"No… Just… No…" Asuka turned around, making a grumpy face at Gwirlon and pointing at the oversized dining room filled with exotic treats. Caviar of all colors of the rainbow, sea creatures that didn't exist anywhere else in the world, as well as lavish delicacies gained through the power of the royal treasury of the world's bellybutton.
Gwirlon leaned forward, growling right up in Asuka's face and splashing snot in all directions, though the Kirigakure blonde proceeded to be unimpressed and didn't falter. Mana caressed Gwirlon's cheek and directed his eyes to look at hers. It seemed like the two shared an understanding just from each other's eyes as a controlled gust picked Mana up from his arms and kept her afloat in mid-air. It was a fortunate time to wear baggy trousers. Mystical Wings were a far less draining technique to maintain compared to armor ninjutsu.
The big man turned around and walked off after Endo to the dining room. Mana, Asuka, and Shige-H slipped out of their clothes and took a dive into a large wing of the castle that had been transformed into one massive bath. The palace's walls were made of marble and its pillars were lapis lazuli and it was all decorated in golden vine and lotus motifs. The window arcs on the outer walls of the Imbrium Estate were as tall as a small house themselves and a full moon gleamed through the eastern one. It provided a lustrous beam that lit the bath with mystifying splendor and provided an atmosphere of nocturnal serenity to an evening bath.
"Now that we are alone, can we talk about your decision, Mana?" Shige-H wasted only as much time as it was necessary for the Getsugakure ninja to leave them alone. Sensitive matters related to the Allied Ninja and their state of affairs needed to be touched, thus it was a poor idea to discuss them in front of the Getsugakure saviors.
"You'll raise ten thousand subjects trying to talk me out of it, I'll deny every single one. Pleasant talk…" Mana vaulted over her front, pushing her bottom out as a mean gesture that she despised the upcoming discussion. As a grim reminder, she also prodded both of her legs up with one waving an elegant foot while the other waved a stump while the magician tested the depths of the room's bath. It went increasingly deeper as one walked down the marble steps and the center of the room had an 11 meter round sweet spot of around 5 meters in depth.
"You're acting childishly," Shige-H waited patiently for Mana to emerge and run her hand across her curly hair. Whatever the Getsugakure locals used for face paint seemed to adapt to water without washing off, though Mana felt it getting soft and streamy. She wagered in her mind that if water was to be streamed at her face or if she'd rub at the paint with intent and need to wash it off, it'd go off just fine. "You've been injured, and it's not just a meager scratch, I get it. You've lost part of your mobility and I know how taxing it is on your self-confidence too, but… Come on."
"You seem to be awfully opposed to letting me go. Strange. You had no problem letting Damisan or Skaven go," Mana ran her hand down her hair, trying to even it out. It was only when it was utterly soaked that such a thing was possible.
"Their case was different. We couldn't afford to fight Konohagakure Black Ops for Skaven and Damisan… Well… He's healed," Shige-H swam up to Mana, pushing her further to the eastern wing and into the beaming moonlight.
"Healed… You keep using that word, but it's never been clear what exactly it means. You just point at people and tell us they're healed or that someone's not healed and we're just supposed to take you up on that. You're the supreme authority of what people we treat as healed and permit leaving. I was never too sure if I liked what you considered healed given the healing methods you've shown Tomi," Mana leaned on her back, nearly flipping her head back to gaze at the uncluttered night's sky and the umbral beacon shining down at the stained glass.
"She actually feels better than she was before," Asuka noted while rubbing her body with the soaked dead body of an unidentified coarse and spiky sea creature. The spiky body of the aquatic dweller bent and brushed against Asuka's body instead of scratching or pricking her. "Before she was all doom and gloom, push her a bit farther and she's going to fight you for staying here. Ironically enough, they'll probably kick all of us out if you two settle it that way."
"The Allied Ninja need you. You know that. Stop acting like a kid. We've still got loads of work to do," Shige-H insisted. "You've promised the Supreme Leader to perform under a non-stop schedule of missions, remember?"
"The Allied Ninja need me as a living poster. They'd be overjoyed to see me maimed just so they could shut me in the cage and show me off to all prospective new recruits. They've squeezed me dry and I've given them all the juice I could. I'm done. I'm staying here until I learn to live with what I've got left and then… I'll go live the rest of my life, but it won't be with Konoha or the Allied Ninja or anyone else. It'll be the rest of my life lived on my terms," Mana replied with a perfectly tranquil demeanor. A low-pitched sound of rising water made her snap her eyes open and flip back underwater while Shige's slap flew right over Mana to where the magician's head was just a blink prior.
"You're acting up out of fear. Just like you were afraid to show people your injury on the stage. They didn't care, Mana. They love you either way. Stop acting like a brat, like you're the only one facing difficulties and having problems. Other people have way worse lives than splashing around in oversized palaces in the middle of paradise islands and dining on delicacies that cost more than they've made their entire lives. I thought we agreed that the Allied Ninja helped people, that this was your way of doing good work. The kind of work you've always wanted to do. Are you just going to turn your back on all that? Will you just leave all the people that need our help? Because if you do–their fates will be on you entirely," Shige's voice had been the strongest in volume that Mana had ever heard it go.
