"Mana? Aren't you forgetting something?" Shige-H approached the magician from behind. "We've already got other engagements in Konoha. Something that sort of requires your presence when we look into it."
The leader of Stars was vague on purpose, trying to keep Hanshin in the dark about the fact that the Allied Ninja still had ulterior motives to merely Mana's magic show in being in Konoha. One had to hand it to the woman that she had a unique ability to point out the exact problems with the issue at hand without going into details, provided both parties knew what she spoke of.
Since the Allied Ninja would travel to the Naruto universe and seek answers about how to get to the moon, knowing that universe had contacted the moon before, and since Mana was the one to make the initial contact between the two universes, Mana's presence when discussing the matter with the Seventh Hokage of that universe would have inflated their chances of cooperation many times over.
"That's okay. Things won't quite work out how we intended them to work out, anyway." Mana glanced back to soothe her superior's worries.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Skaven stabbed his glare at Mana.
"You've intended to travel to Naruto's universe, travel to the moon, and then return to our universe while on the moon, effectively transporting you to the moon on our universe as well, right?" Mana turned around while taking a few steps back to stand by Hanshin's side.
"That was one option we would have discussed, yes." Shige-H crossed her arms.
"That won't have worked–the moon was destroyed in Naruto's universe. An omniversal bunch of wanna-be gods smashed it to pieces before invading the Earth." Mana pointed out. "It is possible that someone had rebuilt the moon or made an artificial one but, in that case, the trajectory of the moon would be way off and we'd end up transporting to a lifeless void of open space in the end when crossing from one universe to the other while on the other universe's moon."
"That's a bit of a reach. We can find another Naruto universe where the moon wasn't smashed to pieces then." Shige insisted. "We don't have time for you to learn Armor Ninjutsu right now."
"We don't have the resources or the strength to oppose a Konoha Sannin either," Mana said. "Plus, if you're counting on that advantage of my acquaintance with Lord Seventh of that universe, if we seek out another universe, I'll not have met that version of Naruto so he won't know me. The only Naruto I've met is the one whose moon was destroyed."
"Ugh… This is making my head hurt…" Damisan whined out, rubbing his wrapped-up head.
"Tell Hanshin about it…" Hanshin closed his eyes. "It would be much easier if I just crushed these Allied Ninja, and we started your training."
"Why is it so important to you that Mana trains with you, anyway? You sound so high, mighty, and proud of your Armor Ninjutsu, what's the point of pissing an infamous kunoichi off like this and teaching her your core skill? Are you looking to have your ass handed to you?" Endo addressed the Konoha Sannin with crude disrespect that could have earned him his death. This time, however, Hanshin just laughed out with a deep and low-pitched bawl.
Endo let out an audible grunt as his body stretched out, each of his limbs extending to a different side as invisible, ethereal hands comprising the scales of Black Vicious grabbed hold of Endo from behind and subdued the young man to a crucifix-like position. The apprentice swordsman shouted out in pain as his stare turned dull and a large indentation around his gut suggested that Hanshin had used his armor to deliver a blow to the exposed core of the Allied Ninja. Once Black Vicious became undone, Endo collapsed on his knees, wheezing, coughing, and panting from the pain of the free hit he took.
"Make no mistake, Allied Ninja who stand in Hanshin's way. It makes no difference to Hanshin. It's just that Hanshin has promised Mana to teach her Armor Ninjutsu when the two worked together. The weight of that promise, the irksome, bothering nerve tick in Hanshin's brain…" the remarkable physical specimen of manliness grabbed hold of his head as if it had physically been causing him pain. "It hurts. It pisses Hanshin off to no end. Every time Hanshin tries enjoying superb wine or a deluxe steak, it's there. The promise, the wondering when or how should I fulfill it… I've come to the realization that in order for Hanshin to enjoy his life again, either Mana has to die making that promise void and impossible to fulfill, or Hanshin has to fulfill it. It makes no difference to Hanshin which."
"Mana. This is terrible timing." Shige pleaded with the ninja magician. "You know that there is an infinite number of different universes. With enough browsing, we can find one where Naruto has both met you and where the moon was not destroyed during that meeting."
Actually, such a universe would not have been too difficult to find. After all, unlike most other things and beings in the multiverse's vastness, there were one of each of the scientists with divine armor that have destroyed the moon, meaning that in all other cases of different versions of Mana meeting different versions of Naruto–the moon must have stayed intact unless some other factors came into play.
