Team Hokage settled down to rest and prepare for the upcoming stealth quest. Usually times like this could've been spent for training, particularly - Mana training Meiko in the art of chakra control and combatting illusions. While Meiko was no slouch in that department, Mana, and therefore any more skilled users of the illusionary art, could've easily sent a more complex illusion Meiko's way. The blacksmith was too distracted most of the times to pick up on more subtle temperature changes, absence of weather factors such as humidity and chills, etc.

It was tough to tell night from day when being surrounded by dark murky gloom all the time. The team rested when they felt tired, mostly coordinating their resting sessions through communication. Usually ninja wouldn't have needed resting sessions, eating, sleeping and other similar activities due to their enhanced metabolisms allowing them to bypass such natural limitations. Now, after so many battles and emergencies straining the girls' chakra network they could no longer ignore it. It was an endurance game as much as it was one of mind or body.

This time Mana wasn't training Meiko. The magician was washing her face and her older injuries. While a lot of her wounds and bruises were patched up haphazardly, they still needed to be observed. Some of the oldest injuries were already completely healed, some of them had old bandages singed, torn up or grinded into this strange gooey white mush that only made the injuries they covered more painful. The magician wondered if now with her chakra level taking a larger dip than usual she had to worry about infection. She didn't like being so weakened but it was worth it…

"Hey." Kiyomi's voice quietly alerted the magician of her friend's presence. The blonde had to be sitting on the watch. Being attacked now was a bigger danger than ever: they left the unusual safe-haven of the northern parts and the teams still remaining in the competition must've been more daring and desperate.

"I left Meiko on the watch. We have at least five minutes until she falls asleep or gets distracted and chases off a wild animal…" Kiyomi smiled as if knowing Mana's exact thoughts at the moment. She had all the reason to know them, even without her clan abilities she was a skilled and experienced ninja and therefore she'd have known what another experienced genin would've been thinking. Especially one she'd spend so much time with.

"Does this look familiar to you?" Mana blandly asked before lifting her fingers with the grinded white goo of the bandages on her wounds. Kiyomi just shriveled in disgust before observing where they came from.

"That thing spent a lot more time on you than it should've. You're patching same areas of the body over and over again, then the bandages get torn, burnt or cut off. You get pummeled with the amounts of force I dread even to think of… Frankly, this is kind of new to me as well. If you feel something… Troublesome, keep me updated." Kiyomi replied before helping the magician change the bandages spanning from her left shoulder to her pelvis and applying some ointment on her back.

"It was nice of Junipu-R to pass on to you part of her supplies." Kiyomi noted shortly before the magician finished washing the blood off her body and tending after her wounds. "Most ninja would've just fought her to the end and wouldn't have obtained those supplies. I think a lot of people are quick to criticize your way of doing things while they ignore the good that your way brings."

"Yes, R means a lot to me. She's the first person in a while I managed to defeat my way, without hurting her or ruining her life trying to help her…" Mana looked away before settling her sights on a large fish deep underwater, visible only when its gigantic head came thumb's length from the surface to swallow up tons of leeches out of the small lake and then dive back into the depths.

"You're still sad about what happened to the team you stole pills from." Kiyomi didn't ask that. She deduced it with a firm statement.

"How can I not be? If I've not taken those pills from them they've remained in the exam. Even more, I stole those supplies from them…" the magician sighed. "For someone who hates all criminals I'd have thought you'd be a lot less fine with this than you are."

"It's not a crime unless you break the law." Kiyomi cut down firmly. "You were engaging an enemy team, alone against three opponents. You were doing it in a competitive examination environment, in those conditions it'd have been fine to beat them, cripple them, even kill them, if you're a poor competitor. Stealing tools and weapons from them isn't something that should weigh down your conscience. Even when you gave up Team Fir, while it was a dirty and needless move, you broke no actual laws. No matter what happens, you'll always be my little sister, Mana. Maybe not by blood but definitely by heart."

Mana remained silent, looking onwards to the other side of the lake as if there was something to see there.

"This reminds me of a story." Kiyomi smiled after settling down closer to her friend and wrapping her hands around her knees while looking onwards to the other side just like Mana was. "From my childhood. Back when I was still forbidden to do anything but be a little princess, banned even from running around so that I don't bust my elite knee, I often joined my mother in the garden. It was the closest thing to dirt I could get without making everyone mad."

Mana smiled subtly. She had never experienced similar prohibitions but with Kiyomi putting them this way she was somewhat glad that she didn't. Her parents just observed everything Mana did and supported her from behind. When Mana wanted to play with other children they didn't hold her back, when the other children made fun of her for being "special", back when she still had her mental disorder to hold her back, they told her that friends like that weren't real friends anyways. When she decided to join the Ninja Academy they supported her even if they thought she'd certainly fail with her ideals in mind. Overprotectiveness has never been a scorn in the magician's side.

"Once, when I was helping mother with weeds by the shed I saw the hugest web being spun all over a tall patch of ragwort and a fly caught in it. The thing was struggling with all of its survivor's heart and just getting in trouble more and more."

