"Is this really the only way to get to the Allied Ninja HQ?" a grumpy drunkard waved a half-empty bottle around over his head, splashing entire mouthfuls of the spicy and bitter to taste liquid found inside.
"Why am I not surprised that you'd consider Grass Country a good place to take transportation in?" a masked ninja with a full-body bodysuit shook his head while sighing at the troublesome journey alongside a handful of construction workers and engineers that Sunagakure spared for the Allied Ninja. "Lush bamboo forests, ravines, and swampland–and not a second's warning before the ground under your feet changes between those and only those potential options?"
"Ah, shut up ye homeless tool!" the wild-haired worker swung his large fisticuffs around thin air.
"You literally asked. Did he not literally ask?" the ninja looked around at his comrades for comfort. "Sheesh…"
"These workers are important to the Allied Ninja. More important than any missions we've been on lately." A tall and bulky ninja in a baggy, red cloak and clockwork-design mechanical gauntlets addressed his talkative comrade with a stern glance. "Just keep telling yourself that and don't start any trouble. We've got plenty of journey ahead of us before we reach Snow Country."
"We're going to Snow Country?" a thick and rich in the flesh, shirtless construction worker with a single braid resting over the top of his otherwise bald head wondered. "Isn't that really impractical? From the Grass Country, we could walk around the mountain range and the tundra from the west if we only head north."
"It's our job to get you to the Allied Ninja safely, sir. If I were you, I'd focus on your specialty and how you're going to help us rebuild the HQ and fulfill your contractual obligations." The stern ninja who, despite his tall stature, still stood an entire head beneath the round-belly worker said.
"Just calm down and don't antagonize the VIPs, Moku…" a female ninja in a white dress and red, elbow-reaching gloves smiled while giving her masked teammate a cute twinkle of her pearly teeth.
"How am I antagonizing them?" the masked ninja grabbed his head in frustration before turning to the half-wasted worker. "Do you feel particularly antagonized by me answering the thing you literally asked for us to answer?"
"Fuck you, you don't pay any taxes… You useless suckling!" The worker dragged his bandaged forearm over his moist with industrial alcohol mouth.
"Why would we pay taxes to Sunagakure?" Moku, the masked ninja, scratched his head. "We don't even operate anywhere near that place, our base is literally on the other side of the planet…"
"Moku… Antagonizing…" a frail ninja with a petite build, ground-reaching coal-black hair, and pale skin turned his froggy eyes to his friend and ally.
"What is that sound?" the tall, cloak-donning ninja looked around the endless grassland hills, trying to determine the source of electrical hum in the air that was becoming more intense and more thunderous by the second.
"Hey, look at Vaxel-chan…" Moku pointed at his teammate who had her black hair crawling up as if caught in a field of static electricity.
"G-Guys…" Vaxel, the kunoichi of the Allied Ninja accompanying the workers, looked around. "Do any of you feel funny? My belly's feeling all… Itchy and weird…"
A blinding flash of an amethyst pillar slammed from high above like a beam drilling into and through the grassland hills of Kusagakure. The intense beam drilled on and on into the ground, resonating with intense force as its energy beacon flattened the entire surface of the area without harming a single blade of grass. The edge of the town-sized pillar of energy drilled close enough to a kunoichi of the Allied Ninja in an indigo gi and a black bodysuit underneath to ruffle her baggy clothes and incinerate parts of them that touched the beam.
"Scatter!" the cloaked ninja leading the squad of Allied Ninja ordered as the men and women scattered in a wide formation. "Moku, Rela, Laco, Manji Formation. Workers, huddle up!"
"Are you kidding me? If that beam hits us again, we're all toast!" one worker rebelled by shaking a fist over his head. "We need to widen up, not press shoulder-to-shoulder, ya dumbass!"
"Everyone for themselves!" the drunkard construction worker yelled out before the skies turned dark in but a blink with ink-colored clouds that lashed with white lightning. A torrential downpour swept the ninja and the workers alike when a single waterfall dispelled in a whirlwind twirl, revealing a lone, humanoid figure in its epicenter.
