Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Getting Up

Pain was a poor companion for someone who had just woken up after being briefly knocked out. Yet it was the first one to greet Kouta as the young man's consciousness returned to him. The medical ninja felt a little bit of shame, even against an opponent like his father he expected to do more, he expected to buy his friends more time. He wasn't sure about what had happened but he was surprised, to say the least, to wake up inside a briefly lit ancient stone room. The tiles below him, ravaged by time, made for a poor pillow forcing the young man to sit up and look around him.

Shimo was resting nearby, he didn't look too bad but his arm and leg was bleeding out and gruesomely broken and were patched in a very amateurish manner. Without asking too many questions the boy stood up and staggered up to his friend, removed the bandages and got to work. He was drained after punching his father, he put all of his heart, all of his chakra and all of his feelings into that fist. Any lesser man would've been flung into beyond the farthest layers of skies but his father snapped right out of it. Even with the crazy Juugo bloodline combined with the medical ninja's enhanced strength, Kouta was still too weak.

Thundering bumps sending dust and pebbles down the ceiling onto the boys' heads made Kouta jump up in surprise and fear.

"It's Meiko. Mana bought us time by revealing herself, Meiko had to leave her behind to save us. She's not taking that well..." Shimo explained grunting in pain while Kouta was examining his broken bones.

"Well, these injuries can be treated, these blows were weak but precise, they didn't cause too gruesome and irreparable bone damage but they merely stroke at the tension points making the bones snap. Remashi-san is a very gentle and pinpoint fighter, had she been rougher your bones would have been beyond my ability to fix without Mystical Palm technique which I am too drained to use right now" Kouta explained trying to move the subject past Mana.

He felt ashamed of the whole situation. He didn't know what happened, all he remembered was him doing his best and getting knocked out by father's blast, one of his weaker ones too, one used to blow up buildings or bust barriers, one with more bang and concussive force than actual killing power. From what he could put together the rest were overpowered too, that only makes sense, father was a top-tier jounin after all with experience in the Konohagakure Black Ops called ANBU. All of his teammates were of a similar level as well. They stood no chance from the start.

And yet loss was not what brought Kouta shame, it was that Mana was apparently the one to buy them time to escape. She was the weakest one and yet she flung herself head first to the jaws of death again. Father would've killed her if he had the chance, Kouta harbored no hopes of Mana's survival which started making him visibly distressed. Maybe even more torn inside than Meiko was, at least the blacksmith was expressing her rage whereas Kouta was allowing it to pile up.

"We have to keep moving..." Kouta said trying to move his thoughts away from his shame and his regret over Mana's apparent death. He knew exactly how lethal and ruthless his father was when he wanted to be, Shimo and Meiko may not have known and so they must've still believed that the girl was alive.

"Hey, hey, don't lose any tears over her. She's alive as long as she doesn't show that bastard where the Box is or explains what it is. Had they known about the box they'd have long since claimed it even before we came here. They needed us to explain what it is and tell them where it may be hidden" Shimo tried to calm his friend down, Kouta backed up and sat in the corner which he woke up in.

"That's a long shot, all that father cared about was killing Mana-chan for wishing to use the Box without the village's permission or without informing it. She's as good as done now..." the medical ninja mumbled out, he sounded like his mind was moving in closer and closer to snapping at any moment.