Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Choices Matter

Moving through the desert with someone who knew very well what they were doing was quite different. Naturally, the secrets of the desert were not all that mysterious to these people seeing how they lived in a village built of clay and sandstone entirely surrounded by a hulking wall of desert stone and residing in a large crater of mysterious origin so that the slightly colder layers of sand below offered some chills and the surrounding rocks provided ample shade.

"Enough..." the jounin leader of the Sunagakure team raised his fist signaling everyone to stop. While Shimo couldn't help but feel suspicious by the Sunagakure party leading them to Sunagakure such was his job in the group, to question everything and use his cred and experience he picked up being trained by a rogue ninja to help and guide them through the tough environment of outside the walls.

"Why are we stopping, we can still move for a good two or three hours!?" Shimo grumped out, he constantly questioned and complained about the jounin's leadership. Mostly because he was waiting for the man to slip up so that the ex-rogue could expose him as not who he claimed to be. It was a mystery to Mana as to why he wanted to pick a fight with a jounin but the opponent's rank appeared to be of little importance to the Yuki swordsman.

"What we walk in distance is inconsequential compared to the energy we waste walking during those hours. That rock right there is a very decent shade, we won't find anything like that several hours later down the road" the bulky Sunagakure jounin explained stroking his beard.

From what the Konoha team picked up so far the man was called Izem, it was a very strange name the likes of which Mana had never heard but she just assumed people from different parts of the world would have different names. He was a calm yet very authoritative in his presence individual, just like in the current quarrel of a question and answer what he said sounded perfectly logical and no one really questioned it further. Even Shimo didn't seem to have a problem with the jounin's decision.

While the Konoha three awaited the conclusion of Shimo questioning the jounin the Sunagakure team just settled down. The only girl in the Sunagakure party – Tiwul chose to settle down on the edge of the rock providing them shade, initially it appeared weird to Mana as to why the female would choose to sit in the Sun throughout their stay but the girl then pulled out a sheet of paper and some drawing brushes and small containers of paint and began to draw the desert sights.

Meiko, while feeling totally bored, scaled the rock up and settled down on top close to the girl to see her paint. Shimo just sat down by the stone, pressing his back against the shadier and colder parts to chill himself out, it appeared from the low position of the boy's head and his hair falling over his face that he had fallen asleep or just functioned in some sort of trance-like state. It was very similar to meditation but occasionally the boy swatted his sheathed sword around to scare away the insects buzzing around him. There must've been some dead animal carcass nearby because the concentration of flies was not very pleasant to deal with.

The blonde boy kept on looking at his refilled flask and laughing to himself, he drank a gulp and then looked at the slightly diminished amount of water. To Mana, such behavior proved odd so she slowly and without any attempts to sneak around walked up to him and sat down on a small rock close to him. For a moment she observed the boy playing with the flask like a little child having discovered a hidden wonder of the world as children often do.

"It's astounding, isn't it?" Menna, the blonde youngster who was distinguished by his excessive politeness, asked.

"I knew that the people living in the desert didn't see water often but I would never have thought you'd be amazed to that extent." Mana smiled still not quite catching Menna's cold.

"No, your friend's ability to use his ice to refill our flasks. It is such a remarkable ability, he is born to live in the desert, we would never let go of him if he was our prisoner. Truth be told, most of us would grow quite fond of such a man... Not that we intend any harm!" the young man shook his hands once he realized how strangely his sentence must've sounded.