"Well, I'm glad that you've stepped up your game on stage since I've last seen you perform. I just hope that it didn't come at the cost of your career as a ninja like you've intended it to all the way back," a tall and slenderly built woman with flowing silver hair stepped through the crowd. She wore a heel-length turquoise dress and a veil that hardly restrained her gorgeous hair, though aided in protecting its wearer from intense sunlight.
"Stea-san," Mana tilted her eyebrows. She couldn't help but express surprise, as she could hardly recognize the chakra signature of one of her old-time rivals. Back when Mana first whiffed it, it had a fiery, golden tinge to it. A signifier of the woman's noble need and desperation, willingness to do just about anything to save her village and stop the horrors that were plaguing it. Now, Stea's chakra was as tranquil and elegant as the way in which the young woman carried herself.
"Quite the change, isn't it?" Gasco's lips stretched out in a pleasant upward arc, while the wrinkles on his forehead softened. "Had I not accompanied Stea through that shift in her life every step of the way, I too may have misidentified her upon meeting her after all this time."
Three youths accompanied Stea. A girl of a darker skin tone than the Getsugakure locals with black hair decorated by gold-colored strands stretching out in front and in the back. She dyed her face with face paint like mature local women did, though her paint was all black and focused around her eyes and over her forehead. The young lady styled herself after her mentor, though she had a leather corset showing off a bit of her own signature style. Another one of her companions surpassed Stea in size when incorporating his wild and spiky brown hair. He dressed formally, though a yale blue jacket with golden decorations covered his shoulders and made him stand out some. The third one was the plainest-looking of them all, a young and average-sized boy with a plain red and black jacket, though a lively pair of amber-colored eyes made him look more exuberant than he truly was.
"You've become a jounin?" it didn't take Mana too long to surmise why Stea hung around a trio of young'uns and spent her days separately from her old crew, whom she was tighter than blood bonds with. "That's impressive."
"Hardly. If anything, my stay as a chuunin was the formality. Please keep in mind that our match once again put Getsugakure ninja on the table. With clients and income coming in, it didn't take long for Getsugakure to prosper beyond even the golden ages of its past. Have you retired after our match like you intended to?" Stea wondered.
"Retired?" Endo squinted his left eye. He had become entranced by Stea's aura, though in a way only he experienced. He didn't appear impressed or taken aback by the woman's splendor or looks, he just acknowledged her presence though his eyes only sold his thoughts of her as yet another obstacle on his journey to becoming No. 1. "Just how many times have you called it quits, exactly?"
"No, though I've considered the idea. Konohagakure promoted me after our match, so it felt wasteful to just abandon it all. It felt like there was still good work that I could have been doing. A lot of things happened in-between, though I've never quite made it to jounin. That is incredibly impressive," Mana noted with a respectful nod of her head.
"Say, sensei, is this Konoha's Sorceress? The one you've fought in Konoha?" the black-haired girl standing beside Stea looked up at her mentor with the amethyst-colored rings she had for irises.
"That's right, Aleba. She is just as much to thank for the revival of Getsugakure and the end of our famine as I am. After all, it takes two exceptional people to make for a good show in terms of a clash and Mana went above and beyond anyone's wildest expectations," Stea nodded with a polite tip to the corners of her cherry-colored lips.
"Really?" the brown-haired boy scanned Mana, fixing his round glasses to get the best look he could. "So this woman is as strong as you then, sensei?"
"Well… Mana defeated me fair and square," Stea closed her eyes with her lips, completely unable to restrain a smile from stretching across her face.
"Please don't make me repeat what I've told you in the hospital the next time we met. I don't even think I could remember the words anymore..." Mana shook her head, feeling her ponytail that she did her best to restrain her hair into flop about at the back of her head.
"She doesn't look like she'd be all that strong, nor does she look like a kunoichi native to Konoha. It is one thing to be strong, it is another to be deceptively strong and while the former makes for passable ninja, it is only the latter that makes the great," the spectacled man bowed his upper body, expressing his respect to Mana. It's been a while since anyone paid so much respect to Mana's skill as a kunoichi so the magician could just scratch her chin, hoping she didn't blush and break her tan into a shade of red.
"Geez, you're the elder in this situation, maintain some composure for Pete's sake…" Shige-H nudged Mana playfully with her elbow.
"Don't mind Tanibi, he's so well-read that I've stopped even trying to tell his thoughts from some scribbler's. He is incredibly dependable and has a sense of responsibility befitting his wit," Stea introduced her second pupil to the audience.
"It's still tough to believe you've mopped the floor with sensei having just one leg. I wasn't aware there were such crazy people out there!" Stea's third pupil snickered, leaning back on his arms while keeping up an aloof expression on his face.
