Light partially seeped into Mana's eyes inviting a familiar dreadful headache she had felt so many times before. A painful reminder that one was still alive which momentarily made one wish they weren't. The magician realized that something was wrong almost instantly, she felt tight bindings around her and an almost supernatural force holding her still, pressing against her chest and emanating from a glowing paper tag placed there. While the magician wanted to remain still and keep quiet so she could carefully survey her surroundings and evaluate her situation it didn't work out. A stinging sensation in her breathing tract made her cough erratically almost within seconds of waking up.
The magician felt the taste of blood as the rough yet small shards of crystal left her throat through her mouth, bruising and cutting at every soft fleshy wall it passed. The wounds were not troublesome or deep but Mana realized then that her total chakra pool was smaller than half her total, right when her body instinctively tried to protect itself through chakra augmentation and had to be eased through it.
"Interesting, she's awake", a crude sounding and lingering masculine voice made Mana's eyes turn to meet a young man, in his middle twenties or slightly older, whom the magician couldn't shake off the feeling she had seen somewhere already. Despite her best attempts at recalling details of this blond haired, glasses wearing young man she could not quite put her finger on it.
"Oh, great, you know, we should've just brought her to the gate, that or killed her", another young man, this on looking in his teens and with much greasier and messier dark hair running past his shoulders advised coldly.
"Aw, come on, you guys, Crus said that she was supposed to be eliminated but wasn't", a rather low pitched and strong yet strangely more feminine sounding voice made Mana flip her head back to observe the third member of the team that sat around her, having placed her on the ground after the magician woke up.
"Eliminated"? Mana muttered to herself. Her memory could vaguely recall something terrifying, something covering her up, getting all into her nose, mouth and filling her lungs and on the inside. The exact details still eluded the girl's memory but the shock and the panic fear she felt at those moments returned flawlessly.
"I stand by that, her presence is a paradox. She was, by all signs, knocked out and should've been withdrawn from the competition, her team abandoned her, after all", the bright haired young man nodded, using his palm to keep his glasses in their current positioned as he gestured with his head. His face was not quite malevolent, his eyes showed no pleasure in holding Mana against her will or intent to hurt her but he did look somewhat indifferent towards it, almost like he held himself above this.
"They did"? Mana raised an eyebrow, wondering internally. She worried about Kiyomi and Meiko as something must've happened to the two as they wouldn't have just dropped Mana and went on without her, at least the magician believed so herself.
The girl moved her hands around, tied behind her, placing them closest she could to the requirements of the Academy technique ninja used to escape bindings – the aptly named Rope Escape Jutsu. Then her hands faltered, was this really a sufficiently threatening situation to warrant her breaking her own rule about generic techniques? Slowly her hands parted away as she continued to lay low and listen.
"Hmph, still… Our time would be better spent seeking our targets, I am almost ashamed to talk in front of this girl how badly we're doing at that"! The other male teammate of the team remarked.
"Aw, come on, Gunoi, if Crus says that the girl may have stumbled into a way to cheat the system, it might be useful to find the secret out. Remember how many close calls we had recently"? The young lady once again butt in. After looking at her closely, Mana remembered bits and pieces about her from before.
"Hey, I remember you three, we met after the written exam shortly. Your name is… Choroina, I think? You expressed frustration that Gunoi wasn't following your leadership and your team didn't get along like the three of us did", Mana spoke up.
"Wait… Oh yeah, the cheerful Konoha team"! Choroina clapped her hands together, "Sorry, still can't let you go. The team we stole you from said something about your genjutsu being very dangerous".
"The team you stole me from"? Mana's eyes squinted as she realized just how much must have happened while she was out and how foolish this whole situation was to an uninitiated obeserver.
"Yeah, you're pretty much the most popular girl amongst the teams still competing – your body holds the answer why you weren't eliminated." Crus remarked.
"And don't even bother using the Rope Escape Jutsu, we've placed a chakra seal onto your bindings. You'd need at least a C-Rank technique to break it, definitely a more powerful technique than a generic Academy ninjutsu", Gunoi mockingly addressed Mana as if gloating over his superior standing.
