"The entire shinobi system?" Mana asked. "With stakes this high, it is not something I'd like to read from a file about. I will need as many details as possible."

"That is understandable. There is to be a summit between the Feudal Lords and the representatives of the Ninja Councils of every village as well as the select representatives from the civilians of the more notable establishments around the world. It will take place in the Orome resort on the farther end of Camellia road. The main question of the summit is – are the ninja still necessary in this day and age and perhaps it is time to tear down the shinobi system." Seventh said with a grim and serious expression.

Usually, from what Mana remembered of Uzumaki Midoben, he was a man who either had a smirk on his face or implied with other social cues that he had something up his sleeve that would give him an advantage in any unfavorable situation related to the conversation at hand. In the present case, he was completely serious.

"Why me specifically?" Mana wondered. "There are loads of more competent ninja around. From what I can feel, even Kusagoro Juugo is back in the village." The magician spoke with her eyes closed and her sensory expanding with perceptive tendrils that matched if not surpassed the degree of mastery over the ability that Gasco Patura had during the Chuunin Exams.

"True, however, skill is not the defining characteristic that the Feudal Lords are looking for. The instructions were very specific not to send an exceptional ninja nor a newbie incapable of putting their case into words or one that hasn't seen much of what they are talking about. The villages were instructed to send average ninja, as close to the definition of average as possible." Seventh sighed while leaning back in his chair.

Mana swallowed a bitter figurative pill. Being called average stabbed at her chest worse than being called miserable or terrible would have. It was quite likely the most efficient blow possible to deliver to the magician. It was tough to say why it irked her that much, perhaps it was just her nature of preferring flashiness and entertaining an audience during her free time that made being called average feel worse than being belittled or criticized. Lord Seventh's face was clear – he did not mean it as an offense, then why did it never stop feeling like one?

"Very well. If the entire ninja system is at stake, I have no right to refuse." Mana bowed her head before approaching the desk and taking the mission file.

It will be a pain filling it up and then submitting it back to the desk once the mission was over, thinking the whole time about the fact that she's been singled out as the definition of average. After everything she's seen and everything she's done, in this crazy world, she was only as good as the definition of average… Almost as if any other given ninja was notable for successes and failures quite as notable as those of Mana's. Then again, perhaps it was the balance of successes and failures that helped her find her place in this uncomfortable category?

"Wow, they did not waste any time," father grumped out. He turned his eyes away looking irritated, the physicality and self-evidence of his grumpy state did scare the magician.

This was a man who had lost his ninja career to a crushing injury, then learned to manage the pain with the help of black market herbs and elixirs concocted by a freakish cult of rogue ninja and just flat out criminals, before learning to deal with his pain in other ways – by helping the magician with her shows, only to have his daughter constantly brush that off as well. It felt guilty dismissing father's pain like this, always thinking that it was a problem for another time, that after this current thing Mana was occupied with was done, she'd be all into her shows and her father would once more have a place beside her…

And yet that was never the case, there was always another thing after that one thing, ad infinitum.

"I've been away for three years. That's a lot of time to have someone employed but not working for. Especially in the ninja line of work, where people often barely see their adult years." Mana sighed. There was no other way to do this, she could simply not sacrifice the integrity of the entire ninja system and then also bring shame to her village by not showing up. Her name and data would be immediately sent to the responsible parties hosting the summit so they would know if she simply sat this one out.

Mana did not walk the Camellia road that often. Roiyaru and Rooibos were quite common, but the north-western Camellia, which was filled with classy resorts, mansions of the villagers rich or influential enough to reside outside the village walls but still enjoy the relative proximity and security of the Fire Country, with the added protection of hiring their own private security force comprised of mercenaries or rogue ninja looking for an easy, understandable and legitimate stack of ryo, evaded Mana's interests for the longest time.

Seeing these whited out, sophisticated, modern and classic mansions and expensive resorts, the magician could not help but wonder why someone like Hanada Katsuo, someone who fit the profile of someone whom a Camellia property would have fit like a glove eluded the alluring chance of living here. The thief in law must have loved the village more than people gave him credit for. For all the people who have crossed him that have disappeared, for all the aggressive negotiation that he engaged in while doing his daily dealings, Hanada did build plenty of expensive property that paid lots of taxes and he almost exclusively invested into Konoha.

It was an odd thing to think about while on a slow trek to the location of the mission. Maybe Mana could have picked up the pace, with her speed she could have moved to the location in almost an instant but she wasn't sure if a rogue party would not attempt to interrupt her, even more, the force hired to maintain security at the summit could have set traps all over the place and gotten riled up by someone approaching them at speeds as rocketing as Mana's.

No, every "average" representative would travel good and steady, the magician would not be surprised if the representatives from Kirigakure would travel by ships and the representatives from Kumogakure would use a carriage ride across the Snow Country. Only then did it pop into Mana's mind that representatives of both Iwagakure and Kumogakure would be present in the event…

As frightening as imagining all the different possibilities of how it would have all gone wrong in all the horrific ways was, Mana counted on these ninja realizing that sabotaging this event for the sake of petty coltan market grievances would have been profoundly stupid. Still, it would be less than a fun time at the breakfast table…

It seemed that it was simply not in the cards for that day that her imagination would run wild and make-up epic confrontations and conflicts worthy of their epics or awesome clashes of wit that deserved to be recorded and preserved through the centuries as the magician noticed a peculiar change in scenery down below. A chain of caravans moving forward in speed that caravans may have considered impressive but which was the main reason why Mana caught up to the queue of transportations.

