"Humph… I feel like I've had a full night of sleep or something," Endo grumbled after sitting up and rubbing his eyes. Not too long after, he threw himself in the direction of the bed where the suspicious rookie was sleeping. Almost as if trying to make up for the time of gatekeeping that he missed out on after going to sleep at night.
"She definitely moved at night but… The recruit is still out," Shige-H scratched her head, staring at the sprawled-out rookie who only had a thick cover wrapping to cover up her extremities. "It's almost like she got up to do something and then slumped into a deep sleep. You wouldn't know anything about this, would you?"
"Yeah, she tried to kill me again," Mana yawned. "She should wake up soon enough. I've already released the genjutsu I put her under."
"What? You mean you didn't kill her?!" Endo growled, grabbing the scabbard of his sword and approaching the slumbering woman with full intent to deal with her as he dealt with the last infiltrator assassin that tried to kill his squadmate.
"Shocking, I know…" Mana rolled her eyes. "I put her to sleep so that we can talk this through in the morning. She has valuable information about who hired her. Also, it'd be just downright odd if I wasn't half as curious as I am about what this is all about. The last I reckoned, most people wanting me dead considered even the sky-high bounty on my head not worth the trouble anymore…"
"This is such awful timing," Shige-H sighed. "We're in on an assignment of paramount importance. We can't afford to lose people on assassination conspiracies. At this rate, we'll have to hire mercenaries to assist us. I think I now know how the Supreme Leader feels every day…"
The blue eyes of the young woman fluttered and let the sharp rays of sunlight seep through. They opened a bit wider with each blink, risking more and more headache before locking her crosshairs at Mana. Shige-H and Endo all froze in place, anticipating the venomous viper to lash out at their comrade at the moment of her awakening.
"You should have tied her up, at the very least!" Endo growled, letting the limited sunlight breaching through their passenger quarter windows dance on the exposed edge of his blade and serve as a razor warning to anyone fostering ill will toward him or his fellow Stars.
"You do know that Rope Escape Jutsu is an elementary technique that every Academy Student knows before graduating from the Ninja Academy, right?" Mana squinted at her more bloodthirsty companion before slipping into her blazer and pulling up a chair to cross her legs over as she leaned in on the awakened assassin. The ninja magician almost taunted the blonde to try something again, almost as if testing how many lessons were learned last night and how much of what Mana said this youth took to heart.
"You…!" the blonde roared out while jumping up. Mana didn't move an inch from her location, but her adamantine facade did falter and let the torrent of shock bust through its dam. It wasn't the fact that the awakened assassin immediately jumped to the arduous task of killing the Konoha's Sorceress, even when her Stars member allies surrounded her. It was the fact that she stopped just a few inches short.
Mana could even feel the woman's warm breath brushing against her nose, split evenly across both of Mana's cheeks.
"Wh… What did you do to me!? Why can't I move!?" the golden-haired banshee screamed out right at Mana's face. As the ninja magician slowly leaned back and made herself more comfortable in her seat with confusion never leaving her eyes, it seemed like her wannabe assassin got easier in her gut to breathe and could move around again.
"Interesting…" Shige-H slowly approached the rookie and pulled her lower eyelid down, looking deep into the bloodshot eyes of the young woman that had suffered the dreadful agony of drowning in an abyss of freezing waters with the constant feeling of invisible, titanic observers eyeing her as their dinner from far away but never coming into view. "I've never seen this in practice before, but… I suppose… How terrifying of an illusion you put her in?"
"I'll scoop her eyes out with a spoon, stab nails into her ears and then watch her fumble in complete darkness, drowning in her own blood as I've been drowning whole night!" the recruit smashed her fist with a backhanded hammering motion, busting the wooden pillar supporting a bunk bed and making the top bed flop onto the one where the rookie had spent her night flat on her back on.
Just barely did the blonde slip away from a bothersome scrape or fracture. Her movements seemed just as sharp and agile as those of a kunoichi of her age and experience, someone capable of infiltrating an international ninja organization with a goal of murdering an A-Rank kunoichi widely regarded for her skills in a single specific field. It was only when the recruit fumbled in proximity to Mana that she tripped over and fell flat on the front side of Mana's head and dived deep into Mana's pillow, still fostering some of the magician's dark hair on it.
"Relax, I'll give you a quick scan," Shige-H snapped her fingers and helped the newbie up, seating her on Mana's bed. Out of curiosity, the magician stood up and moved aside just to see this mystery of the condition that her assassin was in uncovered. A neon-blue light shined over Shige's hands as she moved across the recruit's body in a quick diagnostic scan. The leader of Stars lingered especially long over the recruit's head, looking for signs of brain damage suffered after a horrific and lengthy illusion.
"If it's any consolation, I didn't mean to cause you harm or to render you comatose," Mana felt inclined to apologize to the young woman, for whatever reason. Even though the rational part of her mind kept bringing up instances of the blonde's continuous attempts at killing Mana, like evidence during a Tribunal procession, but some discomfort still lingered in the deeper parts of Mana's gut.
