"Chimo, Okyuri. Three-seven-seven-two-four-three. Self-employment license." The slightly scratched up and bruised man mumbled out to Mana shortly after her entry and settling down with the intention to see what she could find out from this hawk-slayer.

Mana pouted her lips before shifting them to the right side of her face while her eyes squinted instinctually. She was confused by the man's choice of words so she hesitated to answer anything, instead choosing to look back at the door she entered through.

It did not instantly register to the magician that Shukuba law enforcement appeared to have a thing for identities. That was, technically, what she was offered by the man and it did not appear like he was offering anything else. Seeing Mana's confusion, the man repeated his routine a couple of times before shutting up and lowering his head as if he was preparing to go to sleep in his tight and uncomfortable position.

"He identified himself, gave me some vague number and then his occupation." Mana thought to herself before standing up and leaving the room.

"What's he doing?" She lifted an eyebrow at Sora and Toiyo. She was surprised that these two decided to stick around instead of preparing to end their workday. It could not have been much farther away before Mana would have no moral reason to ask them to stay with her for any longer and their own moral compass would be the only thing binding them.

"He's giving you his name, registry number in the registry of legal and natural persons and his occupation, in other words – where he can be found during the day by law enforcement if the need arises," Sora explained with a bland face, he appeared really bummed by hearing this information being supplied for whatever reason.

"It's what he has to tell us by regulations that govern the Security procedure. Anything beyond that he is under no obligation to say. Someone in the Diamond Hand taught him to deal with clear-minded officers…" Toiya sighed, running her hand up her sweaty and bruised forehead and down her shoulder-length ginger hair.

"Which is why having you around is so comfy, go poke him some more, preferably literally…" Sora jested following Mana back into the interrogation room with his eyes.

The magician settled back down into the chair opposite to the detained poacher, for a short while she stared right at him with serenity and complete calm but then the magician approached the man and leaned up to reach for his lower body.

The man did not waver. He did not as much as move his eyes to follow Mana's hands, he just defiantly stared right at the girl's face as her hands, strong enough to punch out the very matter he is made of right out of him, moved down, close to the area behind him where his heart slowly pounded blood all across the body. The sheet of metal that protected the man's back in the shape of the chair would have been no barrier at all for Mana's hand to bust right through the man's chest from behind. The magician weaved a hand seal with her other hand. Even knowing the full range of incredibly painful ways someone like Mana could have made silence difficult to maintain, the poacher was defiant to the very end of the loud clanging sound.

The sound that signaled the breach of the protective seal and the steel of the man's cuffs.

Without saying a word or receiving one from the man in return, Mana slowly walked back to her chair and sat down comfortably. She may be held up in this room for a while now.

Rubbing his hurt hands and feeling what little chakra he had running in him, as usual, mostly comprised of the physical aspect of it, the man glared back at Mana with bemusement. Delve as deep as Mana did, she saw no gratitude or desire to cooperate whatsoever.

"You're fucked. All I have to do is stay silent until the morning, maybe around twenty-four hours until the townsfolk really get riled up. You lost." The man finally said something that was not his name, registration number or occupation or the combination of the three in any particular order.

And yet, he was not cooperating, he merely felt that by giving leeway and giving some space in this rope pulling contest, Mana somehow made him feel less in control than he would have felt had he been tightly bound with whatever manifestation of his physical chakra suppressed by the seals. He tried compensating that feeling of lost control by showing dominance, he was assuring himself as much as he tried to assure Mana. It was cute, really…

"Yep. Doesn't mean you have to stay silent though. This may end up being a long night after all," Mana smiled, settling herself down more comfortably in her chair.

It had appeared that the man did decide to sit tight and stay silent, at least for as long as he could muster it. The man's eyes and the previously cocky stare turned into a confused one as he hid his eyes from contacting Mana's glare. He may have been trying to protect himself from the easiest way of projecting genjutsu or Mana may have been overthinking it a bit. He may have just been avoiding her attempts at profiling him.

This short exchange of words was very much like a clash in the arena, just like Mana could read and predict the more likely attacks and styles coming from her opponent, to profile them from just the first few strikes, she began to wrap her mind around this poacher as well. He was strong physically. He was quite intelligent and decently invested in by the Diamond Hand if he was taught the basic legal Security trip-up routine. Yet he was no ring, he was not smart enough to be a more physical leader of a Diamond Finger nor was he smart and spiritually prepared to be the head of a more intelligence-based division.

Still, he was quite aware of the recent proceedings in the organization and the town. Whichever Ring the thieves of Shukuba budget answered to, whichever Finger they belonged to – he was a part of that Finger, at the very least. The man thought he was not giving Mana anything but he gave her plenty even through defiance. His skill in deflecting Security questioning taught her more than incoherent and deceitful answers would have ever done.

