Mana walked out of her room stretching and yawning. Endo and Shige-H looked worked up about something they were probably discussing while Mana was getting ready to leave for the arena for her upcoming match. Damisan's attention was fixed entirely on Mana.
"How did you rest?" Damisan asked, barely letting Mana close her yawning mouth.
"My chakra's still at less than half. If I use a speck of it today, any progress from resting until now will be of no use and I won't be able to rely on chakra for the final match," Mana shrugged.
"It's a good thing you're facing a chump. I don't think you'll need chakra to beat a blind cripple," Asuka grumbled. Based on her passive-aggressive sass, Mana put it that her quest to find any clues about their band of undead mercenaries didn't progress at all.
"I wouldn't say that," Mana replied. "Genshi-san knows how I fight. He's not seen most of my tricks, but whatever I kept hidden during my last match, I won't be able to use. Since it's up to me to win the tournament, at this point, I need to preserve chakra in this round. I can't accumulate any further injuries either… These handicaps make this match troublesome."
"Yeah, we've seen Genshi picking up supplies from abroad with his sponsor pals. It's safe to say that he'll be at his best, whereas Mana's massively handicapped…" Damisan sighed, patting Mana's shoulder in comfort while acknowledging the odds stacked against her.
"Have your wounds healed up? You never asked me to heal them…" Shige-H placed her hands on her hips, turning her head and pouting like a worried mother.
"The local healers did an adequate job. You best save your chakra in case the Fennec's crew makes a move. With the Kazekage having arrived and the finals approaching, I've got a nasty feeling we will all get to see some action. Maybe even today…" Mana waved it off. "Say, Endo… Did you actually catch some sleep? Here I thought you'd still be watching over the Curse Walker."
"I was. I left when the crowd began gathering to brief the team leader about an encounter with Hit Boomslang yesterday," Endo replied, pulling his nose up and almost looking offended that Mana assumed he abandoned his post and went to sleep last night.
"An encounter?" Mana wondered.
"Hit Boomslang tried destroying the Curse Walker with some fancy piece of technology yesterday. Endo intervened, but then let him do it because, technically, we want the Cursed Warriors destroyed before the tournament is over too, and, if Hit Boomslang were the one to destroy it, our hands would be clean of the transgression of interfering with the bracket," Shige-H explained. "Sadly, the task to see that the Curse Walker is destroyed is still up to you, or its opponent…"
"The Curse Walker appears to have some kind of self-defense mechanism that wakes it when that thing's threatened. The bastard flipped the tables on the sneaky weasel and disintegrated him," Endo replied in a grumpy tone. From the sound of it, he was getting sick of the backstabbing, the plotting, and acting behind the scenes and just wanted to destroy the Cursed Warrior himself.
"I see, that is… Unfortunate," Mana turned off to the side with a gloomy look. From what she understood of the Curse Walker, unlike the rest of its Cursed Warrior peers, the Curse Walker didn't host a human pilot inside. That meant that it was less of a man and more of a walking weapon. Perhaps it once was a man, but now it was as if some demented underworld engineer had turned that thing into an autonomous suit of armor, puppeteering the corpse of the man that once was. Even though Mana had no attachments to Hit Boomslang, she hated to hear that a man died instead of some fancy underworld weapon getting wrecked.
As the Stars were heading to the arena, Mana noticed the town bustling again with people marching to the corridors and pathways turning and herding people into their seats in stride and cheer. Moreover, the town had become even louder and more excited since the arrival of the Sunagakure ninja. The Kazekage didn't just bring his personal security detail; he brought a veritable parade. A small army that was sufficient to shatter a surprise military attack on the head of Sunagakure.
Could the Kazekage have been expecting an attack from the Fennec's Crew? It was true that moving in and attacking the Kazekage during such a trip into the desert, sufficiently far away from his home village where he reigned supreme, would have been the best way of taking him out of the picture and the Kazekage was a notable and indomitable thorn in the side of Fennec's conquest. It was because of the Sunagakure's influence and notable military presence that Fennec couldn't move past it and attack the final two Sheikhates resisting Fennec's conquest.
"You guys go ahead. I don't imagine finding seats will be easy. Especially if you want to sit next to one another," Mana nodded at her friends before turning to a support corridor that would lead straight into the arena once the drawbridges extended. Walking through the shady hallway, Mana could almost hear herself breathing, despite the atmosphere being heated and booming anywhere else. This section of the arena had some serious insulation!