This time, it was Mana's wet fist that cracked right up in Shige's nose. A pair of drops of red sprinkled into the waving lunar reflection in the water. Both Asuka and Shige-H stared at Mana in disbelief while the magician's eyes had become charged with spite that she hadn't aimed at the worst kind of scum she's encountered on the field.
"That's one hell of a thing for you to say to me…" Mana muttered, breaking the awkward silence that had reigned in. "I can't believe you dared to go there. You're no healer. You never cared about our well-being. You just took us in as your crew to feel more important yourself. Nobody who cares about someone twists other people's flaws and uses those fears against them like that."
"I don't know, isn't that kind of your whole schtick?" Asuka shrugged, slipping out of the water and sitting on the side to look at what will come out of this conflict.
"You're making a mistake!" Shige yelled out.
"And you've got a very curious way of convincing me of that," Mana turned and swam to the western side of the baths, stepping out from the water and slipping into her clothes.
They didn't speak to each other for the rest of the evening. Given Gwirlon's mental state, Endo's vanity, Asuka's lack of familiarity with the Stars and Shige drowning in anguish, and what Mana wanted to see as guilt, it made for a very serene yet also very difficult dinner.
The quiescence extended into overtime all throughout the next morning. Endo appeared unfazed by any of it, having removed himself to train all by his lonesome, until he made his way back to the table, while Asuka was looking miffed by it. She even reached out to Gwirlon, trying to establish contact between them. It went from silly pranks like placing a salad leaf over where the big guy's nose would've been to teasing him and feeding him with her own utensils and hand. Even though it was hard to believe, the hurt goliath responded like a mistreated dog being shown love for the first time.
If Mana hadn't known any better, she'd have thought that Asuka had become closer to the big man in just one breakfast session than the goodwill she had with Gwirlon over their breakthrough. While seeing Gwirlon speak the most cheerful gibberish Mana heard him speak since getting to know him cheered her up some, it was nothing compared to sensing three familiar chakra signatures approaching the estate.
"Well, what do you know?" Doma's rich smirk twisted his face as the entire trio of past Team Phobos lined up in the doorway leading into the dining hall that just ended up being the breakfast hall too. "Finally ditched Konoha for a place that appreciates talent?"
"I wouldn't know anything about that. They've promoted you, haven't they?" Mana shrugged. The two ninja stared at each other for a brief couple of seconds before bursting into laughter together. The young woman used her hand for support so that she could stand up and embrace the approaching friend. Doma's eyes fixed on a hanging knot of cloth over Mana's right leg.
"Whoa…" was all that he could mutter while caught off-guard by this sight. "You going to tell me what that's all about?"
"Work is what it's all about," Mana sighed and sat down. "Work that I intend to leave behind."
"Do you guys have any clue who made this food? We haven't seen cooks yesterday, nor have we seen any today, and it's freaking me out…" Asuka slid a plate of pear sherbet closer to a towering stack of waffles.
"The same chefs that make the food for the king and his court make all the food for the guests at the Imbrium Estate," Stea smiled politely while she and Gasco found themselves a seat by the long table to feel comfortable in.
"Holy hell, this guy looks freaky, even by Getsugakure standards and I've been in enough places to realize we're the odd ones out most of the time," Doma leaned back on his chair to speak up. He must've done so in order to make his incessant staring at Gwirlon's hunch from the side a bit less freaky, though the fact he continued to stare afterward didn't help things much.
"Fun fact for the trivia night, he's the one that chomped Mana's leg off," Asuka smiled as if she was actually sharing fun trivia.
"Can you stop telling everyone that? It makes Gwirlon-san look bad," Mana rolled her eyes and tucked her cheeks in between her hands.
"It is true, though. Even if he's not our enemy now, that doesn't change the fact that he was once," Endo stated while calmly sipping on some coffee from the beans grown in the nearby field and ground on-location.
"Huh… So the big guy's tough enough to chomp Mana's leg off, huh…?" Doma stared at Gwirlon from behind. "It's true that I'm getting some major freaky serial killer vibes from him, but that must just be his freaky face."
"You know, Gwirlon may not have all of his screws secured tightly but he can understand most stuff that people talk about him," Asuka closed her eyes and stretched a devious smile across her face, knowing full well how much it'll freak out the Moon ninja.
"C-Come on… We're just messing around. You said you're friends now, right? Then again, I'd kind of like to test my strength against a guy that maimed Mana. What are you going to say?" Doma raised his fist and pumped it, trying to pump some fighting spirit into the visitor from abroad.
The screeching noise of a chair dragging back and further from the table made everyone turn to the left side of the morning feast. Shige planted her hands on the table and turned to Mana, leaning down her hands so that she could meet the magician's gaze once Mana acknowledges the fact she exists.
