A tall and broad-shouldered man of long hair and elegant glasses with a fancy for leather and wearing his Kirigakure insignia on the collar of his black shirt underneath the leather vest. A short, middle-aged woman of brown hair and a rough emerald colored dress, pressed with boxes of iron that melded into the Iwagakure sign by her waist. A plump shorty with a black cloak and a massive case of incomplete baldness to represent her own home country. A walking stick of a man in oceanic colored drapes and a white cape hanging from his back, wearing the Otogakure sign as a pendant. A bulky, dark-skinned giant of hair so blazing orange it felt aggressive towards one's eyes in a blue dogi. A lady of large bones and past her prime, followed by another black-cloaked geek in thick glasses one could block knives with surrounded the previously entered judges from both sides.
Not too long after Mana's eyes ran over the assembling judges, she leaned in on to Overcoat's side with a whisper. "We may have a problem. That last one knows me. We were both voices of ninja in a Summit not too long ago. His name is Tokui Kyuri. A real no-nonsense type."
"Let me handle it." Overcoat sighed. "It doesn't have to be a problem, it does not really matter which way he votes and if he's going be biased or not."
"If I know Tokui, he is the last person to be biased and the first one to smell that something's afoot." Mana's breathing picked up a pace or two.
"The Ninja Tribunal is now in session! Please silence yourselves and rise." A dorky-looking secretary beside the grand assembly of personalities, each looking to make their marks as an important and wise figure that served justice to the perpetrator that harmed the great Guru Ayushi. What they did not know was that Mana was on their side and would have rather seen herself sentenced guilty.
"You may now sit. I would like to record for the Tribunal who's gathered here today. This is a special Ninja Tribunal procession, comprised of members of multiple countries and villages as per article 8 of the Seiunjo agreement, drafted by the Fourth Hokage, Star of Hope Howoku and signed by representatives of every acknowledged ninja village. Presiding over today's proceedings are Osumo Fuma, the Fifth Mizukage, Nokubi Sarutobi, an Iwagakure jounin, Sheniyur Kagetsu, a member of the Konohagakure Ninja Council, Laorth Karatachi, a chuunin from Otogakure, Yurisa Akimichi, the matriarch of the Akimichi clan's main Konoha branch, Kikuzen Shimura, a member of the Konohagakure Ninja Council, Tokui Kyuri, a jounin from Kumogakure." The secretary of the Ninja Tribunal recounted before turning to the participating members of the procession.
"Nakotsumi Mana, the accused, present." Overcoat raised his hand and reached his other hand out to Mana. The magician put her ninja ID card in his hand and followed her Voice as he walked to the stand and showed it to the secretary who just marked a bunch of spots on his documents.
"The Ninja Tribunal is present as well to both prosecute and declare the verdict based upon the findings of this investigation." The secretary turned at the presiding members of the Tribunal who nodded in affirmation. "I assume that the person beside the accused is the accused's Voice?"
"He is… I am…" Overcoat nodded a pair of times, switching to his character with surprising swiftness. "Nara Kichiro, Esteemed Tribunal, the Voice of Nakotsumi Mana for the duration of this procession."
"Excellent. Under normal circumstances we would like to find out who everyone present is for the sake of convenient and uninterrupted proceedings but… Given the number of spectators present, which is not surprising, given the highly public nature of the case, with the Tribunal's permission, we will skip this step for the interest of time with the option of any relevant members to identify themselves during the Requests Phase." The secretary turned to the Tribunal. The Konohagakure's own judge, Sheniyur Kagetsu, nodded.
"Before the investigation phase of the Tribunal can begin, does anyone have any requests or submissions for the Tribunal to examine?" the secretary inquired. A line of people in standard uniforms of various ninja villages and a unified style of forehead protectors stood up. All of their forehead protectors read "Shinobi".
"We are the representatives of the Allied Ninja Forces. Given the international status of Guru Ayushi, the victim of the possibly committed crime, we would like to pursue the prosecution of Nakotsumi Mana with the Tribunal serving as a neutral observer and judge of the data we've gathered." A representative of the group spoke up.
"Shit…" Overcoat turned away from them, despite turning to Mana's side, the magician failed to catch his eyes. "This wasn't a part of the plan."
"Denied." Sheniyur Kagetsu crossed his hands, looking just halfway vitalized in his effort to raise them from the table, from the elbows up.