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Mana stopped, hearing Damisan's voice. Closing her eyes to change her expression into something more reassuring, she turned around and acted out a smile.
"Don't worry, this isn't my first tangle. I'll manage," Mana replied. As an early teen, Mana used to find lying difficult and her skill at deception suffered because of it. By now, she's learned to see missions as a type of play where she merely played a role. Because of her love of entertaining her audience and acting like a professional, Mana truly began excelling at playing the role she wanted to portray. Based on the unwavering tone of her voice, Mana was impressed with how well she lied to Damisan about being confident about this match.
"If things get tough out there and you feel pressed to the wall, use chakra," this wasn't advice that Damisan gave her, nor an order, even if he was qualified to give Mana those. This was a pleading request. After a step of hesitation, Damisan walked up to Mana and hugged her. He probably wanted to feel if she was shaking since he couldn't see much of her facial expressions in the limited lighting the corridor afforded through a peek in the stone block obstructing the exit into the arena before it lifted.
Mana waited, wondering how she was meant to better fake her reassurance and to convince Damisan, who worked in the same line of work and was just as good at spotting and using deception as she was, that she'd use chakra if push came to shove. Truth be told, she wouldn't. The healers could restore her health, her loss wouldn't be the end of the world. They were ninja; they didn't need to act out in the open, anyway. Having spent time letting her body recover and prepare to restore her chakra to its uppermost limits for this long, Mana couldn't afford to reset the process anew.
The ninja magician pressed her forehead against Damisan's chest. She chose to follow her heart instead of trying to lie to him. She just really wanted to feel him close at that moment, to feel the ephemeral phantoms of her squad cheering for her from behind him. Feeling that solid support would've helped her plant her feet against it and dash forward.
"I'm actually a little excited. It'll be a real challenge to my skills as a magician to win a fight without the use of chakra," Mana replied, pulling back gently. Damisan's hold loosened, letting go of her. He may not have agreed with Mana's decision, but he trusted her enough to let her make her mistakes and learn from them.
"You'll pay for underestimating my pupil," he joked as a last bit of playful teasing before walking off to find the rest of the Stars in the audience and leaving Mana to prepare for the upcoming match mentally.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the day of the semi-finals of the Succession Tournament! We're now well past the chaos of the Battle Royale round, the more personal, heated one-on-one matches of the second and the quarter-final rounds! Our contestants have now been well acquainted with each other and their skill sets and had time to prepare, but also, none of them are walking in fresh anymore. It will be here, in the semi-finals, where the true mettle of a warrior within each of our competitors will be tested! Their moxie, their grit, their ability to push through injury and fatigue and execute their game plan, also, to adapt when that game plan falls flat on its face!" Rajul began heating up the crowd. "We've already seen some incredible matches! Even though I make a living with my eloquence and blabber mouth, I cannot find words to describe the emphatic and obnoxious splendor of the Battle Royale that kicked off this tournament. Still, I trust these fine contestants to blow us away and match the sky-high expectations we have of them, thanks in no small part to their very own performances!"
The packed Sun Disc arena waved, clapped, and cheered with fists thrusting at the sky. Even the ample party of ninja that the Kazekage had brought with him looked excited about getting to see these festivities after missing out on all the preceding slugfest. The Kazekage himself looked more bothered than anything, smiling to himself at the pointless drama and crowd work of the loud-mouthed announcer while seated in a separate platform, an entire wing vacated of spectators that were there the previous day and offered entirely to the Kazekage and his company.
"However, before we formally kick off the first match of the semi-finals, I have been bestowed by the Sheikh with the great honor of introducing an esteemed guest who has come to witness the closing rounds of this Succession Tournament!" Rajul announced turning to the vacated audience stand platform that had a large rocky VIP section elevated from below the arena and hosted the Kazekage in seating accommodations comparable to those of the Sheikh himself. "If I may introduce to you the outstanding leader of our northeastern brothers–the Fourth Kazekage, Akasuna Mugao!"
The audience erupted in restrained cheers. While there was respect and amazement at seeing a distinguished political figure all the way in Agbarah Sheikhate, coming as close as it can be to sharing the celebration with the commoners, the red-haired giant certainly didn't earn as much applause as the combatants competing for the title of the next Sheikh. Not even the foreign ones.
