Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Psychosis

The rain had already pretty much died out when Mana and Ayushi left into the streets of the village, leaving the archive behind. The magician wasn't sure if her guest felt the same way, but she definitely felt like she left the archive a much happier and more complete person than she entered. The prospect of being some long forgotten heir to some clan, having some amazing larger than life ability, maybe more exactly the knowledge that she couldn't be one of those people, the reminder of that fact was what plagued the girl when entering. Now all those thoughts were behind her.

Mana still felt some inferiority over that fact, the fact that most students in the Academy were special. Usually, the people who enrolled to be ninja were the descendants of clan members, they really had very little choice in the matter. When one's father was a famed Inuzuka hound master, known for his prodigious skill in the clan's techniques it was pretty much expected for one to be able to follow up on one's parents' legacy. There was much pressure but also clarity and hope. While one was pressured into joining the Academy and becoming a ninja, because of their clan member status they were looked as if they were already elite in the making by default.

On the other hand, the clanless children were looked down on, they had all the other jobs to choose from. They'd bring shame to no one if they chose the profession of a baker, florist, vendor owner etc. They could've made perfect janitors or caravan runners. The only place for a clanless ninja in the battlefield was to either make the casualty statistic, to make the bravery of the elite sound even greater and more built on blood and flesh than it actually was, or to become one of the countless filler ninja in the armies. Become a grey mouse, a page in a large novel, no, an entire address book. Pages to be torn away when a cruel reader became mad and started peeling away at their book, as the Feudal Lords sent their ninja to die on meaningless assignments.

To say that Mana had different treatment in the Academy was to flat out lie, no one ever expected great things from her, they didn't, nor do they have now, the reason to. She was born to a family of an average ninja, with greater than average reputation, and an owner of a café. Honestly, her best bet for a profession would've been to inherit her mother's business, she had no place in the ninja world, then there were her magic shows in which it was safe to say the girl was largely successful in. What point was it for her to be a ninja, most kids and teachers looked at Mana as a showoff, as someone who would back out at the first sign of pain, trouble, and blood in her sight. On the other hand that was what made the teachers praise her more when she actually did something right. When no one expected one to succeed, they were only more surprised when they actually did so.

"Fantastic, just outright spectacular, astonishing!" Guru Ayushi kept shouting out looking around at the glowing nocturnal Konoha. Neon signs were a rather recent invention, apparently, there was a ninja somewhere in Kirigakure that could use some sort of poisonous gas that when ignited glowed at a very bright and visually appealing light. It was just what Mana always wanted to see, the amazing abilities of ninja put to other sorts of use, ninjutsu couldn't have been purely a tool of murder, it was what the user made it do that defined it. Everyone's ninjutsu was different, made different by the actions that were done using it.

Mana couldn't help but smile, on one hand, she was admiring the remains of the intense rain on the ground and the raindrops barely hanging off of the various surfaces, on the other she couldn't have enough of Ayushi's reaction to things. He acted and looked like a child who had seen a train for the first time, so many things, so many gears, so many devices all working in unison. Similarly to that kid, Ayushi was impressed by so many different artificial lights brightening up the nocturnal village and making it look so majestic and almost divine, in a sense.

"So do you wish to walk around and buy something or do you wish to head back to the hotel? You've been so active today, Guru-san, I'm sure you wish to get some rest." Mana tried to keep up with the Guru who was just running around, people all parted to make space for the man but they always banded together when Mana had to pass making her need to excuse herself to pass every time.