Tumbling and panting deep, drenched in bloody stench breaths, Mana slowly made her way to the inner corridors outside the arena before placing her back against the wall and sliding down on her bottom. Nausea and dizziness made her press her cold and paled hands against her forehead and the pressure against the magician's eyeballs demanded that she gently caressed the bags that were beginning to form on her face.

Even when Mana prepared for every causality, even when she analyzed every movement and matched her opponent on the field in both the physical and the mental plains… She just barely pulled it off. Winning was not necessary, just going the full distance would have been fine. It was only at the final moments of the battle that Mana saw that opportunity, the golden canary buzzing by as both girls plummeted to the ground at the speed of terminal velocity.

Something powerful wrapped around Mana, the magician's eyebrows telegraphed her aggravation with the rude approach but the forceful limbs of her best friend ruthlessly lifted her off the ground and spun her around.

"You crazy bastard, you suicidal maniac!" Meiko kept on screaming right up at Mana's ear. It was something, which did not help her sensitive and vulnerable state. "You pulled it off!"

"You did it, Mana!" Kiyomi gently placed her hand on Meiko's shoulder as a signal that the redheaded blacksmith was wise to stop crushing her vulnerable strength with the might that could have juiced the very world like a bag of curd.

"Excuse me, girls! Please, let us take care of your friends. You can see her in the resting room tonight, or tomorrow, during visitor hours!" The medical staff intervened, placing Mana's weightless and floaty feeling body on stretchers.

A young woman ran down a scan of Mana using the Diagnosis Jutsu. "She's relatively stable. She's not critical but the internal injuries will build up to a critical state soon. Take her to the infirmary, then to the resting wing of the hospital!" She ordered while the other medical ninja firmly nodded and rolled Mana off.

The girl's mind kept turning on and off, here she was watching the lights of the Chuunin Exams arena, here she was glaring in curiosity at the dark winter night sky. There were no more stars, grim clouds had accumulated to a large shroud that covered the entire thing, it would probably rain throughout the night… Here she was watching the lights of the Konoha hospital buzzing by, here she was watching kind and masked faces leaning over her and feeling the warm, emerald light shining over her. The refreshing feeling of cold water surrounded her, chilling her just enough to counteract the warmth of the Mystical Palm Jutsu and make the chill feel invigorating and almost soothing.

She won, not only that – Mana pushed Stea enough so that the young woman could reveal and show off all of her abilities, all of her battlefield strength, all of her supporting care and capacity to help her comrades on the battlefield conditions. There could have been no chance in hell that the Council would not promote Stea to chuunin after that clash of the two. The rest was all in the hands of the Getsugakure kunoichi, the well-being of her people, the ability to provide it and create it with her own hands and make the future of her village better than the one she grew up in.

To end the horrors she was forced to confront under Mana's illusions…

"You did good, kid. You're pretty young. You did pretty good though, I've never seen a recent transfer patch someone up as easily and quickly", Mana heard the praises nearby her. She opened her eyes and looked at the direction of the acclaims that were being given out.

"Thank you, ma'am. Mana and I have had plenty of experience together, I know her body inside and out which is why I have asked to perform the procedure on my final day working here." Kouta bowed his head in respect and gratitude for the kudos that he was being given. "I know the patient's system inside and out, I've healed her a thousand times, perhaps I am even being literal with this statement, ma'am".

"Well, it's not like she was in any immediate danger… Still, you did good, it will be sad to lose promising hands like yours", the medical kunoichi cheered on Kouta again before walking off to continue her shift.

Mana looked around, beside her laid Stea who looked completely healed and was sleeping peacefully. On the other side, there was a bald and incredibly pale young woman. The magician took a pair of sniffs before recalling that the smells would no longer tell her anything, she was fairly sure that the patient on the upper left was Vinda though.

After all, the acid ninjutsu user was the only one in a condition severe enough to require skin treatment as radical as the one her father had received – a complete refreshment of it to where her skin looked completely new, like the kunoichi had only been born yesterday. She was lucky that her acid was not of high enough rank or not an actual Advanced Bloodline, in which case the career of the young woman would have been over, just like that of Mana's father was.

"Don't stretch around too much, some phantom pain in your gut may still persist overnight", Kouta smiled, Mana had not noticed that her friend witnessed her being awake and had walked up to her.

"Thanks for helping me again", Mana thanked with an amount of cheer and gratitude that she herself was surprised. It was like there was no longer any bad blood or awkwardness between the two, just phantom pain and great memories of the old times like Kouta had said.

"That was an amazing fight. If my father had seen it, you'd be pretty much family to him…" Kouta smiled, pulling in a chair and dropping onto it like a sack of vegetables. It was late, he has healed Mana up after his shift. He must have been quite drained after that crazy day.

"I don't know, wasn't exactly his type of fight, was it? We weren't just fighting, it's like we were… Dancing, you know? It felt more like one of those rap battles from Kumogakure. We were matching minds as much as our fists." Mana blushed, so she wrapped her cheeks in the covers before realizing that it was far too dark for her friend to tell.