Had Mana not sensed some impressive chakra signatures, as well as a vast multitude of suppressed ones, she may have just passed by, writing the chain of transportations off as just someone's bold and expansive business venture but something about this particular encounter piqued Mana's interest. The chakra signatures that were suppressed were lower than the magician thought natural, it was almost as if someone tried to pass these people as dead men if a sloppy sensor ever caught a whiff of them.

The young woman swooped down and repurposed the force of her landing into a forward dash that put her alongside one of the frontal caravans. The driver of said caravan got startled, slightly throwing the transportation out of the strict, line formation. After noticing the "Leaf" symbol on Mana's headband plate placed firmly on the front of the young woman's top hat, the man settled down.

"Hey, you're… That girl, aren't you? Boy, you've grown!" the man grinned with a full smile, realizing that the unexpected startle that very nearly made one's heart crawl out of one's chest was just some past celebrity showing their face around must have inspired that sort of happiness in this man.

"Yes. Although I haven't performed in three years, planning on fixing that in the near future. What are you transporting here?" Mana inquired, she was not sure if these men were criminals or not, some of their faces looked vaguely familiar but their chakra signatures did not, either they were masking themselves using a Transformation Jutsu, some offshoot of the technique, or Mana met these people before she discovered her sensory which was why she could not precisely remember their identities.

"Oh, haven't you heard? The Eden Prison Complex got completely destroyed, the entire place crushed like a juice box in a squeezing hand." The man replied, his face began sweating upon speaking those words. Her experience in the Intel Division allowed Mana to tell fear apart from lying this time, this man was afraid of what he had just said but it was so because the source of his words genuinely inspired fear in him, not because he was trying to weasel out of some revelation to a Konoha ninja.

"How many casualties?" Mana asked. A figurative buzzing spread all over her abdomen, making her a little bit nauseous. The last thing she needed was to lose someone dear to her like Sugemi in a freak accident like this. Come to think of it, his chakra signature was nowhere near this row of caravans…

"Loads…" the man's face turned sour. "The loss of prisoners we could probably live with but we lost plenty of staff members. The ones here are pretty much the only ones left. The situation with the staff was so dire we're transferring these prisoners to be counted and identified to another location. Unless you're on a mission related to this incident, however, I am not allowed to disclose that information just yet, however."

"I understand." Mana's look turned sour. She would probably be unable to sleep for multiple nights in a row without proper meditation. Just what could have happened to Sugemi? Did he just die alongside the plentiful casualties or was he maybe not in the prison, to begin with? That young man checked out and back into that place at his leisure but he genuinely enjoyed the company of the two Jinchuuriki that were kept inside there: Nanaba and Daidao. Those two became an almost serviceable replacement for Mana and Shimo for the young man. "Was it a break-out or something like that?"

"Highly unlikely." The driver shook his head. "Breakouts would be much more silent and nowhere near as deadly. Something large scale like this, if it ever hit the village… Man… You keep hearing about stuff like this but you never think you could be affected by it. Life as we know it could be snuffed away at any moment, just like that… How does someone live with stuff like that?" The man shook his head. He did not appear to be in a life crisis but he was merely making conversation.

"You make a good point. Eden's prisoners are often there for their own protection or by their own desire. It is more of a correctional facility than one of strict detainment. It is unlikely that such drastic measures were necessary if someone just wanted to escape." Mana stroke her chin, even without looking at the path ahead, one less traveled, no less, the young woman maintained a steady course and evaded any unruly obstacle even at the pace required to keep up with the caravans.

"Right? Nothing to be gained from just crushing the whole building with the people inside, huh? It couldn't have been any of the people on the inside, their chakras are all suppressed, at least those of the dangerous ones…" the man kept shaking his head. He still struggled to believe he was doing what he was doing because of what had just happened.

"You should have seen the remains… The dead bodies were all skewered like with large rods, split to pieces, dismembered, some of them had their whole skins peeled off in their entirety and it only took a second." The man sighed.

"Initially I suspected one of the Tailed Beasts awakening but… Does not sound like any Tailed Beast I've read about." Mana massaged the back of her neck. "Have any escaped?"

"No, those two are some of the survivors, injured, unconscious but… Maybe we'll get some information out of them once they wake up? Here's to hoping." The caravan driver sighed again.

Mana had to take a different path as the turn that the caravans took, the transportations looked well-protected for their situation, whatever the attacker of the facility wanted out of it, they had already gotten it as there was not much resistance that the officials could have put up. While the threat of bandits still persisted, the transportations should have fended off by themselves, they had considerable strength and moderate numbers. More so, Mana had no luxury of ignoring her own mission and traveling at the pace of the caravans', letting down the entire shinobi system in the process.

