Mana gave off a breathy sigh. Her hands could not stop trembling, her abdomen kept burning up. The magician could remember feeling less intimidated when her life was literally at stake. Maybe because in those difficult times there was simply no time to feel worried, it was always just do or die. Now, meanwhile, the magician was left to wonder, keep thinking everything through to the point of overthinking. Her own personal issues did not help things, Mana was still really anxious and down about her break up and Meiko getting badly injured.
"It's going to be alright", Kiyomi smiled in encouragement after patting Mana's shoulder to which the magician just backed up like the eye of a snail after being poked. "You're the most resourceful person I know and being resourceful is what being a ninja is all about"!
It was true that Mana already knew the tiniest bits and pieces about her opponents, due to Jean-D's desperate grasping at straws, the magician already knew of Jon-D's signature technique. From his frustration, after it was revealed, she could put together that beside that jutsu, the young swordsman had little else to focus or rely on. In that, way he was very much like his sister, an incredible master of one thing only.
Team Alto was so much more difficult to comprehend. From what Mana had seen about Oto-B, he was the small and plumpy little man with a massive hi-tech looking backpack that may have contained just about anything. The first guess of the magician would've been that it contained a puppet, but puppetry was a rare craft in Kumogakure – the native land of the world's greatest swordsmen and crude but effective grappling style of wrestling martial arts, also – the Nimble Style of taijutsu that greatly contrasted Konoha's Strong Style.
"See? You're overthinking it, this isn't some sort of the end of the world scenario. If you fail now, if you see it's too difficult, you can always just back down and try next year in another country. No one will blame you, this year's exams are crazy with the insane teams and ninja competing"! Kiyomi tried consoling Mana differently. She must have still been oblivious to the falling out that Mana and Hanasaku had just before the exam.
"You wouldn't quit", Mana mumbled out.
"I mean… Yeah! That's because I've been a genin for what seems like eternity. I'm stuck here and I feel like I've been ready to move up for ages. No matter who I end up facing, I won't stop until I prove it to everyone"! Kiyomi grinned raising her fist into the air energetically. "But you're not supposed to be anyone else. I know you used to look up to me as someone you could be but you don't owe it to anyone to be anyone else but yourself".
"I owe it to me to be better than that", Mana replied before looking Kiyomi in the eyes. "I owe it to everyone in Konoha, and everyone in the whole world to become the person that'll be great and amazing enough to change the world through example. Someone who will appreciate all life, and be so skilled, that everyone else will follow them and learn to appreciate life for themselves. A person who fails the Chuunin Exams is not such a person, a person who gives up before they do everything they can is not such a person. This exam is life or death to me, just like it was for Gorm Cleiti, if I fail, nothing else matters".
Kiyomi looked away trying to get into Mana's shoes but she appeared to struggle to do so. Just about at that time, Erumo Budoki from Team Fir stumbled around with the help of her teammate Yushijin, as the girl, now adorning a pair of bandage stripes and plasters, passed by Mana and Kiyomi, the new Konoha's Trapster gave Mana a nasty gesture before the two walked past them.
"I know you are used to being cheered on, what with all of your Konoha Sorceress gig you have and all, but don't be surprised if you won't have any home spiritual support advantage, besides me, of course", Kiyomi grunted, feeling that Erumo's attitude towards Mana would be somewhat reflected onto the others of these past few Ninja Academy generations. Given how popular Erumo's gimmick and antics were. Before now, pretty much every Konoha examinee had a significant amount of rumbling and incoherent support from their fellow villagers, similarly for most other villages. The Yamanaka wanted the magician to not feel too surprised if that was not the case with her, given her choices in the Forest of Death.
"I know this isn't one of my magic shows. This audience is completely different from the common Konoha villagers. Some of them think I'm just playing ninja, some of them may hate how I'm using ninjutsu for entertainment and stage magic. Some of them may hate my nindo, think I'm childish or hate my choices and the way I think. I've already been an underdog once, I've already been hated and discriminated once. It won't be anything new to me", Mana sighed before recalling her time in the Sun Disc arena back in Wind Country.
