake… Dragon God King? Jeez, just fucking pick a name…" the Supreme Leader sighed, crossing her arms and shaking her head. "Alright. Get your shit together. I expect to see you fuckwads in my tent tomorrow at noon sharp. Be late and I'll fucking eviscerate you assholes. This is an important task I've got for you. You're Allied Ninja now, time to prove it again."
"Yes, ma'am!" Shige-H saluted the departing Allied Ninja authorities before approaching Skaven. Mana could help herself but do the same.
"So, who else got hurt?" Skaven wheezed out, looking around the place still bustling with medical ninja preventing him from revealing the entirety of the information out loud.
"A bunch of people. This "Snake Dragon God King" was really busy… He injured Damisan too though not as bad as he did you. He would have injured me too but Mana tricked me into coming to meet him instead." Shige-H let Skaven in on the know.
"I see. That was a neat trick. Our Snake Dragon God King struck me as the guy who's superb at preparing to eliminate any opponent, so throwing him for a loop like that must have really pissed him off…" Skaven nodded. "I assume he's pretty pummeled himself. How did you avoid capturing him in public?"
"I've got a side hustle as a stage magician, you know." Mana pocketed her hands, breathing out in relief that all the suspicions were now off her back. "It was a grand illusion that we pulled. Your timely help really pulled us through in the end. I got scared for a second there, I won't lie…"
"Hey, give the guy a few more hours to sleep on it, will you? If he's feeling well, we'll let him out in the evening, then you can catch up." A medical ninja asked the visitors out.
"Yeah… I guess I still need to wake Endo up…" Mana scratched the back of her head, revealing herself hesitant to do so.
"Do you have to?" Damisan moaned before chuckling and waving his palms in front of him apologetically. "I'm kidding, just kidding…"
"Mana…" Shige-H pointed to her. "That trick you pulled, tricking me and putting yourself in harm's way, never do it again."
"You know I will." Mana shrugged, dismissing the leader of Stars as she headed toward Endo's tent.
Skaven made a full recovery and could walk and even dash around on his feet by that evening. The medical ninja performed a quick Mystical Palm treatment session on him to patch up any deep-seated injuries that may have persisted and to ease the damage to his muscles and body and the numbness resulting from him lying around for a few days while unconscious. He wasn't in mint condition just yet, but it wasn't like he'd spring into action immediately after the mission started.
"Good, you're all here." The Supreme Leader nodded in approval when the Stars entered her tent one by one. "How are you holding up, Skaven? Ready to do your job already?"
"Numb and sore in places still, but it's not like we'll be fighting for our lives immediately after the mission start. I'll fully recover on my way to the mission objective. Given how we don't obey the strict country borders, our missions take us around the world so I'll take the few days between to recover as much as I can." Skaven answered honestly while stretching his right arm and testing the functionality of his shoulder joint. He exchanged apathetic glares with Endo on the other side.
"That's what I wanted to hear. As you can see, our encampment is in a sorry position. We aren't very well-liked amongst the Great Ninja Villages or the minor ones at that. Our precarious position leaves us open for a successive attack and a complete fucking wipeout." The Supreme Leader hissed with disdain at the possibility of the last prospect. "I've arranged matters with Konohagakure to provide us with emergency provisions. Food, supplies, construction materials. Everything we need to start and get us up on our feet. I need you guys to oversee that the supplies come here safely."
"This is an A-Rank mission," Mana muttered. This was half meant to herself, half to be heard aloud.
"I suppose if you're abiding by your own village classification, yes." The Supreme Leader nodded. "Ain't you a lucky fucking chicken. You get to put a golden egg twice in your career. Once for the entire world and once for good-old us."
"What are the risk factors for this mission? What should we look out for?" Shige-H inquired.
"Aside from the fucking obvious?" the Supreme Leader turned to Mana, reminding everyone without saying a word that the Fire Country had a black market bounty on the magician's head and that they'd begin competing with bounty hunters whiffing their scent as soon as they make it to Fire Country, "I don't believe that the other countries like the prospect of Konoha funding our rebirth. I don't have a single fucking doubt that their dick-munching rats are all over the place spying for them. They knew about this deal as soon as we made said deal. If Konoha finances too much of us getting back on our feet–they'll have a significant influence on our organization, meaning that they'll be able to push and pull levers as they see fit and our agents can enter and leave any country with impunity. We risk becoming just another Black Ops unit to Konoha. Nobody wants that."
"So we'll be competing with bounty hunters after Mana and other villages who don't want to see Konoha's supply reaching us?" Endo summed it up. "I can see why you'd want to send your best to this assignment…"
"Don't flatter yourself, prick." The Supreme Leader smirked. "You ain't too shabby, counting the survivors, sure, but I've got my best people on interference. I've got multiple active missions intercepting the agents from other villages that would see you eliminated. A few more teams are negotiating deals with other villages. Once we score a deal with all of them, borrowing this and that from here and there, they'll back the fuck off about us accepting construction equipment from Konoha because they'll have their own investment in us and will have nothing to fear. You're the face of this mission, the best are the shadow that will make sure your mission isn't an act of suicide."
"I see, that is a remarkable plan to rectify this situation with Konoha, amazing, Supreme Leader," Shige-H nodded and the Stars followed her suit by kneeling before the leader of the organization.
"Piss the fuck off and don't be back without those supplies." The Supreme Leader eased them and released them in her own unique way.
Author's Notes: I'm taking a little break to work on Annual 6. I think that it'll be the first time that the Annual is directly tied and follows the previous chapter exactly. It'll be the precise continuation of where I left off, picked up and wrapped up all in one and as grand and fantastic as only an Annual can be!