"Lose your match and retire, are you sure"? Mana's father looked at his daughter in confusion. To him, this announcement must have come out of nowhere.

"Yeah. I saw today that I can help much more people as a performer on stage. Ever since I became a ninja all I've done was fail. I've failed Shimo, I wasn't there to help Sugemi in a tough moment, I wasn't strong enough to stand with Tanshu-sensei and help him survive that Kage Summit… I could sit here listing all the people I've let down and failed to save for days. Today I've seen how being a simple stage magician can help people, instead of foolishly dreaming of power strong enough to save the entire world. I've been told many times in the Academy and outside that I'm being childish with my dreams, maybe it's about time I take note of those remarks", Mana fired up.

The magician was afraid by how tough her conviction was. Her heart was ready to denounce what she had worked for over a decade to build and give it all up, just to push all of her chips on another passion of hers, one that usually worked alongside the first but now got neglected for too long.

"Okay", father nodded and rested his head back on a cushion, extending his legs and resting his scarred and shaking in pain hands on his hips.

"Okay"? Mana raised an eyebrow. She expected her father to argue, even worse than that, Kiyomi and Meiko will probably outright try to punch her back into the path of a ninja.

"What do you expect me to tell you? My life is never going to be the same because I was a ninja and walked that path to its end, do you truly want me to bully my daughter into taking the path that took away my arms, my night sleep and part of my sanity? All that will satisfy me and your mother is if you're happy", the man huffed out. "Unless… You want to be talked out of it"?

"No"! Mana firmly crossed her hands, "Although... I can't just quit the Chuunin Exams now, if I put up a good fight, Stea may still get promoted. It'd be really rude of me to back out and ruin her chance at getting promoted and saving her village".

"Her village"? Father asked the magician to elaborate.

"Yeah, she once said something about that… Her village is really poor and struggles with basic resources, they're in dire need of higher ranking and more famous ninja to attract more clients", Mana nodded. "Frankly, I'd feel bad about beating her even if I tried".

"It's not about that", father coughed, "Promotion in the Chuunin Exams has nothing to do with winning or losing, remember. It's all about impressing the Ninja Council".

"I know that, dad", Mana nodded before looking through the kitchen window further away into a wilting apple tree in the yard.

"Okay, if that's what you want to do, go ahead. You're making a fair fee from your shows, you'll be capable of living a pretty lavish life that way and we won't have to worry about some cosmic size pirate crushing our daughter alongside with the entire planet every week", father mumbled it out in a slurry manner. He was getting really sleepy so Mana just smiled, covered him with a blanket and quietly tip-tapped into her own room to call it a day.


Two weeks had passed, marking halfway of the preparation time for the final match, something that came completely unnoticed to Mana. The girl had been working double time on her shows, putting on a magic show every other day while working on said magic show during the days off.

Mana had to admit she was happier than she was in a long time. She had reconnected with her parents as her father helped her work on props with his amazing insight into engineering them. He even helped her make a couple of after taking some of those miraculous herb mixtures he spoke with Mana about before. Initially the magician was worried about her father taking unknown mixtures without consulting a medical professional but seeing him happy and tinkering like that swatted those worries away.

Mother's smile was equally invaluable and a treasure to see. It required no higher intellect to sum up her thoughts whenever the woman returned tired from a busy day of managing her own respectable establishment and doing business work to a happy and functional family, working together towards something beautiful. Could Mana really have been blamed for letting this pink childish dream to lull her in?

Hiro's Hall was getting filled and even overfilled each and every show. For the first time in a while, Mana was performing in a prime time spot and it was not just a one-time thing. She was holding and owning that spot consistently. Obviously, things could have been a bit better – Kiyomi and Meiko could have come to see the show, at least occasionally, but Meiko was still busy recovering and Kiyomi was most likely away training hard in preparation for her match.

One evening, while walking out from yet another successful show, Mana accidentally noticed a scene transpiring. A circle of people surrounded something that attracted their attention, the fact that it did implied that it was either something wondrous or something terrible.

"You motherfucker! You have some nerve showing your face in public after the stunt you pulled"! A familiar and, frankly, terrifyingly so voice reached Mana's curious ears. Mana's heart froze over just hearing Doma Nacasa's voice after managing to keep her ninja and her stage magic worlds apart.

"Me? What the fuck is your problem? Konoha's Sorceress' show is the place to relax, you're here too, aren't you"? Another slightly familiar voice from Mana's past echoed out, this one was a little more obscure and the magician couldn't exactly remember the name of the young man who owned it. She had to gently rub shoulders against the crowd to get to the center of it to identify the tall and muscular figure with a purple mohawk donning head.

"Sure, but at least I'm not a fucking embarrassment to my village! I was never beaten in battle, just eliminated by a pitiful excuse of a partner"! Doma grunted winding up a punch.

