Bitch 101 [Anc]

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Mana sighed as she looked at the glaring hole on her shirt, all the gruesome training and fighting in Kumogakure has dried her extravagant collection of attires which didn’t leave many options. What was even worse that the magician had no chance of visiting a clothes shop in the closest future so next time she decides to get stabbed through the stomach she may as well deal with the fact of walking with a huge hole in her shirt for the rest of her time. The magician rubbed her tired eyes as she zipped the small pack of the most essential things.

“I see you’re doing better today, Lady, whatever made you cry so hard yesterday seems to have gone away, perhaps you will eat now?”

Mana sighed again, the only reason she was so calm was because her body probably had no more liquids to cry, over the last few days she must’ve lost all of her liquids: first that sickness making her cough up and sometimes even vomit blood, then getting the tough news that she was dying slowly and crying her heart out to Meiko yesterday. The magician turned at Assistant and reached over his arms, gently touching his elbows with her hands trying to tell him that what she is about to say was important.

“Look… I’m not sure how my financial situation is in Konoha but… I’m going to be gone, I may not even be back at all and… You know how to manage funds right? And if I die… Just… Give it all to orphans or something… Compensate yourself on your own discretion…”

Mana softly told the man, her voice was different, much softer and lower pitched but also weakened. The magician then turned around and started packing the other backpack of clothes. The man looked at her from behind, Mana could tell, as a ninja she had pitch perfect perception of when she was being watched. There was this natural feeling of someone looking at you from behind. The young woman knew that the man felt bad about this, Assistants were very loyal, they worked for quite a pay but they also went above and beyond their duties to please their masters who hired them.

“And what of Ms. Meiko and Ms. Kiyomi, are they going with you, wherever you are going as well?” the man inquired, his voice seemed as distant and formal as always despite the situation suggesting that he should’ve been at least somewhat concerned. His breathing was elevated, he was sweating over his forehead – truly he was worried. It was odd, Assistants usually never got worried over their masters, they just served their time of hiring and left once the master stopped paying them. Mana stopped packing for a moment and turned around, her eyes started getting wet.

“No… I couldn’t care any less wherever they choose to go… They’ll probably head home soon though, that is where they’re waited for.” Mana replied trying to sound indifferent. “Yes… Actually, you can let them know… That I was grateful for their help and… Ummm… Wish them good luck.” The magician tried to distance herself from everyone, tried to make people hate her so that when she died no one cared, so that no tear was shed upon her passing. Even in death Mana wished to only spread happiness. “Also, tell them that if they come after me I will fight them, for reals.” The magician said right after picking the backpack up and heading towards the door.

The sleeveless white top she had now was pretty perfect for the hot wasteland of the Lightning Country but the Snow Country was quite different. She would need to buy a poncho or something like that… “Let’s see… The next location was… Red Scorpion…” Mana thought to herself as she opened the hotel door and started making her way through the rich and crowded place, the very fact that the famous Konoha’s Sorceress stayed here made the place boom in popularity and its prices to go sky high. People started rushing up to her and ask her for autographs. “I have to… I have to be mean to them, make them hate me…”

“Ummm… I won’t sign anything… Uh, maybe just this one…”

The magician scolded herself as she realized that she didn’t know how to make people hate her. She needed to learn that, to become a different person, someone people would despise. The best way to start was to take from the people that she herself hated, back in Kirigakure there were a bunch of pompous elitist bastards. Mana suddenly swung the notes given to sign slapping the man in the face, “I’m bored with you, I’m sick of this stupid country, I’m leaving…” she grunted as she shoved a little girl away from her path making the girl fall down. The kid started crying which in terms made Mana’s heart tear in half, that feeling when your heart felt like bleeding out inside was unparalleled. The magician would take getting impaled on a spear over that any day…

“Why is Sorceress-sama so mean to me, Daddy?” the girl cried. “I don’t know, she’s just some pompous brat it seems, all those people talking about how nice and generous she was were liars, they were probably in her pocket… What kind of person pays people to talk about how great they are… Despicable… What a despicable woman…” the man started talking to himself as he embraced his daughter and lifted her up. Mana covered her eyes with a palm as she could barely restrain her tears. She didn’t care for a moment that those people were starting to dislike her, she just felt bad for what she did, that child didn’t deserve that just because Mana wanted to show a point.