"Finding such a universe will take some time. If this is your goal, you won't achieve it tonight, anyway. If we approach Lord Seventh the following morning, it can only help us. We'll have more time to select the right universe and timeline while also our mission won't reek of desperation and hidden agenda to the Hokage." Mana found her answer with almost no hesitation.
"You won't learn Armor Ninjutsu overnight, you know. Even if Hanshin doesn't guide you through the entire process, it took Hanshin three years to complete the first stage and stumble into the basics of the technique." Hanshin crossed his arms and turned to Mana, looking curious about the mental processes going on in the magician's mind.
"You were a child back then, Hanshin-san. With a master of the technique by my side and with experience in far more complicated chakra control methods under my belt, it won't take long for me to grasp the basics and after that point, your aid won't be necessary–you'll have fulfilled your obligation to me." Mana shrugged. Then, the magician turned to the Stars with a kind smile and weaved a hand seal. After Mana sunk in a cloud of purple, smoke throwing star-shaped sparks in all directions, two copies of Mana stood one by the other.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu?" Skaven muttered to himself.
"If you think a clone can withstand Hanshin's training, you're sorely mistaken. Hanshin will smash that clone to pieces in a second. You absolutely will not leave a clone to learn Armor Ninjutsu!" Hanshin raised his fist up, objecting to Mana's proposition.
"You're right that the integrity of one clone won't last through the training, Hanshin-san, but it will be enough to talk to Naruto-san, won't it?" Mana bumped her fist with her doppelganger before it dispelled in a similar show of colorful smoke and starry sparks. The unusual properties of the appearance and disappearance of the clone had merely been signs of Mana's own tempering with the technique to make it feel more original and therefore to reduce that awful feeling of copying someone else's techniques in battle. It was something she'd have loved to do with all the unoriginal jutsu she used in battle in time.
"If you send a clone with us, that means we won't be able to carry out our plan to the end. All we'll be able to do is ask Hokage Naruto about the moon and how to get there. We won't be able to get there from Naruto's universe with your clone only carrying half your chakra." Shige informed Mana of something that the ninja magician had already been aware of.
"Maybe that's for the best. Information about getting to the moon is more important in this case. If we rush headfirst into trouble without apt knowledge, we risk being wiped out, and then no one will complete this mission. We're already following a cold trail, Shige. The Allied Ninja won't have the luxury to send another team after our failure–we're all those workers have." Mana and Shige shared looks that seemed to test each other's fortitude behind their respective positions. Shige sighed and caved at the end.
"Alright, let's go guys, find a room to stay in overnight. Mana's right, let's kick back and let Hokage know that we're celebrating a good show tonight. There's no reason to make the leader of Konoha suspicious of our presence here by rushing." Shige scratched the back of her neck while the Allied Ninja turned to leave Mana behind with her old acquaintance. "Don't keep us waiting, Mana."
"Yeah…" Mana nodded with a confident look.
"Cocky? That's good. Hanshin…" Hanshin was about to say.
"Hanshin loves crushing cockiness and seeing it crumble through his firm fingers like ground sand, right?" Mana glanced diagonally up at the muscular and thoroughly handsome individual beside her. "That's just such a Hanshin thing to say that I couldn't help but read it."
Hanshin reared his right canine side through his lips in a smirk of moderate excitement. Despite what he had said earlier, Hanshin's expression right now betrayed the fact that he never doubted his decision in choosing Mana to teach his craft.
"Just who did you think you were fooling with that "I couldn't care less" trick though, Hanshin-san?" Mana cackled while the two made their way to the training grounds. "You saved my life more than a few times back in Yordalar."
"The Allied Ninja don't know that." Hanshin closed his eyes.
"What was the real reason you approached me now, of all times, for?" Mana wondered while the two strolled through the flashy streets of nocturnal Konohagakure.
"You forget that our deal was bilateral. Hanshin sought to learn from you how to treat ninjutsu as art and attract people to him. It is for that reason that Hanshin could only approach you now when you've returned to your old self and became useful to Hanshin once more. After all, while Hanshin finds the artist an invaluable person to keep around, Hanshin doesn't care much about the depressed, edgy teen complaining about how harsh prison was and how unfair life is." Hanshin pointed out.