"Maybe the host judges would at the very least give the entirety of the Tribunal their word before making such major decisions?" Osumo Fuma of Kirigakure looked at Sheniyur who just soured his expression. "Although, if we are allowed to speak, I must say I agree with Sheniyur-san. The Allied Ninja Forces are not an organization loyal to any country nor are they established by a single entity. They do not have any legal documents besides the vaguely framed legal act that established the possibility of the organization's existence. I must second the notion to dismiss this request."
"I mean… If we just let these self-appointed, self-righteous posers pursue prosecution, why the hell are any of us even here in the first place?" Nokubi Sarutobi of Iwagakure agreed with the motion to dismiss the request. "I second… Or third… The dismissing notion."
"I simply don't trust the Allied Ninja Forces as an organization. I find the Red Hawks more justified as a legal entity than you folks, forgive me if this sounds rude." Laorth Karatachi leaned up front, in an almost mocking position as he spoke to the representatives of the Allied Ninja Forces with some decent shade.
"We are all one state, we are all people, a wonderful organization like the Allied Ninja Forces represent that and therefore I would not be opposed to the Allied Ninja pursuing the prosecution." The matriarch of Konoha's main branch of the Akimichi clan opposed the position of her peers.
"It doesn't truly matter what I think, either way, the position of the Ninja Tribunal is clear. We will be taking care of the prosecution and sentencing, proper evaluation of the data gathered for and against the accused, as initially planned." Kikuzen Shimura, the final judge of the Tribunal not have spoken yet, spoke his mind.
"I could not care about the Allied Ninja. I do, however, think that the Tribunal should not both pursue prosecution and sanction Sorceress-san." Tokui spoke with his eyes closed, lips blown out and arms over his chest. He knew speaking was pointless but he did it nevertheless.
"The Tribunal has no interest in sentencing Nakotsumi Mana-san." Kikuzen Shimura replied to the Kumogakure jounin. "Therefore there cannot be a conflict of interest."
"If you're done with this request, Esteemed Tribunal, I'd like you to consider my request." Overcoat stood up with his hand raised.
"Very well, Kichiro-san, you may speak." Nokubi Sarutobi waved for the Voice of the accused.
"We wanted to come out with this upfront so that it does not come out at any point later and threaten the integrity of the procession." Overcoat bent his upper body half a bit to appear more submissive as he gestured toward Tokui with his right hand, "My Voiced does know the judge of this Tribunal. She has met Tokui-san on a mission before. It poses no doubts of objectivity of the Tribunal to us, we are perfectly fine with the current roster of the Tribunal carrying their duties out, we just felt like voicing this information as a show of good faith."
"I see, it is good that you are transparent this way…" the Fifth Mizukage nodded. "I, personally, do not see the point of resigning judge Tokui-san from the proceedings. It would be impossible to find someone objectively unfamiliar with Mana-san's work. Whether it is from her marvelous performance during the finals of the Chuunin Exams, her extensive mission record, page in the standard Bingo Book of most villages or her magnificent stage performances."
"Lord Mizukage said so much. I wonder who is subjective here." Tokui grumbled. It did not look like the man cared too much if the Tribunal ruled to keep him around, or not, could solely the sense of duty have been the prime motivator of the young man in his presence in this roster of the Ninja Tribunal?
The rest of the Tribunal spoke one over another but, unlike with the matter of the Allied Ninja representing the prosecution, the Ninja Tribunal agreed unilaterally to not make a big matter out of Tokui's run-in with Mana. Overcoat accepted the decision with a nod and a bow of his upper half, at least sixty degrees deep.
"Is this good or bad?" Mana wondered with a whisper when her Voice sat down.
"Neither. This should not matter, us establishing good will we can tap into if our act goes too far later on does." Overcoat exchanged his reply.
The Tribunal hall died down in silence, waiting for more participants to voice any relevant requests but none of that rose up. Given how the Tribunal appeared to have dealt with all of the relevant requests and therefore succeeded the Requests Phase, the secretary stood up for the official declaration of the preparation part of the proceedings being over with.
"Given how no participants have any requests to make, the Tribunal will now proceed to the Investigation Phase. It is up for the prosecution to read out all of the accusations, as well as the data gathered. Based on the explanation of the accused in response to the gathered data, some of it might become evidence while some of it might be ruled out." The secretary declared. While all of the Tribunal judges had a high standing and being a frequent member of similar committees and Tribunal rosters or serving as a Voice was a valid ninja specialty, none of these folk were specialized in this subject and therefore may not have been unshakable and perfect sages of law.