As the Getsugakure genin's arm extended, a firm and down-pulling grip of a lightning fast wrist met it in a split-lightning moment, before the magician's leg extended upwards and descended down after a gentle leap up resulting in a powerful axe kick, which Doma only had one hand to defend from. While Doma placed his block up just right and blocked Mana's smashing kick to the back of his head, it still visibly dealt some damage to both his head and the blocking hand.

"Cut it out", Mana firmly demanded of the two genin.

Doma's eyes appeared to try and incinerate the magician with a furious blazing ocular flare unlike anything else. Mana's glance momentarily wandered onto Stea who quietly consulted Gasco, who stood right beside her. These two didn't look that willing to interfere, it looked like they rarely did, whenever Doma ran his mouth into another fight.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing, I don't need your help", Zahafbit's voice thundered behind Mana who placed her body in between the two feuding genin.

Even now the magician could hear slithering whispers about the feat she just pulled, it infuriated her to no end, exposing her audience who longed for nothing else but entertainment to this kind of violence and rudeness. All she wanted was to perform onstage, rethink her life but it appeared that there were people willing to drag her back down and try mix those two worlds of Mana's together. That was something Mana could not forgive.

"I'm sorry, Zahafbit, this must've been really uncomfortable for you after a difficult time at the Chuunin Exams. I hope you don't let this experience define your opinion of Konoha and that you and your dear ones choose to visit it sometime again", Mana smiled back at the less than polite brute.

Gasco approached Doma in slight confusion before whispering something in the young man's ear. After hearing the whisper out the Getsugakure genin raised his eyebrows in surprise and exclaimed something unintelligible back to the large brute. Gasco walked back to Stea who had by then joined into the crowd that circled the violently escalating situation outside Hiro's Hall.

"Gasco says that your chakra signature hasn't increased at all since the semi-finals, neither, he says, has your sensory abilities", Doma exclaimed in confusion. "The fact that you're wasting time on some magic shows, instead of your training, confuses me".

"So what if I do spend more time performing on stage than training"? Mana asked.

"You cocky bitch, ninja like you, a waste of their village's money and time, I cannot stand the most in this world"! Doma grunted aggressively before checking his wrist and taking a fighting pose. "I'm gonna take you on and show Stea just what kind of training you've been doing before your match in the finals. Then she's gonna mop the floor with you in front of your beloved village"!

"There's no need for that", Mana placed her hands behind her back and straightened her back in a pacifyingly passive pose. "My chakra or my sensory abilities have not grown at all because I have not done any training at all for two weeks".

"Tsk", Doma clicked with his tongue angrily as he composed himself and placed his hands inside his pockets. This youth may have been a loose cannon and quite explosively violent and rude towards ninja he deemed "a waste" but he was smarter than to start an all-out brawl in the middle of the village. "You've done it now, you've gone and pissed me off".

"Frankly, I don't particularly care about how you feel about it. Cut this fighting out already", Mana threw back at him as she turned around and considered walking away herself.

"Oh no, I'm not letting it go like that. Fight me, seriously, one on one, in the Training Grounds No. 28 in two hours", Doma calmly and confidently challenged the magician.

"I won't. I thought I told you already, I'm quitting this ninja business and doubling down on being a stage magician", Mana replied without turning back, nodding slightly towards Zahafbit, who was still shaking in his boots, whether of fear or of anger that he wasn't included in this conversation at all.

"You don't get to back out, you wasteful bitch"! Doma grunted out loud, taking an aggressive step forward, "If you don't fight me, or if you half-ass it, I'll kill that mohawk bastard. If you take me on, win or lose, that'll be the end of my problem with him, you won't have to bother me killing him anymore or causing problems".

"Fine", Mana threw back carelessly. Doma was strong, he was basically as strong as Stea herself, except he had no ability to heal and recover from the damage he took and stored into his seals. From what Mana could remember, he had powerful ninjutsu in his arsenal as well to worry about. They would be made even more powerful by his damage seals too.


Two hours was basically no time at all, barely enough time for Mana to change out of her magician's uniform into her modified for combat version. Check and recheck the storage seals inside her hat, stretch out and figure out her strategy. She wasn't counting very hard on winning, all she had to do was stand back and wear Doma out until he ran out of chakra. Make him swing his fists blindly without landing a single blow. Mana had faced more skilled opponents up close with great success.

Training Grounds No. 28 was a short trek away past the village gates. It was a hundred and fifty meters in radius wasteland, surrounded by rocky cliffs. All erected artificially. Maintained and repaired daily by Earth Release users. It made for a pretty easy and danger-free C-Rank mission for them.

Mana was surprised to find Zahafbit sitting around by one of those tall rocks, nonchalantly whistling a tune to himself. Upon being given the magician's confused glare, the Sunagakure ninja just shrugged.

"This battle concerns my fate too, I'm just here to check that you're not being screwed over and tag teamed all of a sudden", the genin claimed. He was not a complete non-factor, Zahafbit was, after all, a genjutsu user which meant he had a very handy skillset which damage seal users had little to no defense against. While Mana had faith in Team Phobos' moral compass, Zahafbit was a fair countermeasure against dirty play.

