A happy child ran down the stage, his large childish eyes were so close to watering but those wouldn't have been tears of sadness or depression as it was common in this world filled with murder and death. He was rushing down the stage from being called up the stage as a volunteer for Mana's magic show, it was then that the girl's eyes fell on a familiar face in the public. Normally she'd have proceeded to the main point of the show but now she pretty much had to call that little kid on stage as well.
"I know how much you guys want to see me try and kill myself by locking myself into something I set on fire but there's a very special little girl I want to call on stage. Please stay with me for another warm-up trick, will you?" she smiled nodding while looking the little girl right in the eyes. The kid couldn't believe it for a moment, it was only once the girl's parents nudged her and encouraged her to go on and get on stage that she ran holding a plushy rabbit in her arms.
"Ease up on the grip, little one, you'll tear your friend's head off..." Mana joked as the girl made it on the stage. The magician had met the little toddler and her parents in the junk district way back, back when she and her team shut down criminal activity in that region.
She invited the girl to see her show for free and informed all the hall officials of that deal, there were plenty of people that the magician let see her show for free and it wasn't anything special for them. While the magician occasionally did jarringly bad for business decisions her audience was growing so fast that it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
Ever since Mana decided to use her loss of chakra manipulation as a sign that she needed to use that effort and time of her life in other places, like her cooking hobby, her reading out and most importantly – her magic shows, Mana's shows were exploding in popularity. At the moment there couldn't have been a single Konohagakure villager who didn't know who Mana was or at least hasn't seen her face on a poster somewhere. She beat all the actors and movie stars that usually were around the place.
Recently this new trend of entertainment hit the hall, Hiro, the owner of the hall, decided to buy a giant screen on which some sort of pre-recorded material was displayed. Mana had never seen anything like it in her life but Hiro thanked her and the profit from her shows publically as a factor that helped him bring cinema to Konohagakure. Initially, Mana lost a lot of people to this booming cinema trend but as the time went the boom calmed down and her audience started growing again in a quite solid rate. It was amazing how much could've happened and how much could've changed in just a couple of months...
The little girl started whining on the stage before breaking into tears. This was something Mana couldn't have predicted. Her face twisted in that weird emotion that one always feels when they mess something up in public, on the most public stage of the village one might argue! The magician slipped her hat off, letting it playfully roll down her arm until Mana's quick hand grabbed the edge of it and then quickly put her hand inside of it, popping a smoke bomb she pulled from out of her sleeve that made a loud sound which surprised the little crying girl and made her snap out of her tears of happiness.
"Let's see if I can make a friend for your rabbit pal..." Mana smiled winking for the little girl as she popped a light bomb inside the hat, one she had especially stuffed with confetti before. Editing the contents of a ninja tool was difficult, pressure made them activate, something as delicate as pressing them with both fingers would've popped it and made it wasted so cutting it and adding content inside was pretty much like brain surgery.
The girl looked in awe at the light show which Mana had prepared and as the girl pulled out an ace card from her hat which came from Mana's pocket, the magician found a chance to reach for it in all the light show and confetti flying around which attracted the most of everyone's attention.
The stage magician acted out a sad face, as if her trick failed, Mana failing to pull a rabbit out of her hat was a common running gag on her show, she sometimes did much more destructive failures like making a smoke bomb filled with ash explode in her face making herself look hilariously messed up with all that ash but cleaning up the stage afterwards must've been horrible...
The girl giggled as Mana pulled out a balloon out of her pocket and played with it blowing it up and trying to tie it to something resembling rabbit shape. Mana pulled on the tip too hard on purpose making the balloon explode with candy she stuffed inside during preparation.
"Well, it looks like this is as good as you'll get today... I guess I'm getting washed up..." Mana shrugged playfully as the girl collected the small candy bags from the ground laughing her butt off to the point where she had to hold her belly with her hands as it started hurting from the laughter.