"Shit! Who are you? Why aren't you wearing a headband?" the leader of the Allied Ninja squad shook his mechanical gauntlet mashed into a fist in front of him as a threat.
The figure hailing from the heavenly waterfall took leisurely steps toward the Manji Formation while his silver robe with black decorations rattled in the artificial typhoon that this unidentified party whipped up as cover for their head-on attack.
"Really? Headband? I'm more wondering about the weird fashion choices, the black and yellow eyes, and the fricking horns growing out from the guy's head!" Moku addressed the unnatural appearance of this lone attacker who was yet to introduce himself or to voice his demands. The masked ninja hopped uneasily on his feet in a vigorous fighting stance, ready to engage this attacker and any allies that he may have had.
"Rela, how many more?" the cloaked leader turned to his teammate in a blue cape, widening his eyes in shock when he saw his team's sensor passed out with white eyes and drool of foam running from her mouth and blood dripping from her nose. "Rela! Engage the enemy now!"
The man descending from the heavens with a hardy skin of bony texture that grew into a pair of straight horns and flowing sugar-colored locks extended his hand. A jade-gleam blinked in the center of the attacker's hand before a misty whirlwind engulfed the cloaked leader of the Allied Ninja, lifting him off the ground. The man's roars, pants, and gargling became distorted, almost mechanical like he was speaking through a filter as the Allied Ninja became disassembled into nail-sized, square bits that whirled alongside the hurricane of bright, misty gleam like mere dust caught in its wake. When the hurricane settled, the Allied Ninja stood tall in the form of an aspen tree.
"What the actual…" Moku gasped in terror when his female comrade in white took charge of the squad.
"Retreat, now! Workers first!" she barked out an order because of the spontaneous field promotion that had just transpired before their eyes.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" the drunkard stumbled and tripped over himself but began fleeing, waving his limbs around as if trying to swim on thick air to enhance the speed of his retreat. "I'm outta here! Fuck this job!"
The horned man of mystery slammed his hand to the ground, turning his entire limb to slimy water that spawned an entire torrent to boom from underground and wash around the fleeing workers. Washing in a circle, this unnatural tsunami in the middle of a continent brought the fleeing workers together in a waterfall that flowed upward toward the heavens that gave birth to this unnatural assailant.
"Now…" the horned man muttered after looking down and seeing floaty and gasping for air workers all gathered in the upward-streaming waterfall that he himself also bathed in.
"Oh, I'll give you something to think about alright!" Moku charged forward, taking a wild leap into the air and preparing to dropkick the enemy out of his watery fortress.
"Leave him, get the workers back!" Vaxel tried salvaging what seemed like an unsalvageable situation.
"Vaxel… Your hair…" the pale ninja with ground-reaching black hair pointed when a blinding flash of light engulfed the entire battlefield. A pillar of beaming light that spanned an entire town in size, leaving little option for retreat. Once the beam had cleared out, nothing but a handful of ashy sprinkles remained. The ash fell from the skies, scattering across a field of intricately flattened flowers, resting in a mosaic formation spanning kilometers.
Silence reigned in before the wind howled to rustle the surrounding blades of standing grass. The grasslands provided ample cover for the circles of flattened mosaics, leaving them untouched by the wind. When the down-pouring sprinkle from the remaining water finally landed to soak the ground, electric crackles in the area lit up, triggered by the minute droplets of water.
"Shura Release!" Mana clapped her hands after a collection of hand seals and placed them out in front, breathing out air from the depths of her chest that passed through her final hand sign and bombard the area in front of her. Despite Mana's best attempts at concentration, the flames that came out were mere Fire Release without even a single flick of lightning.
