"Absolutely not," the Konoha member of the Allied Ninja objected. He turned away and began acting as if he was nonchalantly walking away from the conversation before noticing that he was the only one doing so.
"She is a local." The ninja from Kumogakure with the uncanny speed scratched his chin. "She also displays a very unhealthy interest in this case which means she's willing to go some lengths to solve it."
"I'm a local and how is that a good thing?" the tall man crossed his arms.
"I am a sensor. I can be of some help," Mana tried building up her case.
"She has a point," the woman in the Allied Ninja, Rushira, pointed at Mana's direction. "Sensors are pretty useful and wanted in most teams. It wouldn't be smart of us to decline help from one."
"Interesting, how experienced are you?" Cailar, the Allied Ninja with the stylish hair, appeared intrigued by Mana's proposition as well. "If you're barely training your gift and can merely confirm or deny the presence of chakra that will not be of that much use to us."
"I can sense chakra from at least kilometers away. I can accurately gauge the number of signatures, tell signatures I've felt before apart from others, sense irregularities in signatures I've felt before such as genjutsu or other disruptions. I am not wasting my sensory." Mana explained. She may have undersold her complete range but she wanted to rather undersell it and be confident than to try and theorize about her exact limits.
"That does sound impressive but I am against it. The mission at hand will get too dangerous for a standard village ninja. The Allied Ninja already have their opponents in every country offering ninja to the organization, our actions are under a very close scrutiny and we do not need deaths of young ninja, especially ones that dabble in being superstars on their spare time." The tall Konoha ninja shook his head in bitter disagreement.
Mana was not entirely sure what his problem was. She clearly established that her participation would have some perks to offer and she wanted this more than she wanted most things recently. She would go above and beyond her limits and what was expected to work on this plaguing mystery. Perhaps it was his slight familiarity with the magician's family that led the ninja to be such an active opponent of the idea?
"Well, if Junichi is against it, I cannot agree with this either. I'm sorry, Konoha's Sorceress. I have come to trust Junichi's judgment over time working together." Rushira sighed. She looked genuinely fired up about the idea initially but seeing her more experienced colleague disagree almost as passionately and with some hidden determination fueling his decision made the woman follow his gut as well.
"All of you are crazy, if this will get as dangerous as Junichi thinks it might, we will need everyone pitching in we can get. It would be especially helpful if a sensor can tip us off beforehand that we are all about to go to sleep and get our heads cut off because of some fricking illusion," the Kumogakure Allied Ninja sneered at Junichi with irritation.
"Well?" Rushira looked at Cailar. "It seems that S-Crew has made his decision and put Sorceress' participation back on the table".
"Heh, if Junichi is all against it, I am most definitely all for it." Cailar smiled with a shrug. His motives for taking the magician up for her request may have been a bit more elaborate than just the need to oppose everything the Konoha ninja did or every decision he made but the Allied Ninja played it off for laughs.
"Fine, we don't have time for tie-breakers. You are free to work with us on this but if you have official village business getting in the way or if this gets too dangerous for you, you back out immediately." Junichi warned Mana.
"Okay," Mana nodded. The budding excitement in her heart made the tremble in her hands cease. Finally, she would be delving into the mystery of the disappearances that have been plaguing the village for a couple of years now. This pretty much was her dream mission ever since she became chuunin and the ambition inside her spread its horizons much wider than ever before. As a genin, she could not have ever had hoped to participate in something like this but as a chuunin, she just may have…
"I've been away from the village for a long time," Junichi spoke up, he did not look at Mana as he spoke making it difficult to tell if he was addressing her or the entire group. "Could you perhaps fill me in on everything the locals know of these disappearances? Rumors may not be official information but given how the official intelligence is extremely slim, we're willing to get started on anything."
"In all honesty, the case deserves its reputation," Mana replied. "People of all layers of society disappear from time to time. Some of them are never heard of again, some of them return and some of those people that do awaken strange abilities. Closer inspection reveals their entire anatomies being altered to a freaky degree."
"Freaky? Is that some kind of Konoha term?" S-Crew joked.
"One of the genin that has reappeared has discovered an ability to become completely invincible to physical harm. When a Yamanaka teammate of mine peered into his mind she spoke of it as if his entire body was a swarm of a kind. Like every cell in his body was an organism of its own and they all worked together perfectly."
"Freaky. Got it…" S-Crew gulped. Mana could not help but wonder if this jester truly was a part of the Allied Ninja.
"It is a possibility that we're dealing with a Quack of an extremely high rank." Rushira raised a theory.
"That would be impossible." Junichi shut her down. "Konoha is well aware of every Quack in its territory and none of them go beyond scavenging organs and elementary black market patch-ups."
"Who knows, you've been away for a long time, weren't you?" Cailar shrugged with a certain flair of smug in his smirk. "Maybe one of those lowlifes ranked up a bit."