Angry and clearly rushing steps that sounded almost like infuriated stomping attracted the attention of Mana and Kiyomi to such an extent, that, for a moment, Mana forgot all of her worrying and fears before the match.
"It was you, wasn't it"? Quill B shouted out, rushing up to Mana and shoving a finger up in her face, the young man looked like he was combating the instinct to punch the magician in the face with each passing moment.
"Actually, I gave her the idea that you may want to try something funny. Mana just dealt with it in her own way which, she thought, would prevent as much conflict as possible. Frankly, it appears, she was right", Kiyomi shrugged trying to step in between Mana and Quill B.
The Kumogakure swordsman shoved Kiyomi aside and grabbed Mana by her collar before raising her up by it and winding up his fist. He was clearly referring to the fact that the protection of the injured youth he wanted dead now included Lady Fifth herself, something completely beyond even the most unreasonable and bloodthirsty fool to attempt to bypass or piss off.
"I thought you understood! Back in the Forest of Death, the way you handled things. The way you cared about the efficiency of elimination and all that! I thought you were different!" The swordsman shouted out, alarming everyone in the corridor but, so far, no one bothered to interfere. It was the same economy of effort and resources that lead to passiveness in the Forest of Death, that same guiding principle, that lead to such a reaction. Mana could've very easily gotten her neck snapped and very few people would've bothered doing much other than reporting it.
"But you aren't different from everyone else, are you! You did not even have the guts to protect that scumbag yourself! You cried to your superiors and told them to protect him"! Quill B shouted out, "Because you're afraid! You're weak and you're nothing but a coward"!
"Yo, your disappearance was so bizarre, I've been looking for you, there you are! Come on, Quill, stop being miserable, the magician's involvement simply isn't reasonable"! Inaba, Quill B's teammate from Team Cirrus, ran up to the furious teammate and tried defusing the situation.
"Of course he's not being reasonable", Mana muttered, "He's grieving a loss, suffering people are the least reasonable people there are".
Quill B pulled Mana in almost up to his face, just so that she could see the pain and grief coursing through his eyes and the entire face.
"Dammit, girl, you're making me curse. Your words are just making it all worse"! Inaba helped Kiyomi pull the scorned swordsman away from Mana, letting the magician slump down on her knees before getting back up.
"If you asked me, I'm on neither of your sides. Kres-T killed a traitor to his village, if you killed him right now, like a coward, while he was down, you'd have been even worse of a scumbag than you and Mana can possibly see him as being", Kiyomi threw haphazardly at the direction of the Cirrus duo.
"You're right. It wouldn't be right if I killed him while he's injured or passed out, or whatever… Your friend may be crude, but at least she's the one making the most sense", Quill B calmed down somewhat, his friend helped him stand back up after he stumbled back at a wall in an expression of pain. Before the two could walk away, he turned at Mana curiously. "You will still stand in my way, as long as you are able to, right"? He asked.
"As long as your plan is to kill him, yes", Mana calmly nodded before fixing her clothes.
"I guess that makes you his accomplice then, just another person I'll have to overcome and kill in my way of vengeance", Quill B exclaimed coldly before turning away and walking off with his friend who appeared to be freaking out at the swordsman the whole way to the hall.
"Wow, that guy is both intense and crazy", Kiyomi whistled out.
"He's in pain. I cannot hold him accountable for the things he says in that state. If our paths will ever cross, I'll just have to shoulder his hatred and vengeful thoughts and hope I can help him that way" Mana sighed.
"I mean… I'm technically on your side, I think, I wouldn't let him kill a righteous man whose sole crime is fulfilling his duty and killing a traitor, but… Doesn't that mean you'll be shielding a killer, someone who did a thing you despise almost to ridiculous degrees"? Kiyomi raised an eyebrow.