"That's how webs work…" Mana closed her eyes.

"For a moment I just sat there on my butt, dirtying my white dress, and watching nature do its thing right in front of me. Then I saw the spider resting on the top of a pair of taller ragworts, just watching and waiting until the little thing ran out of breath. It was a pretty large bugger, could've been a joro spider or some other kind, memory is a bit murky. Anyways, obviously I pulled the fly out and tore the webs up. After a while of awkward rolling around the prey just flew away so I ran to brag to mother."

"Looking for approval." Mana nodded.

"Right. But mother kind of looked horrified. I thought that here, after being continuously told what I could and couldn't do, I've done something good all by myself, something deserving praise and something I came up with all by myself. I guess my mom was a big fan of spiders and she told me I ruined the spider's work of art it took hours for them to build and I let its food get away which it waited for hours to catch." Kiyomi laughed out in a way that people laugh bitterly when remembering a sadder memory that currently seems kind of funny with how troubling it seemed at the time.

"Joro spiders probably eat small birds and snakes anyways, how much satisfaction could it have gotten from a fly?" Mana shrugged.

"Right? And here comes little ass-hat Kiyomi Jr. and rips its web apart over a measly fly. Now that I think about it seems like a ripoff for the spider…" the blonde smiled. "So the point is that by saving the fly I probably killed or caused that spider loads of trouble. Maybe it starved, maybe it went to hunt elsewhere and got smashed by my brother – he may have been able to breathe fireballs from his mouth but he feared spiders and wasps and all sorts of insects."

"So by saving the fly you doomed the spider but by leaving the fly alone you'd have let it die." Mana summed it up bluntly.

"Right, so the thing is – you did what you had to. You saved Meiko but took something away from someone else. You didn't even kill anything. If you didn't take those pills that team would've most likely won and eliminated their opponents but also Meiko would've definitely had been eliminated. You can't really stop everyone from dying, sometimes we can only barely control who gets the sharp end of the stick but nature and what happens isn't always up to us. The important thing is that you did what you thought was right, you didn't lose your way, you've got nothing to sulk and brood about. I used to have this Uchiha teammate guy, he was an asshole – always brooding for no reason. Don't be like the goddamn Uchiha, no matter what happens, do what an Uchiha wouldn't do."

"I've never met one. I'd not know what an Uchiha would or would not do but… I'll have it mind." Mana nodded somewhat cheered up.

"Well, now that this is done, I better check up on Meiko…" Kiyomi lazily picked herself up and began walking off. "When you're done here join us for the whole planning out our assault thing. We could use your bright head out there."

"Kiyomi…"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

When Mana looked back at the point of darkness at the other side of the lake she realized that it was scary how much better Kiyomi was of a leader than she herself could've ever been. First of all – her friend took the role formally, she may not have declared it just like Mana never has but she took it and wore it proudly. Secondly, she took it onto herself to watch over her team, whenever someone had problems the blonde may not have even understood or agreed with, the responsibility pressured her into putting her teammates back together and helping them get back into the action.

Back when they first met, to Mana, Kiyomi was this more experienced and older admirable kunoichi. Almost an entire year may have passed since that day but nothing truly changed in that regard. The magician may have walked a mile forward but so did the Yamanaka heiress. For every firm step Mana took, Kiyomi took one even bolder and while both advanced forward it just felt like the overall distance remained somewhat the same.

She was just so cool.


Just about when Mana felt confident she could join in with her team with the planning Kiyomi's grunts reached the magician's ears and before she could turn around and get back on her feet the girl's head peeked out from the bushes followed by her entire body.

"Meiko's missing. I've no idea what the hell happened. What if she got taken out!?" the blonde lost her cool. Maybe Kiyomi was the most solid choice for a leader of the team but, for some reason, whenever judgment of Meiko matters was concerned she always lost her composure and began panicking.

"No, it wouldn't make sense. We were close enough to hear an engagement and even if they were this silent – they'd have just knocked her out and left her behind." Mana began stroking her chin before an idea struck her and Kiyomi momentarily later, almost at the same time.

"The chainsaw-sword guy!" they both proclaimed together before picking up their things and rushing off.

"At least she had the common decency to leave the map behind before running off to fight some crazed lunatic with an overrated sword!" the blonde grumbled out looking where Team Cephei was supposed to last have been seen. With any luck they'd have moved along and Meiko wouldn't have enough moxie to track them all the way to where they were. When it came to matters of brawling and weaponry Meiko was pretty sharp but that was pretty much it, it was doubtful that she'd be able to track a team all by herself.

"Do we rush?" Mana questioningly looked at Kiyomi. It was an important call – if they wasted chakra just to move incredibly fast they'd have gotten to the location almost in an instant but they'd have definitely raised noise, also they'd have most certainly worn themselves out which would've left them weakened before a possible combat encounter.

"No." the blonde made a call. "We proceed at our top physical speed but don't use augmentation."