"I'd have to agree with Junichi-san with this." Mana voiced her own thoughts even if she wondered just how seriously they would be taken in this group of Allied Ninja. She was not in any way familiar with her role in this team at all and was just dipping her toes at this point. "For a Quack to be able to reform someone's anatomy like this… They'd have to be beyond what we know even S-Rank medical ninja capable of."
"There aren't that many S+ Rank medical ninja going about, is there?" Junichi nodded with his eyes closed. While he was a very strong opponent of this theory, the very thought it was being entertained and that it had even the slimmest chance of being proven right appeared to intimidate the giant to his very core.
"Oh, man… We've barely even started and we don't know what to examine first." S-Crew dragged his hand over his face.
"Of course, there is a reason why this mystery is labeled as such and why Konoha has not solved it yet," Rushira cheeked her colleague.
"We need to question everyone we know to have reappeared. Examine every known place of disappearance, even if the tracks have long since gone cold." Junichi raised a valid point for a beginning of the investigation.
"Yes, I am sure Konoha has not yet had that bright idea…" Cailar raised an eyebrow.
"Of course they questioned and even probed every reappearing villager mentally. Regardless, it is the standard procedure. We need to close off every conventional method before we delve elsewhere." Junichi grumbled.
"You cannot be thinking about closing all exits and then shutting the investigation down?" Rushira shook her head at her more experienced colleague.
"What do you mean?" Mana inquired.
"It's how dead or hopeless investigations go, the ninja closes off any potential "exits" that may lead to a new discovery in the case before shutting it down. That's cold." Cailar replied.
"I do not dismiss the possibility of the mystery being hopeless and impossible to solve given the standard investigative measures, that being said, we better get the procedural chaff out of the way. Let's give our young tag-along some experience into the real Allied Ninja work…" Junichi smiled with just the very tips of his lips.
The procedural parts of the ninja work were just as pointless as initially thought. The Allied Ninja proceeded to knock on every door, question as many people as they could who may have known anything about anything related to these disappearances before examining the places where people have disappeared from as well as trekking outside the village to do the same with places of interest outside the village.
"Well, that sure was pointless…" S-Crew lowered his hands down.
"Perhaps. But now we can begin the real investigation, the procedural chaff is out the way, it is time to show what separates the Allied Ninja from just any village ninja." Junichi closed his eyes, he may have appeared to have nodded off but Mana sensed the giant to be quite focused. He was merely sifting through his vast mind, looking for valid points of interest to start from. The magician was not a stranger to such a strategy herself, shutting down a sense to streamline the focus onto what was truly important.
"It will be much simpler to look for those that wish to remain hidden at night anyway." Mana sighed with a weary smile, attempting to make the situation a little bit lighter after seeing everyone a bit on edge from all the interrogating and examining random places for something that so obviously was not there anymore.
"Negative. Straining ourselves and wasting chakra optimizing our awareness after a sleepless night would be counterproductive. Especially when we know we may be walking into a nasty fight." Junichi calmly disagreed.
"You're just saying that because you're itching to see your wife and kids after four years." Cailar leaned in on the giant with a playful tease.
"So what if I am, your time would be better spent looking for a place to sleep." The man calmly played off the teasing as a serious case.
"Actually, if it is okay, I'd like to maybe spend the night with you guys. There might be much I could learn from you and there is a lot to discuss about this mystery." Mana suggested.
"Forget it, kid. Our job hours are over. Go and catch some Z's" S-Crew shrugged it off.
"S-Crew raises a fine point. We'll be paying more for a larger room and we are accountable to the Allied Ninja for our spending, seeing how they are covering it." Rushira nodded at her comrade's direction after giving Mana a soft and apologetic glare.
"Plus, having a celebrity around would really disturb our rest," Cailar said.
"Look at that, Cailar actually on the same page with something. Must be a first." Junichi thundered out in a serious tone and a stoic face even if the content of his words suggested teasing. "In any case, the job's over for today. Scatter."
Taking his own advice, the tall and bulky man turned around and, hands in his pockets, walked off to the north-eastern districts of the village. Mana could not believe it. This was single-handedly the most important mystery in the recent history of her village. An enigma that has made hundreds of villagers disappear with only around a quarter of them either reappearing or being accounted for, a riddle that has indirectly caused multiple other curious cases all over the village like the incident in the Ninja Academy.
The Allied Ninja just stopped working after six hours of useless, procedural fluff to walk off their own ways and lay low. If Mana cared this little about her job, she'd have never achieved anything in Shukuba, she'd have never done half of what she managed not to screw up throughout her entire career.
