Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Moonlight and Roses

For a brief moment, the entire room where Mana faced off against the Inuzuka was completely silent and the two remained perfectly still. While Mana was afraid, somewhere, on a very deep level, she didn't let it affect her too much. The fear she felt was not the kind one always naturally felt when a battle was about to break out, this was not the natural threat of death. That was inevitable when one decided to fight someone. This felt more like a test the likes of which the girl had never had yet.

Mana was a little bit tired, she didn't have much sleep those couple of last days, she also faced off against Hisako and Hachi, also she had that nasty brief run-in with the black jumpsuit wearing purple-haired woman with that peculiar whip. While the injuries from the first battle were healed by her medical food pill and those from the second one were taken care of by brief rest and Eiju's best medical ninja efforts, the third one still gave her some weight to trip over. The injuries from those battles were patched a long time ago and her natural ninja metabolism was quickly patching them up every second the girl was not engaged in the exhausting use of chakra manipulation, that being said, they still ached and kept her down.

The knowledge that Mana was not at her best wouldn't have been nearly as frightening if this young man wouldn't be, at least according to Hisako, her natural counter. The three exchanged information before coming here, they were formulating complex strategies and battle plans only for it all to go to waste after they fell for this strange game. 

The enemy completely dictated the rules, even if she would've gotten the upper hand, what could've stopped the Inuzuka boy from just activating the seals that'd kill the boy anyway? This was the worst situation there could've been, greater ninja died in such scenarios than Mana.

"It is a custom for ninja to exchange names when they face off in a fair one on one fight, it is so that once one of them survives they can spread the tale of the other and if the other becomes someone special, his opponent, if they survive, can brag about having faced that person in battle. I am Inuzuka Noji and this lovely doggy here is Sunomaru. We fight as one, as do all Inuzuka clansmen, as a Konoha ninja you should know that, my kind hails from the village, so don't feel like this is unfair that we're taking you on two-on-one."

Mana remained silent for a moment, just trying to stare her opponent down. Her wounded and cut up lips then gently moved.

"I'll give you one chance to back away, one last chance to leave, I am no longer the girl who left the village several days back, I no longer hold back. If you decide to do this I will cause harm to you, as much as possible but not enough to kill. You may not enjoy your life after facing me but that pain will be on you. I am Nakotsumi Mana and I am the one who will beat you to save that child, that is the only reason we are here and I don't care if you walk away from this. Capturing rogue ninja does not interest me."

Noji's body blurred, Mana knew what it meant, this boy moved so fast that he left an afterimage but this was no longer the Konoha's Sorceress who played around. The magician's thigh lifted up to block the entire barrage of blows tossed at her using her feet while keeping the Inuzuka at her leg's reach. 

This was an efficient strategy, she didn't let him get too close, always kept kicking at his blindspots and kept Noji at her foot's reach. It was then that the dog joined in on the offensive. Mana started dashing back, giving space. She skipped a couple of punches, the dog's teeth went dangerously close to her chest and neck a couple of times and tore several holes in Eiju's coat which the magician still wore.

Mana huffed heavily after their exchange of blows ended, this was hopeless, this young man was leagues ahead in terms of hand to hand combat, while keeping him at leg's length was a pretty good way to go the dog joining in changed it, Mana couldn't keep up with both of them and had to lower her legs for balance, she had to move around and for that to happen she couldn't kick around. It was either stand in place and let the dog maul her, or move around until she runs out of breath and let the Inuzuka deepen his advantage.