Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Shimo VS Sugemi

Shimo and Sugemi kept looking at each other, trying to determine which one should make the first move. This was a complicated fight, they couldn't go too flashy or else the guards would pick up on the trouble brewing in the lower levels, at the same time they were each a capable genin able to provide a decent challenge for one another. Shimo may have expected an easy knockout but this first exchange of attacks proved to him that such would never happen. Sugemi was not only ready to fight his friends for this blind quest for vengeance but he also was well able to deliver on his big talk.

Shimo started the brawl, he kicked off of the ground leaping forward, one of his arms held his drawn blade whereas the other one was ready to defend against any counterattacks which the sword may not have been fast enough to intercept. This time Shimo invested far less weight into his attack, he learned of Sugemi's style and decided that if he got his attack redirected again he'd be wide open for a takedown and this time the Nara wouldn't fool around. This was a real fight with real stakes, in fact, when a life of a friend was at stake the stakes couldn't have been more real.

With a sharp and quick but unfocused kick, Shimo tried to weigh and measure his opponent, see how he dealt with simple quick jabs, Sugemi's knee shot up kicking Shimo's leg way up, where the Nara then swept the other leg. Shimo's body hit the ground hard but Sugemi wasn't done, he turned his body around with a second sweep to send Shimo's body slamming into the cell. 

A dirty and bruised arm grabbed Shimo's neck and started choking the boy out. The Yuki swordsman whispered something to his assailant and his grip loosened. The Demon must've been told that he was attacking his own savior, without his tools, broken, tired and hungry even the Demon could not escape from this HQ at that moment.

Sugemi turned back at Mana with the same blank stare. "Well? Aren't you going to fight? If you're here you must support a side, with me or against me. There are no neutral grounds in life, all must pick a side, those that do not are treated as enemies to both sides." A handle of Shimo's sword silenced Sugemi as it drove deep into the boy's jaw sending the boy crashing into the stone wall picking up dust and cracking some bricks in it. Mana just barely managed to lean out of the way of her friend crashing into the wall, she couldn't keep her balance but at least she didn't get knocked out by her own friend crashing into her.

"Don't listen to him, Mana-chan. You don't have to pick any side, I'm sorry for doing this to you, I'm sorry that I forced you to watch friends fight but... Please just endure it a little bit longer. We'll go back home again and be friends, we'll be Team Oak like the old times. Isn't that right Sugemi? What happened to the Chuunin Exams? What happened to your manga?! Are you just spitting at all of your dreams just to express your feelings of anger towards an unarmed man?" Shimo yelled at Sugemi who picked himself back up and spat out some blood to the side.

Mana's body was almost shaking, she couldn't believe that she was seeing her friends fight like that, her best friends. When coming here she expected that they would be able to stop Sugemi by either talking him down or he'd get his mind back in order when the first blow would be thrown, seeing the madness behind it all. Now she witnessed that the boy wasn't like that at all, with each fist thrown his mind devolved more and more to the mad fighting animal which he held inside. 

"They don't write manga about spineless fools like Mana. They write them about brave and strong men who know where they stand and act upon their feelings. That is what it means to be a ninja and that is how I'll make my own history. If you feel obliged to fight me, I'll gladly kick your butt before I kick that of that Kirigakure bastard in the cell." Sugemi shouted out, his tone finally made it clear – he lost it completely.

"So you think you can take me?" Demon's confident and husky tone echoed through the entire room from his cell. "Come on, big guy, I'm right here. Open the cell door and we can go for it."