Quickly the magician flipped the backpack over her left shoulder and started imitating the arrogant and mighty strolling manner that all the elitist artists in Kirigakure had. Just a quick look at that arrogant expression and walking manner would’ve alerted everyone that this was a bitch walking, one that everyone should keep away from. Or at least the magician had hoped so…

Age : 33 Posts : 544

The last mission had taken a toll on Kiyomi. The interrogation of Niku had been a depressing one. She didn't think she'd feel bad for the crazed murderer, but after glimpsing into her mind she did. Hiruzen was probably right. It would be a mercy to kill her instead of keeping her in jail. Sadly that choice was out of her hands. It was up to Kumogakure to figure out what to do with her.

What troubled Kiyomi more is just how annoyingly stubborn Mana was. Her old friend and teammate was the most selfless person she had ever met, and yet one of the most selfish at the same time. She gave until it hurt her to help people, but didn't care how all this self inflicted pain affected the people who loved her. At the interrogation she was clearly ill and still recovering from the battle. She had take a spear to the gut which was not a fun wound at all. Yes her rabbit summon had fixed the worst of it, but she should have stayed in recovery for awhile.

Kiyomi viewed Mana as a younger relative. A close cousin or a little sister. They had been through much together and Kiyomi had even read her mind. She knew how her friend thought and knew about all the horrible shit she had to bear. So when she went looking for her it came as no surprise that she had found her hotel room empty. Sighing wearily she set off for the village gate hoping she hadn't missed her friend. She needed to be convinced to stop being so self sacrificing and Kiyomi was going to make her see reason by logic or by force.

It was surprisingly easy to find Mana as she raced along the rooftops towards the gate. A crowd had followed her no doubt trying to get an autograph. Something was wrong though. The crowd didn't seem happy, but that could wait. The familiar form of her friend was spotted moving along. Even from this distance thanks to her trained senses she could see something was wrong.

I should prepare myself to bonk her on the head and drag her dumbass home. I think I can beat her if I get the drop on her. This is going to be tricky. She went down the side of a building and went behind a stall to create a shadow clone. The clone went ahead of her while the real Kiyomi henged into a average Joe who could easily fit into the village. The clone raced ahead and went up to Mana.

"Hey now you're not leaving again without saying goodby are you? I wanted to talk to you about some things and catch up." That much was true. The clone barred the path while the real Kiyomi in disguse simply walked with the people of the village out of Mana's line of sight towards her back. She didn't rush or anything, she simply moved at a normal pace as not to alert Mana.

Mana would notice that the clone, like the original Kiyomi looked worn out, worried, and just in strong need of rest. "Come on sweetheart let's get some tea and sit down to relax. We both earned a break after that harrowing experience."

Sc's active: Anbu stealth from running along the rooftops. Keen senses.

Jutsu used/active:

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Carefully the magician took her time to observe all of the people traversing the busy streets of Kumo. All those busy people, always in a rush, just like she was. Chasing for goals, giving up on life in order to satisfy their illusions of happiness. A man who looked like he could’ve been a father was rushing through the street with a troubled look on his face – what kind of story did he have to tell? Maybe he was a father, busy supporting his family, falling into the fate of never seeing his children awake and making them hate him for never being there just so they had something to eat.

Mana was just like that her entire life, she didn’t regret it for a second. She wasn’t born for happiness, she was born to make other people happy – making sure that everyone around her was happy, safe and that there was no way that the magician could aid them more than she did. That was her duty, duty given to her by whatever force granted her control of chakra. Mana wasn’t amazing or anything, she was just a footsoldier, she was no Uchiha or even any kind of clan member at that. She was just a young woman with a sense of duty and a naïve and foolish goal in her mind, one she was destined to fail in the end… Such was Mana’s struggle.

Sneaking up on the magician was impossible. She maintained complete awareness of her surrounding by utilizing a combination of perception and sensory, whenever she observed her surroundings, tracking every young and promising genin running around and every villager talking to their friends and waving at her as if she was a hero Mana was almost impossible to fool by trying to sneak on. Her sensory had flaws, there were some people in Kirigakure that managed to fool her sensory by remaining invisible to it, changing the frequency at which chakra worked. However Mana got better – she learned to become perceptive, then she mastered Shingan. These two were the ultimate tools against stealthy opponents.