"Jigoku…" Mana muttered, realizing that Hanshin wouldn't have received his end of the deal from Mana how she was after leaving prison.
"No. You've changed long before that. In any case, Hanshin is glad to see you back. Finally, we can settle this." Hanshin looked up at the stars while the two left the village gate and turned to the forest path leading up to the opening in the training grounds.
"Hanshin will show you the basics of Armor Ninjutsu. From that point on, Hanshin will come at you with no hesitation. The point of Armor Ninjutsu is to protect you against a threat that would normally kill you, if it cannot accomplish this using Armor Ninjutsu–your Armor Ninjutsu is not good enough. If you want to join your friends again, you better develop your armor fast." Hanshin raised his fist up.
Mana closed her eyes, extending her senses as far from her body as possible. By now her chakra sensory had been more sensitive and well-developed than any sense she's had naturally. She's sacrificed a whole different sense to get chakra sensory right. There was much more devoted training involved with chakra sensory than there was with any other sense of Mana's. As an illusionist at heart, Mana knew how easy eyes and hearing could have been deceived far too well to rely on them too much.
"Hanshin would watch Hanshin closely if Hanshin was you. If you miss just one bit of this, you'll get killed, you know." Hanshin taunted Mana, but the magician's serenity did not falter for one moment.
"There is nothing you can do that my sensory would miss, Hanshin-san," Mana answered. Even if she couldn't see it, the change in the color of Hanshin's chakra signature, the vibrant ripples of gold, suggested that the confident answer he received thoroughly pleased him.
"Alright, one step at a time!" Hanshin smirked, lowering his arms to hang loosely by his side as Mana felt an air pressure form around Hanshin. A barely traceable container to the shape of Hanshin's body, making his chakra signature feel like it had been stuffed inside of a bottle. This must have been the first stage, manifesting one's chakra outside of one's body.
Without hesitation, Mana exclaimed, forming a shine of rippling aura around her body and mirroring Hanshin's steps in the first step perfectly. By now, she had so much experience in molding chakra outside of her own body that replicating this step was child's play.
"Not bad, but then again, if you weren't able to even do this much, I'd have probably killed you on the spot by accident." Hanshin beamed a cocky smirk in Mana's way before striking a flashy pose. The radiant aura around the imposing physical titan of a man tightened, becoming but a distinct, bright outline of his shape. A feat of immense focus that required moderate skill in chakra control and shape manipulation to achieve.
Mana blinked and replicated the feat. A dry gasp escaped the magician's chest as balance slipped from under Mana's feet. Because of this unexpected difficulty, her chakra burst outward like a blazing aura while Damisan approached Mana with his arms crossed, radiating his tightened outline as a carrot dangled over Mana's head.
"What's the matter? Hanshin thought you've practiced some of the most complicated chakra control concepts and would make quick work of Hanshin's training?" the Sannin sent a deathly stare down Mana's way as the color of his chakra switched to a malicious gleam, a black, ink-like outline splattered around the man's very presence. Mana could feel the change in a dreadful tone without even having to open her eyes.
Try as hard as she could, Mana couldn't contain her chakra to this focused and thin of a degree. Just when it seemed like she had made her chakra into a proper outline, but a thin thread wide, it exploded like torrential booms foaming in mockery of attempts to force an entire ocean into a container a bottle large. A crushing weight slammed on the top of Mana's head. Moist grass brushed against her cheeks before Hanshin forced his foot to stomp Mana's head to the ground and rub it there.
"If you lag behind, Hanshin will just have to keep moving and intensifying the pressure. If your body breaks in the process, you won't be able to join your friends on the moon. So, what will you do?" Hanshin taunted Mana with annoyed grumbles as he stomped on her back and kicked Mana aside. "Now! Focus your aura or the weight of Hanshin's fists will become unbearable!"
Pushing her body off the ground, Mana kicked up and clapped her hands together. She let out a proud cry as the ninja magician let her chakra erupt. Mana closed her eyes and imagined her booming power and spirit to be nothing more but a fleeting pigeon. If she could just reach out and grab it, she'd be able to keep it contained.
"Don't drop your guard!" Hanshin taunted Mana as an invisible shape dug into Mana's core. The taste of blood permeated in the young woman's mouth as she flew back as if hit by a sledgehammer to the chest. Mana dug her nails into the ground to stop her slide as blood and dirt scratched into the grass from where her knees left a deep ridge in her journey backward. Sharp pain in her throat made Mana stop and cough some blood up.
