It surprised Mana to see the skeleton of the Allied Ninja HQ standing tall when she came back to the Allied Ninja encampment. The workers were still hustling with the interiors of the building so the barracks and the massive field of tents hadn't yet moved in. Still, the stance of an hourglass-shaped building supported by thick beams from all sides as it grew and upgraded was noticeable enough to draw the eye whenever one walked through the area.
Walking came much simpler to Mana these days, and she had missed it enough to just go on walks for no particular reason. Because of that, she had plenty of occasions to see the growing hive of coming and going ninja agents and bureaucracy necessary to keep that entire system going. The prosthetic leg Damisan gifted her worked splendidly. The few stumbles and failures that Mana experienced were entirely because of her own incompetence at puppeteering it.
Damisan had changed too. Mana only needed to mention it once before he began scolding himself for being so inconsiderate and tinkered on the prosthetic to use three strings instead of one. According to him, a lone string may have been too complicated for someone with no experience in puppeteering and the general rule of thumb with puppets was that the more strings one used, the more cluttered the configuration, though generally, it was much simpler to control. Even if a master could control ten hundred-armed puppets with one finger and one string, it was much simpler to employ ten fingers to control one ten-armed puppet. Even if in the highest skill levels of puppetry, there was simply no difference in the ease of control between a master controlling the former compared to the novice controlling the latter.
It took Mana one day to get the hang of controlling her leg with three wires and, upon seeing that, Damisan gladly undid all the work he did to make the leg bend to one's command with three wires back to one. Sometimes Mana felt uncomfortable about the amount of care and support she received from the returned puppeteer. When she confronted Damisan about it, the Allied Ninja just dismissed it as a chance for him to get included more in Mana's business, which he saw as a welcome change.
The Stars had the whole of one day to get accustomed back to their new/old routines before a shake-inducing yell echoed through the encampment that made the bustling Allied Ninja and clerks managing their workload stiffen up and turn toward the northmost wing of the camp.
"STARS! GET YOUR FUCKING ASSES TO MY FUCKING OFFICE, RIGHT FUCKING NOW!"
Mana and Damisan heard the howl all the way from an empty patch of wasteland where Mana practiced working with her new prosthetic. She never had to employ a finger to control her missing part of the leg and maintain balance. It made Mana more reliant on one-handed hand seals and it made her aware of a drastic need to always keep her unique method of movement in mind. No longer could she simply improvise on the fly, not until moving her leg with precise twitches of her finger became a habit as ordinary for her as moving a calf normally used to be.
More times than one Endo put the tip of his sword down under Mana's neck with an overjoyed smile because Mana's brain melted down over the stress of having to micromanage combat strategy, motor skills, and the puppetry of her limb, even if it required just one finger to pull off. Endo became a more frequent guest to Mana's training because of his constant demands for training with him. Thankfully, the apprentice samurai had always been blunt and was never embarrassed about his said bluntness so he easily spilled the beans on the fact that he just wanted the satisfaction of getting the better of someone known as "the God Killer" to pirates listening to the tales of Pirate Lord Blue's crew. Damisan appreciated not having to spar with Mana too since he could oversee Mana's improvement from afar this way, which, according to him, he preferred, though Mana would've loved to spend more time alone with the returning Stars member.
By the time Mana, Endo, and Damisan made it to the Supreme Leader's tent, paled-out Shige-H and standoffish Asuka were already standing inside with the tent being wide open to the rest of the Stars when they joined in on the impromptu meeting. Shige-H stood with her back straight like a chord. Her forehead had been damp with sweat even though her skin was a shade brighter than usual. Asuka, on the other hand, stood slouched and gave punkish looks to anyone acknowledging her. The last trio of the Stars made their way into the Supreme Leader's tent and bowed on the floor.
"Never-fucking-mind that shit!" the Supreme Leader slipped her hat off and slammed it down on her table. "What in the name of a shitting cock is this fucking tit!?"
It has been a while, so Mana had to repeatedly re-remind herself that the Supreme Leader meant only half of the curse words she said and it was flat-out impossible to realize when she was angry and when she was just communicating in her own signature, extremely coarse and offensive way.
"That is my debriefing on the Mana Retrieval mission, ma'am!" Shige-H answered after a deep and audible gulp.