Sheniyur Kagetsu, a member of the Konoha's Ninja Council stood up with a scroll in his hands. His eyes were awkwardly squinted but it was not due to inherent difficulty reading or constipation. It appeared to be more of a natural trait, the tremendous squint only went toward the middle up to a point, growing into sinking, cerulean orbs in the middle. A unique-looking old man to be certain. Also tough not to chuckle looking at.
"Nakotsumi Mana, the accused, also known as the Konoha's Sorceress, is accused in inflicting severe beatings to the esteemed ninja wise-man and a spiritual mentor Guru Ayushi. The deed may have been carried out on the 23rd of July, roughly around 15:38. The data that supports this accusation is thus: the accused was found with minor injuries but extremely exhausted near the spot of where Guru Ayushi was found in a comatose state. There are at least forty-four witnesses that have seen the accused and Guru Ayushi engage in a conversation in close proximity that, they state, turned heated. The other bodies found at the scene showed no sign of injury, strongly suggesting that the accused and Guru Ayushi were the only parties involved in a fight. May the Voice of the accused, or the accused herself, voice their position on the matter and give their opening speech in regard to the data gathered thus far."
The audience grew unruly somewhere down the middle of the speech. Overcoat stood up and cleared his throat, trying to get a platform to speak freely, given how he was on the audience's side and defending a sweetheart to most, a demon-brat to some, the unruly ones in the audience gave the Voice his chance to speak.
"May the Esteemed Tribunal know that the Voice of the accused, representing the position of the accused directly, confirm that the accused does not agree with the accusations. The data is circumstantial and shaky, the position of the Voice is that it should be dismissed in its entirety. The Tribunal failed to establish an exact relationship between the accused and the victim, failed to prove that it was indeed the accused and no one else laying said beatdown onto the victim. Two details that the Voice of the accused would like to bring up is that nobody was able to see the actual happenings of the place of crime because of the violent clouds erupting from within a bloody-red barrier that rose up around the area. One that prevented the reacting ninja from entering and the accused and Guru Ayushi from leaving. Both of them may as well have been victims to a third party. Guru Ayushi may have gone comatose after being beaten by the third party while protecting the accused, which is why the accused has appeared mostly unharmed from the incident. In addition, it is no secret that the accused was in a great relationship with the victim – the village records can corroborate that she was the person involved in showing Guru around the village during his last visit to Konoha. The accused simply does not have an established and believable reason to inflict bodily harm to Guru Ayushi. In addition to that, she is a B+ Rank ninja, a well-established and respected chuunin who, while mighty, has no objective way of causing said bodily harm to Guru Ayushi who was known to be remarkably difficult to kill during his time serving the village and possessed a healing factor second to none. The Voice thanks the spectators and the Esteemed Tribunal for their attention."
"I thought the idea was for me to lose this case?" Mana smirked while Overcoat sat down.
"I could have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that you were Guru Ayushi himself and the case would have still been long closed. Let me have some fun here…" the Voice winked to the magician.
"What the Voice of the accused says raises some fine points." Yurisa Akimichi nodded. "I don't believe we will get to the bottom of this without questioning at least some of the witnesses."
"Agreed. Given the subject of the specific data being evaluated here, I would advise summoning before the Tribunal someone from the ground, who was there that day and has seen the accused and Guru Ayushi." Kikuzen Shimura seconded the notion.
"The International Ninja Tribunal calls Tori Gomato, the instructor in the Ninja Academy." The secretary stood up and called out to the audience.
The fact that a respected and even at times revered instructor in the Ninja Academy had some input in the matter, the frightening revelation that whatever had happened may have involved children shook Mana's heart deep down. Her cold and indifferent act burnt down under the worry and anticipation of what the woman she once substituted in the Academy would say.
With grace and dignity, the world's most confident and perfect posture, Tori Gomato appeared before the Tribunal and sat beside on one of the lower platforms, the opposite side to the Tribunal secretary. Mana tried to catch the glimpse of the woman's eyes but Tori did not look back at her.
"You do realize that you cannot lie while seated beside the Ninja Tribunal, correct? Failure to observe this duty might lead to disciplinary measures such as suspension or termination of your own ninja license as well as having to face responsibility in front of the Tribunal yourself." The secretary briefly ran down the fact that someone called witness in front of the Tribunal, or rather beside them, could not speak lies.