With despair swelling up inside her, Mana looked up. In the moment of her eyes opening up, her eyesight and her chakra sensory worked in unison to display a classic oriental-style samurai armor, manifesting as a construct of black chakra around Hanshin's body. His mastery over the Armor Ninjutsu had been unparalleled. Whereas normally it should have appeared like the armor floated over his body, it appeared as if the Sannin had worn the armor as if it had protected his very skin and touched against it. The same tightness of his compressed aura outline had manifested in perfect armor.
Now Mana had been two steps behind…
"From this step here, it gets serious. If you lag behind, Hanshin might just end up killing you." Hanshin extended his hands to the side, looking almost psychotic and excited about the concept. "If you can only complete the first step with all the high and mighty talk, I've heard this evening, I won't hesitate to kill you."
"Will he truly kill me?" Mana wondered to herself, closing her eyes again and feeling the crashing waves of despair washing over as a shapeless, titanic monster of rot stood tall from the waves. "He will!" Mana settled on the thought. The mental images of crying children that looked forward to a magic show and elementary entertainment of smoke and mirrors to carry them away from the routine of their day-to-day lives, the image of her friends struggling with anger, disappointment, and grief over her grave and her mother utterly broken beside them flashed past Mana's mind.
"I can't die here!" Mana yelled out, thrusting her fist out at the approaching dread of death. Her booming chakra washed like a stream of pumping water and slammed against the shapeless monster, but it only stopped him in place.
"Your power isn't half-bad, as someone who just manifested the first step, but it won't even scratch a focused armor. You're lashing out, slapping about like a hysterical woman, afraid of the wolf that's about to bite her throat out. Stop thrashing and reach for the weapon you hold within!" Hanshin scolded Mana as he crossed his arms and swiped them to the side, manifesting two swords in each of his armored hands and slashing through Mana's washing fist of unfocused chakra aura. Just as he predicted, they sliced like knives through marshmallows.
Without warning, Hanshin pounced in a wild dash toward Mana, drawing both of his swords at once. Hanshin's expression shifted midway past his crazed assault that looked to cut Mana to pieces. Mana's chakra focused into a thin layer of a solid outline around her body at the last second before Hanshin's blades met her. By the time that Hanshin's foot touched the ground, he turned around to meet the source of Mana's cry of agony.
A wave of vacuum sucked Mana's body into a tunneling airwave, flinging her wildly into the sky as her thin outline of a chakra armor shattered upon meeting Hanshin's much more advanced blades. The sounds of her tattered uniform flapping in mid-air woke Mana up, and she repositioned herself, activating Mystical Wings Jutsu to stop her fall.
"Not bad. You've completed the second stage, but by now, Hanshin has reached the fifth step already. You're too far behind!" Hanshin scolded Mana before exclaiming in surprise. The shattered fragments of Mana's outline that still lingered in the air became rectangular debris and swirled in a vortex of wind chakra around Mana. One by one, those shattered fragments reattached onto her body, connecting with the other fragments like chain mail.
"Impressive, straight to the third step. You've actually been paying attention and not just wallowing in despair…" Hanshin commended Mana with a smirk. "At the very least, you've managed to entertain Hanshin with your struggle."
"But of course," Mana clapped hands together, completing the formation of do-maru style armor of azure-colored chakra constructs connecting with each other. "I'm an entertainer at heart. There must be a string of tension for the bout to be entertaining, isn't that what you wish to learn from me?"
"It appears you weren't all-talk after all. The third step concludes the basics, from focusing your chakra aura and molding it into an armor shape. The rest is just advancing these three concepts. Don't think that we're done just yet though, I'm still itching to see how far you can take this and how many years of training you can skip ahead through your honed skill in chakra control over one battle where your life is on the line." Hanshin crossed his arms, completing the haunting visage of Black Vicious around his body. A fall shape of the upper half of a woman's body with black hands crawling all over the chakra construct and grabbing hold of it as if attempting to rip the construct apart. Despite the appearances, Black Vicious' hands comprised both its offensive and defensive core.
"If you reach this step here, let's just say, Hanshin will be beyond impressed!" Hanshin mocked Mana, fully aware that there was no way that someone who had just started training in Armor Ninjutsu would manifest a full armor technique. It wouldn't stop him from trying to kill Mana with it, though…