The Kazekage's eyes sifted around, slowly realizing that both his company, the civilian crowd, and Rajul were all staring at him with anticipation in silence. They were expecting him to say something. After sighing, the Fourth Kazekage stood up with a polite smile and fixed the black cloak he wore over his shoulders to hang steady and smooth.
"I apologize for coming this late. From the sound of it, this tournament has been astonishing. I look forward to finding out which warrior will claim the title of the next Sheikh of Agbarah and I look forward to accomplishing great things together with them. During my career as a shinobi, I have gained the title of the Iron Shogun, because of the heavy metal armor puppets I use in battle. Hopefully, the next Sheikh of Agbarah will prove just as adamant and headstrong. Here's for the Iron Sheikh of Agbarah!" Akasuna Mugao said while politely waving at each side and settling back down in his seat.
"IRON SHEIKH!" the audience pumped their fists, getting fired up and grabbing the Kazekage's little title like a hot cake.
"IRON SHEIKH! IRON SHEIKH!" more and more members of the audience joined in.
"My, my, it appears that our new Sheikh already has a title before they're even crowned!" Rajul laughed out. "Well, it's not like each of the semi-finalists hasn't earned such a title for themselves a thousand times already with their spectacular performance!"
The orderly and inspiring chants in support of the would-be Iron Sheikh halted with the audience breaking into mindless clapping and noise. Some of them howled, and some of them smacked the sandstone seats to make a rocky slamming noise. All of them were hyped up for the upcoming pair of matches to determine tomorrow's finalists. By that evening, they should know the pair that would have the one who would become their Iron Sheikh the next day.
"Without further ado…!" Rajul slashed through the noise with an authoritative voice that growled like a powerful engine, artificially enhanced by both the clever construction of the coliseum and an unclear technique he was using to bolster the tone and volume of his voice. What separated Rajul from the chaff was the impeccable control of being able to sound loud and in charge without hurting anyone with his rowdy voice. "Allow me to introduce to you the first pair of semi-finalists!"
"First–the young woman who came to Agbarah as a captive and a fighting slave but ascended her way through the gauntlet, reminding this Sheikhate of its glory days and restoring the Sun Disc to being the holy land of martial arts it once was. Just as she's entered the world of the Gods of the Arena, she walked away from the paradise of her making and now has made her return to claim the throne she sees as rightfully hers!" Rajul growled out like he was presenting some kind of heavy metal superstar.
"My, my…" Mana sighed, still tapping her nervous heel at the gloomy and damp, blocked-off backstage corridor just outside of the arena. "He's overdoing a little bit, isn't he? When did I say any of that…?"
"She's the Second Goddess! She's the Gladiatrix! Defying the rules of time-space and the order of the bracket itself, she appeared on our doorstep and demanded her pound of flesh! Would you refuse the Goddess? Would you deny her the holy grail of blood that is the only thing that can quench her thirst? You can't hear it, can you? That only means it's all too late for us! Here she comes, MANA!" Rajul turned to his left, gesturing with his hand. As if he was in complete control of the fortification of the entire arena structure, the block shutting off the backstage entrance which Mana was standing by began to lower underwater and the drawbridge began extending from underneath the platform to guide her to the round arena in the center, surrounded by the artificial lake that had wholly devoured the patches of grassland it previously shared and left the entire out-of-bounds area submerged.
"Wow, he somehow managed to make Mana sound cool," Asuka sneered at the doorway Mana was supposed to walk through with a mean-spirited smirk.
"Hmm… Mana's serious about not using any chakra, isn't she?" Shige-H observed when the audience saw Mana nonchalantly walking across the extending drawbridge toward the arena while wearing the thin veil that would cover her nostrils from the sandy dust cluttering the air whenever the ancient fortifications of the arena were in motion. "For Mana to forsake the flair of a dramatic entrance… She really feels pressured, doesn't she?"
"Hmph… That's an excellent introduction and a good entrance. Perhaps Mana has finally outgrown her unsanctioned buffoonery?" Endo nodded in approval with his arms crossed and his legs spread apart, like he was some old wise man, judging the form of someone's fighting stance.
Despite Mana's rather unimpressive entrance, the foreplay accomplished by Rajul made the audience crave violence enough to applaud even such an elementary entrance. They even seemed to have completely lost control and bawled like wild apes when Mana removed her veil and cast it aside to land daintily on the lake's surface.
"That girl…" the Kazekage's glare squinted with focus. "Didn't the poster say she's competing on the side of the "Magician" faction? She's a Konoha ninja, I've met her before."