"Fight me," Shige-H demanded. "Traditional Shinobi Kumite rules, fight me!"
"What are you doing?" Endo opened his eyes and scanned his leader. Even someone who usually carried himself like he was far above all that didn't piss him off enough to try to utterly destroy it on sight like Endo, seemed taken aback by this suggestion. "Just what are you trying to prove here?"
"Come on! You've been itching to test your skills as a magician, you wanted to know just how much of it remained and just how well you can still perform on stage with your injury. I know you must feel the same way about fighting. You've got a chance to prove to yourself that you can still do it, that you're still as powerful as ever," Shige-H insisted, pushing herself off of the table and trudging up to Mana from the right side. The Getsugakure ninja froze mid-breakfast and observed the situation developing in front of them, a tad confused about what it was all about from the looks of it.
"I've already tried myself out. It cost Prabba-san her life. Even if I can still fight, I don't want to anymore," Mana calmly sipped on the incredible mint tea.
"I will not back down, Mana. If you want to get me off your back, you'll have to fight me. It's considered rude to decline a Kumite challenge from your peer," Shige-H crossed her arms, sneering down at Mana from a standing position. "As is holding back your true strength and dishonoring your opponent."
"Stea-san, do you think you could train me? I'd love to train with all three of you during my stay here," Mana turned to her left, ignoring the Stars' leader.
"Well…" Stea blinked twice in rapid succession, not thinking Mana's attempts at ignoring her peer demanding a sparring session as being too wise. "Sure. I'd love to train and spar with you and Gasco and Doma could train with you during times when I'm off on a mission. As a matter of fact, I'd love to ask you to train Aleba, Sajital, and Tanibi as well."
"I'm not as spry and nimble as I used to be, as you can see, but I'd love to see if I could teach your students a thing or two," Mana nodded with vigorous agreement.
"You're forgetting that Stars is a military unit, Mana. I'm not above kidnapping you and dragging you to the Allied Ninja HQ as a vital Allied Ninja asset if need be," Shige-H clenched her fist and pulled her fingerless leather glove back as if preparing for a scrap. Given how she stated her intention of taking on the entire Getsugakure if needed, she'd be in for one.
Stea, Doma, and Gasco were about to react rather hastily, likely one that would've resulted in grievous injury or humbling of the Stars leader, but they found Mana standing face-to-face with the woman when they turned at the pair already. Mana's left leg burned up with strain, having to manage the whole of her body's weight in such a sudden spring to action.
"You're burning daylight, in that case. You're in a hurry to leave Getsugakure, aren't you, Shige-H-san?" Mana said in an apathetic tone of voice. "How about we settle it as soon as possible and I won't keep you waiting for me?"
Gwirlon stood up from his seat and reached out to pick Mana up, but the magician wobbled holding the side of the table, refusing his help with a gentle hand gesture. When she reached the end of the table, Mana hopped on one leg until she reached the wall, at which point she could use it for support. She may have looked pathetic this way, but Mana wanted to preserve as much strength as possible.
Shige-H wasn't wrong in her assumption that Mana felt curious if she still had a decent fraction of her old strength back now that she's fully recovered from the surgery. Her instincts were sharper now and while she still hadn't recovered all of her lost chakra network connections, enough of them had been recovered for Mana to feel like she could fend for herself or fight to protect someone in an emergency.
Still, the far more important reason that helped Mana reconsider was the fact that while the crippled magician really didn't like Shige's guts right now because of how nasty their feud had gotten last night, she still cared for the Stars leader and considered her a friend. The last thing a friend would let their buddy do in such a situation was to throw their life away by challenging an entire ninja village and trying to kidnap Mana off of the king's nose and right off his palace. Whether or not the Stars succeeded in that, no one would've come off the victor from such a skirmish.
"You're acting like a mad dog here, leader," Endo observed, creeping in from Shige-H's back. "Whether you win or lose, you don't stand to win anything. Mana's made up her mind already and just beating her in a fight won't change a damn thing."
Shige-H didn't reply. She just followed Mana from behind while staring at the magician's back with a piercing gaze that was meant to stare a hole clean through. The chilling nature of that grumpy glare made Endo wince and back away lest it would next be directed at him. No matter how berserk Endo liked to go in a slugfest, he wasn't about to have himself a serving of that problem.
"If Shige truly went off and attacked the Getsugakure ninja, would you have gone along with her?" Asuka wondered, looking at Endo.
"Of course, I don't hate those guys and it wouldn't be personal, but I wouldn't mind crushing them to prove my superiority nevertheless," Endo smirked. "Would you have?"
"But of course, after all, I'm looking to join the Stars, so I'm willing to support our leader in everything she does!" Asuka pumped her fists in a face so utterly devoid of hype and a tone so absurdly oozing irony that not even Gwirlon would've doubted the fact that Asuka would've sought a chance to slip away in all the chaos and served as a lone survivor rather than joined that effort.