Live as a Traitor, or Die a Hero. Mana's Decision!

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Sun moved slowly behind the cover of countless trees. An injured raven haired girl with torn clothes and blood all around her downed body lifted her head off the ground, she let her eyes feast on the most gruesome sight anyone has ever seen. A gigantic statue feeding off of her chakra with a sapphire blue beam leaving her body alerting her of it, her just as injured opponent running a pulse of dark purple lightning chakra through the ground. The lightning impulses ran through every corpse in the area forcing them to rise, the dark purple light shined from their eyes and every hole in their body. Slowly they approached to the powerless magician, one of them leant down and opened his teeth reaching up to the back of her neck, two more flipped her over while the others continued to trample the young woman to death.

Mana’s eyes shot open, bringing her back to reality from the nightmare. One of many, to be honest, it wasn’t a recent ailment, nightmares were a part of the magician’s dreams for a long time, it would’ve been impossible to tell just when they’ve started but it may as well have been nearly ten years of these scary nights. Pain forced the magician to moan out loudly and clench for her traumas, she looked over her clothes that someone took the trouble to change, her old and bloodied magician’s uniform was laying unceremoniously in the garbage bin.

The Sennin sat up on her bed through pain, she must’ve been passed out for several days the way it’s been going… Her sides ached like Hell but this was no “next morning” pain, this must’ve been “week later” pain. Something suggested Mana that if she woke up the next morning after fighting Niku – the Parabrahma blacksmith she wouldn’t have been able to do anything. In that way she was a bit glad that she stayed out for multiple days, her chakra felt like it was finally replenished. Who could’ve thought that Mana could’ve been pushed to her limit… The young woman sighed as she stood up and took off her pajamas and slipping her shirt on and finding an undamaged skirt – by now most of her clothes were battle damaged and as good as trash. She really needed to do some shopping.

Without bothering to check if Meiko or anyone else staying in the room and watching over her was awake Mana turned to the door. She promised Usushiko, Kiyomi and Meiko she’d do something and it had to be dealt with. Before setting out to the Red Scorpion she needed to help with something. Strangely enough a man was waiting for the magician behind the closed door. The man bowed to Mana suggesting that he was overly respectful, even for a high ranking ninja the degree of bowing this man did was excessive, especially since Mana was from another village. “The village thanks you for your assistance, Mana-sama, we also feel grateful for your help with interrogation of Niku. She’s been passed on to higher instances of justice and will receive a fair trial as you’ve requested.”

Mana scratched her head, she interrogated Niku? When? That was odd… “I see you’re in better shape today, back when you were dealing with Niku it looked like you were dead or something and we were all worried.” The man replied with a slightly worried tone. Mana slowly walked back into the apartment and gestured for the man waiting outside to wait. Who knew for how long he’s been protecting this room, waiting for her to wake up, he probably didn’t mind waiting a little bit longer. The magician then quietly called for Assistant. The butler appeared out of nowhere diving out of a nearby room. “Ah, I see the lady is feeling slightly better today than two days ago, I must say you weren’t in any condition to interrogate that criminal, I was surprised everything went well…”

Mana was really stumped, this had never happened to her, she must’ve been so injured that she forgot everything from that day. The important part was that the promise to Mugen was fulfilled, Mana has aided in the interrogation which meant that there was only one promise to keep – visit the Kumogakure hospital. Mana nodded for the Assistant, the man asked her if she was ready for breakfast but the magician dismissed him and informed him she’s going to leave to the hospital. “Do you feel ill, lady?” the man got worried, the Sennin politely shook her head, the man then nodded. “I suppose a proper diagnosis is for the best then, I’ll be waiting here with some takoyaki for when you come back.”

After this awkward experience Mana left the hotel room and asked the man just exactly who he was. “Oh, I suppose you don’t remember me, huh? Not too surprising, you’ve had quite the fever back then… Anyways, my name is Makimachi Toko, I am one of few ninja assigned by the Council to protect you. After your heroic feat you and Team Hokage are quite the stars, the boy Mugen has been promoted to Chuunin and Rukasu the Snake King is now allowed in the village, if he chooses to enter. All of you are now sort of heroes in the eyes of the villagers. It might be a surprise even to you how much everyone is talking about it…” the man smiled and laughed out even. He didn’t look too strong but his chakra seemed at least as strong as that of Special Jounin.

