"I was wondering..." Mana mumbled indifferently while she was trying a nice casual jacket that would've fit her black shirt which she found just recently referring to Meiko whose head playfully dug through the clothes on the other side and popped in between several different sets of coats.
"Hmm," she mooed like a cow
"You were in your armor when this whole thing happened, you were hit directly by that thing, right? You're lucky to be alright, those guys are nothing to sneeze at even by ninja standards..." the magician wondered picking several different sets of clothes off of the stand and placing them into her cart to try out. Mana was always a sucker for clothes, a part of her identity as a performer was to always look her best, the problem was that despite enjoying changing her wardrobe up a lot she rarely got the chance to do any shopping with all those crazy missions she's been doing lately.
"Yeah..." Meiko's head nodded and then disappeared back to the other row through the endless ocean of coats, a loud tomboyish laughter let the magician know just where her friend was standing behind the giant set of clothes.
"Don't worry, I can take a punch. Though yeah, I was checking my armor before I went asleep, I always do because my armors are made of simple materials: leather and steel mostly. I need to maintain all those bunches of belts, see that all the switches and parts work properly and aren't damaged. It's a lot of work, you know. So I just fell asleep while checking something, the last thing I remember checking was the belt that kept my shoulder pad connected to the rest of the set..." Meiko explained. It was really lovely how invested she got into talking about her armor and her job.
Then again, Mana would most likely be just as invested to talk about stage magic if there was someone to talk about it with. Maybe it was her own desire to talk about things that she loved that made her be that person who listens to other people's passions and things plaguing them.
"Yeah, I know what you're talking about, my uniform is quite similar – it has a bunch of pockets and all those switches that slip cards in or out, shoot them and all that... It really is a lot of work, making them good for both stage magic and fighting is the tough part" Mana smiled even though her friend could not see it. Surprisingly there were more things she could relate to Meiko with than she initially thought. Surely they were pretty much polar opposites but a lot of things that they hated about themselves and things they loved had similar aspects to them.
It only took the girls two more hours to conclude their shopping, mostly because of Mana's own fault, she was perfectly aware that she won't need that many different outfits for this mission but she was adamant to finish her shopping. Then again, she was the smart one to remind everyone to buy appropriate attires for the Wind Country desert, it was getting closer and closer and they may travel it for days before finding the ruins. Mana's natural love for shopping was masked behind her own lie that she was doing it because it was practical and while it certainly was on some parts, her motive behind spending so much time and earnt money was purely for enjoyment.
"Finally..." Shimo rolled his eyes, he had already dressed a white long robe which appeared to be most suitable for the desert, it wasn't a bad idea as they were going to reach the Land of Rivers which was pretty much a huge resort in just a day or two, maybe faster depending on their rate of travelling.
Kouta smiled in a white and blue tracksuit and scratched his head, he didn't appear to be nearly as annoyed as the Yuki swordsman but he didn't spend too much money on clothes either. "If you need help carrying that backpack I can do it for you, Mana-chan..."
"You ate all of your money meant for clothes and supplies away, didn't you?" Meiko squinted at the boy feeling suspicious for his sudden desire to help his teammate out.
The cheeks of the medical ninja dyed in a rather crimson hue as his eyes closed so that he didn't betray the truth but the truth was really apparent.
"You're just jealous that you didn't think of it, Meiko-san" Kouta tried to bite back at his teammate which was somewhat effective as Meiko stopped talking for a while at least. Finally, the four set off to leave Tanzaku town, they may have optimally stayed there to make some more gambling money as with their ninja skills it wasn't really gambling. Still, they made a deal with that mafia weasel that they'd leave early and something deep inside made them honor that deal.
"Stupid buildings... All the same..." the quartet heard rumbling yet deep and powerful voice close by, they slowly walked up to check. After turning the corner leading to the street where the unnatural voice came by they bumped into one of the large mafioso brutes. The living mystery of the Land of the Rivers' Gold Mines. The monstrous man twisted his upper lip in contempt after seeing the four approaching.
"I think it's the one that jumped away from the battlefield, he's still trying to find his way back, not too bright, those guys, are they?" Meiko observed leaning back curiously, it was interesting how this girl expected no danger from the brute even though she was their main target yesterday judging by how they specifically aimed at Meiko when they tore down the inn.
"Head hurts... Hurts when I try to think hard..." the man uttered lifting his worn-out hat and scratching his messy hair.