"You guys really did me in…" Mana complained, rubbing her tired eyes, running her hand down her messy raven hair after removing her hat and placing it on the steel table. "Jeez, the whole town's going to be after me by tomorrow evening. I have both Konoha ninja and Diamond Hand sent assassins after my head, I haven't slept in a while, eaten or drank anything and it would not be too wise for me to start doing those things now…"

The man looked at Mana, breaking his streak of defiant evasion of her eyes. He was not empathetic to her situation at all. Here she was, a teenage girl describing her all too adult problems and telling him that actual assassins of both her side and the enemy side were after her neck and the man did not as much as blink. That, once again, was a sign and something to record in the profile of hers. Just like the one emotion which Mana did see – pride. The man was fairly gleeful and proud, seeing Mana exposing her weaknesses like that, lowering her guard and luring him to get his licks in.

Even if he was being read, even if he gave information with the mere fact of him refusing to give her none, the man was not stupid enough to attack Mana while her eyes were turned away. He was no ordinary grunt or an idiot incapable of thinking one step ahead of his current actions. He had some sort of a plan, he was a someone in his Diamond Finger for sure. That was good, it was possible that Mana did slightly disrupt the Finger's operations by catching this man, albeit not very likely.

"Yeah well… Don't count on living far past tomorrow." The man grinned, his eyes staring at the floor but his smile escaping his control. It was something deeper, instinctual, something the magician lured out by hooking the shark that the man was on the live bait of her beating heart.

"That is quite alright with me. I will be arresting the Middle Finger tomorrow morning anyway, I've told the young man after me that he can face me tomorrow morning in the museum." Mana shrugged. "As long as Shukuba is peaceful again, as long as the Diamond Hand is shattered and the Middle Finger arrested – dying is fine with me."

"The museum…" the man raised his head up, he was struck under the belt by that. "Middle Finger… There is no Middle Finger, only the Middle Ring. Only Thumb calls him like that, so I guess she spilled the beans after all…"

"Oh, yeah, her seals were protecting some information but she gave me enough. You can hold up until tomorrow evening all you like. Tomorrow morning is what I'm waiting for myself. Want me to grab you a donut or some tea?" Mana kindly nodded her head before jumping to her feet vibrantly. Once again, the cracks in the unbreakable façade of this poacher revealed something interesting – he knew who the Rings were and was to some degree having business with them, enough to hear about them interacting with one another.

"Sure…" Chimo grumbled, feeling a tad bit weaker with his authority and understanding of what was going on and a whole much more confused about Mana's interrogation methods. It must have certainly been completely different from what he was taught ninja interrogation methods were like.


Whatever confusion Chimo felt before was only inflated further when Mana returned with two boxes of rice balls neatly wrapped and seasoned in one hand a plate with a handful of teacups positioned on it.

"This looks suits you. Fits your waitress getup perfectly." The poacher mocked Mana with smugness and disdain, something that he pushed in front of his disorientation of where this interrogation was going.

"It's a magician's uniform." Mana smiled, acknowledging she was being mocked but playing it off like she took it as a bit of friendly teasing.

"Whatever you say…" the man grabbed a rice ball and began stuffing his face with as much of them as he could, still expecting the magician to use food as some sort of leverage or completely accepting the fact that she would pull them from his grasp once she thought he had taken a liking to them.

"I mean, I was the first stage magician that I know of, I get to decide what stage magicians look like." Mana smiled. She liked it that Chimo tried to make it personal. Without his knowledge, he was acknowledging Mana's existence and delving into her for details he could fling back at her. That meant that the possibility of a connection of some sort, voluntary or otherwise, was much more likely now that he was not completely walling off.

"I'm really grateful that you spoke to me a little." Mana smiled with gratitude after taking a small bite of a rice ball and warming her hands by placing them on the cup of tea. "You've actually given me more leeway than my colleagues. I don't think they will ever get over the kid layer."

The man coughed on his rice ball all of a sudden before he managed to get his things in order and properly swallow the massive bite he took. "It's not like I did this for your sake, it's how we're taught, that is all. Silence attracts the attention of the interrogator, meaningless words – less so."

"I see." Mana pouted her lips, looking a bit disappointed with the man's answer even while she was anything but on the inside. She was trying to guilt trip the man into feeling a bit bad. Working together with Uzumaki Tanshu since the early days, she realized instantly that she would go nowhere trying to be intimidating because she simply was not. She lacked the "cool" factor, the age and the certain stature required of intimidating people. Initially the magician had dismissed herself and burnt herself on the inside but, later on, she realized that it only meant she had to use different methods for the same purposes.

"I have a friend who'd laugh his butt off of your words. He is a manga nut and with my brief research into the medium I discovered that certain romantic interest, females mostly, speak similarly to you in that case." Mana smiled letting her genuine enjoyment of talking to the man surface a little.

"A weird girl has weird friends, go figure." Chimo closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around his chest, likely taking for granted his freedom to do so when in the pale and bland interrogation room. "I'll tell you something interesting if you tell me something interesting in return." He suggested out of the blue.

