"What are you talking about!?" Endo growled, taking up his swords and rushing at Asuka, only to meet a large stone in his path that hurled in between the two feuding ninja and blocked his path. Prim-S lowered his hands from a hand seal position, revealing himself to have been the one using this ninjutsu technique and intercepting the Allied Ninja's attack.
"Enough! This woman struck down the rogue ninja. There's clearly more going on here. If she's standing down, we will hear her out," Prim-S said, approaching closer to the two so that he could step in again if needed.
Immediately upon the situation defusing, Shige-H dashed off to treat Prabba's injuries as the woman still laid on her front bleeding. The stone protrusion that the mud-fiend that impaled her was still sticking out from her back as if she had been impaled on it while falling. With a careful application of Unmaker Fist, Shige-H sent shock waves that unmade the rougher edges of the rock, evening up the stone that was sticking out from Prabba's wound and preparing to treat the injury.
"You killed Chynfon…" Mana muttered, standing up while still belching sludge that the mud-men had forced down her throat to make her choke and vomit and prevent her from using higher grade ninjutsu. "That was your goal all along, wasn't it?" Mana looked Asuka straight in the eye.
"Come to think of it, we did only reach this place because of this woman's chakra signature," Denkka put two on top of two with Mana providing her the initial hints of the solution to this puzzle.
"No… No!" Endo freaked out, sheathing one of his swords while he slashed the thin air with his other one to express his outrage. "You betrayed the Allied Ninja! You joined the enemy! You tried to kill Mana twice!"
"I don't think she did…" Mana looked down, connecting the dots in her head. Denkka approached the handicapped kunoichi and offered her help in standing while Mana's chakra resources had been dried out.
"Well, I tried to kill Mana several times, that's true…" Asuka shrugged. "But the only reason I splintered off of you guys was so that I could convince these losers to take me in. I figured Mana would track me down eventually and that would be how we would find and take out these guys. We'd have taken forever to sniff them out any other way."
"So she's just off the hook now just because she stabbed her own guys in the back way worse than she stabbed us?" Endo sheathed his other sword, giving everyone else an accusatory look.
"She stood down. The fight's over. We'll pick up the pieces from here and see how things turn out after we get reports from Ishigakure about the rest of these folks. With some luck, this'll all end with the death of this woman," Prim-S breathed out a deep sigh, scanning the torn-up place, the blood, dirt, and a grisly scene of murder decorating the scenery.
Mana sulked on the balcony of the Boulder Town hospital. Ironically enough, this place where Mana had seen her spirits crumble many times before and the place that had been scorched into Mana's flesh, as the place of her failure over and over again was the nearest place they could take Prabba in her dire condition. It was the nearest, and the best developed medical facility since it'd have taken forever for a bunch of Allied Ninja accompanied by Kumogakure ninja to check into Ishigakure. Mana's head sank down as tears began sprouting from the corners of her eyes.
No matter how hard the crippled magician winced, she couldn't floodgate them. It had become a habit for everything to go bad, even when they accomplished their objective. The stone discs behind Mana rolled aside. Mana had sensed Shige's chakra behind the disks for a little bit, though she paid no mind to it, figuring that the medical kunoichi was just rampaging across the hospital, doing her best to assist the locals out of another booming sense of guilt. It was nobody's fault. No matter how hard Mana wanted to blame herself, it was nobody's fault.
"Did you hear the news?" Shige asked in a raspy voice. Whether it was because she's done her own fair bit of crying or because she's been drained of helping the local hospital remained uncertain. It wasn't a prime source of concern right now, either.
"Yeah, I know Prabba-san didn't make it…" Mana muttered. Saying it out loud just made her voice whimper more, no matter how little she wanted it. Now, more than ever, Mana wanted to stay strong.
"That's… Not what I wanted to tell you about. They've captured three rogue ninja attempting to capture Kaguya Yaban in Ishigakure. They were inches away from succeeding. Had it not been for our tip, they would've actually pulled it off. They'll be keeping a close eye on Kaguya Yaban until he recovers from his injuries. Regardless, our mission's complete. We can go home," Shige-H leaned over the rail alongside Mana, looking at the evening sights of Boulder Town from above the hospital balcony.
Boulder Town in the evening was a subtle beauty. Almost romantic at times in how quiet it was. Nothing but stone-carved structures with light beaming through the holes and a handful of people walking the streets, just going about with their business. Vendors and stores had begun closing up at this time of the evening. An occasional peacekeeper walked down the street, observing order in the area.
"Home. I wonder where that is…" Mana looked up at the sky. She couldn't make out any stars, even though it had been dark enough for that to be possible. It could've been because of the murky skies. It could've been because of plenty of reasons.
"What do you mean by that?" Shige-H turned to the young woman. "Don't tell me you're committing to that silky overalls look… The Stars have accommodated people with far fewer limbs than you."