“Where to, Lady Mana?” the man then bowed overly politely again suggesting that he won’t be leaving her side. “The hospital, not that I don’t like it but… Are you going to follow me?” Mana asked trying to be as polite as possible. Toko laughed out and gave her a thumbs up, “Yes, I am instructed to make your stay as comfortable as possible so that you don’t need to feel at threat for the duration of your stay. The Council wishes for you to fully recover and to relax and even wanted an audience later on, perhaps you feel well enough to honor that request?” Toko asked with a sly face. Mana nodded silently and started walking, leaving into the busy and crowded morning streets of Kumogakure.

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Toko was right, the moment the door to Mana‘s hotel opened everyone surrounding the area of the village was all over her. Almost to the same extent as it used to be in Kirigakure, that village had a very unique system of caste, the elite entertainers in there were basically gods. Sadly enough, common people were really upset by all the luxury since there was a lot of inequality among those social layers of the villagers. The magician could only hope that this wasn’t the case in Kumogakure, this village was just too good to ruin it with social discord.

At some point her follower tried to separate the endless mass of people but Mana smiled and shook her head. If he decided to follow her he should’ve been prepared for this, this was her life ever since she started her stage magic career, strangely enough it was long after that that her career as a ninja was even known to people, for a long time she was known only as Konoha’s Sorceress and never as a kunoichi. That only changed some time after she stopped monster Honda in the big gambling house attack and Guru Ayushi. It was just all a big mess after that for several years…

“Okay, guys, come on, Lady is tired, she needs to see a doctor, please step back…” Toko tried to control the crowd and slowly they all moved aside. As the two made their way awkwardly through the crowd of people the man smiled and asked her something. “Lady Mana, you’ve been described to me as humble, yet you’re all shining right now, I suppose it’s not because of all the attention is it?” What Toko wanted to know was a fair point, for the first time in a while Mana laughed with genuine pleasure instead of wishing to look strong to her friends.

“My whole life I wanted people to just get along, people from other villages being treasured guests instead of surrounded by fear and distrust. I see now that it is possible, seeing the admiration these people have for a person from another village makes me hopeful.” The magician replied looking to the sky. These past weeks were really strange, all of her dreams started to slowly come true – Rukasu changed, telling the young woman that perhaps she did have the power to change bad people instead of beating them up, now people of Kumogakure showed love and admiration for someone from the other village.

“Heh, I guess you could say that if I died now, I’d have few regrets, I’d be at peace…” Mana closed her eyes and smiled, finally she could relax for just a moment. Preparations for the Parabrahma battle were intense, moments like this were genuinely needed. Toko scratched his chin, “You’re far too young to talk about death, Lady Mana, you’ve survived so much and the stories I’ve heard were so incredible that I don’t even think a living being can kill you, that only leaves the natural causes… I wanted to ask you something, my daughter is studying in the Academy and she studies with a new edition of the textbook, she keeps telling me stories about you… I mean… That one with an unstoppable man draining chakra through touch can’t be real, right?” Mana laughed out loud,

“Actually…”

*****************************************************

The walk to the hospital wasn’t that long, it was really fun though, talking to Toko was really fun. Despite his somewhat great rank he viewed everything that Mana went through as a legend or a myth that was made to mask a real story. He kept asking her things about Ayushi or Honda or the Leech, he didn’t believe that it was Mana who uncovered the secret of the missing ninja rabbit scroll. Granted that last one wasn’t done by her alone, she had some help from Yoroi. Mana thought for a moment, wondering what the man had been doing all this time, she always viewed him as a father figure ever since her father passed out into a coma. He was always her one true mentor, despite the differences that the two kept having.

Even inside the hospital building it was impossible to hide from all the attention. Kumogakure architecture was strange, it reminded the magician of the Rabbit Cave. The building was just built right into a mountain, this was something that the magician had only seen once. The doctors ran up to her almost immediately after she and Toko entered the “building”. They kept talking, one over the other, apparently they’ve been waiting for her to come over and the whole village was buzzing over her injuries and speculating what happened. “Ummm… Why does that man’s card read “Obstetrician”?” Mana unpleasantly squirmed as the doctors reached over her shoulder to lead her into the office for tests.

“It was just one of the versions we’ve speculated on…” one of the doctor said, making Mana shout out in surprise and disagreement as he raised his palms to calm her down, “I know, I know… We just had nothing but speculations to work with… We’ll test you for everything, the report on the Inari Mountain has documented of this “strange sickness” you had, we’ll see what we can do about that but first we need to know what it is.” the doctor said as he dragged Mana into the large room, the young woman only got one last look at Toko, looking at him as if she was disappointed that he didn’t fight those doctors off and rescue her.