Maybe it was because of how often people she met tried killing her? By now she's become so numb and shut-off from it and the intended offense she had to take from such an act that it barely seemed like anything notable. The first time they met, Endo would've gladly killed Mana and felt no heartache about it. Even if the two had tolerated each other's presence and fought alongside one another as well as trusted each other to have each other's backs on missions.
"There don't seem to be any residual signs of brain damage. Her brain's lit up with activity, but it looks more like stress than something deep-seated and dangerous. I'm sure if I scanned all of our minds as well, just the fact that someone tried taking one of our lives multiple times yesterday would reveal the same readings," Shige-H sighed. "It's as I've thought. The recruit's body is absolutely terrified of Mana, while her mind keeps demanding that she flings herself at Mana and inflict grievous bodily harm. This mismatch is what's causing the wobbly legs feeling and complete paralysis when she's close enough."
"You mean… I can't kill Konoha's Sorceress?" the recruit looked up at the medical kunoichi who just stretched her morning neck while slipping into her fur coat and tending to her curly hair in front of the world's shabbiest mirror placed on the most decayed cupboard in this part of the Sound Country.
"Like… On an ideological, purely moral level–absolutely not. Physically–not until your mind recovers from the stress that Mana's illusion caused you. It's not just murder that's out of the question–you two won't be able to stay in proximity to one another without having our rookie choke up, sweat, and lose balance. Freezing up is the last resort. Next time, regaining movement might not be so easy. Get close enough a few more times–parts of you might remain paralyzed for life or you might trigger a heart attack," Shige-H explained.
"I still think we should tie her down," Endo grumbled, crossing his arms after he placed his arms underneath his belt and began dragging his hand across his hair to make it less shaggy.
"For the last time, Endo, it won't work if she wants out," Mana sighed and rubbed her eyes.
"I knew it. I was right, having pegged you as a pervert the moment I saw you!" the rookie hissed at Endo like a cornered pit viper.
"Hey, Mana, you're into that make love, not war shit. Why don't you show our rookie a little love? Hug her, peck her on the forehead? Maybe she'll mellow out, or something?" Endo squinted at Mana. "It's not like she'll be able to resist."
"We're not triggering her heart attack, Endo…" Mana shook her head. "I do intend to look into her mind, however. We desperately need people on this mission and if I know what this thing she's got against me is all about, maybe we can still salvage this?"
"Wait, you're not seriously suggesting working alongside an assassin out to get you, right?" Endo's right eye twitched. "You can't possibly be this dense… Even if she can't kill you herself, she'll just sabotage the mission and get you killed that way."
"That's why I've got to know. I have my doubts if she's willing to bring herself down with me. I am not sure that her hatred of me runs quite that deep. I think I am just a stepping stone for her and I need to find out why she's tried to kill me before we can decide if we hand her to Otogakure to settle on something with Kirigakure about her actions or if we keep working together and see this through. At the very least, we'll know her name," Mana shrugged.
"We are desperately short on people. Even if we come up with resources to hire mercenaries, we can't trust their skill and devotion to seeing this mission through. If we go there just the three of us, this might be as good as a suicide mission and we can't afford to sacrifice ourselves when the stakes of failure are this high," Shige-H sat her bottom down on the windowsill, biting into her index finger. It seemed like she knew how preposterous the idea of working alongside Mana's assassin sounded, but she also saw how necessary such a thing was now.
"Look," Mana sat down so that she could look the recruit eye-to-eye. "I can easily enter your mind using my training with the Intelligence Division. I would much rather not touch you and cause you further terror and harm though so if you just tell us what you're after with killing me and if there's still a version of this where you can be trusted to work alongside us for the time being, I'll take that option without blinking twice."
Something wet and revolting smacked against Mana's left eye, forcing it shut. This had to be a first. Mana had faced assassins and bounty hunters before, but she met no one that hated her so much as to spit her in the eye even knowing that this was just going to antagonize matters for everyone.
"I'll kill you, Nakotsumi Mana. My only regret is that your head will rot before I can parade it on a pole when I become Mizukage and restore the days of the Bloody Mist again," the rookie hissed out with venom just as noxious as the literal poison she fed to Mana yesterday spewing out of her mouth.
"I see… For what it's worth… I really didn't want to go down this route, you know," Mana replied with a crushed tone as she stood back up and reached out for the recruit's forehead, gently splitting her hair aside to reveal it before pressing her palm against her head. Just like Shige-H implied, as hard as the young woman writhed and thrashed earlier, it was as if she became completely powerless when Mana's hand came into contact with her face.
The stare that usually stabbed hateful glares in all directions dulled out and her blanked irises began quivering just like her blue lips. The recruit's face became pale before flushing with blood-red and spilling sweat across to where her golden strands became stuck on to the young woman's face and Mana could feel the humidity building up under her palm too.
"Just try something," Endo warned the petrified rookie that struggled to draw just a sip of air to her lungs, almost like they've been utterly perforated and made into a block of cheese. "You'll lose the hand that tries to shape the first hand seal."
"She quite literally can't, Endo, we've established that already…" Shige-H shook her head.