"An ass spout of bloody cum is what this fucking fart is!" the Supreme Leader slammed her hands on the desk. With her outrage becoming less heart attack inducing and more like an everyday occurrence, Mana noted that all the Regimental Commanders had gathered in the tent. This wasn't to be just an ordinary flack for a faulty debriefing. There was another purpose to this unceremonious meeting.
"All I can fucking see in this splatter of a leper's diarrhea is that you four dick-nuggets scum-fucked each other on some rotten-ass boat and then you sign it off with "The Four-Tails is no longer a tangible asset for the Allied Ninja". There has to be a sprinkle of baby juice somewhere that explains it in fucking delightful detail, yet I no matter how hard I spread my pudenda, I CAN'T FUCKING SEE IT!" the Supreme Leader ground her teeth. Her eggplant-colored hair curled and spiked up after a rough removal of her tight military-style hat, which must have been the reason for this unethical hairdo situation.
"Ma'am, I was not there when Mana unsealed the Four-Tails. Mana only informed me that the Four-Tails is no longer under her control," Shige-H stiffened up and shifted her gaze up to avoid the absolute battery of the Supreme Commander's drilling. "Yet, as the Stars' leader, debriefing is my responsibility. Besides, Mana's activities before our rendezvous are not a part of her retrieval mission and are therefore irrelevant to the report."
The resulting unintelligible roar made Mana's senses check out, leaving her staggering and dull-eyed for a few seconds before a blink revitalized her blank eyes and rebooted her sensory system. Even though telling when the Supreme Leader was just being Supreme Leader and when she was mad was impossible, this time, Mana had a hunch that the commander of the Allied Ninja forces was more than a little peeved. Shige-H's mouth waved and stretched out in a downward arc as the Stars' leader had no clue of how to respond to an inquiry such as that one.
"Mana!" the Supreme Leader turned to the magician. Somehow, in a feat that impressed even herself, Mana pressed her prosthetic foot to her living one and tightened her stance within the formation and absolutely no-sold the terror-inducing shift in the Supreme Leader's direction of inquiry. "What the fuck did you do to our sky-scraping, fire-breathing and magma-throwing, four-tailed gorilla that cumdumped our fucking forces!? Please explain to me how the fuck does one lose something like that!?"
"I didn't lose it, ma'am. I made a deliberate decision to release it," Mana answered. Before the Supreme Leader could explode from seething ire, Mana spoke up again. "By deliberate decision, I, of course, mean that I made a strategic move that necessitated two whole commands at once from the Tailed Beast, at which point, I ran out of pillars of the seal holding the beast contained, and it was freed from the seal."
"Could you perhaps explain the situation to us so that we can better understand your move, Mana?" Regimental Commander Harcel spoke up with a strict look on his face. The sharp and piercing stare suggested that the only reason the Regimental Commander wasn't losing himself like his superior was that he was too respectful of Mana's strength, which, in his eyes, justified anything. "As field commander Shige-H said, she was not present during your little pirate adventure that left us a weapon of mass destruction short in a world that expects us to have one, due to, of course, the loose lips of the Stars themselves."
"The islanders of Polybius Island have made a pact of some sort with The Inshirrinbu. Because of its involvement, I had to command the Tailed Beast to provide me with the chakra necessary to reverse its illusion and force its essence into an avatar. I then had to command the Tailed Beast to protect Polybius, it is a command that the Tailed Beast follows and will have to follow until… Frankly, I'm not sure when," Mana pondered on the issue. "The Five Pillars Seal is too ancient and there're too few sources to properly explain how continuous commands work. However, by issuing a continuous command, I unified the Four-Tails with the seal itself."
"Huh…" the eastern Regimental Commander pouted like a child. "Can you maybe stop making it sound so convoluted? It's too early in the morning to think so much…"
"Perhaps a reduction in sweets would reduce the instances of a sugar crash, Regimental Commander Gokami?" the southern Regimental Commander spoke up, looking to be relatively unimpressed but also unbothered by the situation being discussed during the meeting. "Though I agree you should let us know what exactly your move entails for us. After all, the attack of the Four-Tails has caused us immense casualties and wrought destruction to our very HQ that has never been toppled since the origins of our organization. I shouldn't need to remind you that, at one point, we've been feuding with pretty much the entire rest of the world."
"The Four-Tails will never be used against the Allied Ninja again," Mana replied with a calm demeanor. "Because of the continuous nature of the order I've issued, the chakra of the Five Pillars Seal became one with the Tailed Beast itself. For that reason, the Five Pillars Seal cannot be used to enslave it again, not until all traces of the previous Five Pillars Seal are removed."