"Shura Release?" Shige-H distracted Mana by walking out onto the training grounds where the magician trained alongside a crowd of other Allied Ninja. Normally Mana would have found a corner to try to train alone, but this was a new her so it warranted a novel approach. Even if the other ninja still cringed at every time Mana had failed to produce anything notable at worst and ignored her at best, both the Shura Release and her social connection and ability to dazzle them with something flashy and successful were still a work in progress. "Settled on a concept at last? Good… That's progress!"
"I don't know. Seems awfully like I'm just calling my Fire Release with a different name…" Mana made a grumpy duck face with her lips.
"Training with the others in clear view? That's progress!" Shige-H clapped before gently touching Mana's shoulder. "Unless, of course, you're worried that someone is going to try to kill you again. In that case, you're being paranoid and we should talk about that."
"No, it's fine. I just… Hoped that the others would at least find my failure more entertaining…" Mana shrugged, looking around a bit peeved by the lack of any notable reaction to her midday streak of breathing fire, trying to infuse it with Lightning Release.
"You saved most of their lives. They respect you more than to laugh at you. Plus, not the entire world is spinning around you. They've all got business of their own to deal with, you big drama queen…" Shige-H waved for Mana to follow her.
"What can I say? I'm an entertainer at heart. I hate not getting a reaction… Where are we going?" Mana replied.
"We're gathering the others. The Supreme Leader asked to see us." Shige-H explained.
"Already? We've only had a day to cool off after traveling halfway across the world!" Mana gasped.
"Well, you're the one who agreed to a crazy schedule, though I don't think she intends this to be the new normal. I'm worried this might be something of an emergency." Shige-H said while the two headed toward the bundle of large tents comprising the Allied Ninja temporary headquarters at the moment. Initially, the construction materials that the Stars brought from Konoha had been dumped all around the site like an artificial wall, but someone finally sealed them away in a storage dimension so that it didn't clog up the place.
"Hey, guys, what do you think?" Damisan stepped out through the cover of the tent where the Stars lived and prepared for missions. Halfway through his entry, he snapped a trigger on his mask, undoing it and having it fall in two on the ground. While the eyes of Skaven and Endo lingered on the breaking mask for a second, they soon returned to the exposed face of their friend.
"What is the meaning of this!? Cover up now!" Endo roared out, tossing one of his sweaty gi at his comrade while he rushed to wrap his arm around Damisan's throat and keep his exposed face under the wraps.
"It's okay, Endo…" Damisan panted with a muzzled voice through the stinky cloth. "I'm okay with showing my face to you guys."
"Did it ever occur to you to ask us before being okay with this shit?" Endo growled, strengthening his stranglehold and nearly transitioning to a genuine attempt to choke his fellow Stars member out. "Cover it up! Now!"
"Okay, okay… Jeez…" Damisan grumbled while trying to out-wrestle his comrade, but the moist cloth over his head prevented him from seeing straight and Endo showed some capable skills in transitioning between different strangleholds when he became exposed to Damisan's retaliation. "Now… Get off…"
"Not a chance, freak! I'll choke you out and parade your diseased look all around the camp for this prank! I'll make sure you'll see the thought of showing your face again with terror!" Endo cursed while squeezing stronger and stronger, like a boa almost. The brutal grimace of the apprentice samurai twitched in place as a vein popped out on his forehead.
Against his better judgment and control, Endo began crawling back step by step, dragging his tabi across the gravel and rock underneath his feet. Skaven blew at his falling half of hair as he stared at the withdrawing brawler under the complete control of Skaven's Shadow Possession Jutsu. Just barely, Endo forced his neck to position his face halfway behind him to see Skaven's methodical and devoid of regret expression.
"Shadow Fling!" Skaven muttered as the shadowy trail expanding from his own dark blob toward Endo's shadow released a solid tendril that wrapped around Endo's neck, spun the swordsman of the Stars around the tent, and threw him outdoors. Mana and Shige-H just barely jumped out of the way: the former did so because of her skill in chakra sensory while the latter because of her evasive skills gained while studying medical ninjutsu.