After the little girl from the junk district returned to her parents with probably the largest smile Mana has ever seen the magician followed it with the largest show stopper she's ever shown in a while. She had assistants lock her down in chains and close in a giant iron maiden-like device which had handles of swords that were held by complicated clockwork, each blade would've thrust into the device in seemingly random order every minute, obviously Mana knew the order in which the swords went and she knew when it'd get dangerous.
At the very worst if she didn't get out of the bindings and unlock the device the fifth sword would cut her hand and her side but it'd also break the chain, it was her last hope to escape the device because the seventh sword would've gone through her heart and the eighth one would've decapitated her.
Naturally, Mana imagined that in case of her horrifying death it'd have been nice to hide the device from public, the last thing she wanted all the kids to see was their favorite entertainer getting impaled and beheaded right in front of them so the device was also raised in the air and lowered into a giant glass container filled with gravel. The stage magician always topped her show off with one of those larger than life escaping tricks, naturally, things were harder now that she had no chakra control to bail her out.
She couldn't have substituted herself, couldn't have used a genjutsu to fool the audience. She was really inside a device that could've killed her, a deathtrap crafted by her father's ideas and built by her own hands. A social contract between the two that helped her father feel like his old crafty self and gave Mana something to do, namely think of ways of how to escape her father's deathtrap until the show starts...
Even without her chakra control Mana was good at escaping binds, she slipped out of the chains and pinched the right switch to loosen the device a minute before the fifth sword cut her, she did get cut in her thigh a little bit by it but she broke out and her hand burst from the gravel container before pulling her exhausted body out and bowing to the audience.
Some people noticed the moderately sized still bleeding cut on Mana's thigh but they just saw it as a sign of Mana's devotion and not madness. Ninja risked far more every day and the magician was now in no condition to risk it like they did. She felt useless and weak and these dangerous and visually pleasing shows were the best she could do to push those feelings away.
Hiro and a couple of his assistants ran into Mana's little preparation room after the show looking at the cut.
"Shit, how are you!?" he yelled out angrily letting his moderately skilled staff examine Mana's injury
"It looks nasty, it's not infected but it might sting when you put weight on this leg for a day or two, a week in the worst case" the medical staff examining the wound concluded placing a patch on the girl's leg. They weren't medical ninja so they could only give first aid and not just heal the leg instantly like a medical ninja with access to medical ninjutsu would've done.
"Did it make an impression? Were people disappointed?" Mana asked. She was still hyperventilating from the physical stress of rushing her escape before the device killed her, the gravel also pressed against her body almost getting into her lungs and almost drowning her, she didn't account that much effort being needed for simply going up through gravel...
"Disappointed?! Kid, you call those tricks "showstoppers", trust me, the show was "stopped" alright... I think it left an impression, that much you can be sure of. If you keep this up people from other villages will come flooding, I've already had offers from Kirigakure to have you tour there..." Hiro looked at Mana with his silly looking signature squint. The man was a short but slightly chubby guy who always wore a Hawaiian shirt and always had those weird squinted eyes as if he was always looking directly at the Sun.
"Maybe some other time... Might be dangerous to travel around without a ninja escort, even now..." Mana tensed her thigh muscle and pouted grunting a little from the pain, she's been cut before, it meant little to the girl at this point. Hell, she's been stabbed in her last mission... A little cut couldn't have kept her down even when chakra manipulation and the natural ninja regeneration factor was gone.
"Oh, right, you're not doing that anymore? Have they terminated your license yet? I mean you haven't been on a mission for a couple of months already, ever since that last one, right? How does it feel taking weeks to heal minor cuts like this? Hope you'll get used to it and stop getting reckless, I hate having to refuse all that Hanada Katsuo money on your medical bills every time you get injured on stage..." Hiro sighed out. He was always a bit of a scrooge...
"No, not yet, they still hope I'll eventually recover or learn to function without it. I hate getting injured on stage more, trust me..." Mana breathed out and took her bag, looking at her ruined pantyhose and ran out. She rarely brought clothes to change out of her uniform with her.