Mana was well aware of the man's profile and type. He would not have abided by Mana's rules of conversation and played her friend if he would not have had something handy for the Diamond Hand to gain in return.

"I like this game, I'll take you up on it." Mana cheerfully nodded. Already she was the warmest and cozy with this poacher, who was just acting friendly for his own gain, than she was during her whole stay in Shukuba.

"Your methods are very different from how we were taught to respond to interrogation. You are not violent, you barely actually ask me anything and you do not appear to have any torture tools on you." Chimo noted, "Is our information on ninja interrogation methods incorrect or are you a unique case?"

Of course, he wanted to know this. It would have been of profound use for the Diamond Hand to know something like this given that they were about to walk into the open public as the overlords of Shukuba by simply holding the town hostage economically.

"You will believe my answer? You warm my heart, Chimo-san!" Mana smiled.

"You didn't lie about how much intelligence Thumb give you, you didn't do that bullshit approach about acting like you know everything and you've already loads of evidence against me and my superiors…" the poacher smugly rubbed his nose with his index finger, feeling quite confident and happy with himself. It appeared that compliments were fairly effective with this person as they were of much use opening him up in the beginning as well.

"True enough, then again, if my version was that I had ample evidence of your guilt and merely needed some silly confession or something, I would not have spoken with you in the first place, don't you think? I dislike lying, I detest sloppiness similarly." Mana shrugged back at her interviewee.

"To tell you the truth… I am not entirely sure. I believe that most ninja would have subscribed the typical torture methods you are so well prepared for. If you were captured in Konoha the intelligence division would have cracked your mind into shatters and exposed everything inside within moments. Someone of your chakra size and strength would not pose a challenge even to an initiate interrogator." Mana admitted, giving this man more than it would have been reasonable and more than it was needed to answer his question.

It was like drafting a contract with an enterprise in a way. Mana gave this man more than he asked for but just about as much as she was willing to give, just to enforce the illusion of either her inadequacy, which was a more likely way he would take it, given his profile, or her childish naivete and gullibility.

"I was instructed by the leader of the Pinky Finger, the Pinky Ring to take out your hawks. I do not believe he was under any orders to take them out, he looked pretty sweaty and upset, he's paranoid about everything lately. I guess both of us have a very inhospitable work environment, huh, kid?" the poacher shrugged before finishing his tea and letting its refreshing, minty taste wash down his rice balls.

"That is more than I needed." Mana relaxed in her chair, thanking the man with just her eyes alone. She had no problem admitting that much to him, clearly, he would see it as a type of belittlement, a claim that she had triumphed him in this interrogation game but it was not what Mana meant entirely. She was really grateful and feeling glad that her method worked even better than something detestable like torture would have.

"You think you can find him or the money on just what I gave you?" Chimo raised an eyebrow.

Even if she had finally finished her interrogation officially, Mana felt like staying in the room and talking to the man for a while. Who knew, this may have been the last human interaction of complete neutrality she would encounter for a while or even in her life, if it for whatever reason was cut shorter than Mana had planned it to be.


"We… We have nothing." Shira rubbed the back of his neck in aggravation and profound disappointment of his own abilities when Mana entered the pitch black and empty office complex of the Shukuba Security long after Toiya had left home to her family, Sora left to lick his wounds and even Burgoniya had shut down her lab.

"Sorry, kid. We went through all black market dealers I knew about and none of them were as much as sighted in the entire Fire Country. We checked the pharmacies and chemical factories too, worked our asses off but we have no idea where the chemicals were sold from or how to effectively track them to the money." Thumb looked a bit frustrated as well, she wanted to help Mana because keeping Mana happy meant the magician was at the peak of her interest to keep Thumb alive.

At least that was how Thumb herself saw Mana's mental state. Truthfully, Mana did not care just how helpful or "useful" any of the youngbloods or Thumb were. She'd protect their lives with her own on the line purely out of sheer principles of her life she subscribed to. Just her inherent moral roots, nothing more.

"That is fine, say, you've heard about any Pinky Ring?" Mana smiled.

"Of course!" Thumb smacked her own hand with her fist thrown in a hammering motion. "It makes sense that he would take up my Finger after I am gone. He's in charge of the…"

"Financial crimes," Mana mumbled, interrupting Thumb just because of her own paranoid fear that Thumb's taboo seals would trigger for no reason. "Financial to thievery and burglary seems a pretty qualified and reasonable jump indeed. Know where we can find him?"

"Can I tell you?" Thumb wondered, pressing her trembling hand to her throat.

"There did not appear to be a reaction when you spoke of the museum. I'd assume so." Mana nodded.

"Great, we can siege his home and take him in if your efforts proved more fruitful." Shira nodded. "The Diamond Hand appears to value their monetary strength most of all, they will be really pissed." The youth appeared to be enjoying this prospect remarkably.

"Not quite, I have a really weird feeling in my gut, I'd appreciate if you'd called on anyone you can trust in the force to put a squad together and head somewhere else…" Mana shook her head.