For that reason the magician felt rather strange when she sensed a familiar chakra behind her, the strangeness came from the fact that it split into two halved signatures. Maybe Kiyomi didn’t know that she lost her amazing stealth abilities the moment she performed her clone technique? Still, the question of the day was – why did Kiyomi even use a clone technique? Did she really intend to fight Mana? Why? What happened? Did Kiyomi maybe wish to kill Mana for being a traitor to Konoha? That was a strong jump to conclusions but her blond friend was a criminal hater, just like Mana herself used to be. Right before the clone ran up to speaking distance Mana stopped, she wanted to let the halved chakra signature know that she wasn’t fooling Mana.

“Talking only takes two, there is no need for clones and cheap disguises in “talking”. I don’t need Shingan to tell you’ve used Shadow Clones, I don’t need it or Perception to tell that the other signature has less chakra so it is likely to be hiding inside the crowd, I also only need basic common sense to tell that the one that is hiding is the real you. If you wanted to talk there’d have been no need for this game, do you want to fight me? Do you want to kill me for being a traitor of Konoha? If so I’d suggest waiting until we leave the village, this place is much too crow… I mean… I don’t care if those useless idiots get in the way. If you fight me – I’ll fight back. I used to think of you as my Nee-chan but sisters don’t lie to sisters.”

After finishing talking Mana started walking towards the gate again. She couldn’t quite wrap her finger about what this was. Did Kiyomi get Assistant’s message and that was why she was so agitated? Why would she be so afraid of Mana? Was she this much of a monster to deserve this kind of treatment? Well, at least the magician’s quest to be hated and treated like dirt was complete – her own “Nee-chan” had no respect for her at all. “Also, if you want to fight me you should’ve brought Meiko with you, then again, Meiko actually spoke with me eye to eye and I told her what this is all about…” Mana spoke again knowing full well that Kiyomi won’t let it go like that. Her sensory would’ve allowed to avoid Kiyomi’s technique the moment it starts, the moment the blonde starts building up chakra and the magician was just a quicker seal-weaver.

Without continuing to talk she would’ve kept walking – this was the way to make Kiyomi hate Mana, to treat her as someone who just wasn’t in on the game, someone who was left out on a secret which Mana and Meiko knew. The Sennin would’ve had no trouble in telling Kiyomi she was dying and maybe even talking heart to heart, however by approaching her as if the magician was an enemy Kiyomi somehow has wasted that trust. In just one day Mana had lost both a best friend and an older sister, if she met her “beloved” she’d be losing him as well. It was only befitting to lose everything before losing one’s life.

“I’m not going to Konoha, you are. I’m heading everywhere Niku told us the Parabrahma will be and I’m going to beat them for you, so that you can live in peace. So that you and Meiko can share an umbrella again, so that no children get kidnapped and turned into monsters, so that giant statues don’t start feeding off of people’s souls and so that giant puppets don’t threaten to blow the village up. It’s what I was born to do – bring people happiness and I intend to do that.” Mana delivered as one final statement, her voice was firm enough to make it look serious, the magician really didn’t want to pick a fight surrounded by Kumogakure villagers – she may have acted like a bitch but she wasn’t inside, the health and safety of these people as well as every other person on Earth mattered to her. This needed to drag out a bit… Just until the gate…

Spoiler:

Age : 33 Posts : 544

Kiyomi let out a sigh as she was detected. She really hadn't expected anything less from Mana. The real one came running up and once she was in hearing distance of Mana the clone was dismissed with the chakra returning to her as well as what Mana said. Those words had stung a fair bit, but Kiyomi knew she had not taken a very nice approach that could easily be misconstrued as her looking for a fight. Then of course the anger at what Mana had said was real. She didn't show it, but Mana's words had incensed her a fair deal.

Kiyomi got in front of Mana and barred her path. If the magician tried to sidestep her she'd simply bar the way. She wasn't going to let Mana get anywhere near the gate. "Mana. I don't think your a traitor nor do I want to kill you. If I had wanted to kill you I'd have done it while you were weaker and surrounded by your assistants. I'd have caused them to turn against y6u and used them as a shield or some other fucked up thing. No Mana, I don't want to kill you I want to stop you from what you're doing. You're still not recovered and I know you're too damn stubborn to wait and heal up before heading out to try to take this group on yourself. I saw you at the interrogation, you looked like you were about to pass out from a fever and that wasn't long ago. I don't want to fight you, but if it means stopping you to make you see reason and recover then I will."