"Sorry about that, Damisan… I know how frightening revealing your face and even a patch of the scars from your past was to you. I respect the courage and am deeply thankful for the trust of showing your face to us. Though if you expected Endo to react differently, you're a much kinder and optimistic soul than our group deserves." Skaven approached Damisan and helped him up by extending his hand.
A shrill gasp froze the two young ninja in terror. Damisan and Skaven alike turned toward the entryway to the tent where Mana and Shige-H both stood staring at a face that looked like clay wrapped around a stick and molded like a child who had no idea what they were doing in the first half of the process, before realizing that they were working on something abominable, at which point the little imp began acting up capriciously on purpose. Mana had always imagined there being a reason for Damisan's closeted nature when it came to his appearance, but despite her best intentions and hopes for her friend, she had never expected to see something quite like that.
"Oh god… I'm so sorry…" Mana realized she had her hand covering up her mouth even after this extended awkward pause they went through. This left no mystery who exactly gasped in terror after running into Damisan's display of honesty. "I… I am also very thankful that you shared this with us. I really am!" Mana cried out, feeling like a total ass as she bowed in apology.
"Mana! I expected this kind of reaction from Endo, but you… Honestly…" Shige-H turned to the magician after gulping something heavy down her throat. The kunoichi looked honestly glad to have an excuse to look away without looking rude.
"Me? Come on, you jumped up and shouted out, too!" Mana objected after straightening her back.
"I did not!" Shige-H faked outrage. "For your information, I am a medical ninja and I've seen… Far worse than that. Let alone the fact that I hand-picked Damisan for this squad. I knew the nature of his injuries the entire time!"
"Dude…" Skaven ran his hand over his hair. "This is coming from someone who's worked for a bunch of professional liars, cheats, and assassins, apparently–you suck at lying…"
"Don't sweat it, guys! Skaven reacted similarly when he saw my face accidentally too!" Damisan tried to play it off cool but his voice shook and both the eye that had been whited out and pulsing with pus on a fleshy ridge by his left jaw and the functional one atop of a swollen lump of scar tissue elevated over the eyebrow level sprayed pearl-sized tears.
"What? Everyone acts like total asses, but I'm the only one getting flung out the door?" Endo entered the tent again while dusting his sleeves. With shaking hands, Damisan picked up both halves of his mask and stuck them together. Nails and bolts secured the mask shut after a flick of a switch. Despite his best attempts at hiding his stress, the young man's prosthetics shook from the quakes running through his entire body. "Also, what's with this sudden protective act, Skaven? Never realized the two of you had grown so buddy-buddy with each other. Realized at last that you need to pool together to even begin to compare to the true No. 1?"
"Wouldn't know, haven't met one." Skaven flipped Endo off before turning to Shige-H with a clear flush of red on his pale cheeks. "I assume you've gathered everyone together for a reason other than to make fools out of yourselves?"
"That's right, the Supreme Leader wanted to see us. She wants that all of us are ready to depart today." Shige-H looked relieved to find a reason to divert the subject.
"You know what? You guys… You guys go on… You can tell me how it went afterward. I need some time to get ready. Tinker with my stuff and all…" Damisan clapped his prosthetic hands and stomped his feet nervously, pointing in all directions as he couldn't decide if he wanted to settle down in his sleeping bag or to stand back up as he switched between the two repeatedly.
"Understood, let's go, guys…" Shige-H nodded and dived right out of the tent the first excuse she got.
"Seriously? Why does he get to not go?" Endo complained while following the rest of the group when Mana and Skaven caught his elbows and dragged him out of the tent.
What a rollicking good start to a new page that Mana had turned. Even in her most spiteful of times, she had never messed up this badly with people she held so dear. As the Stars made their way toward the largest collective tent where the entire Allied Ninja administration lived and worked from, Mana just hoped that whatever business they had on their hands would distract them from this complete embarrassment and that she'll make it up to Damisan.