"Whatever they're doing in those mines... It must be so painful that their bodies undergo a protective mindwipe so potent that it wipes it permanently, any semblance of complicated thought appears to bring up their painful memories, interesting..." Kouta slid around the brute as if he was a living specimen in a museum, even climbing the monster and poking him on the head curiously, just to see if the stimulus wouldn't call a violent reaction.
"Where is home? Boss must be angry..." the mafioso mumbled out loud, despite his loud and a rather aggressive tone he didn't seem to be in a fighting mood at all. All he cared was getting back to the headquarters.
Mana smiled at the man and walked up, touching his large arm gently and lifting it up, as she removed the hand four small wooden balls remained in his hand. Mana intended to have them as a part of her improvised ninja kit seeing how using knives and shuriken was made more difficult without the enhanced ninja perception and accuracy being on her side, every skill she ever possessed needed to be retrained.
"Balls?" the man grumped out shaking his head and starting to get angry before Mana slowly took them from him and juggled them for a couple of seconds just like she used to do as a child, standing on a cardboard box in the middle of Konohagakure.
"You can make your own money like this, money can buy you food, shelter, anything you'll need. You'll also make people happy..." she smiled handing the balls back to the giant looking at his stumped impression, "You do know how money works, right?"
"Me talk hard, not stupid! Fifteen hundred ryo for apples..." the man read a sign on the other side of the street, the magician kept on smiling.
"Make sure to practice a lot, making people happy is tough and sometimes it'll come at the cost of your own happiness but it's OK, that's what we entertainers do. The only kind of money that feels rightly earned is money earned for making someone happier..." the girl said after Kouta dragged her off since the four were heading towards the exit from the town. The man just kept on standing there stumped with the balls in his hand, still trying to fully grasp what the young genin told him.
What followed was a rather long and uneventful run towards Land of Rivers. It was said to be a beautiful natural paradise that had plenty of settlements all throughout the country but it was by far the least tampered with land of any places where people actively lived. People made homes and caves inside rocks protected only by waterfalls, they made homes inside trees instead of from them. It was a lovely idea of living in sync with nature taken to its natural limits.
After just three or four hours of movement, the four genin could already see the changing scenery, the leaves became greener as the trees in the Land of Rivers soil grew larger and richer in nutrients. They were also much more numerous in their numbers, not only larger in size. A river or a massive lake commonly interrupted their uneventful and even boring trip, Kouta pleasantly agreed to carry Mana over them as the three used the "Water Walking Technique" which most genin learned in the Academy to simply run across them instead of bothering to walk around them which would've cost them days more time spent on the road.
The four didn't bother to sleep for the whole three days of traveling, they did stop for a small rest, just place their backs to a tree, relax and let their minds slide away for a while, just for an hour or two. It wasn't that they were worried about criminals, which all things considered would've been a legitimate worry, they were just really rushing to get to their destination – Land of Rivers was the final stop before the Wind Country and that Gold Mine inside it was the last obstacle they needed to be cleared. After seeing in action just what was done to people inside those mines the four didn't even talk about it – all of them agreed that whatever was happening there had to end, no matter that it was neither their objective nor did it have anything to do with their objective whatsoever.
Finally, the Land of Rivers welcomed them with the four reaching a small settlement village which was the thing that reminded of civilization the most in that large untamed land of natural beauty. It was a small and a simple settlement, numerous homes built of wood, all of the villagers appeared to be at least somewhat involved with the mines since the road to the mines was the main road of the village and most males that the ninja squad saw were definitely mine workers – carrying mining tools and had figures far too well defined and trained for them not to be used to heavy labour.
"Well then, not much use standing around, let's head out to the mines then?" Meiko growled out, it was clear that the lack of sleep got to her. It may have been a wise choice to postpone that trip.
"We may not even find anything there, it'd be ideal if we knew when the syndicate that we bumped into decided to do their thing in the mines, they'd lead us straight to it..." Shimo replied, he was much more skilled with that kind of thing, having lived beyond the village walls and living and training with a rogue ninja himself, he must've picked up on a thing or two about how things like that were handled.
"Doesn't really feel right to torture people, even if they are criminals..." Mana pouted, that was really the best way she could express herself in having her exhausted condition in mind. She wasn't like those ninja who could've had their bodies sustain themselves even if they were literally dying, her body had no supernatural feats about it and she was stuck with just one frail body and an even frailer mind.
"Well, I am a medical ninja, I was taught how to torture humanely..." Kouta shrugged.
"Torture... Humanely?" Mana growled squinting angrily at him.
"Yeah, the Konohagakure torture method is quick and incredibly painful, I've gone through the course, it's always so painful that maximum pressure is applied making the one being tortured instantly pressured into surrendering the information so that..."