"No problem, I've already escaped", Mana showed her hands holding the rope with a smile and before the enemy team could comprehend all the ramifications of her words those hands went through a collection of hand seals.
"Partial Expansion Jutsu"! Choroina yelled out as a giant fist slammed at Mana, large enough to break all of her bones upon impact as the giant had no problem breaking her opponent, knowing she wouldn't get eliminated anyways. Instead of a rough hit upon her opponent's body the female Akimichi with a Getsugakure headband hit only a twister of flower petals that scattered away into the wind that her own impact picked up.
"Lightning Style: Shock Wall"! Gunoi yelled out as lightning bolts lit up in a net formation around his fingers and expanded flying fifteen meters or so at the general direction of the young man's intent before dissolving. The young man repeated the technique a couple of times in several directions trying to aim with luck and intuition instead of sensory input or skill.
"There's no use trying to hit that on an opponent you cannot see, Gunoi", Crus remarked mockingly.
"How about you try to do something"!? Gunoi flipped out.
"That's because I am a medical ninja, I am useful to this team in other ways".
"You should've done like those other guys intended to and cut that bitch open then"! Gunoi cursed again, "This is why we are the underdogs in this stupid exam"!
"Whatever caused this girl to remain in the competition was not a medical problem, it was a trick of some sort. I scanned her already using the Diagnosis Jutsu, cutting her open would be redundant. You dare doubt my judgment"? Crus arrogantly stepped up into Gunoi's face as the two teammates collided with each other, firing off lightning bolts between the eyes of each other.
Mana breathed uneasily on a tall branch up above. She may have wanted to use another genjutsu to disable these three but she was working with a much smaller chakra pool already. While the first instinct she had was to run, that was not a priority. Most of all Mana wanted to know about exactly what everyone wanted to know – how she remained in the competition after having been knocked out.
While escape was very alluring, she was still dazed and much slower right now. If these three were stronger than they were predictable, that would have made them catch up to Mana if she tried to run right away. One of those stray lightning bolts may have even hit her as the ninjutsu dissolved. Even more importantly, one of the three mentioned something about Mana being hunted by every team still in the competition. That meant that eventually she would need to confront more heat than she was comfortable with. When that time came, her best option was to tell those people what they wanted to know but for that she needed to know it herself.
"Man, I guess cooperation just isn't in the cards for Team Adrastea", Choroinu sighed sadly as her two teammates bickered before smacking both of them and encouraging them to keep on searching ahead. Shortly after, Mana was left all by herself to sit and contemplate her further plan.
It was a good thing she was a stage magician who escaped bindings for a living, even without needing to use the Rope Escape Jutsu or any chakra at all. Removing a seal was as easy as removing a paper tag once her hands were freed by natural means. Working through a simple rope bind should have taken Mana far less but she was still a bit wonky and the information she overheard did interest her.
A thunderous crack interrupted Mana's train of thought as the large branch she was sitting on cracked and made the magician plummet down until she could grab onto another and try to pull up. That was before a purplish chakra sphere flew right past her head, right where Mana would've been if she would've blindly pushed herself onto the branch.
A strong looking middle-aged man leaped right onto the branch Mana was holding herself onto before trying to kick at her, luckily enough, the girl managed to read his intentions and let go before the kick was delivered. As Mana grabbed onto another branch and swung onto one right in front of it, on another tree, she saw the strongman take a nosedive down holding what looked like an elbow length two-edged short sword in his hands.
"Residual Style: Sparrow Bolts"! The female ninja of the strongman's team yelled out launching a wild barrage of purple colored flares that appeared textured almost like chakra itself. Mana reached for her own wand inside her pocket and under her shirt while her one free hand weaved hand seals.
"Lightning Style: Magic Spark Barrage"! she chanted out as a wild flock of Lightning Release spherical projectiles fired off channeled through Mana's wand to match and detonate the enemy kunoichi's odd ninjutsu technique. As it was intended, the two barrage techniques clashed mid-way, detonating one another.