"Is such a thing possible?" Regimental Commander Boriya asked before crossing her arms. She looked grumpy and trigger-happy enough to dash up and flatten every member of the Stars, though that seemed to be her general default attitude.
"It is," Mana nodded. "Though it would require either the completion of the order I've issued, which is impossible because it compels the Tailed Beast to protect Polybius, which is an order that cannot be completed, or to kill the Four-Tails. In the latter case, the chakra of the Four-Tails would reform upon being expunged into the world violently, which, I suspect, would reconstitute the Tailed Beast fresh from the seal's influence when it reincarnates."
"Shit, if someone's tough enough to kill the damned thing, we should be afraid of them, not the Tailed Beast. And if it hates us that much that they're willing to fight a Tailed Beast over it, chances are–they'd hit us with it or without it," Boriya turned to the rest of the committee with her judgment on the issue.
"I must agree that while it is regrettable that we no longer possess a weapon of such massive power, the rest of the ninja world doesn't know that, do they? Quite the contrary, they have solid proof that our agents do indeed dispose of that power at their discretion. That can be quite a favorable deterrent for us until we regain our full strength," Regimental Commander Harcel concluded his stance on the matter.
"Not to mention, the Four-Tails would have eventually become a headache for us, right?" the southern Regimental Commander pointed out. "Every time Mana was pushed to having to use it, the clock of the seal was ticking down to the beast's inevitable release. I'd go as far as to say that what Mana did spared us a massive problem in the future. She appears to have safely disposed of the beast while assigning it to a relatively harmless cause."
"Whatever, this is boring. Can we vote on something already?" Regimental Commander Gokami began zipping his colorful unicorn-style Kigurumi up and down as a way of keeping himself engaged and preventing a snooze from taking hold of him.
"There's nothing to fucking vote on, you prepubescent motherfucker!" the Supreme Leader straightened out and crossed her arms. Despite her general attitude sounding just as obnoxious and offensive, she appeared to have calmed down in terms of the volume of her voice and her body language. "We've just wasted precious manpower to retrieve Mana from Getsugakure, so why the fuck would we punt her petite ass back out there?"
Mana looked diagonally down and to the right but caught herself midway between glancing at her rear. Realizing she'd look embarrassing if she reacted to this remark this way, she pulled her eyes away and make the save by acting as if she looked down due to shame over her actions even if there was none present.
"So, the issue's settled, then?" Regimental Commander Boriya turned to the Supreme Leader with her arms crossed and a grumpy look. "If we're not voting on anything, I've got work to do."
"Before we scatter, if I may, Supreme Leader…" Regimental Commander Harcel raised his hand. "I'd like to request the services of the Stars on a matter in Kumogakure. We've spoken about it before, it's related to all the incidents in the factories…"
"You snooze, you lose, too fucking bad, Harcel," the Supreme Leader flipped her officer's cap over her head and tightened its hold on her scalp. "Mushin already arranged the next mission for the Stars and I agree with Mushin that they're simply perfect for that mission. That being said, your mission's a hotspot, you better crawl on your fucking knees into my office before the end of the day and give me the list of ninja you want to send there."
"A pity but… Will do," Harcel shook his head before shrugging.
"Alright, rest of you, get the fuck outta my office. I've got to brief these dick-nuggets and send them off, go jerk each other off or something…" the Supreme Leader waved her hand with a disgruntled show of her canines. The Regimental Commanders stood up and left the Supreme Leader's tent with no rush to leave. All except the southern one.
Despite his rugged and handsome appearance, Mana still fostered a dislike of the man ever since he called Skaven a scoundrel and assumed that the Stars had assassinated him after finding out the fact he was working for the Konohagakure Black Ops. The nonchalant manner in which he addressed ending human life just ticked Mana off the wrong way so she had to employ the thought that she won't be working with this man but under him on this mission several times to stay cool-headed and not change her expression since the Supreme Leader drilled her.
"Alright, hit them with that shit," the Supreme Leader waved her hand at the calm Regimental Commander who didn't move from his seat one inch or shift his body since the discussion of the Four-Tails' fate.
"Before I do, I'd like to know how much I need to say. How aware each of you is of the Sun Disc arena in the Wind Country?" the southern Regimental Commander Mushin asked, scanning the lined-up Stars with a piercing gaze of deep blue eyes. Despite the pristine shine of his eyes, the rest of his spiky and brown, rugged exterior made the man look more like a shaggy woodsman than a military commander.