"Right? I mean be careful, kid, you ain't got nine lives, only got one..." Hiro flipped his hand to gesture the girl farewell until they meet before the next show.
Mana stopped and looked back at him on the doorstep, "It's not that, I hate getting hurt on stage because it makes me look sloppy... I want to inspire my crowd, I want to entertain them, I don't want them to see me bleed, to see me as just a normal human being..." the magician uttered before disappearing.
"That girl..." Hiro sighed looking at his medical staff, "I need new staff, she'll keep pulling shit like this and getting hurt, try to see if you guys can hire someone from the hospital, someone with medical ninjutsu experience..."
The medical crew looked at Hiro, they looked pretty hesitant to talk to him, one of them opened his mouth only after being encouraged by the superior to the right. "Well, sir... We did... You told us to last week..."
"Good, you're all fired then..." Hiro smiled before snapping his little chubby fingers, "Ah, don't fret, the compensation you'll get is twice bigger than you need to buy an apartment in these parts..."
"Sir, he didn't show. As you've said we've spent as little as possible on him – not even a ryo in fact..." a medical expert started explaining himself. Hiro still looked quite confused by that revelation, he did start remembering something like that being told to him but he wasn't paying attention and therefore forgot it by now.
"He's a young intern at the hospital, medical interns who wish to become full-blown medical ninja need to serve three years at a medical experience related job... He's a young kid but he's dirt cheap, interns do come to work for free after all... He is late today though..." the medical worker explained. Hiro sighed.
"Fine, you're all unfired until he learns to come to work on time... Now chop chop, go see if any actors will get injured in their little play, honestly I've no idea why people even come to those things anymore, we've got moving pictures... Moving goddamn pictures... Seriously..." Hiro left Mana's little preparation room rambling with the rest of the crew following shortly after and one guy locking the room behind him.
Mana limped slightly through the endless corridors of the large hall. The small preparation room she used was given to her back when she was a nobody. When only a handful of people knew her as that girl who did tricks on a box in the middle of the street every other day. Now she could've gotten one of those large and sophisticated rooms smelling of rich mahogany and with a bunch of star-shaped lights all around, one with more space than in her own room... Mana kept refusing, somehow she liked her little shack, it was dark and smelly but it reminded her where she came from, it was really nostalgic for the girl and Mana was always a sucker for nostalgia.
"Oh! Sorry, Konoha's Sorceress-san!!!" a loud masculine voice that must've belonged to a young teen alerted Mana that her attention was wanted behind her. It could've been a fan, Mana always had small fan meeting sessions after a show every Friday but today wasn't the day for those, still, sometimes some fans asked for some of her time and she gave them what they wanted. Answered questions or just spoke with them, a little attention made these people happy and pleasing people was all that Mana wanted to do after all...
Mana turned around with a curious expression and saw a short teen run to her and then break into mad huffs as he almost fell on his knees. He must've been rushing for quite a while...
"I apologize, Sorceress-san! I am a medical ninja intern and I was supposed to treat your wound but I'm so late! Darn it!!! Please forgive me! My father came home after a long while, he's a Jugo clan member, pure blooded so you must understand how rarely he ever comes home, inside the village walls! Please forgive me and let me look at that cut, it looks painful!"
The boy kept shouting in the most apologetic and polite manner, continuously bowing as if Mana was some sort of royalty. She could barely restrain her shame from dyeing her face blood red. She was never addressed with the honorific of "-san" before. Usually, everyone just addressed her without one or used the slightly condescending "-chan", the one used when addressing young girls or boys when one wanted to make fun of them.
She gently showed him the wound placing her leg forward so that he could see it. "It's alright, I'm quite thankful you are willing to take care of it, honestly. I didn't even know we had a medical ninja in here, saved me time having to limp to the hospital so you're really doing me a favor, might as well address me by my name – Mana..." the girl left a pause letting the teen get the clue to introduce himself.