A strong hit threw Mana off-balance and made her fall from her branch. It must have been the third one, it was hard to believe that anyone could've thrown a hit as fast as this one did.
"Nice teamwork, Harpalke, Iuteb, keep pressing her"! The strongman commanded as he picked his buckler up from the ground and prepared to join in on the offensive to take Mana down.
The magician closed her eyes before weaving hand seals and breaking her fall with Mystical Wings Jutsu. She lost the wand somewhere, the hit to her jaw was that strong that she completely lost concentration. A bit stronger and it could have completely knocked her out. This was dangerous, probably the most dangerous situation Mana has been in throughout this whole exam. These people may have been underdogs and Mana may have been well over-trained and over-experienced for this exam but if they ganged up all at once she stood no chance to survive against them.
The wild card of her chakra sensory kicked in. Right as her visual senses closed, Mana's sensory overwhelmed her without her will beginning to show her those blazing orbs of chakra. This caused the magician to quickly open her eyes, cancelling the sabotage of her own sensory abilities instantly. She leaped back to avoid the diving attack of Iuteb, the speedy taijutsu user who clocked her before. She delivered a kick to his exposed back right after he missed his diving punch.
"She dodged Iuteb's punch"!? The strongman, who appeared to be the de facto leader of the team remarked in great surprise.
Truthfully, it was only possible because of what Mana's sensory had showed her. The unasked for sensory sensation showed off some of the specifics behind Iuteb's taijutsu style and some signs of this Harpalke's "Residual Release". Mana placed her hands up in the hand seal position, preparing them for a genjutsu which she needed to time just right if she wanted to escape.
This Iuteb boy bent light around his body using chakra. That made his chakra signature light up with activity once he moved and it was what caused his body appear to move much faster than it actually did. Where the opponent never saw Iuteb coming, the boy was attacking normally but merely bending the light around his body to make his attack appear instantaneous. It made it appear like his body flashed in out of nowhere.
The chakra signature of this Harpalke girl appeared to stretch and thin out once it lit up with activity. Mana saw the star-like representation of her signature expand and reach out for the surroundings, she must've somehow been able to utilize the chakra from the environment around her, using her own chakra to mold it all together, not too much different from the technique Kouta's father once used, except on an immensely smaller scale.
Iuteb posed very few problems, Mana had already seen him move with intent to hit her twice. She had the approximate calculation and rhythm of his speed and he would never lay a hand on her again. Harpalke, on the other hand was more problematic. Mana's sensory appeared to work all on its own, like a capricious child. Sometimes it took half an hour to tap into it, sometimes it did not work at all and sometimes it turned on all by itself robbing Mana of another sense in its place. There was no way to know the specifics of her ability.
Mana jumped back and onto a tree, she wished to gain elevation but the leader of the team that attacked her jumped up and right in front of Mana, swiping with his blade to force the magician to stop on her tracks and jump back to avoid getting cut almost in half at her chest. Right afterwards the swordsman followed the move up with a buckler bash, following the same wave of momentum and wasting no movements. Mana grunted in pain as the buckler drove into her and sent her crashing back down.
Instead of hitting the ground, purplish flames enveloped her in a wide sphere before exploding suddenly and violently leaving the singed and injured magician to finish her fall. Hearing a rumbling of the ground beneath her Mana timed her roll aside to avoid a powerful jumping strike from Iuteb before getting back on her feet and wiping the blood off her nose because it made breathing a struggle.
The leader of the attacking team landed right in front of Mana right before his team joined in with him by his sides.
"We needn't fight, we just need your secret", the man calmly asked of Mana.
"I'd tell it if I knew it", Mana shook her head as her eyes wandered chaotically across the battlefield.
"Why don't you try to withdraw? You seem smarter than to consider taking us three on by yourself", the enemy strongman wondered before raising his buckler to his face and raising his sword wielding hand over it, preparing to stab over his shield if the magician chose to attack him head-on.
"I lost something here, my wand." Mana admitted.
"This wand is worth getting injured and hunted down for"? Harpalke yelled out in disbelief, she spoke in a strange southern dialect. Her pronunciation reminded Mana to that of Team Phobos suggesting heavily that this trio was from Getsugakure or another southern country.