"I will be, yes", Mana affirmed.
"That's an awful amount of scumbags and killers you've protected so far from people wanting to give them what's coming for them. I'm not implying anything but…" Kiyomi shrugged before encouraging the magician to make her way to the hall.
"I'm not justifying the actions of people I protect. I do not care who it is that I protect from death. I do believe that those people need to face justice for their actions but death is no form of any justice I believe in. Death is an escape from justice in my book. If it ever comes to me standing in between Quill B and Kres-T, I'll be the one making sure that Quill B's desire for justice is met, not him", Mana argued.
"Except even if you protect that guy, no justice will ever come to him. Killing a traitor is no crime in any of the ninja villages – he's perfectly justified, he'll even be honored for it", Kiyomi poked a hole in Mana's beliefs, the magician felt that hole very painfully.
"I've seen a man who was renowned for his carnage and murderous ways protect a fragile young civilian from harm for years, in search for redemption. Had it not been for that man, that young lady would've been in a lot of trouble, likely not even alive at this point. In that way, I believe that not even a life of a killer somehow transcends necessity, even those lives of people I hate or I don't think are right. Punishment may not find Kres-T now, or ever, but maybe, someday, he'll do something he is meant to do and make someone else's life better", Mana looked away, feeling a bit uncomfortable about not having a precise answer for her friend's and superior's posed problem. It has become a habit between the two to discuss their clashing beliefs and yet this may have been the first time that Mana felt unsure about her stance and position in some way.
"Ummm… Either way, what the hell are we talking about!? This isn't what you should be troubling yourself with! Think about the match"! Kiyomi suddenly broke into a supportive smile and began encouraging the magician after seeing that she was beginning to get to Mana to some ideological level.
"Alright, I assume everyone's ready to start"? The overseer glanced the slightly thinned out audience over. The matches were already halfway over and therefore almost half of the observing audience had already left the hall, whether having their injuries treated in the infirmary facilities or just resting. These tag matches proved to be taxing even on the greatest of favorites to rank up, perhaps more so on them, for they had plenty of things to prove and often had most trouble cooperating with their tag partners.
"Just do your best, it'll all be just fine"! Kiyomi patted Mana's shoulder in encouragement, the magician breathed in and out before stepping out and preparing herself for the unknown. The audience rustled for a while after Mana walked out from the thinned out mix of the audience and into the clear before stepping gracefully and slowly onto the arena.
Much to Mana's surprise, she heard several familiar Academy classmates' voices cheering on her, suggesting that her thoughts of herself as the most hated person in Konoha were plentily exaggerated. Even Yushijin and Erumo nodded at Mana, while still scowling at her with rather displeased, grudge holding eyes.
With the first examinee of the following match having officially made their way onto the arena, the tall, buff and bald Kumogakure genin separated from his similarly thinned out team composition, currently composed of only him and his mentor figure – a tall red-haired young woman with the typical Kumogakure uniform. Almost at the same time, Mana's opponents also took their steps onto the arena with Jon-D nodding at his own team mentor and jumping onto the stage before stroking his wild hair and sizing Mana up with his gaze.
Jon-D was a tremendously attractive young man, of similar build to his sister, skin about as dark as Mana's, which was a couple of shades less tanned than the Kumogakure standard. His hair had very clearly experienced rather sophisticated attention and grooming as from that feature alone he would've reminded to the neutral observer more of a member of a boy band than a shinobi assassin. The massive hilt hanging from behind his shoulder made Mana wonder how someone looking as unimpressive in terms of his physicality could wield a sword of such size without needing to waste too much stamina and chakra on augmentations. His armor was also oddly white and didn't look used at all. Either he was more of a show-off than a combatant, or he simply rarely, if ever, got tagged by his enemies.
Roh-D of Kumogakure then rushed onto the arena, jumping high up in the air before landing right beside Mana and giving the girl his enthusiastic thumb up of excitement.