She stepped closer to Mana holding out her hand to her. "Please Mana. Come back with me. At least until you're fully recovered. I can't bear to lose another sibling. I know it's selfish, but if you leave now and something happens to you I don't think I can take it." Tears rolled down her cheeks as she barred the woman's path. "Please Mana. Please don't do this I'm begging you. We can help you beat them you know we can. You deserve to be happy too. Far more than me. I'm just a cold hearted bitch who doesn't deserve to be happy. You're practically a saint Mana. I've never met someone so determined to do good despite what it would cost them. Please come with me Mana I don't want to ave to fight you, but I will if it means stopping you from throwing away your life."

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Dealing with Kiyomi always was more difficult than Meiko, maybe it was because the blonde was just as stubborn as Mana was. Such was simply her nature. She always thought that she knew what was best, she always tried to control Mana’s life and while her intentions were only the best, at times the magician couldn’t help it but get annoyed by it. That being said, this time Kiyomi was grinding by the edge of the line, she was willing to actually fight Mana which was the most hypocritical thing that the magician has ever heard, at that moment acting like a bitch with her older sister was easy…

“So you’re going to stop me from getting hurt by hurting me?” The magician asked sarcastically as she stopped while Kiyomi crossed her path. The villagers started to get interested in this event, both of the young women were known to them as being heroes of the village, someone who saved the entire village and their Daimyo, Mana even betrayed her own village to organize a proper defense and it was common news to the Kumogakure villagers. If they started to brawl in a middle of a village it’d only bring shame to them and Mana wasn’t willing to do that, even if she did try to make a new persona for herself.

Mana’s hands quickly flashed through handseals making her body dissolve into a bunch of petals that were scattered in the wind. This allowed the magician to quickly get behind Kiyomi and continue walking. If she wanted to do anything about it in a reasonable time frame she’d have needed to dispel the genjutsu to see the real Mana and not the bunch of sakura petals. Once Mana’s body reformed at least 10 m. further from Kiyomi the magician started walking again, slowly and ignoring Kiyomi’s continuous and endless tendency to annoy her by acting like she was the kunoichi’s mother or something.

“I already had a mother Kiyomi, she was killed by a maniac… I’d rather not relive the experience, I appreciate that you want to take care of me but it’s too late – I’m dying already from the sum of my injuries, the doctors told me so.” Mana casually tossed out in the air loud enough for Kiyomi to hear. Since the magician had already shared this information with Meiko she managed to maintain a rather nonchalant stature about it and just throw it around as if it was common information. “It’s been a week since the battle, besides the fact that I’m slowly dying, I feel just fine and it’ll take me long time to reach the destination I am heading for. I’ll have enough time to recover several times over.” Mana replied trying to distance herself emotionally from her older sister. The magician wanted to annoy Kiyomi, to make the blonde hate her and give up on saving her.

“There is no hope for a cure, no hope to save me and I’ve got a literal deadline to fit into, I want to go as a hero, not as a patient. If you want to cripple me and confine me to a bed and make me die in a hospital bed… That’s not what neither friends nor sisters do, I’d appreciate if you wouldn’t get in my way…” Mana replied as she kept heading towards the edge of the Kumogakure. Seeing her older sister cry was tough, it almost made Mana cry too but in order for Kiyomi to hate and forget her the Yamanaka needed to despise Mana, if they continued to be friends then Kiyomi would cry and fret over Mana’s death but if the blonde hated the Sennin she just wouldn’t care.

Mana knew that Kiyomi wouldn’t give up, that she would keep trying to make her friend stop. “You keep telling me how I am not a traitor, how the village doesn’t consider me one but I forgot when exactly you’ve been promoted to Hokage? You are not in charge of those things, I’ve already been hated once by everyone when I saved the world from Ayushi. Right now I have no time to go to Konoha and deal with their hatred, I’d rather die forgotten and hated so that no one shed a tear about it. I’d rather make everything right – stop the Parabrahma for everyone and die alone than go back to the village and die alone anyways. At least this way I can do what I love.”

As the magician kept walking her eyes started to get a bit teary as well, these last couple of days were rough on her. She didn’t want to hurt Kiyomi inside but she had to, her sister had to hate her and disown her, that was the only way to hurt the least amount of people as possible. “You keep saying that I deserve to be happy and yet you assume that you know what makes me happy, I’ll tell you what I told Meiko.” Mana opened her mouth again, keeping up her bitchy façade. “Living my life confined to a bed with people telling me I’m a traitor doesn’t make me happy, trying to prolong my life with one or two more days in the hospital doesn’t make me happy, it makes me more depressed by the fact that I’m dying. As my older sister you should know those things!”