"I am very well aware of this fact, thank you." Tori Gomato tipped her lips in an arc upwards while her eyes remained static and even flared a bit of shade at the secretary for questioning her knowledge of the Ninja Tribunal proceedings when she taught the subject to children and managed to make kids less than ten years old understand the intricacies of the legal procedures in the village.
"In that case, could you please tell the Tribunal about your experience with the events that have transpired and that are being discussed today?" the secretary smiled back, either oblivious to the woman's shade or just choosing to respond to it in kind.
"It was time past the studying hours of most classes." Tori began. "The consensus was to take some of the volunteers from all classes that I instructed to the Training Grounds No. 27, the classes were returning from an educational tour through the Administration building, the upper floors, the kids were, in a manner uncharacteristic for children their age overjoyed to see office clerks and even have Lord Seventh himself speak to them and invite them to his office. It was then that I picked up Nakotsumi Mana-san dashing in at high speeds, she was switching between the rooftop layers and the ground layer, she seemed to be in a rush as she was avoiding the usual ninja speed traffic up above. That's a mild violation of rules already, it was then that the kids started cheering, I noticed a cloaked figure behind her. My first instinct was that Mana-san was being attacked and I instructed the kids, those that have not already split off and gone home with my permission, to run off home through secure streets, following evacuation protocols. I told them it was a surprise exam of how well they knew the protocols. Then I pulled my rapier and attempted to assist Mana-san but by then the shroud was in full effect and the barrier was up. Given how odd symbols traced up and down the barrier and the shroud's color mimicked that of the standard poison clouds, I chose to wait and see if my hand is needed to the responders instead of charging head-on. Around twenty to forty minutes later the barrier and the shroud all dissolved as suddenly as they appeared, only the unconscious survivors remained in the area. I have nothing further to say of my own accord."
"You appear to know the accused, is that true?" Laorth Karatachi from Otogakure rested his head onto his knuckle and leaned forward to better see the witness as he addressed her.
"Yes. She has substituted me in a mission some years back. I have come to know her as a girl who, while not perfect or prodigious in any meanings of the words, tries to be that way at all times. I do respect Mana-san and the work she does." Tori Gomato nodded, as she did so, the woman did not acknowledge Mana in any way, she spoke directly to the Tribunal without looking the magician's way.
"And how did that mission go?" Judge Sheniyur wondered. It became self-evident he was in the organization's pockets – he knew.
"This appears to be unrelated to the events being investigated." Tokui Kyuri objected, speaking up after a handful of moments of appearing to have fallen asleep.
"On the contrary, it might characterize the accused for us a tad. It might help to reach the verdict." Judge Kikuzen objected, supporting his fellow Konoha Ninja Council member.
"The character of the accused does not matter. The facts and the exact nature of the events that transpired that day do. I do believe this is irrelevant." The Mizukage expressed his own doubts about the relevance of the issue.
"Nakotsumi Mana was there during the incident that caused the incident that destroyed the Ninja Academy and led to the death of the Konohagakure jounin Hozuki Shibari," Tori stated. Her expression suggested disdain for the forced manner in which the Tribunal made her admit this but she was blunt and to the point nevertheless.
"That's nonsense! The Yamanaka caused that incident!" the spectators started getting unruly. "It was a Yamanaka girl that set off the incident!"
"Order!" Nokubi Sarutobi pounded the table with her fist and turned to the witness. "Could you respond to the audience though? Some of us are not from Konoha and we might use you shedding some light on that incident."
"Certainly, while it was a Yamanaka girl that tampered with the mind of one of the victims of the disappearances that were occurring in the village at the time, technically, she was under Mana-san's care as it was Mana-san who was in charge in the classroom that day. Mana-san did her best to limit the spread of the incident, risked her own life to prevent casualties, nobody blames her for what had happened that day and there was not even a Tribunal session hosted for that incident involving Mana-san, however, the blunt facts of the matter are as I have stated them."
Mana raised her hand. Judge Yurisa smiled with kind and sizeable cheeks at the magician while giving her the permission to speak.
"I'd like to change my plea. I did it, I hurt Guru Ayushi." She declared.
"Talking about things not in the plan…" Overcoat sighed after whispering to her ear.