Rushira looked at the magician with concern and was about to speak up. Perhaps Mana failed to be as subtle with her inner feelings as she wanted to be, a ninja should not have allowed something like that to surface. Not over something like this. The girl closed her eyes. In any case, she was still on the case, she was working with an international organization that knew no bounds in terms of authority except that of their own. They would never let the Hokage's word or personal history get in the way of the job.
Even if this day was done, there was nothing to be mad about… Mana desperately tried injecting this train of thought into her mind but it came off with varied results.
This may have been just an assignment for these four but to Mana, it was so much more. It was her chance to work on something that would make a difference, something important. There was so much thick, unexplored mist spreading behind these disappearances that the intrigue could never let Mana fall asleep.
The girl followed the example set by her superiors from abroad and turned to the direction of her home. She wouldn't admit it even to herself, but the few fans that did stop her for a short chat or just to say hello may have encountered a much more obsessed and rushing idol than they were used to seeing. Home could not have laid further on the horizon, tomorrow could not have come sooner…
Father was oddly content. Mother looked a little bit worn out but she also had a subtle grin on her face. Something was off… For a man in constant, crippling pain, there had to be something going on to make father this happy. Sure, since discovering under the counter herb concoctions sold in the village stands he was happier more often than before when all the treatment he got was what he got from the hospital but…
"We fixed the automated spikes for you," father explained, looking proud of himself and his wife.
"We is putting it strongly. I just followed instructions and had working hands…" mother shrugged. All the technical mumbo-jumbo of Mana's death traps she used on-stage could not have appealed to her any less but she did look somewhat delighted that this little tinkering brought her family closer together, made them smile for once.
"That's actually… Pretty convenient. I was going to postpone doing that for a short while. Something important came up…" Mana dragged her trembling hand over her messy, dark hair.
It did not take long for father to express curiosity and use some of his trademark ingenuity to press on Mana's reasons for doing something she would never have done otherwise.
"You did not get a letter, because we're the first line for that. Can't be official village business. I do recall you looking pretty grumpy and coming back early one morning, can't be the whole Intelligence Division thing…" father started listing things. Lists and blueprints were where he excelled. Diagrams, data and the sort were the only things that made sense to him. It was only rational that he would approach his own daughter through some sort of a spreadsheet or a chart.
"I'm doing a little assistance gig on the whole disappearance thing." Mana could not contain her obsessions inside. Both of her hands began trembling at the same time when the lid came off and the contents of her soul came spilling. Father's eyes were quick to notice, he was someone with a great deal of experience with nerves and the wrong ways they could trigger.
"I see, heard the Allied Ninja are putting in some effort. It's not every day that we get that kind of attention." The man did not speak of what truly plagued his mind. What made his eyes go sour while the rest of his face remained the same. It was just how men were…
"It's not every day that the village accepts it. Fourth may have been one of the core supporters for the idea but most villages still believe the safest hands to handle their files to still be their own." Mana's eyes shimmered as she looked up with dumpling-holding chopsticks still tightly gripped in her arm.
"Yeah, I suppose the whole shroud of international superhero would appeal to you…" father grinned. He made a very conscious decision to hide his eyes by closing them though. He did not want to seem fake or to show his hand that was full of concern. "That's not really how reality is though. Don't get your hopes up too much or overextend."
"How can't I?" Mana exclaimed like a girl asked out by a boy she liked. "It's the disappearances case, working alongside the Allied Ninja!"
Father sighed. He looked concerned about something but all Mana could see and the only conclusion she could draw was one coming from the words he actually let out. "I see… That's nice…"
A dark, cold void. It was a breathless feeling that Mana was not used to currently. Given the whole rebirth of nature that was going on around her and some of the warmest spring that Konoha had gone through, it was nothing remarkable. The asphyxiating sense of dread and emptiness was slowly dimming out. Warmth began seeping into the magician's nostrils, caressing her cheeks, rays of light began reaching her vision from the limitless vastness of the universe around her.
It was a star, far, far away in the distance. Twinkling and spreading its warmth out wide into the cosmos. That was what had warmed her all along in this curious journey… It was getting warm… The star's flames appeared to do little of the breathless helplessness Mana felt and soon her entire body started twitching. She was accelerating right at the core of the star at speeds beyond her comprehension or imagination…
No. The star was not coming closer, neither was Mana, the magician was standing still along! Just floating, it was the star that was expanding as if fueled by something amazing, booming into every reaches of space. The intense pressure and heat of its contents raised Mana up from the bed, just soon enough to hear a cry far out in the distance. It was like a roar, one from something in a whole lot of pain.
It must have been just a dream… Mana's sensory was going nuts, she felt something scary far out in the distance, a signature as wide as the star she had felt before but it was not the feeling that burning up in her gut. It was just an after-sense of sorts. This sound she heard… This immeasurable chakra… None of it truly remained now, just echoes of them, just faint enough to make Mana wonder if they were ever there, to begin with.