“I am only happy when those around me are safe and happy, when I do everything in my power so that they stay safe and happy! My happiness isn’t what makes me happy, its happiness of everyone else that makes me satisfied. I don’t want to settle down, have a family and kids, live confined to a bed and then whither down to nothingness. My life is already over and all I can do about it is make sure that it still means something, if I don’t do this I may as well stick a note on my face saying “USELESS” with three exclamation marks. I want my life to matter, I want my parents to be proud of me when I see them again and I won’t let you stand in my way!” Mana straight out shouted the last part out. It wouldn’t have been wise to stand in her way after reminding her why she was doing all of this. The magician didn’t want to hurt anyone but she would if they blocked her path.

Spoiler:

SCs:

Name: Flower Petal Escape [Canon]
Rank: C
Type: Genjutsu
Medium: Optical
Range: Close (0m - 5m)
Element: -
Description: If the user comes under attack, she or he can use this technique to cover her or his escape. After forming the needed hand seals, the user's body will disperse into a shower of flower petals. These petals will confuse and distract her or his opponent while she or he escapes or hides. This technique works very similarly to substitution, but can also be used to delude the enemy with more flower petal based Genjutsu.
Chakra Cost: 5

CP: 232/235

Age : 33 Posts : 544

The Yamanaka heir bit her lip as Mana made a valid point. Her concern for Mana was clouding her good judgement. Still a bit of pain now would save her from serious injury or illness in the long run. Without being trained in perception she wouldn't have noticed the handseals made by her friend. Then suddenly her vision swam with flower petals. She sighed and kai'd out of it annoyed and disturbed about how much chakra it used to get out of the illusion. It showed just how strong Mana's powers of illusion had come. Apparently performing magic tricks in front of a crowd helped out a lot with illusions.

Despite the power of the illusion Kiyomi dismissed it almost as soon as it had appeared and gave chase after Mana and appeared in front of her once again. Just in time to hear her friends heart wrenching news. The rest of the world was shut out save for her and Mana as all she could do was stare at Mana with tears rolling down her face as the Magician let her have it. Every point she made was valid. Kiyomi had no argument against it. She wasn't the Hokage nor could she dictate how people should feel about Mana.

Kiyomi couldn't hate Mana even at her bitchiest. Which was truthfully a sad attempt at being bitchey. It was more of her stating her last will and testament. Of course she'd be upset and acting this way. Kiyomi would do the same thing in her position. Uncaring of the warning Mana gave she ran at her friend and would attempt to wrap her in a hug. If she succeeded she'd sob into Mana's ear. "I-I'm s-s-so sorry. I-I won't try to stop y-you. Please d-don't leave like this. Let me stay with you and t-talk for awhile. Please Mana."

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Mana was a pretty good orator, she had an ability to talk pretty well and talk people down, quickly find flaws in their arguments and exploit them. One of her greatest feats – preventing another World War, one versus an opponent nothing could stop, Ayushi’s Super Honda, was achieved through the young woman’s words and not her actions. She talked Ayushi down, showed him why he was wrong so that he could see for himself how low he had fallen. That caused him to surrender and willfully lose his soul to the Game of Souls.

Maybe that came from her career as a stage magician, maybe it came from her desire to solve problems with talking and not fighting. Either way, she was a relatively well spoken young woman, she may not have been a genius, she may have not even known the rules of shogi or never made a valid battlefield strategy in her life. The thing was that the Sennin knew people, she could listen to what they were saying and sometimes feel what they weren’t saying and make valid conclusions on what kind of people they were. As a messenger of piece Mana had to be able to talk people down from conflict.

Suddenly the magician felt hands wrapping around her, for a moment her body tensed up as she thought that Kiyomi was going to fight her and made a move. Only after a couple of moments when no pain or any trickery followed the blonde’s approach had Mana realized that she was hugged. This was a reaction that she didn’t predict coming from her older sister even if she was just told that her younger sister was about to die. Hearing Kiyomi tear up was hard, despite the magician being the biggest drama queen in the world and always making everything difficult Kiyomi had enough troubles of her own.