"It's worth dying for", Mana replied firmly.
Harpalke was troublesome. Chakra was a fundamental force of the universe, present within each and every object in certain concentrations and quantities. Right now, without her gift of sensory cooperating, Mana could not possibly know the amounts of chakra she could concentrate from her surroundings and just how much of her own chakra went into this concentration process. Planning was useless without this information. This was pathetic, Mana needed to scoop off more chakra from her already lacking pool…
The magician's hands clutched onto an area over her ribs, Mana faked out being in pain, or at least more pain than she was really in, as her hands dove under her shirt where they could freely weave hand seals without being clearly seen.
"Sweet Lullaby Jutsu"! Mana yelled out before Iuteb's body bent the light again, trying to psych her out and believe he moved instantly when in fact he merely hid inside the pocket of light he bent. The magician's hands and her lips did not tremble as she began whistling a sweet and soft tune that quickly spread her illusion throughout.
Iuteb just unceremoniously slammed into the ground, shaking as his bodily sensors were overloaded with pleasure making it impossible to resist in the early stages of the illusion. His teammates followed but with more self-control and grace as they were not quite as engaged by trying to attack Mana.
That magician leaped up onto the nearest tree as she continued to hum and whistle the tune, staying within an audible range for her tune to be heard as her eyes raced wildly to find her wand.
A sharp pain at her shoulder made the magician scream out due to the surprise of the painful shock as she witnessed a small scalpel digging into the back of her shoulder a good couple centimeters. Had her chakra not been so stressed she may have been able to completely make it bounce off but now the girl felt her right hand go completely numb since the blade must have hit a sensitive point of her body.
"If you escape, don't just stick around and get into another fight", Crus of the trio that previously kidnapped Mana from someone who kidnapped her from her own team playfully suggested as his teammates quickly joined in.
"Partial Expansion Jutsu"! Choroina thrust her massive expanded fist straight at Mana. Crippled by the pain in her shoulder Mana tried to jump off but it would not have come in time.
"She's ours"! A loud and authoritative yell made Mana open her eyes and lower her left hand, which braced her head for impact. The blond strongman from the other Getsugakure team dashed up and blocked Choroina's attack with his buckler.
"Fuck off, Staeg, we stole her from Team Quartz of Iwagakure fair and square"! Gunoi angrily taunted his fellow Getsugakure ninja by raising his fist before placing his hands in position for hand seals.
"You disappoint me, Gunoi Azbur. As a fellow Getsugakure ninja I was ready to share the secret with you", the strongman wielding shield and sword, now known as Staeg replied as he stood right in front of Mana after the blowback threw him back at her and he managed to maintain both her and his own balance.
"I'm fine with sharing with Team Eurydome, really", Choroina apologetically bowed her head before her expanded hand returned to its normal chubby size.
"Fire Style: Burning Ash"! A voice came from out of nowhere as a wild cloud of ash covered the forest area and Mana felt Staeg grab her by the abdomen and dive down. The magician figured to resist for a moment but remembering how low her chakra pool was and how it might come in use later she didn't resist a man whose prime interest was to protect her until she could disclose her secret to him.
"Gunpowder"? Staeg muttered to himself before the black ash surrounded him and Mana and a violent explosion, caused by a small spark coming from a ninja hidden inside the trees further away detonated it.
A cocky laughter came from the western part of the forest before a loud thud silenced it.
"You're a fool, Fulgasa, what if you killed the girl"? A very frail and a rather feminine looking drab red haori wearing youth scolded his teammate as a team of five was revealed standing to the west, once the aftereffects of the gunpowder cloud explosion cleared up a little.
"Team Quartz of Iwagakure"? Choroina gasped in shock.
"That's right, we caught up to you! And this time we've brought some friends"! The energetic young man who apparently cast the ninjutsu and was referred to as Fulgasa earlier laughed out while pointing at the four ninja to his side, one of whom held an unconscious teammate tied to their back by a piece of cloth. "They really could use this girl's secret for their defeated comrade"!