"Yeah... No... Plan B" Mana cut Kouta's explanation of the methods of torture taught to the medical ninja. The profession of medical ninja had so much romance to it for Mana, the magician had always wanted to be one but those who got to practice it and be taught in its ways were always the prodigies with the best grades and the most amazing chakra control. Even back at her peak, Mana could probably ever hope to heal minor wounds, even if taught the basics of medical ninjutsu. And she was supposed to be quite proficient at it due to her self-training.
"Well dismissing torture and interrogation... It doesn't leave us with many options, we're really too tired to sit and hope that an ambush situation presents itself..." Shimo scratched his chin looking around for a proper plan to somehow make itself known to him, be it with just the smallest hint...
"No, we'll get in, blow it up and get out. We find out how those things are made and then we blow that thing up so that people are no longer made into those things! That's it" Mana tried to explain her idea of how their work was supposed to go down when a hand grabbed her by the mouth covering it up and dragging her into a tent. The rest of the squad just stood there for a moment before leaping in to follow her and whoever decided to attack the magician. Once they entered the tent the sight that greeted them was Mana standing above an old miner she just threw over her shoulder once she recovered from the shock and gained proper footing. The man was whining on the floor as the magician had him in an armlock.
"You fools, don't just discuss things like that on the street!" the miner grunted out through the pain that the girl's armlock gave him.
Meiko grinned with a full-teeth smile and gave Mana a thumb up, "That's my student! Don't let em bully you around!" she commended the magician who finally realized she may have harmed a possible ally and let go of the miner.
"What do you know about the mines, old man, what's happening there and when?" Shimo pressed the man to the back of the tent after letting him get back up, not giving him much time to recover.
"What are you talking about? Aren't you four with the Agurotti family? Who do you work for then, Bellucini?" the man asked leaning slightly at Shimo trying to figure him out. The miner nodded at the Yuki's blade that was half drawn the moment he showed himself.
"That's an Audra blade if I ever saw one, can't get enough of that shit unless you're a Lord or you've got a crapton of Audra dust and... You know..." the old miner winked at the four.
"Right, the mines... Yeah, we're working for Bellucini..." Shimo lied sheathing his blade all the way and blinking rapidly.
"Shit, the guy started recruiting them younger, that's for sure, his vigilante coup problem that bad?" the miner whispered leaning up to the Yuki, the swordsman slapped the man with a backhand, Mana and Meiko tried to jump up to object, so did Kouta but the man jumped back up to his feet and giggled.
"Yeah, I know, I know, I was just testing ya. I know ya guys don't talk business with us common folk. I guess it's gotta be bad enough that he's sending green kids without any intel whatsoever..." the miner wiped the blood off his teeth and picked up a large duffel bag placing it onto his shoulder and pointing at the exit of the tent.
"Well young folk, what are ya waiting for, let's go, I'll lead you to the mines. You're in luck, Boss is arriving soon, he sent a message so he needs another batch of the product. Too bad if you guys came here for the same reason... Might return empty-handed is what I'm saying... You see?" the miner started leaping around and pointing hands and fingers at things completely unrelated to his topic, his manner of walking and gesturing while he spoke sure was weird.
"Right, the product. Bellucini-sama needs some..." Shimo silently sang it out for the miner.
"Aight, no need to wrap me in your deals, I'm just a manager of the middlemen, you can get all the matters discussed with the Boss when he drops by. It's really lucky you guys came here when you did! Like... I don't know if the mine can service your order, the Boss had his whole supply wiped out... Are those ladies it?" the miner nodded at Mana and Meiko.
Kouta leaned at the ears of the two girls and whispered to them, "I think the product is those brutes, why would he refer to you though..." he wondered whispering to them.
Shimo nodded.
"Damn, I don't think Boss ever tried making women products, somehow just feels cruel, ya know, then again, Boss was always more of a male-dominated business guy... Guess Bellucini is getting desperate eh!?" the miner giggled out as the scenery once again changed once they left the small village and started walking up to a large black as smoke rocky structure.
"Talk about Bellucini-san like that again and I'll smack you again, middleman..." Shimo coldly replied.
"Eh, I'm just fooling around here, don't wanna ruin the relationship between the syndicates or anything... Just fooling around, I'm just an old man, I talk dumb things sometimes" the miner quickly excused himself waving his hands frantically. After he entered the mine Shimo politely excused himself and asked for the man to go about his business and told him that they'd wait for his boss outside.
That was just another way of saying that he got all that he needed from the man...