An immediate, excruciatingly painful flash blinded Mana forcing her to cover up her eyes. The flash was so immensely overflowing with chakra that even if she tried to somehow attempt to augment the endurance of her eyes and build resistance for similar techniques she'd have never succeeded to do so. It was like the flash completely bypassed any natural or artificial resistances and just stabbed daggers made of solid light right at every sensitive part of one's eye.

"Shadow Possession Jutsu!" a bellowing and somewhat smug voice interrupted the monotony of Mana and Kiyomi painfully moaning over the loss of vision and the completely overtaking all bodily functions pain in their eyes.

"Mana! I can't move!" Kiyomi yelled out somehow managing to speak intelligibly through the pain.

Almost instinctively the magician dived backwards, she knew that if she was still unaffected by any technique she'd be the next target for the enemy attack and based on the loud popping sound of muffled thunder she was right. As her body was pulsing with adrenaline the magician felt wood chips and branches just bounce off her skin – her petrified and panicking body was augmenting her all by itself. She bypassed the level of subconscious fear over losing chakra again and entered the level of panicking where her body augmented itself to protect her from even the most insignificant amounts of damage.

"Damn, I missed!" a female sounding voice declared something Mana noticed. With her hands shooting out and feeling anything she could catch or cling onto the magician finally found a tree she could cling to with her feet and stick onto.

"Do I go?" a lazy sounding voice asked. It sounded strong and coming from deep in someone's lungs, it must've been a fairly large and bulky opponent.

"No, definitely not!" the Nara replied his teammate.

Mana tried to climb down and hide behind the tree she was stuck on. Not only she was completely blind but also the immense physical pain in her eyes made it impossible to concentrate on other senses. It was a lot like that time in the Wind Country after the Shaphac detonated that huge explosion and took all of her senses away. This time Mana had her ears to rely on but the pain made it difficult to listen and process what she experienced.

"Tsk… I don't have all day here…" that same voice that previously used the Nara clan technique declared.

"This isn't right, there's only two of them. I thought there's supposed to be three…" the female voice that targeted Mana before complained. Kiyomi's scream echoed – she must've been attacked. The magician's heart pounded in her chest, this was bad, not only could the magician not see or hear right but if Kiyomi passed out it'd probably be treated as elimination.

Mana groaned as she relaxed and fell forward. By that time she had a good feel of everything around her and was beginning to recover from the initial shock and blindness but she needed to draw the enemy way. As her body slammed against the puffy moss and grumbled painfully as her gut hit a rough edged rock the magician screamed out, her pain at that moment was very real. Deciding to keep up the act Mana crawled away, she was almost tempted to yell something suggestive at her opponents, draw their attention from her paralyzed teammate.

"That other one is down." The Nara voice declared.

"Gee, you think? I'm going after her!" the female voice angrily snapped back at him.

"I'm coming with you, Faeino, we were told that the weakest smarty-pants girl was the most dangerous. My bet is that she's luring you in!" the strong sounding male voice seconded.

"Hold her here!" the female voice instructed the Nara. "I'm not getting eliminated by a fucking killdeer act, I'm taking Saol for backup."

"Fine, she's not going anywhere while I'm here…" the Nara lazily bellowed.

Mana crawled and rolled onwards, she could feel burning pain in her gut and something inside her made her feel thankful that her eyes were still in relative dark, albeit a blurry and brightening one, unable to see just how bad her gut wound looked. Fighting back or even defending herself was out of the question now. Not so soon after the big fight with Junipu, not with all of her injuries so fresh and still very much healing.

The magician heard foot taps further ahead. Her hands instinctively weaved a hand seal. A thunderous blast pierced the magician's body that erupted into a storm of petals that scattered into the wind. Normally ninja would've never allowed their footsteps to be heard like that unless they were certain they were going to finish their opponent off, unless they wanted to make it big and flashy. Unless they wanted her enemy to bleed and feel at awe at the opponent's finishing blow.

This was wrong. Those people after them were not behaving like normal competitors. So far they haven't expressed interest in them as a team, they haven't shown much care in any of the girls as their target. Mana couldn't have been their target since she'd eliminated her target already, had Kiyomi been their target they'd simply have taken her out already but they followed Mana to finish her off. This was personal.

"This is personal…" the magician whispered to herself as she rolled aside and breathed heavily just laying on a pile of organic trash, roots and moss as her opponents walked past her and looked ahead. By the time that the illusion wore off and they'd be able to see Mana she'd have been in plain sight but they kept on walking ahead slowly. Looking around and wandering where their injured prey had gone off to.

"She aimed for my chest, several times now – she tried to kill me…" the magician's mind kept on racing as she laid completely exhausted and sprawled out, yet momentarily still invisible to her enemy. Her chakra was very barely beginning to return to her, she may have still had enough to pay the enlarged cost of her illusion and not pass out but she was completely powerless to as much as even move.

This could've been it. Not only for their participation in the exam but their very lives…