"Yeah, well… Whether or not you agree with it, the facts are straight. Prabba-san got injured and died because she was watching over me. I wasn't ready to be there. I was a weak link in the group and the enemy exploited that and Prabba-san paid the price for it," Mana leaned down, hanging over the rail and feeling burning pressure in her wrists that were the only thing keeping her hanging as opposed to flopping over the rails and plummeting three floors down below on her face.
"You're back on that? I know you don't like the idea of me trying to help you because of the whole thing with Tomi, but… Mana, I think you need help really badly. You're not coping with this in a healthy way at all," Shige-H gave Mana a look that almost begged the crippled magician to let the leader of Stars in and let her guide Mana through this difficult time. "I couldn't help your leg, but I want to help you with this, at the very least. I owe you that much. As medical ninja, we've learned the cruel reality that we won't be able to save everyone long ago. It's one of the first exercises we do. We're constantly plunged into situations we can't control and have to face the repercussions of our actions."
"No, Shige-san, I…" Mana sighed, easing on the pressure on her upper body and letting her sole intact leg take most of the weight. Ever since training with the ninja rabbits, Mana had a powerful lower body, so her sole leg felt more than competent at handling the increased workload at this time. "I understand that there's nothing I could've done differently. I needed to be there, the plan was always that I trace Asuka's chakra and take us to the enemy hideout. Asuka didn't know that I'd get crippled and sabotage myself when she made that plan and put it into action, letting no one else in on it. It's just…"
Mana didn't know how to finish that sentence. She felt powerless and blue and there was no sole reason to blame it all on. The young woman almost wanted that there would have been one massive face she could plaster on the wall and blame all of her sorrow and all the nasty shots she's taken from life on. That there was one bad mug she could shoot lighting at or render comatose and just be happy again. The sadness wasn't the worst part; it was the emptiness when Mana sought a reason for that sadness.
"You know, one of the first training exercises we do when we start training as medical ninja in Kumogakure is that they put us in a classroom and teach us the basics. The instructor observes our attempt to pick up on the specks of the Mystical Palm Jutsu and the first time we emit our fist shine of emerald light from our hands, they take us to the aviary," Shige-H looked up at the sky, joining at Mana's vain attempt to find any stars up there. "They use genjutsu to have one of the smaller birds smack at the aviary wall and break their whole body, then they put that bird on the table and tell us to save its life."
Mana didn't really know how to respond to that story. She hoped Shige would keep it going and make it clear where exactly she was going with it.
"I've heard that in Kirigakure they use fish for the same purpose, maybe they use a puppy or something in Konoha, but from what I've heard, the same exercise is traditional in the other villages too. Thing is, it's impossible to save that poor animal. Everything is working against the student: the foreign animal anatomy, the extensive injuries that span their entire body, the unfamiliarity with the Mystical Palm Jutsu having just showed the first signs of being able to use it," Shige-H elaborated.
"So they basically kill an animal in front of you and blame you for it? You know, I've always dreamed of becoming a medical ninja. Learning to directly save people's lives instead of pretending like I'm saving them through my own violence. Hearing this, I think that there may have been more problems than merely my chakra control not being good enough for it to pick it up," Mana said.
"That's right, they intend to utterly break you with that exercise–it's an impossible task. It's true that a handful of medical ninja a generation manage to heal the poor animal before it passes away, but that's not the point of the exercise. The goal is to familiarize the student with failure and the consequences of their failure. But also, because they pass even though they fail, it shows you that life goes on. You don't get a flashy screen announcing that your life is over and that you owe your own life for your failure like the samurai throw themselves away after failure. You live your life as long as it goes, you deal with that failure. The next time you face that exercise, you're stronger and you may save that poor animal. That's because the flashes of your failure are still alive in your head the next time you try," Shige-H straightened her back and turned around to go back to the hospital after having her brief moment of respite.
"I think there's another point to that exercise too," Mana straightened up and turned back to the Stars' leader. "You're placed in over your head, just like it'll be from this point on out on the field. Your first day on the job, you're already expected to perform so much beyond your own expectations of what you should be able to accomplish. It's a cold shower that helps you get accustomed to the cold, in a way."
"Huh… I don't think I've looked at it that way. That's an interesting perspective," Shige-H scratched her chin. A moment of pause reigned in before Shige looked back up at Mana with an inquisitive glare. "Asuka wanted to talk to you. Do you want me to stay and watch you two so that she doesn't try anything stupid? Asuka wanted to talk to you alone, but she said she'd understand if I didn't let her with all the backstabbing that she's done this last week."
"It's okay. I can sense Endo creeping on her and waiting for a justification to take her out. Even if you don't watch over us, he'll never let us out of his sight," Mana sighed and returned to her observational position by the rail.
"Huh… I don't recall him ever showing this much restraint. Usually, he doesn't wait for a justification… That's odd…" Shige-H joked, earning a subtle snort from Mana's side as she left the balcony and gestured for Asuka to tag in.