What followed were exhausting hours of various tests. The doctors even managed to convince Mana to give the obstetrician a chance even if it was really pointless. Her sickness wasn’t pregnancy, that doesn’t make one spit up blood, does it? Anyways, it DEFINITELY wasn’t that. Of all things the woman felt afraid of, that was not one of them. She never really had the time or spared the effort for those sort of things, it had to be something else. The doctors did some really strange tests, point of most of which were absolutely baffling to Mana, she had to breathe into some sort of tube with a pointer on it, they stuck needles into her chest and extracted something, it wasn’t something an injured person would’ve wanted in their life just days after their recovery.

Then the heart stopping waiting came. Apparently usually it took weeks to get these tests done because contrary to the popular beliefs doctors didn’t do their own tests. This was a very special case, Mana has been told to wait until the tests were finished and then a medical ninja was let in to the room. He performed that strange diagnosis technique which the magician saw Seika perform when she saved Mana’s life by letting her in the village and healed her up. The face of the medical ninja paled at some moment, the young kunoichi knew it already, she’s been badly messed up, her body was barely holding together. “So I guess that obstetrician wasn’t needed, huh?” Mana asked just to break the silence as the medical ninja stopped his scan.

“You’re dying, Lady Mana…”

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Mana wasn’t quite sure how she was supposed to react. Part of her already knew that diagnosis, she’s suspected that it was coming from way back. About four or five years back when she fought Ayushi most of her bones were broken and her body was hit by an anti-matter technique of all things. During her recovery the doctors warned the magician that if she ever got so injured again her body would not come back from it – she used up all of her body’s “favors” to recover from that.

To say that after that day Mana never really got hurt would be stupid, the person who claimed that obviously wouldn’t have known Mana. She’s probably been beaten up the same week when she was sent to Bachi prison with her chakra sealed. Then she’s been injured to near death consistently throughout those years, there were warning signs: in Kirigakure a simple explosion shockwave passing close to her knocked her out and almost killed her – her body simply refused to live anymore. It was like a piece of complicated clockwork that simply didn’t work anymore after being slammed by a hammer multiple times.

Mana’s head sunk down, her hair flowed all over the woman’s face as tears started forming in her eyes, the sadness in her reaction was delayed because she knew exactly what it was, she suspected this but just was hesitant to make it official and confirm it. “I’m… I’m really sorry… This isn’t the procedure in which we normally let people know… I mean… I’m really sorry…” the medical ninja started calming her down placing his hand on her shoulder. Mana didn’t collapse just yet, he was probably used to people breaking down. “I… I usually ease people into it but. I think you knew, didn’t you? I mean… I checked your hospital records, you’ve been hospitalized at least four times last year and all of them were injuries that would kill a person, it says you’ve been warned after getting hit by… “Tamashi…Ton… Anti… Matter…” Oh God…”

The medical shinobi was confused by all of those injuries himself. Mana still didn’t say anything. Her mind just shut down, maybe a part of her still believed that this was just a bad dream, that she wasn’t really dying, that she was just hard asleep in Sanctuary back in Konoha and that she will have a tough day in the morning which made her go to bed late so she’s asleep pretty hard. Maybe some part of the young woman still believed that she would soon wake up and wipe sweat off of her face being relieved to be OK and not actually dying.

“There’s nothing we can really do, it’s not a disease or anything, your body is just shutting down, it’s exhausted and… I’m sorry, most of your systems are already beyond the point any healing can repair.” Mana finally snapped and tears started bursting as her chest slowly started twitching from the nearly audible weeping. The medical shinobi jumped forward to hug her as she was probably barely holding on from his point of view. “I mean… It’s not beyond ALL hope, I’ve heard there’s this thing called “Ayushi cells” in Konohagakure, they may still help you but they’d have to drain the supply clean, your entire body needs them, not just one particular organ, everything needs to be regenerated from scratch, you need a new body in order to live.”

What the medical ninja told made sense, short time before leaving the village Mana and her friend uncovered a plot where criminals used the cells of comatose Guru Ayushi to regenerate entire limbs on the black market. The man modified his body to regenerate any injury in his youth and his experiment was never replicated but Mana managed to uncover his body and as a ninja in charge of his condition she authorized use of Ayushi cells for hopeless patients. That was single-handedly the thing that the magician was most proud of in her life, Ayushi cells cured anything they touched, they were basically panacea that came in short quantities.