"Hey, we've met before, right? Looking forward to working with you"! He vibrantly spoke up
"Likewise, you were one of the first teams to complete the Forest stage, I'm honored to team up with someone like you and I hope to learn much from this experience", Mana bowed her head respectfully. A gesture that appeared to greatly confuse her partner as he started rubbing his cheeks and nose awkwardly and stuttering something incomprehensibly.
In a very sluggish and fumbling manner, the fourth combatant took his place onto the arena – Oto-B of Team Alto, the final member of the much revered and feared team, which Team Hokage was lucky to never encounter first hand inside the Forest of Death. The abilities and fighting style of the plump one were an absolute mystery – the intel that Mana could recall from the Forest of Death only referred to the man's exceptional strategizing and observation ability and not his actual fighting style. The youth looked very unimpressive up close – curly bright hair, short and round stature, shorter even than Mana who was a rather frail figure in most comparisons. Early yet quite timed and developed facial hair covered the youth's face, whereas Jon-D was quite the groomer, Oto-B could have used some of his partner's excess on himself…
"We didn't have the chance to receive any intelligence on you guys, or our opponents in the Forest. I'd be glad to know a bit about your abilities, or any immediate heads up about our opponents, decide who's going first and all that", Roh-D muttered, entering the quick whispering stage of the pre-combat break that most teams went through. Oddly enough, it didn't appear that Oto-B and Jon-D were going through any similar discussions as Oto-B simply refused to even look at the direction of his teammate.
"I'm a genjutsu and ninjutsu user, I can defend myself at close range but I'm not much use offensively at close range", Mana did her best to quickly describe her abilities to her partner. "This match-up is bad for me – I don't know much about either of these two which means I won't have a profile of their fighting style in my head. That might lead to some skipped blows and early injuries".
"Huh, we're a pretty sweet team. I can brawl pretty decently up close, whereas Kei-J was more of a technical martial artist, I was always the more brutish and bulky one. I can both take hits from those guys and dish it out, don't worry about that! My mid-range abilities rely on Wind and Lightning Release ninjutsu and these babies", Roh slipped his sleeve aside to reveal to Mana some odd looking tubes and holes that were covering his arms and appeared to be surgically placed.
"These look like holes on a reed pipe", Mana whispered.
"Well, that's the gist of it", Roh-D grinned, feeling glad that his partner caught on so fast to the nature of his surgical enhancements. "They release sound waves that enhance my Wind Release jutsu as well as serve as a tunnel of my Lightning Release".
"It seems your abilities are much more sophisticated and defined than mine", Mana commended her teammate who once again got flustered over being praised before raising a fist up Mana's face and smiling confidently.
"Don't worry, Mana, I can wear them out and serve as your sacrificial lead. All you need to do is finish them off afterward"! Roh-D bravely declared before stepping up and raising his fist up to the overseer's question about if the examinees were ready to go.
Mana tried to object, she wanted to ask to be a sacrificial lead herself seeing how she perceived Roh-D to simply be a more rounded up and versatile ninja. Sacrificial leads needed to wear their opponents and gather information on their abilities, do as much of wild swinging damage as they could before being taken out, also set up any battlefield conditions that their partners could have used. With her genjutsu and disruption tactics, Mana could've served that role much better and she felt like she was less useful to the finishing touches of the battle overall.
"Is there a problem, examinee"? The overseer raised an eyebrow looking at Mana's hesitance to follow Jon-D's example and step up to the tag scroll and get sealed inside.
"I guess not…" Mana sighed before slowly creeping up to it and opening the scroll. A blinding burst of bright maroon light enveloped her entire essence, the magician's body got dragged out and getting spaghettified, loud, howling sounds followed that unbearable sensation of being dragged through space-time and outside her very own dimension into somewhere else, somewhere wilder…
Mana's match had officially begun.
