A gentle and elegant snowstorm helped Mana realize that she was slowly acclimatizing to the mental fort of the tribesman. It was not quite the transitional phase that she'd have imagined but such was a common occurrence when one dealt with the deepest and most personal parts. An effort to focus her sight made the magician make out something tall and thick in the distance, a brief couple of steps made it apparent that it was a mountain surrounded by trees. The gentle snowfall made sure to cover the trees thoroughly yet their unusually bent position suggested that this place knew more violent turbulence as well.
Mana looked down after feeling a chilling breeze. With a blush, she looked up and then around her only to recall that she was inside a mental fort and that nobody accompanying her on the outside could see her. The magician bent her arm and clutched it into a fist while she made sure to concentrate on the idea of her magician's uniform.
The tribesman's realm did not oppose the idea of Mana conjuring up herself some clothes too strong. Maybe Kari-E had already worn it down to where it could not put up nearly as competent of resistance, maybe the magician was just that good or maybe just that lucky. The bottom line was – she was now at least officially winter-fresh breeze-proof.
"Hiding yourself, they always hide…" Mana sighed. The young woman raised her hand up and pulled on it as if she had attempted to pull off a piece of cloth covering the very fabric of reality around her or just tried yanking on a rope in a pulling competition.
The rush of air was sudden and powerful – the tribesman was a decent distance away from where Mana had entered his mental realm in. It was the most elementary mental defense, literally, the first thing every single person, even those unfamiliar with mental interrogation pulled.
The dirty and bald boy turned to Mana almost the same instant that she materialized in a cave he was in. A handful of other tribesmen surrounded him. It was intriguing that the tribesman would have chosen the form of a frail boy in his mental image. Still, what Mana saw pained her a bit – these men and women lamented loss and desired company too. The surrounding men and women were caressing the little boy, trying to get in between him and Mana due to the subconscious commands that the host consciousness was giving them.
Mana extended her palm, sending a powerful pulse that appeared to ripple the very reality as if a fist-sized stone had just been thrown into the pond. The dressed in a bodysuit of pig skin and that of black and white feathers pair, together with shapeless and weak thoughts of a bunch of faceless others, dissipated into thin air.
If the magician had time to mess around she'd have possibly wiped a tear for the fact that despite treasuring whoever these people were, the tribesman could not make out their exact faces, making them not even have one and instead don round patches of skin where features would have been. Nor could the man-turned-boy make out the exact nature of the bodysuits that these men and women wore, making them cloaked in mists of the black, shapeless shroud which occasionally changed shapes into a more tangible appearance but then before it could turn into something solid, it disappeared again.
"Enough, tell me where they are," Mana demanded, sending more ripples that were meant to apply pressure on the little boy and make him back into his original shape. That was how she planned on winning – slowly unravel the fort that her subject has taken little effort of building in front of him to demonstrate that he was playing a game entirely of Mana's knowledge and one he was oblivious to the nature of.
The ripples spread out wide but completely bypassed the boy. The fortitude that the tribesman demonstrated and the immense link he felt to this form made it difficult for Mana to will him back to his actual form and ruin the figments of his own resistance he still maintained. This was the true nature of mind battles, people devoted the most insane amounts of willpower to seemingly stupid things just because they felt attached to a specific image they created.
"In that case…" Mana clutched her extended fist. She had attempted to move both of the pair above to the very peak of the mountain in which the tribesman hid. A painful shock made her lose concentration, it felt like her entire body was tearing apart into chunks, like paper being pulled apart. She was not facing a complete novice, this man had studied his previous encounter well. He had come out of it an all-around better man. Kari-E's failure may just have made the matters infinitely more difficult.
It appeared that these tribesmen were not entirely weak in terms of skill. While they were simpletons in their methods and creeps in terms of the lifestyle they led, their talent for studying and overcoming obstacles through observation and remarkable physical memory was profound.
"We'll have none of that, thank you," Mana spoke to herself while her body patched and melded together as if she was not very nearly turned to flat shreds. It took a little bit of effort to do so but ultimately she had taken the steps to study centuries worth of experiences of the craft from textbooks and recounts written and retold by some of the greatest craftsmen in her village. This one learned it by playing push and drag with a descendant of a runaway Yamanaka.
The matter of the fact was, Mana spoke to herself because she needed every little bit of help keeping herself in the game. The solace of her own voice pulled her through near-shredding. It guided her and helped the magician focus her mind and body for one, final push. Her next assault would be difficult… She would attempt to disassemble the entire mental world around the tribesman but the things he wanted to protect the most – hopefully, his boyish appearance and the place he wanted to protect.
Rough pressure squeezed around Mana's throat, forcing all air out of her chest and lifting the magician off her feet. A black and long tendril comprised of smaller sub-sections had wrapped around the magician's throat and did its best to strangle the very head off of the young woman's neck, or so it seemed. The tip of the tail, hooked like that of a scorpion would have, coiled and played around in front of Mana's eyes and caressed her cheek. The magician could feel something wet and corrosive leaving burns across her cheek, something suggested that Mana better would not allow whatever this mysterious thing inside this man's mind put that tail anywhere near her bloodstream.