It didn’t matter, Mana was a traitor to the Leaf, she gave Kumogakure classified Protection Service information in order to save the village and prepare them against the Parabrahma. That was the worst thing that a ninja could do. There was no way that she was still welcome home, people had to wait countless weeks to get authorized for Ayushi cell treatment because it was so limited, reserved for only the hopeless patients nothing else could cure. She was a traitor, Konoha probably no longer would’ve accepted her back. Not only that, the other thing that the doctor said – Mana would exhaust the Ayushi supply if she was to heal herself using that, there would be no more wonder treatments, people would have to be treated the normal way because of one selfish young brat. Mana wasn’t that important…

The magician nodded for the medical ninja and stood up, there was no use in waiting for any more test answers. This was it. The ninja jumped up and blocked the door, he was still worried of Mana’s condition, “Lady Mana, are you… I mean… Of course it’s not OK but… Man…” the aged man had nothing to tell her, honestly, what could he say to her? How could he possibly comfort her? How could he comfort a person who was dying? “There’s no definitive limit, no timeframe so… It’ll be the worst kind of death – unexpected and relatively painful. Your body should already be dead, maybe you’ve got a month, maybe even a year, knowing how much your body is already working overtime you can probably hope to live past any expectations… I don’t think I can give you any more hope than that, go home, Lady Mana, ask them to use the Ayushi cells on you and get in line. We’ll send your tests right there and you’ll get treated within the first couple of weeks…”

Mana turned around and hugged the medical ninja, he tried to give her what no one else had enough confidence to give – hope. The magician tried to give hope to people it was so very touching to see hope given back to her, or at least tried to being given back. There was no more hope, why would Konoha completely destroy their panacea supply on a traitor? Plus, how could Mana dare just give up on her fight with the Parabrahma? It’s not over yet: Red Scorpion, Hogo no Shima, Okina Iwa, these were the location names extracted by Mana. These were her next destinations, not Konoha…

“Umm… Lady… Are you OK?” Toko rushed right by Mana’s side as she left the room, he must’ve seen her face, covered with tears. Mana didn’t respond. She twisted her finger around telling him to move on. “Well… The Council was REALLY persistent that you saw them, I think it’d be best if you saw them and would be done with it but I mean… If your sickness is serious, I could tell them…” Mana shook her head and signaled her follower to lead the way. Mother wanted her to live long and happy, all those things Mana did after that, saved the village countless number of times and several times even the world. Will Mother be proud when Mana meets her? Will Father? Mana has been so cruel to the people throughout her life, faking her death so often, they will probably just think she’s faking it but then as they won’t see her for eternity more – they’ll forget her. That was the most cruel way to die in, inspiring hope to those you leave behind that you’re not really dead.

“I… I won’t force you to talk about what happened but… If you want to… I’ll… I’m there, Lady Mana.” Toko uttered. He probably felt that he was crossing the line but he must’ve felt it that with Mana there were very few lines she didn’t let him cross. “The Administration is just ahead, hopefully they won’t hold you for long and it will be over soon…” Toko tried to keep the talk going but Mana’s tongue was tied down by the weight of her own fading existence.

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Mana walked forward with her head down, it was almost as if she functioned on auto-pilot. Knowing that she could die at some point and never see it coming was tearing her up and it made no sense for that to be so. The magician thought she’s been ready to die her whole life! All those days she kept chasing enemies that weren’t supposed to be fought by anyone at all, each and every time almost dying in the process. In fact, if asked, some of her friends would say that she purposefully asked for death and that Mana was naturally suicidal.

When her father was sent to coma by Ayushi and Mana ran after him to the forest outside the village she knew she’d die, she had accepted it. Every punch she had thrown, every lightning bolt she fired was done so with a certain knowledge that she was going to die but it didn’t matter to her, she still kept swinging… Then when Mana survived she felt… Empty. How was one supposed to accept life when they have already accepted death? She didn’t care that everyone in the world hated her back then, that she went to prison and all that.

Then, at some point, Mana decided that she was forced to live, to draw breath, because she had a mission, she had to do something special in her life, she was meant to do something she had not yet done. When Rukasu killed Satsuki Uchiha and Mana caught him in the act and captured him, after she brought Rukasu to the village, Mana tried to commit suicide but a man stopped her. All of her life the young woman viewed that man as a messenger of fate, someone who let her know her mission was not yet done, that whatever she was meant to do was still ahead.