For that reason, she ventured onward in the direction of her own objective, waving farewell to the informative Eden staff.

The sky-reaching pillar of chakra signatures drew Mana's attention long before she reached the location. She had assumed that the security at such an event would be insane. However, given how none of the elite ninja were invited, the magician was slightly curious who exactly could it have been to protect the Feudal Lords, the village ninja representatives as well as those representing the civilian public interest.

The answer came almost immediately after the magician's feet firmly touched the ground before the estate. A pair of samurai in full, purple, red and silver armor and tengu-shaped masks approached the magician. Their movements were slow, they bowed their heads in respect, showing no signs of wary or aggression so they clearly knew who Mana was.

"Please, go on ahead. Find yourself an unoccupied room. The service staff will walk you through the basic rules. We trust you to follow them." One of the samurai turned the pointy chin of their mask toward the fancy mansion behind the polished, metallic fence that curled in intricate shapes to create a structure that appeared almost serpentine in its appearance but would have served the general use that fences were expected to serve.

Mana bowed to the samurai before walking right on ahead through the uncurling gate, the long metallic rods started wrangling like actual snakes, taking an almost elastic shape. The moving metallic rods left more than a comfortable opening for Mana to walk through. The young woman was in no rush to make it to her room and just shut herself inside it, she took time to admire the fascinating garden shaped like a labyrinth that despite its shape left a wide, zig-zagging road from the entry into it all the way to the home. As far as labyrinths went, it was a very poor one, purely judging how well it would have confused someone lost inside it. Likely it was more of a decorative thing.

Growls from behind startled Mana. She had completely missed whatever spread that horrendous noise coming, the magician turned around only to see drooling jaws of shut-together fangs that belonged to a massive, fleshy and hairless dog. The canine had no eyes but was covered in bright, salad shade blisters all over its body. The animal's skin looked like the animal had been incinerated completely but refused to die, even though these glowing blisters covering it weren't exactly the type that appeared after intensive burns.

Another booming growl made Mana gasp and turn to the side, a completely black shape on all fours burst from the labyrinth. It looked similar to a dog but only in its stance and general shape alone. The creature took the appearance of a nightmare brought to life, pitch black and ethereal in appearance as the dark energy that covered it and gave it shaped expanded and flowed in the air, rippling like gas that was kept together by a supernatural force. This one also lacked any distinctive face, possessing only a pair of crimson, glowing butterfly symbols where a dog would have had their eyes.

How could Mana have completely missed out on these two? Even now she could completely not sense a thing, as if they were just her own nightmares, horrific visions or predictions of a gloomy future standing before her. And they looked both hungry and bemused… Without her sensory Mana had absolutely no idea if she could take on both these dogs, making the first move may have been reckless: she was in someone else's territory, expected to behave and obey the place's rules despite not having been briefed on them just yet, she had no idea who these nightmarish hounds were, or whose, for that matter, if she made the first hand seal and misjudged their rank and speed, her throat would have ended up in between those tightly shut and slobbering jaws in an instant…

A whirlwind of metallic and azure flashes derailed Mana's terrified train of thought, a short and raggedy man past his middle years but not yet an old geezer stood up and placed one of his two katana on his shoulder, letting it drip the salad ooze from the fleshy, crispy dog as well as emit the black smoke from the substance that the other nightmarish mongrel was made of. The man's face was completely miffed, combined with his unkempt facial hair and the general vibe of an angry, drunk that came off of this unarmored samurai made for both petrifying and immensely cool combination.

The dogs dispersed in a loud pop and a cloud of dark, grey smoke, not unlike Mana's own summons did when they sustained alarming amounts of damage over a single instant.

"You alright, kiddo? These belong 'ta that snow-woman from Shimogakure. She said this place was good for her slobbering mutts to roam around and she sang our ears full about how they were no danger 'ta anybody. I'll give 'er a proper mouthful fer this." The man breathed out a long breath of relief after seeing Mana recover quite easily from the scare that the dogs gave her. After sheathing both of his katana, the samurai stroke his stubble and patted the large man-bun atop of his scalp just to see that whatever little effort he put into his appearance did not get completely ruined by him losing his cool just now.

"It's just that I was used to sensing chakra for the longest time as my default way of perceiving the world. These dogs did not appear to have any in them… Made me lose my cool." Mana admitted, feeling a bit embarrassed to admit that she may have needed this assistance.

"No problem, ma'am, they were a special breed, their kenki resided in another dimension, likely the one that they came from. I noticed it almost immediately upon seeing the cursed snow-woman let them loose but I have years of military experience so such tactics do not elude me. I am Saruromu Isuki, the captain of squad fourteen of the Divine Retribution Squad." The man bowed his head as he introduced himself.

Mana opened her mouth to do the same but the Isuki's raised hand stopped her.

"I was under the impression that ninja wished to remain anonymous at all times. I would not like to place unjust pressure on a young lady to introduce herself, despite her profession and allegiances, solely because of this assistance and I do not have time for fake names." The man dismissed Mana's introduction before turning around and giving the young woman one last look back. "Let's just both play our parts here, there is no need to anything other than that."

Just once Mana would have liked a calm walk in the garden to the door and an easy way in…