"Hmph, you showed up", Doma grumbled with his hands crossed over his chest.

"I thought that much was clear", Mana raised an eyebrow, wondering what exactly did she do wrong by this young man this time.

"So you're a waste of your village resources and you're brave… What a pitiful combination. Just how much manpower is wasted healing your reckless weakling ass"? Doma grunted before taking an offensive fighting pose and thusly letting the magician know that his question was rhetorical.

"I don't quite understand your gripe with me or Zahafbit", Mana answered, taking a neutral defensive stance, "Zahafbit came farther in the Chuunin Exam than most, I have completed plenty of missions successfully and have been a fairly handy asset to my village as well. Neither one of us is a detriment to our village's military force or a waste of their resources".

"I didn't invite you here to talk things over nor do I have a duty to make my position make sense to you"! Doma shouted out before launching himself at Mana. The Team Phobos member was fast, as it was to be expected, his speed and strength were at the very least above the average, his technique was painfully average. He was clearly not a taijutsu focused ninja but his fighting style mirrored Stea's – get hurt in close distance and trick your opponent into a false sense of security, then overwhelm them with damage seal enhanced jutsu.

Mana carefully avoided most of the wild swipes and kicks thrown her way. She may have skipped a blow or two but they weren't strong enough to throw off her defensive rhythm. Doma's martial arts style was odd, it wasn't any martial art Mana had seen or studied. It was like the young man had simply watched an Inuzuka clansman fight up close and then decided to copy their moves with a very raw understanding of that style. That raw and unpolished manner was what threw Mana off and made her tagged a pair of times.

Wiping her lip and noticing no blood on them, Mana just resumed her defensive stance. She was about to sum up her opponent's style, then he would land not a single strike on her from that point on. After that, he will get frustrated, start lobbing random jutsu her direction.

"You know, if you're just here to get the shit beaten out of you, you may as well stop wriggling and weaseling out of my punches", Doma grunted before throwing another similar series of punches and kicks. He was luring Mana into countering, he wanted Mana to exploit his lacking style. He was the real weasel. Mana tapped the young man's feet and wrists lightly, deflecting every strike he threw before butting her hip against his and pushing him tumbling over and rolling back to where he charged her at.

It was clear that Doma was beginning to lose it. Doma grunted out before flipping out and pulling two kunai out from under his long hooded cloak and charging at Mana with them. The magician leaned aside from every swipe, every flip and slash thrown her way before angrily stomping on the genin's foot making something churn and crack painfully. That opened the youth up for a barrage of kicks all over his face and body.

With a loud poof and a cloud of smoke, it appeared that Mana had been damaging the genin's cloak, which Doma had substituted with. She had suspected that much, there was no way that Doma would let Mana crush his foot normally, he may have used the damage but he also valued being able to walk. He fought so much differently than Stea, he evaluated the damage he would take and store, whereas Stea just took it all in and healed it up later.

Mana quickly turned around to catch a knife that would have penetrated her from behind before breaking Doma's wrist and forcing him to drop it. She then grabbed Doma's other wrist and pummeled the youth's chest with a barrage of palm strikes to force him to slide back and let go of the second kunai before letting both knives clang down on the ground.

"You bitch, I told you, no half-assing it"! Doma roared out. He was furious, Mana had placed him in an uncomfortable situation – he was stuck strategy wise. He couldn't get damaged to store enough damage into his seals and his ninjutsu would've wasted too much chakra to be worth using as they were, without being empowered. He was completely out of options.

"No, this is the strategy I plan to use against Stea, isn't that what this fight is all about? I doubt you'd be as pitiful as to hold a grudge against Zahafbit so long", Mana shook her head. She was careful not to put too much force into those palm strikes, make them just dull enough to push her opponent away and drop his weapon but not aim to crack any ribs.

"Y-You're just playing your stupid games"! Doma shouted out before jumping high up in the air. He definitely used a bunch of chakra to aid him in that jump, Mana could feel a pulse of it all over the ground beneath her feet. The young man spread his frail arms aside as kunai began flocking from the pockets of his vest and his ninja pouch, floating in mid-air around the young man.

"Ninja Style: Assault Blade"! Doma shouted out as he moved his hand as an order for the blades to flock and assault the magician down below. Mana carefully and gracefully danced around the raining knives, avoiding each and every one of them. She was trained to be faster and better than this. Finally, she had pushed Doma to him being forced to use his ninjutsu in their base, weakened state to bail him out of the deadlock. Still, something was wrong, this attack was far too basic.

"String Reeling Jutsu"! Doma chanted out, in mid-fall as he pulled on steel wire that became visible only once he began channeling chakra through it and changed the direction of the blades he had unleashed on Mana. A disgusting fleshy noise and the noise of blood splattering over the wasteland dirt echoed as Doma raised up the scattered blades that have missed their mark and brought them back for a new dance.