"Her name is Nakotsumi Mana, Lord Fourth," a tall and lean young man in a blue flak jacket worn over a silver-colored bodysuit and fiery blood-red hair with black tips said after slightly leaning closer to the ear of his superior. "My team escorted her squad to Sunagakure a few years ago."
"Ah… That's right, she was looking for the Box of Ultimate Bliss. Hmm… I wonder what Lord Seventh's game is. After all, this woman pretends to have no allegiance to Konoha fighting on the side of this "Magician" faction. Has she become a rogue ninja or is that sly bastard plotting something?" the Fourth Kazekage smirked to himself, looking amused at the sight of a potential power play by Konoha.
"Shall I approach her and try extracting some information?" the young ninja in the Kazekage's detail wondered.
"No need. Let's see if she wins the match first. Besides, even if she were to grab the Sheikhate for Konoha, they're our allies now. With the Fennec's band becoming a threat to their expanded territory, forcing them to divert attention and manpower to protect this fresh slice of land of theirs, we'd get rid of that desert rat in no time at all," the Fourth Kazekage laughed out. "If this woman were to win, things would turn out just fine for us. Perhaps the second-best outcome, excluding having won this country for ourselves."
"And now, for the next contestant–a young man who proceeds to surpass any and all expectations! A mere professional athlete, who's come here to showcase his skill at playing ball games! His sturdiness and hardy attitude have captured the hearts of most of us, earning him the spot of an honorable warrior as well! Having been raised as a humble Land of Lightning farmer, there is nothing this young man wouldn't sacrifice for victory, including his own arms and legs! Hopefully, there'll be enough of him left to lead the country he claws and bites his way to taking over! Every match is a desperation match! Every time he's the underdog! Yet every time he comes out victorious! The unstoppable Fusion Ball blockbuster–Ryoku Genshi!"
As the drawbridge began closing in from the western wing of the arena, loud shots echoed in the dark hallway, followed by metallic clinks. It was as if someone dropped a handful of tin cans on the floor, yet only when those tin cans began hissing and spreading colorful gas clouds that the true meaning of this noise could be made clear. A bespectacled young man wearing an Iwagakure uniform with a Kumogakure headband ran out and weaved a few hand seals before planting his hands on the ground.
"Earth Release: Mud Wall!" the bespectacled young man from the occupied territory of Iwagakure exclaimed, erecting a thick protecting wall of chakra that burst forth from underwater and seemed to split the arena completely in half. The audience turned completely silent.
"H-Hey, what the heck gives!?" the first one to voice their complaints exclaimed.
"What's the big idea? I can't see jack shit!" another one soon joined in.
Just as Mana looked around with a baffled expression, wondering if the extremists trying to liberate Iwagakure from Kumogakure's oppressive sphere of influence had struck again, she heard a loud rumble of a roaring engine. Then–a burst! The rumbling stone wall splintered with bright cracks before exploding and throwing cinderblock-size shrapnel all around that bounced across the arena ground and then grazed the lake's surface before drowning to the bottom. Losing her cool, Mana jumped around the incoming shrapnel, worried that one of those would flatten her because of her infernal insistence on not using chakra in this match.
Behind the crumbled wall stood Ryoku Genshi, clad in a full, new, and improved Fusion Ball armor with thick, orange plating and a restored black vizor over his eyes to compensate for his lost senses. Clutched in his open hand was a working fusion ball that had fiery jets withdrawing into its core, revealing that it was the energy erupting from this sphere that had toppled a B-Rank protective jutsu.
That bespectacled occupied Iwagakure shinobi was just a guy hired by the sponsors to erect a stone wall just so Ryoku Genshi could show Mana he wasn't playing around. If there were ever any doubts about Genshi's ability to compete against ninja and topple defensive ninjutsu, those doubts would've crumbled away like the shattered stone wall that drowned to the bottom of the artificial lake.
"Mana-san, don't forget what you promised me–you won't hold back! If you do–I'm afraid I might hurt you, but that'll be on you!" Ryoku Genshi said, placing the ball on the ground and leaning forward as if preparing to tackle Mana and use the fusion ball to induce another calamitous outburst point-blank in Mana's face.
"So it would seem…" Mana gulped and cracked her fingers. She kept her hands inside the opposing sleeves when the gong officially announced the beginning of the first match of the semi-finals.