Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

The Story of Sun Disc

Finally, once the alleyway ended Mana realized where she was taken, in the middle of the street there stood a giant temple of hulking towers surrounding a great central structure. Rotund shapes dominated in this strange eastern style architectural wonder, shapes and mosaics danced all over the building telling tales and stories starting from possibly quite old times when this wonder was built. The Sun Disc was finally in sight.

Once Mana was lead into the building she was taken into one of the towers, it was an endless spiral of stairs with dark and damp rocky cells protected by steel bars. The kunoichi was surprised to see steel bars and chains being used instead of chakra barriers and seals. The girl was lead into a cell and was thrown inside.

"Wait here for your calling, once it is your time you will know what to do. If you won't... Well, no tears of sadness will be shed." The elder guard lowered his head and closed Mana inside. Once she was closed in and chained down to a small rotten wooden bench the girl sat down and looked at the ruined floor with a sad and lifeless expression. So many people with pure hatred for her, so little hope that she would ever see her friends again but if there was at least some that would be what Mana would be counting on.

"You're a woman... Sorry, a girl... In Agbarah? Are you suicidal?" A large man sitting in front of Mana's bench asked. He was a very large and bulky individual, a couple of meters tall and lifted his fair share of boulders. His body was covered with scars and one of his eyes looked really creepy and messed up – must've been a battlefield wound. For someone like him to be really freaked out by her presence, it must've been a really big deal.

"I'm a kunoichi actually... Was at least... I don't even know what I am anymore." Mana tried to calm him down a little but she ended up just confusing herself in the process.

"Oh... Didn't notice a headband on you... A kunoichi should've known not to venture into Agbarah Sheikhate." The man replied, he didn't really seem very hateful towards her, whatever ailed the common folk didn't seem to be as deep-rooted as Mana initially thought.

"Yeah, I must've lost it, been through a lot these days..." she admitted, "I'm not from around, I wouldn't even know where I am if everyone wouldn't constantly remind me as if I committed some huge sin by coming here".

"Hasn't everyone?" The man asked, his tone was friendly, he didn't try to scold Mana for trying to imply that her burden was greater than everyone else's, he just tried to empathize with her and try to show her that the two were somewhat in the same boat and that they didn't have to be too distant from one another.

"What's the deal with this place anyway? Why does everyone hate me just because I'm a girl? I mean, if all girls and women are brought here or executed how does this place even stay on the map?" Mana asked the first thing on her mind. She really felt bad being hated by everyone around her for no reason at all, being hated just for the sake of hatred just didn't feel right for her and made her hate herself and feel down for no reason. Not one that made any sense anyway.

"Oh, this place isn't like a settlement or anything. It's a place people come to and leave, like an entertainment center, it's very unlike the other Sheikhates in that way." The large man shook his head and explained. The man continuously caressed several of his fingers on his left arm, upon a longer glare at them Mana saw that they were actually broken and swollen. Was this man going to fight too? He wasn't in a fighting condition...

"What's a Sheikhate? I thought Sunagakure was the only large cradle of civilization here and all the other settlements were just a couple of small portable tents and blocks." The girl asked trying to find out as much as she could from the man.

"Well, technically it's like a settlement of desert people but... It's hard to explain, the Land of Wind is unlike the other countries. Before there were ninja here and Sunagakure was founded, there were the Sheikhs that split apart the riches and all the resources and the land of the desert to rule in their Sheikhates. I don't really wish to go into too much detail but some of those Sheikhates still remain in some shape or form and they have some political power too. They're almost like separate states of the Land of Wind and often times they hold the Wind Lord back as well. It's not a secret that the Kazekage wishes to remove the Sheikhs from their posts and unify the desert under the Wind Lord's rule, still, the place is too vast and too complicated to just place under a single Lord." The man explained. Mana leaned up closer to him, straining her chains as much as they could've been strained. His skin appeared to be quite dark, much darker than even hers, he may not have been from around either.