A fusillade of explosions littered the Third Training Ground in Konohagakure. The outburst of destructive collisions between the duo who were training together caused multiple shockwaves that sent the water of the river rippling and washing at the forest to the other side. Given how the clashes were not so contained as to erupt only above a singular landmass, the violent training session soon turned the battlefield all submerged.

After one more, the most powerful collision, both combatants jumped back to their own respective sides landing atop of the barely sticking above the surface logs that the unruly or disqualified from the training genin often got tied to.

Mana checked on a nasty bruise on her cheek where her training partner managed to tag her with a smack of the back of her weapon. That was remarkable restraint given the rather bitter history between the two. The wound will do fine alongside the collection of other scars that Mana had gathered in this training session.

"You didn't even try this time. I thought you were trying to master some jutsu today?" The nagging voice of Budoki Erumo reached Mana's ears through the cover of her messy hair with some broken sticks still sticking out from within of their unruly embrace.

"Things got too messy. You definitely brought it to me this time…" Mana grinned with apologetic eyes. Usually, one would have perceived such a notion when someone tried to learn a particular technique but failed to even attempt to use it as wasting their time.

Without wasting any more of it than it already was wasted, the two girls rushed at one another. Mana gripped her treasured wand in her right hand as her sole defense against the kunai and other weapons that her opponent pulled on her at close distance.

Fighting this way was not Mana's forte. Clearly, neither was it Erumo's strong suit as a supporting ninja, maybe that was why she was a perfect training partner for Mana. Both of them weren't the greatest close-range combatants with Mana's close-range prowess being solely focused on deflecting or avoiding blows and tagging the enemy with counters whereas now she tried to add a particularly straining ninjutsu technique on top. On the other hand, Erumo was just plain sluggish, persistent and hearty but slow and lacking weight behind her blows.

Granted, that assessment only fared well when applied to a decent hand-to-hand combatant standard. Erumo's physical strength served as sufficient to make Mana lose breath and flinch upon being hit, often even dragging some augmentations out of the magician despite her dislike of using them in battle in general.

"Lightning Style: Magical Punishment!" Mana yelled out overcome by the strain of controlling and channeling her chakra just perfectly so close up to her opponent with such spontaneity. The terrifying sound of crackling lightning forced Erumo to attempt and withdraw, the last time she failed to do so against Mana during training she got shocked by Mana's Magician's Touch.

Strands of lightning chakra reached and branched out, wrapping and connecting with one another like a complicated web of solid lightning as it wrapped around Erumo's kunai and stopped just there. After Mana clenched her extended palm into a fist, the erupting lightning crackled and stormed in a mighty show of crushing force that was enough to chew the kunai in Erumo's hand into a pathetic chunk of steel. The resulting junk would have reminded a neutral observer more of a steel memorial to a chewed up piece of bubble gum than its former bladed shape.

Erumo gripped her burnt crispy red and broken palm with her other hand and fell on one knee. Even before she signaled for the end of the sparring session, Mana knew that it was over. Her genin training partner almost got humbled by failing to land properly on top of the water surface, leave alone thoughts of continuing the training any further.

Mana looked with a worried glare at Erumo's injury but the girl just placed some compresses on it to numb the burns and wrapped it in bandages from the basic supplies she had in her ninja pouch. After noting how wise her partner was for carrying similar supplies in what most genin used just to stuff it with shuriken, kunai, and explosives, the magician looked up at the location of the Sun hidden behind the clouds.

"Just in time, huh?" Erumo grinned through some moderate pain that her fractures and burns gave her.

"Yeah…" Mana agreed. She then turned at the gate to the training grounds to see the service ninja who took it up as their mission to repair the damage caused to the training grounds by training ninja. That was one way to build up one's reputation…

"Can we just sit here for a while? I need to catch my breath before I head to have the wound looked at." Erumo asked while she took a graceful leap atop one of the logs that still were not completely submerged.

"I'd love that." Mana nodded before following. The two still had some time before the Earth and Water Release using ninja would fix the battlefield they trained in. Then, maybe, if they felt charitable, the Senju would send some of their young to fix and grow back some more trees that got damaged or completely toppled throughout the day.

"Wow, what a technique!" Erumo commended Mana looking equal part humbled and glad for her peer. "I have never seen Lightning Release acting this way but are you sure you don't want to work on the name a little bit?"

"No way! It fits my theme." Mana shook her head with an amount of cheer she hadn't felt for a while. This past week training in peace awaiting her next mission or something interesting to happen really washed away the difficult to shake off fears for Shukuba's future. It was true that the magician intended to work on figuring out the mystery behind the mysterious disappearances but, before she did that, she wanted to cover the weaknesses she discovered while working in Shukuba.