Kouta did not reply initially, he just smiled while the two shared a look together. Just enough light from the corridors outside made way through the glass for Mana to look right at her friend's eyes and for the two to connect with each other like old friends who have been through many hells and made their way through mounts of both salt and chocolate.

"You're gonna get promoted, definitely." Kouta gave Mana a thumb up, closing his eyes all of a sudden with that gesture. He must have felt the slowly forming awkwardness that was beginning to seep out from them just building bridges with their eyes.

"It does not matter. I'm quitting anyway. I only fought Stea because she asked me to. Because I wanted to help." Mana moved the covers off her cheeks as she felt too hot. "You know… When I was out there and Stea kept on attacking, I felt really weak. I felt weaker than I should have been, all sorts of attacks kept slipping past me and… I got really scared. It was because of us that used to be, I was scared of what will become and what has already become of us and that fear fueled the fear of failure. It was a perpetual cycle of fear that just kept wrapping around my throat and snuffing me out."

Mana stopped talking because she had predicted that Kouta would stop her, that he would get sensitive or interrupt her. Get angry, anything. Anything other than reestablishing the encouraging and friendly glare, reconnecting the bond they previously shared. Maybe she did not know Kouta as much as she previously thought, after all the sensitive moments the two shared, after all the walls of their own building they tore down for each other…

"Then, I just… Ripped it all out. It bleeds, it bleeds really hard." Mana pressed her fist against her chest, questioning if Kouta understood her feelings with just her eyes. Kouta's eyes were not goofy or confused, he knew what Mana was talking about, she could see it.

"That's too bad. I wish I could say that stopping your bleeding is what I will do but… That's not who I want to be anymore. Although… I'm bleeding too, just a little, I think." Kouta rubbed the back of his head, messing his hair up again. Mana sat up, pouting in pain that burnt up in her gut but continuing the motion after pushing through it. The magician stroke the hair of her friend, fixing it with a couple of motions and settled back down. Kouta grinned with a full-teeth smile before standing up and yawning.

"Don't leave too early tomorrow. There's this guy who's feeling like a broken mess, I told him to see you. I know how much you like helping people and… You're quite capable of helping him out. If you're going to change the world, may as well do it one broken guy at a time." Kouta waved Mana farewell with a mutual sendoff before disappearing in the dimly lit corridors of the Konohagakure Hospital.

Soon enough, the Sandman had claimed Mana as the next target of his magical sleep-inducing sand shooting practice.


Cold air whizzed past Mana's face, making her ears pop and crack and wildly blowing about her hair. Upon opening her eyes, the magician noticed that she was floating, or rather, spiraling down with no bottom to be seen. The more time Mana spent looking around her, the more familiar faces she noticed. All around her, other examinees of the Chuunin Exams were falling in no particular order or altitude.

This made absolutely no sense. Just as Mana blasted through one layer of clouds, hoping to see the ground below, all she saw was more oblivion of blue and puffier clouds below. Some of the clouds were dark and heavy, others were soft and loose like cotton. Mana changed her position to see what was falling behind her, she wanted to see where she was falling from. Sadly, all she could see up above were the plummeting examinees, both conscious and lifeless.

Down below her, Kouta was going down at much greater velocity, Mana tried to somehow make herself arrow down faster than her friend but she failed to do so. After cracking apart another layer of clouds, the magician finally saw the solid ground. All of them were plummeting heading straight for a strange village street. This was no street that Mana was familiar with and it had buildings both familiar to her and ones the likes of which she had only seen in pictures. Several of them were only remembered from Mana's short time in a different universe.

Much to Mana's vocal despair, Kouta's body smashed into the ground, followed by gruesome bone snapping sounds and showers of blood, the examinees beside the young man continued to bash one by one at the ground. Some of them fell impaled on the large antennae or the pointy structures present on the rooftops of the buildings in the street they crashing down to.

Mana screamed out, covering her face right before hitting the ground, just a moment behind her waking up peacefully sleeping in her hospital bed.


A new rainy day was upon Konohagakure with the festivities of yesterday continuously sinking into the massive bog of the past, soon to be forgotten and replaced by other days just like that. Meaningless to all but the people that laid their lives on the line that day.

"You're awake…" Stea stated. It was not even a question. The young woman was laying in her bed with her eyes still clapping weak. When Mana had no luxury of receiving medical food pills, back during a mission in the Forest of Death, when she first experienced a shortage of chakra, she was laid out much longer than it took Stea to recover. "So, how did the strongest genin of our generation sleep?"

"We both know you've made up that title", Mana politely shook away the honor of taking the praise and the honorary name she was being given. "Combat is more than just a ladder, one person being stronger than another. It's all about compatibility of fighting styles and choices they make in combat. Had I faced anyone else but you yesterday, or had things gone even slightly differently I'd have soundly lost that match."