"Hey…" Asuka waved at Mana's back after walking out on the balcony, though after receiving nothing in return she just let herself take her place near the sulking kunoichi. "Heard about what happened to your leg. That's a tough break. For what it's worth, I'm really sorry."
"What is this?" Mana asked out loud. "You've made it clear that you want to kill me and that you will kill me. What is this solidarity you try to show here? What's the point of it?"
"Yeah… I did say that… You know, after I went ahead and gone rogue for a bit, joined up with the enemy and all that, I've had some time to think about this. About us. About what our relationship is and what the relationship of our mentors reflects on ours. I just want you to know that… The whole time, I intended to kill that woman. If I killed her too early, the enemy would've killed me in return and they'd have regrouped. I had to act at the right time to cripple them, sorry… A poor choice of words from my end…" Asuka explained.
"You're still confusing me," Mana said. "I've never taken you for a person who apologizes for anything or explains themselves to anyone."
"Oh, I'm not… Apologizing. I'm… I want to make some things clear between us. I… All those years I've thought my mother's teachings to be holy, without realizing that I may have already disavowed them to some degree. My mother she… She didn't hate weaklings, cripples, and civilians. She believed that the strong were free to take as much as they could take, but she didn't hate the weak. She just didn't believe in going out of one's way to extend one's hand to help them. Adversity was meant to build the weak up to become strong or let them die. Not all the weaklings were meant for strength and success. Some of them failed to find the courage to realize their ambitions, some failed halfway. But that was what made success and ambition so worthwhile," Asuka spoke with only momentary pauses to take a breath in between sentences or to reshape her pondering.
"Yeah, I can see why we'd have gotten off the wrong foot," Mana put it lightly.
"Thing is, having grown up in an orphanage and seen and met so many weak people, people who were merely dealt a bad hand in life and were unfortunate enough to emerge from that ocean of drabness, left on their own to drown in misery, I… I've come to care about the weaklings a little. That girl back in Otogakure, little Ban, you put a smile on her face. Somehow, against all odds, with that twerp having lost everything precious in her life. That meant something to me. I guess… The thing I'm trying to say is…" Asuka scratched the back of her head frantically.
"It's okay, you don't need my approval or my permission if you don't feel like killing me anymore," Mana turned to the young woman speaking to her.
"I guess not…" Asuka looked down and away, following a hurrying civilian that rushed along the street with a paper bag full of groceries with her eyes until they turned the corner. "I'm not 100% certain I'll never kill you, ever. But… Right now, I've realized that the only reason I absolutely wanted to do so was because of a few voices talking in my head. I don't think if my mom would've wanted me to stay so fixed on this. It must be that old man that tipped me off with this information and set this opportunity up for me… That's on me. Strong people don't follow anyone else's orders, they're no one else's tools. I've acted like a complete tool trying to kill you."
"A complete tool…" Mana sighed.
"Well, one thing I can say for certain is, if I ever settle on killing you, it'll be because I truly want to. Not because someone else told me to or because some vague ghosts of my past demand it. This brings us to my next point… That thing you told Shige-H about the Stars after this mission," Asuka straightened up and turned to Mana, signifying how much this matter meant to her.
"That thing?" Mana asked, mirroring the woman's body language while keeping a hand on the rail for support of her missing foot and half a calf.
"Yeah, you told Shige-H that after this mission, either I went or you went. That won't work for me!" Asuka declared. "I've decided that I want to work with the Stars. I want to grow strong while changing things around the world, making things better, without having that pesky political bullshit get in the way. I also want to work with you on that, because I acknowledge that you're good at that sort of stuff and that the Allied Ninja are better at doing that with you in Stars."
"I refuse," Mana waved her hand in dismissal before leaning back on the railing.
"Please!" Asuka clapped her hands together. "Is there no way that we can settle this? I want us to work together. You're confusing me with your persistence and pettiness, Mana, I realize that we have our differences and that I've been a difficult person to work with, odds are I'll continue to be, but haven't you said that you like sticking your hand out for the weaklings, everything opposite to what my mother lived her life for?"
"I'm done…" Mana shook her head with a trembling tone of voice. "It's not because of my problem working with you or because of a bias against Kirigakure ninja. I'm just tired of failing, I've been broken and I can't do anything I used to be able to do anymore. Every time I reached out to the people in need, everything went to shit and they ended up paying the price worse than if I did nothing at all. I'm done. I'm not sure what I'll do, where I'll go, but I'm done."
"Tsk…" Asuka turned around with a grumpy expression of frustration. "It really hurts, you know, realizing that you've been had by some weakling quitter. It's not your physical failings or your character that make you weak. It's your lack of ambition and self-dismissal. I've thought you to be ambitious to save the entire world, and I admired that ambition. I'm sure that, ignoring your differences, my mother would have admired that sort of ambition too. It sucks knowing that all of it was just a cardboard wall that you can piss right through."
Asuka quit with a hasty step, without looking back, leaving Mana to sulk alone in the balcony, trying to see the stars in the gloomy sky despite her own wet eyes and nature itself working against her.