"Sajital!" Stea scolded her pupil. "I don't think there's a better way to make you regret those words than to inform you that Mana-san had both of her legs during our match."
"Oh… Sorry, ma'am… I… Kind of talk my way into trouble all the time," Sajital scratched the back of his head, looking genuinely apologetic for a second before some memories of his supposed trouble came to his mind. At that point, the youth's mood had improved, and he actually cracked a grin once again just mere blinks before turning blue.
"Though, if you'd let me hear that story, I would like to hear all about what happened to you in all of this time and to hear about your injury," Stea looked at Mana with a soft look that suggested that the woman felt personally responsible for her pupil's inappropriate and personal remark given their level of acquaintance. "Something to leave such a mark on your body must've been a perilous tribulation and I am eminently glad that you've survived to tell that tale."
"Heh, the guy that did this to Mana is actually this big lug right here," Endo snickered, having found a moment to seed chaos as he pointed his thumb at Gwirlon.
"That isn't true," Mana objected, just as Stea and her pupils turned their attention to the big man, each going through a myriad of different emotions. They carried surprise and outrage in their eyes at first, but, given how close Mana let this man stand to her and how she let him accompany her at all times, they could only assume that she's mended things with the brute since her maiming. "Other parties acted through Gwirlon-san's hands."
"I see… The intricacies of our profession," Stea closed her eyes, stretching her lips out in a polite smile. In a more remote corner of her mind, she didn't completely push aside the question of mind control, even though it only half fit the relevant situation. "All the more reason for you to tell all about it. I assume that you've got no better place to spend a night in. I'd love to arrange it with the King to host you in the guests' estate. Both Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure parties have vacated the place, so you'd have all of it to yourselves. It provides luxurious accommodations to all of our country's political guests at once while keeping up with the standards of sophistication meant for a foreign emissary."
"That sounds horribly official!" Shige-H gasped. "Are you sure it's a good idea?" the Stars' leader turned to Gasco, who was more aware of the controversial status of their visitors. Despite her doubts, the chain-donning baldy just solemnly closed his eyes in approval.
"I see more of a problem in the King letting us keep Mana to ourselves. Like all politicians, ours aren't indifferent to wealth, and Mana's efforts have brought them a grand deal of it. Not to mention her celebrity status as a stage magician," Gasco said, accompanying his stony look.
"Now that you mention it, that was a killer show! We've only seen half of it, but given how I've seen nothing like it, I still feel jittery!" Sajital rubbed his arms while hopping in place in excitement.
"Given that you've outdone yourself on a public square, I don't think it is possible that the King will let you off without performing at least a few more times, Mana-san," Tanibi observed.
"That might not work for us. We need to return to Land of Lightning for business," Endo grumbled.
"We'll work it out somehow," Mana sighed. "For now, let's just see where this whole thing takes us. It might save us some funds, in the long run, to save on an unplanned inn stay."
"Stea-san, it was surprising to hear that you want an audience at this time. If this is about the mission you've been on, I'm sure that a job protecting a caravan carrying books and magazines across vendors across the island didn't necessitate such an immediate debriefing," the King, a round and balding man with a loosely hanging red bandana and fine cerulean silk threads pointed at the party of ninja approaching. Once he saw Stea entering the meetings room, he must have already known that this was about something else given the numbers she brought alongside her.
"King Kamar, I am profoundly grateful that you agreed to meet us off your usual meeting time. This matter I wished to discuss with you has more to do with some high-profile guests we've unexpectedly received today. I would like to see if it is possible to settle them in the Imbrium Estate," Stea kneeled before the King before the monarch excused the assembled ninja with a hand gesture. The Stars followed suit, initially unsure about what the protocol was regarding a "king" of a country. Given their tumultuous history, Getsugakure had a leader of vast influence, though he wasn't acknowledged as Kage. Regardless, no other country had a problem with Getsugakure's activities and existence, nor King Kamar's leadership, so they accepted him as the land's monarch and dealt with him as they would've dealt with any Kage.
Given what Mana could sense off of the man, he was actually a civilian. This explained a lot about why no one even entertained the idea of labeling this man as Kage, even though he managed a ninja village that was growing in power and wealth and living in its most prosperous times. Regardless of his status, the etiquette when dealing with him, apparently, mirrored the status of how one would've dealt with a Kage or even a Feudal Lord.
"Guests? Could these be those esteemed guests you speak of?" the man leaned forward in his tall chair. King Kamar was a man of tall bones and plump flesh. If one had no ability to sense chakra, they could confuse the man as someone with the ability to bring a good fight to them if one sought it. His size and bulk, even if it was mostly blubber and little sinew, appeared intimidating, and the man's body language had a certain allure to it. There was little doubt that this man could have been charismatic enough to hold entire clans of ninja respectful of him and in line under him.