She was always relied on by the entire village and at times even couple of villages to read someone’s mind, she was always regarded as the world’s best mental expert despite the fact that Mana also had ability to interrogate people mentally. Being better than Mana in something was a feat by itself, ever since the magician even met the Yamanaka she had always considered her to be a mentor like figure, someone with similar abilities but much more experienced and just straight out better than Mana. Someone whom the girl could look up to. Together with Kimiko, Kiyomi was an important motherly figure in Mana’s life, which was important when the young woman had lost her own mother so early on in her life…

Mana tried her best not to tear up but it was tough. She lowered her head letting her hair and her hat to cover up her teary eyes and trying to hide her lips that were so tense they were starting to remind that of a duck’s beak. The Yamanaka sobbed silently into Mana’s ear, no one knew why she had chosen this sort of quiet manner of communication, one version was that sister didn’t want to expose Mana’s gentle nature and let her keep her bitchy persona up, for the first time ever Kiyomi may have been playing along with Mana’s overly complicated games.

The young woman rubbed her eyes with her arm and sighed letting the tension of crying that she was struggling with to go down. “I… Shit… I’m not a good bitch, am I?” Mana rubbed her tired eyes with her knuckles as she playfully laughed out. “Fine, I suppose there’ll be no harm in staying for just a while, just if I died on the way so that we’d have parted on good terms… Not that it’d happen…” Mana quickly waved her arms up front. “That being said… I have an apology to make. I hope you’ll excuse me for a second.” the magician sighed as she started to run at the opposite direction with all the speed her sick body could muster up, she had to be quick about it. The magician ran by the hotel she and Meiko had been staying in during their stay in Kumogakure, quickly the magician’s perceptive eyes ran through the people inside and couldn’t find the person she was looking for.

The magician then dashed and started observing the people in the village center before her eyes fell on a father walking with a small girl, the magician dashed to the first candy vendor she could see and bought a candy. Bought was a relative term as she just grabbed the lollipop and left bunch of coins at the stand. The magician then quickly blocked the father and daughter’s path and knelt by the kid. “What do YOU want?” the man grunted out, “You’ve exposed your true face already. I won’t let you hurt my daughter anymore.” Mana looked at his eyes seeing the anger and protectiveness in them burning up. She then looked at the little pipsqueak and sighed, giving her the huge lollipop.

“Look… I tried to be someone I couldn’t be. It wasn’t something you should’ve been involved in, it had nothing to do with you and… I’m really sorry about what I did. I’m sorry I made you fall down and tear your lovely dress, I’m sorry I caused you pain. It’s my fault, I can’t deal with all the things in my life and… I hope you can understand and…”

The girl tore the lollipop out of Mana’s hands and jumped at her wrapping her hands around the young woman’s neck. Mana was shocked for a moment but then she couldn’t help but smile. “I knew you weren’t bad, Sorceress, I knew you weren’t bad.” the little kid yelled out attracting a bit too much attention from the people around. The Sennin still wanted to keep her façade of a hate-worthy person but she didn’t want to actually hurt anyone in the process. After this scene was over Mana would’ve slowly walked back to where Kiyomi was, this felt weird.

“Okay, what did you want to talk about then?”

Age : 33 Posts : 544

Kiyomi hiccuped a bit as Mana complained about not being a good bitch. "No, you're terrible at it. Should have asked me to help you sooner. I'm a pro at it." She released her friend and tried to dry her eyes, but the tears wouldn't stop flowing. As Mana went off she followed albiet not like she was chasing her. Just enough to keep her in sight so they could find someplace to talk in private quicker.

Once she saw that Mana was trying to talk to a man and his daughter Kiyomi hung back to allow Mana a bit of privacy. It gave Kiyomi time to think on what she wanted to talk to Mana about. There were so many different things, but she couldn't pin down exactly what she wanted to ask. There had to be a way to save her friend, but could she convince Mana to stay long enough to try to find a way to heal her? Somehow she doubted it, but she'd at least ask that.

Perhaps she'd ask if Mana had all her affairs in order. Mana was a smart woman, she probably did. Mainly she just wanted to be there for her friend. Once Mana returned she was drying her eyes rather unsuccessfully. "Let's go talk someplace private. I'm sure you don't want everyone overhearing." Kiyomi would lead the way to a nearby rooftop with a bench. She sat down feeling weak kneed and patted the spot beside her.

"Oh...Mana I don't even know where to start. Uggh isn't there anything we can do? Any doctor we can try to find to fix whatever is wrong?"