"I call every one of my Lightning Release jutsu after something "Magical" while I reserve the theme of "Mystical" for my Wind Release techniques." Mana snickered as if acknowledging the childish silliness of it.

"Hey, whatever works for you. Naming my techniques wouldn't really work, no enemy would fall into my traps if I yelled out the name of the trap before they step into it…" Erumo shrugged still watching her aching injury. "How does a lightning break someone's hand and crush their weapon, exactly?"

"Lightning, just like everything else, has its own weight. I just channel enough of it, and then compress it so much, that the density and mass becomes quite amazing. Enough to break even the hardest materials and even through chakra augmentations that are less focused than my own technique." Mana explained. Maybe if she ever considered Erumo an enemy or even a rival she would think twice before revealing the finer details of the first jutsu she learned after becoming a chuunin but not in this case.

"That's crazy." Erumo shook her head in composed disbelief.

"Difficult, for sure…" Mana sighed feeling the hunger she worked up as well as the aching muscles and her diminished chakra level rearing their collective peaks and making her feel quite weaker. Even facing an unskilled hand-to-hand combatant could have severely cost Mana if she fought such a person the wrong way…

"I have to admit, I never expected you to come to me with such a request. I figured you'd be mad at me for being mean to you or just that you'd have more reliable friends to train with." Erumo noted.

"I don't think I've expressed my gratitude enough for honoring that request." Mana bowed her head in front of the girl who looked a bit bemused by the fact that a chuunin was expressing their gratitude this way to their inferior by rank. "I figured training with Meiko but she was on a mission and I didn't really know who else to turn to. Tohi also turned me down…"

"You approached Tohi Jomya from Team Pine before me?" Erumo squinted her eyes. "For someone who was in the same class as her in the Academy, you really underestimate the role greed plays in the things she does."

Mana shrugged, thusly she acknowledged that maybe she didn't know her old acquaintance and just what motivated her after leaving the Academy after all.

"I guess I was being a bit full of myself assuming I was your first choice anyway. Still, I figured you'd want to catch up with Kouta or train some more with Yushijin. If you asked me, you two have some chemistry…"

"That's exactly why I couldn't bring myself to approach Yushijin!" Mana blushed. "Training with him would have been too awkward and then there's the fact he keeps making everything so competitive after the two of us got promoted. He keeps trying to see which one of us is stronger so training with him for any reason other than that one would be like whipping the head of your own horse."

"I see…" Erumo smiled. Mana had seen Kiyomi make a similar face when she was smiling too, usually when something naughty was working its way through the mind of the smiling party. "Well, it looks like those guys are about done. Best I go have this wound looked at."

"Please do, I'd feel terrible if you got sidelined because of me. Once again, thanks for the help!" Mana nodded. Both girls stood up on their respective logs and then dashed away, disappearing from the range of vision of anyone who did not put too much effort into tracking their movements.


Sunshine was slowly returning to the newly reborn village, freed from the grips of winter that everyone have become so accustomed to. People were bustling in the streets for goals more diverse than just getting from point A to point B. Artists without the luck of being acknowledged performed in the more remote areas of the village, young ninja walked about perfectly mixing into the casual mix of the blooming village.

It was surprising to know that Meiko and Kiyomi were now working separately. After Hanasaku called it quits, the two were left in the same rank, obviously, but were separated and written off to reserve. Written off was a matter of coming off too strong, the two were still some of the most experienced and mighty genin available. They were now working as reinforcements for squads with missing or injured members or when the mission required a special squad of members from multiple different teams.

Just how many such assignments could genin have seen really? Maybe that was why Mana was so surprised that Meiko was working and could not help her with her training? Asking Kiyomi for help felt a bit wrong. There were too much discomfort and tension between them for some reason, also her skillset did not lend very well to what Mana needed from the training anyway.

There was no need to be in rush, her home village offered the comfortable luxury of letting her guard down and letting the rushing and dashing ninja on the rooftop level just blitz her completely. When one was not trying to see them, they completely disappeared from one's perception. Not a sound from their feet. Not even a blur of their movements. Yet the upper layer was a commuting highway!

Father was home, a paper bag filled to the top with bottles of pills and those odd clay jars filled with herb ointments informed Mana that her old man was done for the day. At least until she occupied his mind with a request for a new device for her shows. Could she though? With her new attitude toward her ninja part, could she spare time for some casual stage magic?

"Are the food pills prescribed to you that inefficient that you need that dark alleyway junk?" Mana confronted her father after a heavy sigh.

"If I don't cash in the prescription the Hospital folk will find it odd. They numb the pain a little for a short while but those ointments from the jam bottles really hit the spot." Father replied. He was surprisingly mellow for a man who spent his everyday life in constant pain. At least he used to. When he still relied on the official treatment that Konoha provided him.