"They are, King. This is Nakotsumi Mana, the Konoha's Sorceress and her entourage," Stea stepped away and gestured at Mana so that the King could get a better look at her from all the way on the other end of the table in the room. Mana's lips stretched downward across her face in how suddenly she's been put forward, though handling stage fright was her forte, so she kept the flush of warmth at bay this time.
"Konoha's Sorceress? Isn't that the kunoichi you've faced in Konoha? That match helped us establish warm ties with the Leaf Village and the sportsmanship you two showed throughout helped a great deal at helping both our emissaries and theirs visualize that relationship between our villages," the King spread his arms to the sides, shifting his lips into a surprised O shape.
"The very same, my King," Stea affirmed. "Nakotsumi Mana and her entourage are traveling the world on a World Magic Tour and she's become marooned overnight in Getsugakure on her way from Stone Gulf to Land of Lightning. She's staying the night here, so I felt it to be wrong that someone like Konoha's Sorceress, the second half of the match that helped revitalize our village and put us back on the map, would have to stay in an inn. Especially since she is here as a performer and an entertainer and not any ninja business."
"I was meaning to let you know of this, King," a tall man of shoulder-length white hair and rectangular glasses stepped up from the King's side and nodded his head at the monarch. "The Konoha's Sorceress had made no accommodations or plans to perform here on her World Magic Tour, though the news of her reaching our shores has reached us this afternoon. Though, since it was past your meetings time, and since Sorceress and her entourage appeared to have been staying around the pier district, we thought she may not wish to linger here and just used Getsugakure as an in-between destination. We would have reported the news, as well as the fact she performed in the village square today and caused quite the dazzling shake-up tomorrow morning during your work hours."
"Hmmm… That's a hassle. News like this sound important enough to bring right to me," the man groaned in frustration. "Maybe not if Konoha's Sorceress came for a visit, maybe not if she came here to perform, but since she went ahead and fascinated the locals, I simply must host such a figure in my palace and see this hypnotizing performance first-hand."
"Yes, King. So then shall I allow Stea and her team to accommodate Konoha's Sorceress and her entourage in the Imbrium Estate?" the King's assistant approached his lord from the right side, leaning his body forward at a forty-five-degree angle to not to impose on the monarch with his request and presume to be able to speak to him eye-to-eye.
"At once," the King hammered his fist onto the pillow of his own open hand. "Make sure that our guests experience our prosperity and cheer first-hand tonight and that their every need is fulfilled. Then, I'd like to arrange with Konoha's Sorceress a possibility for a private show to the court. Also… As many shows as she feels like it on Getsugakure territory for her "World Magic Tour"."
"Well, there it is, the Imbrium Estate…" Stea pointed at a round gemstone of marble glistening with brilliant sparkles in mystifying moonlight. "It might look like a whole palace, but it's not even a whole thing. The cliff behind it hosts a few extra smaller estates, in case we need to host representatives that are from villages or countries that are in less than a stellar relationship."
"Am I going to be the one that will need to speak up, or will one of you finally do it?" Endo grumbled after having walked the entire way with his arms crossed and looking peeved.
"What? That we're finally getting the treatment we deserve? I haven't felt satisfied like this since they have taken me from my mother's estate into the orphanage," Asuka raised her right eyebrow. She would not let Endo and his principles of asceticism that most samurai preached ruin spending a night like a foreign emissary on an exotic and prosperous paradise island for her.
"All of those accommodations we've made here…" Shige-H spoke up at last after a deep sigh. "I didn't mean to be mean and bite the hand that's been so generous to us, even if it was so only because of your relationship to Mana, but… We can't really afford to spend that much time here."
"You're right," Mana closed her eyes and exhaled a pant of breezy air too.
"Mana? Are you sure about this? It's not bright to disappoint the King. He isn't a vengeful ruler, but if you had reservations about the King's requests, you should've voiced them earlier," Stea said with a straight face.
"Oh, I don't think I have any reservations. I've agreed with the King's requests and suggestions because I intend to live up to my word," Mana replied. "But I don't think that the Stars should linger here any longer than tomorrow morning."
"Wait, what are you saying? I'm… Confused…" Shige-H nearly snapped her neck, turning to Mana.
"I'm saying that in my current state I'm entirely useless to the Stars. I may have been too embarrassed to admit it to Stea earlier, but I'm also entirely homeless as well. I'm not sure just how welcome I'd be to return to Konoha and work under Lord Seventh again, so… While the King hasn't offered me citizenship or anything like that, I'd like to stay here and gather the shattered pieces of myself back together before I see what they can reconnect into," Mana sealed the matter by speaking it aloud.