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Despite Mana’s depressing state the magician couldn’t help but crack a grin after Kiyomi’s suggestion to teach her to be a better bitch. Mana used to be a good actress, her career as a stage magician has taught her a lot in terms of acting, this was different however, this wasn’t acting, this was actually being something you hate, hurting people you actually love, shattering your heart every time you do something. That was a similar feeling to how a parent must’ve felt when they stroke their child for endangering their life. It was painful for everyone but it was meant to prevent a greater pain in the future.

“No you’re not… You get on my and Meiko’s nerves sometimes but you’re not a bitch.” Mana thought to herself as she laughed up and went on to make peace with the child she had hurt before. Apologizing to the kid felt amazing, it almost felt liberating but… Mana can’t run away from this forever, she’s decided to be a bitch and she had to cash in on that promise. She can’t keep on apologizing to the people she hurts, her being rude and unforgivable is supposed to be the point, she’s supposed to make people hate her so that they stop caring about her, so that the rumors spread that she’s a despicable person and no one sheds a tear when she eventually dies.

Kiyomi offered to find a private place to talk, if being honest and nice for once was Mana’s intention she didn’t want anyone to see it. Kiyomi was pretty smart for suggesting it and the woman could only nod at the suggestion and follow. What could her sister wish to talk about? What do sisters talk about? Mana didn’t want to spend too much more time in Kumogakure as she had a course of travels planned which was supposed to help her figure out where exactly the Parabrahma will strike next. She had a lot of people to shake down and interrogate before she finds out the next destination. She acquired multiple potential locations from Niku but she had to find out the single one which will be the one where the organization will strike in.

Kiyomi’s first words forced a strange reaction out of Mana, the magician didn’t know how to help her sister. She could see that Kiyomi was in a lot of pain, she knew that her little dumb sister was going to pull something stupid again and she just wanted to reduce the chance of that stupid thing backfiring as much as possible. Kiyomi first wanted to know if there was any chance that there was still hope and truth be told there was, Mana just chose to leave it out of her speech so that her friends don’t get any smart ideas and get in the way of the magician’s plan. The woman just breathed in and sighed out all of it, she knew that she wasn’t a good liar but Kiyomi was one of the best at detecting a lie.

“Well, I’m not sure if you remember but… Usushiko has said back when we fought Niku that he would be able to heal it, all of it, that was said when we didn’t know what it was, he was referring to just my lungs but I can assume that healing everything is possible. He has healed me from dying before, I’ve had my entire body broken before and he healed it in just short of a day, this might take more than that but… He might be able to help. It’s not a certain shot, more like 30:70 kind of odds, there is… There is a certain way but…”

Mana hesitated before saying it, she knew that Kiyomi will want Mana to take it, she would want Mana to take the certain way. If the woman knew anything about her friends they would’ve wanted her to take any shot imaginable if that meant surviving, Meiko has demonstrated surprising amount of understanding by letting Mana handle this like she wanted to but will Kiyomi? Her older sister always was a much more straightforward kind of person. She may not understand the price at which Mana would live, all she would care about would’ve been that Mana lives.

“The medical ninja in Kumogakure say that Ayushi cell treatment could heal me completely, that’s what they do, complete regeneration of the entire body. The amount which is required for such a treatment would completely deplete Konoha’s supply however. That means that no one ever would be able to be cured of their diseases just so I can live, I am not going to go through that, I’m not that important, I’m not worth everyone else’s lives.”

Mana reached over Kiyomi’s shoulder, she wanted to help her sister understand what Mana planned to do, she was pretty rude so far, telling her every smallest option Mana had and then busting it but the Yamanaka heir had to know why Mana did what she did. Surely she could understand why the magician would refuse the Ayushi treatment but she may not have really understood about Usushiko’s healing and why Mana didn’t rush it, why she didn’t immediately summon Usushiko and ask him to heal her.

“Don’t worry, I’m not planning to die, it’s just that… You saw what the Parabrahma were capable of, without me everyone would’ve died, Niku would’ve killed all of you in that cave using that dust. Usushiko said that healing my lungs takes multiple hours, that is likely to deplete his chakra so he’d have to replenish it and go at it again. A healing ritual like that is likely to take weeks, Parabrahma isn’t going to wait for me to heal up, I have training to do and to find out what they’re planning. Once this whole mess is done for, once the world is no longer in danger – I’ll ask Usushiko to heal me and I’ll take my chances, I’ll sit still for as long as I’ll have to, not earlier. Ayushi treatment however is not an option, I’m not living so that all those people who get sick in the future would die. That would spit in the face of everything I’ve done throughout my life. I hope you understand this…”