"Spoken like a true addict." Mana decided to stand her ground a bit more than none at all. That was what she'd have to do now. She hoped to become a Sannin, nothing less than exemplary and limit-breaking performance was what she needed to strive for. It was also especially easy, given her father's rather cheerful mood this morning.

"You don't have time to argue about this. You've been summoned." Father raised his arm up from behind the armchair and waved it with the letter still pressed with his fingers.

"A mission?" Mana wondered out loud.

"Shouldn't be anything too tough. It's been just a week since your last B-Rank so it is either a minor matter or one of those easier missions."

"Thank you for sharing your invaluable experience, father." Mana kissed the man on the top of his head while snagging the letter out of his hands and disappearing behind the front door. If it was a mission, she could have prepared for it after being briefed.

Mana couldn't help but wonder just what was the overall state of the village. The last Chuunin Exams resulted in only two promotions, which may not have been that dreadful but B-Rank missions were the second most common ones. Right behind the C-Ranks and required a decent number of chuunin to have them taken care of.

It did not take too long before the Hokage let her in. Just a pair of teams of genin being briefed, then a female jounin unfamiliar to Mana receiving something more weighty for her future. That much could have been taken from the fact that she was working alone, without her team of genin.

It felt a bit wrong not knowing which team of her peers this woman was leading. That much Mana could vaguely recall, however – it was someone from her Academy class that ended up on this woman's team. Things after graduation got a little bit busy for Mana, maybe she was to be forgiven for not memorizing who exactly ended up under whose supervision.

"Lord Sixth!" Mana reported to the Sixth Hokage by falling on one knee until she was encouraged to stand, after which she bowed and awaited the briefing.

"I've got a very specific assignment I can't make stick. It's a C-Rank mission but it requires a chuunin to deal with it." The Sixth lamented.

"How can such a low ranking mission require someone of adept rank specifically?" Mana wondered.

"Well, I'm not sure if you know Tori Gomato, do you?"

"Well… Yeah, in a manner of speaking, she's the Academy teacher, right? I graduated right before she started teaching though."

"She is a very uptight woman, for her age. She's been avoiding taking leave of absences and now she can't help it – she must attend the Ringo-Bodo conference in the Land of Tea. It is her mandatory yearly leave to improve her qualification." The man elaborated.

Mana could not help but point her eyes at the ceiling. From what Lord Sixth described, the mission of bodyguarding Tori Gomato would have been a B-Rank, at least. Left alone the fact that the woman was a chuunin herself and just as capable of protecting herself as any help Mana could have provided her with.

"I see." Was all that Mana replied with, just to show her superior she was listening, trying to keep away the fact that despite that, she was still lost.

"Well, I need someone to replace her and teach the Academy classes she is responsible for. Being an Academy teacher is not a very popular profession for the sole fact that, as you may suspect, it is a dead-end of one's ninja career. For that reason, there are no working teachers that could replace her for tomorrow."

Mana took a time to think this through. She had heard some rumors here and there about the strictness of Tori Gomato, the Academy teacher and what Lord Sixth spoke of did make sense but the magician was not sure if she could take up the task. Especially given how Tori Gomato herself was the client. Could Mana live up to the woman's uptight, gold standards?

She could! She was someone aiming for the peaks of becoming a Sannin, taking up missions that nobody else wanted and missions that granted no glory for being completed was a way to surpassing her peers. Something that was the only path to becoming a Sannin at last.

"I know, it is not exactly the job that will help you become a jounin but…" Lord Sixth sighed.

"I'll take it!" Mana bowed her upper body submissively with a bold declaration.

"Oh…" The Sixth lit up with glee that this assignment was finally off his shoulders. "I'll fill in the preliminary papers now. You'll start tomorrow morning and end tomorrow's evening. I assume the schedule is well familiar to you?" the man joked.

"Yes, Sir!" Mana smiled. "With all due respect, though… You seem quite alleviated having gotten rid of the assignment. I was not under the impression that a ninja usually has the option to refuse a mission given to them?"

"There are few exceptions…" the Sixth's assistant fixed his glasses. "Especially with sensitive missions like this. They're seemingly pointless and simple but the requirements for them are very precise due to some old laws, written by Lord Sixth's predecessors. Being an Academy teacher may not be a very popular profession and the aspiration of many, but it is a very demanding and respected profession legally and socially. A ninja who does not want this mission, such as the six that came here for the briefing before you, may plead lacking competence for the job and they can get off the hook that way from what is seen as menial labor."

"The education of the Academy students is no menial labor!" Mana declared with the same, unfading smile.

"It is to people who have gone far enough to become chuunin." Lord Sixth noted before handing Mana the file with the mission objective and details. "It's all about assassinations, body-guarding and spying with those guys."