Was Mana now supposed to accept that she had fulfilled her purpose? What was it then? Protecting the world from the Parabrahma? Wasn’t protecting it from Ayushi enough? It had the same worth right? Either way, did this sickness that will kill her one day mean that now Mana’s use in this world was done? That she was now useless and had no purpose? Maybe it would make more sense if she killed herself right now and spared herself the life of uselessness and no purpose? What if… What if life itself had no purpose this entire time and she was wrong this whole time…

“We’re here, Lady Mana, please go inside.” Toko said as he held the door to the Council’s office open. The magician was so deep in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice that they have entered the giant building etched in stone. The Sennin entered the council meeting room as asked and stood straight before the room full of people without kneeling, just bowing her head in respect. “This is the Kumogakure Council, they are a collective organ that makes the decisions during this difficult period of Raikage’s absence. Their collective decision has the same power as Raikage’s decision, it is a very difficult time, Lady Mana.” One of the councilmen raised his hand and silenced Toko, the ninja then kneeled to the council and remained in his kneeled position.

“Konoha’s Sorceress… There is a lot we wanted to talk to you about but we are aware that you are still recovering so we’ll skip the pleasantries, we both know you saved all of our asses and we appreciate you going the additional mile to not only warn us, supply with information and organize the defensive but also fight in the trenches yourself. That’s how a true leader handles things which made us wonder how come you’ve never been offered the seat of Hokage…” the councilman stopped talking, he let it be known that it was now Mana’s turn to talk but the magician remained silent. They were talking politics to her, they insisted on talking to her about politics the day she got the news she was going to die…

A councilwoman spoke up, “Regardless, you’ve made your mentors proud, some might even say you surpassed both Kimiko and Yoroi based on feats alone… That being said, I’d imagine your situation with Konoha is now very difficult, am I correct? You gave sensitive Protection Service information to another Country. That is called “treason”. However we do not forget favors – when Konoha summons the International Ninja Tribunal to review your case again we will support you and do not worry, they would never dare harm a hair on the famous Konoha Sorceress’ head.” Mana didn’t even raise her head to look the woman in the eyes, these people just assumed that Mana was heading home, that she was done when truth be told she barely even begun.

The first councilman spoke up again, “That being said, your case is incredibly interesting – you’ve captured the hearts of villagers of another Country, you’ve earned trust and loyalty of most of our ninja… All that over a couple of months, over one colossal battle and a crime against your own country. You know, if you let us place your candidacy to Raikage we’d add you to the list, it’s not likely that someone from another village would get the spot but… Times are hard, if there was time for change now would be it. You’ve got no more home, Sorceress, if only you knock on our door, we are willing to let you in and serve you cocoa.”

Mana turned around and walked away. No words, no gestures, not even an eye contact – her duty was to listen to them, she listened. She was strong, her heart was immovable, she’d do every duty placed on her shoulders the best she could, that was the person Mana always was, dependable and strong. But was that going to be how she’d be remembered after her death? Will the world only remember Mana as traitor of the Leaf after she dies? Has she disgraced the Nakotsumi name forever, condemning both the history of the wandering ninja group her mother was from and the Nakotsumi bloodline of her father for eternal shame? Toko followed her home, it seemed as if he had also caught the sickness of silence, maybe it was contagious.

Mana entered the hotel and gently lifted her palm up to say her hello to the man in the checking room. The young woman then slowly ascended to the floor she lived in, agony and despair, profound depression and sadness behind her every step. After all of her struggles to help everyone ever, to leave the world better than she had found it when she was born the price she paid was damnation of her own name and those around her, those she loved, pain in the hearts of her friends caused by seeing Mana suffer. She helped a lot of people, in a way, she helped every person in the world at least once since she had prevented a worldwide war once… All she had to pay for it was herself. This wasn’t even a noble ultimate sacrifice, by sacrificing her own happiness and life she also brought sadness into the life of those who wished to call themselves her friends. This was a dirty, vile sacrifice tainted and cursed by darkness and corrupting depression.

Mana entered the hotel room and ran straight for her bed, nose-diving into the pile of pillows and letting the volcano of emotions erupt, the young woman let the embrace of soft silk and cloth soak in her tears. Assistant slowly walked up to her bed, “I’ve made some takoyaki…” “I don’t want it...” Mana cried out softly and silently. What was even the point of eating anymore? What was she sustaining? Her life that will drift away one day anyways? Nothing made sense, nothing mattered! “Hmm, that is sad, perhaps Meiko-san will appreciate them more…” the man walked off with the plate into the room that Meiko lived in. Mana kept crying into the pillow, crying without looking to the side. There was no more outside world to her, only the pillow which was soaking in her own infinite pain.

[EXIT]