Mana sat up, feeling better than she had felt in a while. It was wondrous what just one day of professional medical attention and medical food pills could give her. Kouta's hands really did know her body and soul all too well, she had recovered flawlessly.

"Where's Vinda?" The magician blinked a pair of times, noticing an empty bed where yesterday there was another young woman, resting after nothing less than miraculous recovery from grievous injuries.

"Besides a case of acid melting her hair right off and a whole new baby-soft case of skin on her flesh, she's good to go. Everyone's leaving the village today, the Ninja Council had already made their decisions last night and sent them to the respective leaders of each village." Stea explained as she also sat back up and walked up to the ward window, only for Mana to shortly follow.

Rows upon rows of foreigners were clogging the streets in this rainy and snowy day that was making the mud on the streets into a mushy mess that was only lacking the color to perfectly emulate what remains of a massive battlefield would have looked like after a war was finished being waged there.

"It will be tough adapting to the much emptier streets. I had somewhat grown fond of the foreigners buzzing about and having a good time during the Exams." Mana admitted.

"Still the pink-shades idealist we first met on our way to sign-ups, huh?" Stea laughed out in a reserved manner.

"It would be tough loving people and wishing the best for them all if I wasn't", Mana answered Stea's question before the two past opponents turned at each other and bumped their arms, fist to the elbow.

"Maybe we'll meet sometime…" Stea said her farewells as Mana began walking up to the ward door, she did not have many possessions with her, save for her uniform, her hat and her weaponry and tools.

"Definitely, your village will be in a much better place by then, I trust their fate in your hands then", Mana nodded before walking off. She still had to meet someone, as per Kouta's request, but she did not quite know whom or how exactly she could help that person.

"Yo!" a loud exclamation stopped the magician in her tracks right as she left the ward with the intention of finding Kouta, or someone who knew what he was talking about yesterday.

A familiar young man with an affinity for mocking spiritual people through his path of "Uber-Spirituality" approached the magician. Just by looking at the dull and greyed out eyes of the young man, Mana could tell that he had his chakra control taken away by an accident with chakra augmentation. It was a dangerous power that genin had no business using. They were too skilled for their own good to be wielding it this young.

"I'm glad you kidnapped me in the Forest of Death, you know what I look like now…" Mana smiled for Buhakim.

"Nice match yesterday, I'll shave my own hair and eat it if you don't get promoted." The youth congratulated the magician while rubbing his exposed elbow and his bare foot across the floor.

"I would not like to stack that up on what happened to you for my life, don't worry. You were not too bad out there yourself, fighting a Jinchuuriki must have been quite petrifying." Mana tried to encourage the young man as the two walked further from the wards and across the hospital halls.

"It was something alright, nothing ever wore that girl… That thing out. I broke myself just trying to make her sweat a little." Buhakim growled quietly, like a wounded animal. "Even if I would have ended up getting promoted, what's the use of it now?"

"Don't say that. Plenty of inexperienced ninja overdo it, most of them don't do so to the extent to cripple them for life. Their control returns to them eventually with very few exceptions." Mana tried inspiring some hope to the young man, just like so many tried instilling her when Mana was the one feeling broken.

With a pair of uneasy, deep breaths, the magician realized that it was not enough. No matter how much people tried telling her that what she was going through was just temporary, it felt like they were downplaying the weight and importance of that torture of feeling lost of useless to the world. Those were two feelings that carried the most weight of all with them… What Buhakim needed was a new purpose, a drive to ignite the flame that had gone out.

"You know, even people without chakra control can still lead others. It's not always your strength on the battlefield that makes the difference, if it did, I'd have lost yesterday. What you have on your hands here is a unique chance to make Uber-Spirituality into something more than just a mockery of what makes people spirited and willful. You have an opportunity to decide what it truly is, most people do not get such opportunities. Once you achieve that, once you find that drive, I can personally attest that your power will too return."

Buhakim looked on ahead before turning back. He was thinking about something quite hard and looking at the floor before turning back with soulful eyes.

"Thank you, I was told yesterday that you knew plenty about this and you speak like someone who does. I guess Uber-Spirituality really did leave me, together with my power, and all I need to do is find it again." Buhakim declared. "Vehicle of Disciples, Solitary Awakening and Bodhisattva are all just puppets, they can be rebuilt, once the Uber-Spirituality that makes them move is recovered, they will live again!"

Mana nodded her head with a genuine desire to encourage the determination she saw burning in Buhakim's eyes to blaze on. Maybe he would go on and pass along that very same flame of determination along to someone else, tying all of those who are lost in a bond of fire that burns hot and wills them to go on. Keep moving, no matter how grave their losses because any fallen temple can be rebuilt as long as the priest finds faith inside of them to place the first stone on the foundation…

It did not really matter if Mana got promoted or not in the end. She had changed the lives of a handful of people already, people that would go on to pass on that Will of Fire along to the people they meet along the way. These were her first bold steps.

First bold steps towards changing the world!