The figure pulled Mana in. The magician tried resisting but she could not even lift or move her arms. They were not even tied, they were just dangling without a speck of sense in them. The tail pulled Mana into a dark crevice high up where a pair of gleaming lights stared at the magician from. Mana could feel the smell of honey and chopped liver emanating from the corner and she had not smelled anything in years – it only served as a warning how deep her subject had gotten into her own mind with whatever he held this important to him. A bit more and Mana would be too close to resist any further… These eyes in the shadows, they almost had a hypnotic power over the magician.
An arc of light matching the illumination of the creature's eyes lit up its face that remained fully concealed for the moment. Mana's figure disappeared halfway into the darkness where the amalgam of man and beast lurked, her feet kicked around for a minute longer after the tail plunged into her gut and made its way upward to her chest. Right as there appeared to be no life left in the magician's body, a feminine shape of a black shroud and little lights brimming for eyes and a smile collapsed instead, donning the same uniform that Mana had manifested herself and tipping the tribesman to the mental trick of switcheroo that the magician had pulled.
Whatever that thing was, it provided calm and solace, mental strength to this man like nothing else. Mana required to draw strength from her own inner sources to counteract the wall of determination this man had put up. The young woman extended her hand and placed it onto the boy's shoulder. She felt him wasting energy, doing his best to manifest more tricks, he was good, had he some to spare, he might have pulled it off.
There it was… For the last resort, the man had surrendered his boyish shape, rather tried to. He had figured that having ditched it and returned to his normal, adult self, he'd have stood a better chance at fighting Mana off. After all this time he had still not fully committed it to memory that in this realm physical strength did not matter. A paralyzed toddler could have overcome a superhuman powerhouse by just possessing stronger will better utilizing their mind.
"No. I think I've grown used to it…" Mana smiled. She wondered if the tribesman felt himself shrinking down and turning younger by the second until he looked like just a powerless little baby. By abandoning his final pillar of mental fortitude, he basically handed Mana the keys to his fort already. "Now, let's see…" she concluded.
"They're in a cave system in the Snie mountain range," Mana stated right after recovering and getting back to her knees. She was not entirely sure for how long she's been gone. Sessions that felt like they've lasted for fifteen minutes may have lasted anywhere from five minutes to five hours, it all depended on how stable and surefire the interrogation was and, frankly, there was some space for improvement on that regard, in this specific case.
"That's a good forty minutes of journey north." Ara-K nodded in acknowledgment of Mana's skill.
Mana pressed her knuckle to her nose, feeling wet drops running down, had she not been hunched over and struggling for balance and breath, she would have surely stained her coat. While she had pulled this off by a confident margin, there was not a hint of pride in Mana's mind about how hard this man had made her work for it.
"Admit it." Yushijin stood behind her with his arms crossed.
"Yeah… We… Need them." Mana sighed while straightening out her back and removing her woolen gloves to lick her knuckle and wipe the dried out blood off of under her nose. "Kari-E may have taught this man a thing or two about mental probing and made things harder but things would not have been this clear-cut if she did not somewhat wear him out as well."
Yushijin nodded in acknowledgment and prepared to launch himself off in wild leaps to catch up to Ara-K and aid her in gathering her squadmates. Before he could, Mana's hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"That doesn't mean that I won't take all of them on if needed. If I see them needlessly taking lives again. I've been inside this man's mind. I've seen him treasure the days of his youth when he was living in the cave with his parents when things were peaceful. They may be wildcards but they don't relish in the brutality they leave behind. Some of them still want peace and company of their peers." She said.
"I dread that time…" Yushijin felt obliged to grin after a brief sigh. "But, in that case, you won't be fighting alone."
The two Konohagakure ninja took off at the same time, shoulder to shoulder with Kouta and Erumo catching up soon. The trio let Mana take the small lead so that she could lead them to where the Kumogakure ninja were gathering.
"So this is the place, huh?" Sore-T did his best to make out the contours of the mountain range from the raging blizzard. Despite the fact he did not raise his voice to overpower the fury of the elements, the ninja around him heard the strongman's voice just fine.
"If you think we will let you four anywhere near this matter after the stunt you pulled…" Uru-V growled while leaning on to Yushijin who just stonewalled the microaggression of the Kumogakure peer.
"Had it not been for this stunt, you guys would not have known which way to start looking for your mission objective," Erumo replied, looking vexed by the fact that Uru-V was trying to push Yushijin.
"Remember the terms of our cooperation, we walk in, break some bones and leave them homeless. I've been inside the mind of one of them, they treasure home and family more than some civilized people I've met." Mana looked at Ara-K, someone who, the magician assumed, was the only trustworthy soul amongst the murderous pit of snakes.
"I will admit, you've picked up some impressive new tricks since your state we've been briefed about but don't let it get to your head and make you assume you are in control of this operation," Kari-E said. The young woman had made an impressive recovery on Sore-T's back during the journey. Her abilities might still prove useful if she won't let loose and start popping heads right out the gate.
"Remember, their generals are dead." Ara-K turned to her peers.