For how hostile the recruit being interrogated was, Mana didn't expect to swoop down into her mental fort to be quite this easy. It might have been because of her troubled mental state that the magician shaped a tunnel of stray thoughts that guided her to the right location. It could have been a slight elevation and experience in Mana's skill in this unholy action, though. Ever since she's joined the Allied Ninja, she found some use in this method of communication more and more.
Mana stood beside the rookie's mental avatar, right in front of an impressive cliff mansion carved into an ancient-looking stone tower. The traditional construction appeared formal and bulky enough to serve as a house to someone truly exalted and important in the Kirigakure society, but this new construction etched into its side like a disc and beaming modern luxury was something else entirely. Come to think of it, it only took Mana a simple look around to realize that she was in a high society district. It was a location she's never visited before but, given the gloomy shrouds looming and spewing rain over all but this brazen fusion of high-class estates, Mana surmised that this had to have been Kirigakure.
"Why did you bring me here? To taunt and torture me some more?" the recruit turned to Mana. Something changed in her voice. It became shakier and the defiance in her tone gave way to genuine despair.
"I didn't bring you here. For now, I am unfamiliar with your mind, so I cannot make demands of it yet. I simply entered your mental fort and… This estate seems to be it," Mana pointed at the tower with a whole different building etched into it halfway across its height. This looked like it was a major health and security hazard to Mana but, then again, exact sciences were never her forte.
"Mental fort? The hell is that?" the rookie sniffed and turned to Mana, wondering if she might choke this mental image of the ninja magician inside of her own mind and if it might cause damage to the real deal outside of the mental plane as well. Given her simplistic motive, the woman was becoming elementary to read into.
"It's a construction that exudes strength and safety in your mind. Both the conscious and subconscious aspects of it. It protects the entirety of your mind. Your mental state, your memories, your sanity… Everything," Mana explained, wanting to extend a bridge across and cooperate with the recruit and try to connect with her. If all of this fell through, it wouldn't be because of Mana's lack of trying. Already she's shown more compassion and doubt for the woman that tried to kill her twice and threatened to try again, as soon as she's able to than anyone else in her shoes would have.
"So you're going to kick the door down and burn that place down, huh? Just drive me insane and finish the job you've started with that ocean and the thundering and the explosives you've stuck on me?" the recruit crossed her arms.
"That was entirely on you. Also, no, it doesn't appear that I'll have to…" Mana approached the brick wall of the estate and pressed her hand on its fortifications, feeling the ripples across the walls. The ground disappeared beneath both of their feet as the two swept up as if caught in a stream of sucking air and now levitated in front of the modern construction built into the old estate. "Your mind is so terrified of me it is giving me everything I ask for, hoping to avoid further stress. I'm sure that if I probed deep enough and tried to hurt you, it would resist, but right now it's acting like a hurt and cornered animal and just stepping aside."
"You love it, don't you? Having me in your hands like that?" the recruit floated out in front of Mana and extended her hands. Even if her subconscious part triumphed over her conscious bits, the willpower that burned solely with hate managed to put up a resistance all of its own. It would have thoroughly impressed Mana to see such mental fortitude coming solely out of a single fraction of one's willpower if it wasn't purely hateful.
"I think we both know that's not true," Mana waved her hand. A powerful gust washed the rookie's mental image aside like a light flower fluff while the magician approached the glass panels of the disc-shaped estate and peered inside. A woman stood on the other end. One that Mana could recognize because of her interest in history and the woman's high profile on the news quite a few years ago. This woman had a personal connection to Mana too, to an extent, so the magician had personal stakes in committing her visage to her memory.
Namikaze Shirona, the Fourth Mizukage, was standing over a large and fluffy dog and chuckled to herself while observing her pre-school daughter imitate the affectionate body language of their canine pet. Both the furball and the kid playing with it rolled on their back and put their hands up, huffing with their tongues out before the dog bent to the side and licked the girl's face thoroughly. Namikaze Shirona sat down and picked a glass of rice wine off of a nearby table to enjoy domestic tranquility while the sun beamed down on just a single home in the whole of Kirigakure. The only place happiness and cheer existed on this mental plane.
"Careful, Asuka-chan, you don't want to hurt Lippie, do you? Don't pull his ears like he's some workhorse…" Shirona cackled to herself before taking a sip.
"Asuka… Namikaze Asuka…" Mana muttered to herself. The name meant nothing to her at this time, though the rest of what she saw staring through that window relayed just enough. This misguided young woman must have still blamed Mana, somehow, for whatever reason, for her mother's death and losing this serenity she still fostered deep inside her dark and hateful mind.
Not wanting to torment Asuka any longer, Mana opened her eyes and moved her hand away from the young woman. Asuka trembled in the aftershock and fell on the damp floor, crawling back until her back pressed against the door that she could use to return on shaky legs and stand back up. A knock on the door interrupted the scene before anyone could ask or say anything.
"We've arrived at Sound Country port. If you're not planning on sailing back to Lightning Country, just don't be here when we resupply and all board again," the sailor reported before strutting away to feel the solid ground of land underneath his feet again for the first time in a couple of days.