"Never heard of it, Mushin-san!" Shige-H answered boldly, with a straight and stiff back. Mana raised her right eyebrow, wondering if that could have been the case. To her, it felt like the Stars' leader merely feigned ignorance to have the leadership explain the place's history and significance to the rest of the team.
"It's a gladiatorial martial arts arena hosting constant events and tournaments. Supposed to be the best place in the world for that sort of stuff…" Endo burrowed his fingers under his gi and scratched his shoulders while giving his most sincere answer.
"It belongs to the Agbarah Sheikhate, one of the more prosperous and powerful Sheikhates in the Wind Country. As Endo said, they accumulate most of their wealth from extraordinary gladiatorial tournaments and combat events. I used to hear rumors that the place had become a massacre ground and that martial artists were being held prisoner there and were being butchered to sate the audience's bloodlust, but those rumors have all but vanished lately," Damisan recounted. "Because of the active civil war going on in the region between the Fennec's forces and the united military of the Sunagakure and the Sheikhs, it is a potential hotspot for future conflict though. It's located further west and is difficult to approach without crossing Sunagakure's supply lines."
"Mana's been a champion of one of those tournaments and is known as the Goddess of Martial Arts, one of two, I believe. Because she buggered off immediately after obtaining that title, she's never had the chance to defend or lose it," Asuka turned to Mana with a devious smirk. As expected from someone who had been researching the magician and looking for ways to kill her throughout most of her adolescent life, Asuka knew a lot about the place that had a relation to Mana and her history.
"Everyone else sort of already said what I had to say," Mana admitted after closing her eyes. "I recall being a welcome visitor to the Agbarmahal and, if necessary, we could gain access through one of these combat events. I don't see the locals being too interested in stage magic with all the feverish excitement around them every day…"
"Well, it appears that I have little to explain in this case. The key information in the relevant case is that the Agbarah Sheikhate is a "kidney of the desert" of sort. From within that location, one may access most trade routes and supply lines leading through most of the other Sheikhates and Sunagakure. Also, one might stab right at the Sunagakure's back if they own Agbarah and possess potent military presence there which is why it has been an unobtainable dream of the Fennec's forces," Regimental Commander Mushin said, leaning to the front and pressing his greaves against the silver knee guard with a soft ring.
"Please don't tell me…" Damisan's eyes blazed up and Mana felt his body quake in place.
"Stand the fuck down and don't be fucking stupid, you dickwad! Fennec's ain't a country so we've no use in blowing him this hard so that we win his tournaments for him," the Supreme Leader barked out. "Of course, we're not going to claim it for Fennec. In fact, when discussing this clusterfuck, both I and Regimental Commander here had you and your cutesy little revenge quest in our heads. It's just fricking perfect, I tell you!"
"Something has happened in the Agbarah Sheikhate lately. Many interpret the recent lavishness and unheard-of grandeur of the events as the Sheikh dying of old age and the rumor's going around that the champion of his next biggest event might be offered the entire Agbarmahal as the prize. Naturally, we expect Fennec to send some of his scoundrels to compete. With stakes in this situation, neither you nor Mana will need to justify your presence there and we stand to win much from preventing Fennec from winning," Regimental Commander Mushin reported bluntly before turning solemn. "You six better watch out, though. Not only will you be competing against warriors from around the world of all combat traditions, but also… Some troubling rumors have reached us an unheard and highly fearsome party of unknown allegiance plans on competing in the tournament too. This news reached us from your old pal Skaven back in Konoha, who skimmed this intel our way for old time's sake."
"Konoha plans to send a party to join the tournament too?" Mana wondered. Otherwise, there'd be no use in Skaven scrounging for such intel.
"It is likely. Konohagakure does still treasure its peace treaties with the Sunagakure and would hate to see the Kazekage replaced by some insurgent bandit scumbag like Fennec," Regimental Commander Mushin shrugged. "Your mission, Stars, is to enter that tournament and see to it that neither Fennec nor this Chaos Factor, if you will, wins the tournament. If you choose to assassinate Fennec's fighters and those of the Chaos Factor or sabotage them, that'll do, but you should stay and make sure that no replacements fight in their stead."
After so many years, it would appear that Mana would once again end up seeing the walls of the Sun Disc arena from the inside of the circular ring.