"Good, that will make it an easy killing!" Hagi-S shrugged with an innocent expression. Even if Mana caught the traces of humor in his voice, she still wanted to choke this dirtbag for a solid minute for thinking this was a fair joking subject at that moment.
"Hagi-S, I swear to God!" Ara-K groaned while massaging her face.
"I'm kidding, just kidding…" the baldy shrugged his frail shoulders while throwing up his cartoonish, noodle-like arms out and twisting his lips into a wicked grin.
"Fine, if everyone's aware of their role, let's do this," Uru-V growled while putting his clawed gauntlets back on and
Sore-T smacked his palms together before slamming them against the ground. Mana felt a considerable influx of chakra passing through his system and even pulsing outside his body and spreading in resonance through the ground.
"Earth Style: Earth Shore Return!" Sore-T yelled out with a heavy and masculine tone while a layer of dirt burst forth from the snow and stood erect in a position of a rectangular wall. The ninjutsu appeared quite capable of withstanding some novice ninjutsu techniques and possibly even some of the more intermediate ones, given the amount of chakra still traveling inside the dirt wall and failing to find a valid point to dissipate into.
With a powerful push kick, Sore-T sent his own wall flying forth while he charged it once more with a ramming motion of his shoulders. Having just displaced the barrier of dirt and made a mobile shield out of it, Sore-T charged onward, pushing it like a buckler, reminding Mana greatly of how Meiko used her buckler back home in aggressive power-charges.
Sore-T did not even flinch while his dirt wall hit the boulder blocking the way to the entrance and busted through it, reducing the measly resistance of the boulder to mere pebbles while Sore-T continued his charge, widening the narrow corridors leading to each cave system with his reckless charge. It was not long before the first bumps met the charging berserker but even as their numbers grew and the thuds grew fiercer, even managing to penetrate the rushing wall with some of their improvised and macabre weaponry, Sore-T rushed on.
It was only once the strongman felt his wall weakening and beginning to fall apart that he demolished it with a mighty haymaker, sending a crushing shockwave alongside the dirty rubble that toppled everyone on the other side like pins. Having just made the corridor much wider, wide enough for his teammates to fight side-by-side, Sore-T just stared at his downed and slowly rising opponents. Their problem was not the lack of the will to fight on, it was that their bodies were beginning to break down.
A blitz of solid lightning flashed past the Kumogakure strongman, the jolt materialized in a more feminine shape nearby the dazed enemy and threw a handful of speedy strike combinations of her own. Mana could identify the sloppy taijutsu that only a Yamanaka could put out, it was only that Mana recognized the joint-targeting signature style of the mind-bender shinobi that the general shape of the living lightning bolt began making more sense.
It was a Lightning Style armor ninjutsu of sorts, unlike Hanshin's, however, Kari-E's did not form a bystander set of armor that worked alongside the user but, instead, it coated her perfectly, just like standard armor would have. It seemed like a less sophisticated jutsu but easier to use. It did not look like Kari-E obtained greater strength, except the natural boost to the wallop granted by the massive surge of speed she had gained, however, the Yamanaka did obtain appear to be stunning and shocking her targets a great deal with each point of contact.
"Lightning Style: Thunder Dragon Jutsu!" Ara-K extended her hand forward, Mana sensed something massive fluctuate through the kunoichi's system yet she failed to notice any lightning crackles. Her confusion and hesitation would soon be a source of great regret as a vibrant beam of intense sound waves erupted in perfectly compressed, donut-like shape to make the still conscious enemies white out and faint with blood bursting from their eyes, their ears and noses in significant enough portions to blow out even through their skin and fursuits.
The sound waves even canceled out Kari-E's Lightning Armor by dispersing it into a handful of sparks like shatter from a busted glass. After this initial combo was complete, Uru-V and Hagi-S charged in to confront the reinforcements in close-distance. While Hagi-S kept up his promise and attacked the enemy's vital points that would have only incapacitated them quickly, Uru-V slashed to kill willingly or through ignorance of the consequences of his attacks.
Mana could not stand it anymore. Her hands moved into a hand seal position the same moment she saw the first few open throats and dismemberments that would soon result in fatal blood loss. Before she could initiate her illusion, however, something rough grabbed the magician's arm and slammed her against the wall of the cave system corridor. The vision faded out there for a second, this may have been the strongest blunt-force blow she had ever been forced to soften up through chakra augmentation to prevent her neck from snapping and her skull from shattering to tiny chunks.
"You were right, Kari-E. She did plan on trying something the moment we tried killing someone." Sore-T turned to his comrade while still keeping Mana's dangling and lifeless hand in his clutch.
"She planned to take out Uru-V quickly with a single illusion to even out our numbers. I wonder for how long she's planned on stabbing us in our back in our own backyard…" Kari-E sighed, looking far too proud of herself for someone who's just been, supposedly, stabbed in the back.
A single, metallic chink alerted the Kumogakure ninja to an emergence of a new challenger in the shape of the Team Fir leader who pointed his long sword at the enemy, despite not having too much space to swing that thing around in.
"I had really hoped it would not come to this…" Yushijin exclaimed with regret.