The young man smiled awkwardly, "That's the wrong leg, Sorceress-sa... I mean... Mana. My name's Kouta Hirano, my father is a Jugo as I've mentioned before but I use my mother's last name because I'm not too proud of my father's bloodline... Oh, you probably don't care, sorry..." before breaking into a shy and restrained fit of chuckling.
Mana's face blushed instantly as she replaced the leg she pushed forward with the injured one. "It was a long day..." she let out an excuse. Then her expression changed back to slightly ashamed and mostly curious. "It's alright, I'd love to get to know you a little since you're so helpful, treating my injury and all. I've never really heard of this Jugo clan, truth be told, if it's not too much trouble for you I'd love to hear some more..." she smiled to him with that small shade of guilt as if giving him the wrong leg to look at was something shameful.
Kouta placed his hands above Mana's thigh and concentrated, his face when initiating the usual healing ninjutsu technique – "Mystical Palm" jutsu, was much more stressed and concentrated than the faces of other medical ninja Mana had seen. He must've not really been used to the technique too much. Normally, healing Mana's wound would've taken a professional just mere moments, Kouta took a couple of seconds longer than that. Then he stood back up and smiled giving the girl a thumb up.
"There it is, as good as new. It might take a while if you want to hear about my father's clan. May as well lead you to the door, if you've got the time, Mana-sa... cha... Mana..." the teen laughed awkwardly when he confused the honorifics again before deciding to use none at all.
He was such an odd guy, he was as short as Mana, who was a bit shorter than most her peers but he looked mostly about the same age, maybe a year or two older than her. His muscles looked pretty well trained, he must've been well versed in the physical techniques, taijutsu most likely, he had no weapons on him beyond the usual ninja pouch on his left leg.
Must've been left-handed, it wasn't too comfy using weapons with right hand from the bottom of the left leg... His hair was pretty messy, dark and strangely spiked, long enough to run down to his shoulders but the sides were quite trimmed. His hair strangely didn't act like the usual human hair, they spun together in those strange spiky strands that curled around each other. He wore a simple white top and a dark jacket on top of it that he kept unzipped, some medical tools were visible from his pockets.
"The Jugo clan was found in Iwagakure, they were all banished from the village and hunted heavily because of their violent tendencies and destructive bloodline. Jugo can manifest chakra into cannon-like bursts or shape them really skillfully into all sorts of shapes. They can make their own bodies into cannons, like open holes and stuff, I can't do that but my father showed me once when I was a kid. They've changed through the years, they've become monk-like, calm and peaceful. They believe that unity with nature and peaceful way of life would help them stop being viewed as demons and hunted down. My father is not like most Jugo members though, he's violent and he does roam around because of that, he rarely ever comes home. Mother says I've inherited my father's bulk, all Jugo are like walking mountains..."
Mana laughed, "Well you're not much of a mountain, no offense, but anyone as short as I am can't be called a "mountain"..." she was actually enjoying hearing about this Jugo clan, after all, history was one of her hobbies, one she engaged in more and more now that she was no longer a ninja.
Kouta laughed out and scratched the back of his head messing up his already messy hair even more. "Yeah well... I guess I'm more of a "hill" though maybe "wall" sounds cooler, "the rock" is pretty cool too!"
"Could've fooled me..." Mana smiled gently before bowing to the teen as a farewell, "You seem pretty nice despite your pretty impressive physical condition. Maybe I'll see you soon around these parts?" she looked with excitement and hope in her eyes.
Kouta laughed, "Hope not, that'd mean you've gotten hurt, would it not? I'd rather everything was fine with you, you seem like a really warm and nice person and I hate nothing more than nice people getting hurt..."
Mana squinted playfully, "Seriously, how are you related to those "Jugo" again?" before running off, stopping mid-way and jumping up waving at Kouta who was watching her run off, "Glad to meet you, by the way!" she yelled back at him before running off.
"The blue uniform isn't your color! The black one looked better!" Kouta yelled back before walking back into the hall to get yelled at by Hiro for almost missing his opportunity to heal one of his most prized performers.