A couple of days had passed since the brutal test that the team went through. The time between then and now was not spent in vain, Mana strained herself, while still recovering, to somehow become both a stronger ninja and a better stage magician. The girl kept both training her physical shape, doing so by jogging in the mornings, beating on the dummies in the training grounds, and mental and spiritual side by meditating. To a ninja one's mind and spirit was just as important as muscles. Chakra was just as important and chakra manipulation depended heavily on mastery over emotions, sometimes when Mana was under stress she wasted loads of chakra on techniques that were seemingly simple.
Over time the girl discovered a new trait about herself, more specifically, about the body of a ninja. Whenever a body used chakra it had a tiny fraction of it stuck in the system, normally that wouldn't be worth noticing but apparently body gained certain memory of techniques one used and automatically adjusted one's chakra levels. What this meant was that after one's chakra control improved significantly they had loads of chakra left over in their system being wasted. What the girl imagined was that with enough of a push she could force that chakra out, it would be stressful for her body as it wasn't used to larger than usual amounts of chakra but in time it could be tricked by making it believe that the amount of chakra was natural, achieving higher chakra level as a result.
One day the kunoichi tried this, she sat down and concentrated hard, allowed her mind to slip away into a meditational stage of complete awareness of her own body. That was how the genin managed to overcome her mental condition as a child – by meditating and reaching a stage of complete awareness of her own condition. With a slight nudge and communication with one's own body, a lot of problems could be fixed, obviously the girl's mastery of this sort of meditation was not yet great enough to overcome poisons and diseases, but perhaps one day even such amazing feats would be possible through meditation alone!
The only reason why Mana trained so incredibly hard was because she felt she had the responsibility to do so. She wished to preserve all life, even that of her enemies, because of that she was weaker than her peers, the girl understood that. For that reason she had a disadvantage, to catch up to her peers she had to train harder, to become so much stronger that her kindness doesn't hold her back. To become so strong that next time someone tries to hurt her friends by exploiting that – she'd be able to surprise them. It may have been viewed as a disadvantage in combat but to Mana it was a necessary one, she'll always love life and wish to preserve it, try to avoid violence and fighting when possible.
All that training did not go to waste, the kunoichi could feel that she's gotten stronger, not by a significant margin but if she kept up the pace, one day she'll get there! She may never reach a level of Tanshu-sensei, but she didn't want to, Mana didn't want to be the strongest or the best ninja ever. All that she wanted to do was to preserve life so that maybe one day people around her no longer laughed from this ideal but joined in on it, to do everything so that when Mana died she'd have left a better world than she found, one where people's lives did not go to waste, one where a life meant something.
Over the several days of training Mana learned another thing – Mr. Hiro, the owner of the stage she was renting for her magic shows, was right – once the word of her shows started spreading more and more people started coming, suddenly empty seats no longer poked Mana's eyes so hard and the little money that she charged for entrance started to make more than she needed to pay the rent, the bonus she'd be getting as a ninja would add to it even more… The downside was that for the first time in her life Mana was getting short on time, her life as a ninja and her life as a stage magician did not clash directly just yet, but eventually they might.
Finally after long several days a letter came, it was from the Hokage Administration and it described the four as "Team Oak" and told them to come to the Administration building for a briefing for their mission. This was exciting but also a bit scary, on one hand Mana would get to see Shimo and Sugemi again, on the other the mission might get crazy and all of them may get hurt again. Recovering from those bruises and traumas even with advanced ninja recovery rate wasn't fun. Also, due to her recent success in magic shows people started to recognize her on the streets more. Usually villagers sort of knew each other and a weird girl like Mana was bound to stand out, since lives were lost so often in this world people kept tight bonds with each other, especially if their friend was a ninja because killing another ninja was not only normal but also an honor. This was only one of the things that Mana desired would change over her lifetime…
When the day of briefing came the girl got an unexpected knock on the door, neither father nor mother were home: father was out on a mission and mother was working early in the caf�. Father used to tell stories to Mana when she was younger about how her mother was from a tribe of wandering ninja that had a knack for entertainment but also making money. Maybe that's why mother was so successful in her small business, maybe some of those genes helped the girl out with her own shows too, maybe it was all her legacy. No! Mana didn't want to only be good because some part of her is a descendant of some weird group of travelers that made money, Mana wanted to earn money and love of the villagers using her own charm and skills. But what really was that? How could she know what was actually her and what's her legacy from that bedtime story group? It was possible that the tribe was made up, father never told Mana much more about it anyways…
Behind the door stood Shimo, he looked alright and pretty happy, had a wide grin on his face and after fixing his glasses he asked Mana for the pleasure to walk her to the Administration building. To some girls such behavior would look weird, it'd raise suspicion that the boy might be into them but Mana saw Shimo for over five years in the Academy, he was like this to most girls all the time. He may have been super weird now, but that was only because he only had one girl around to be weird with. Mana took her jacket with her and rushed out with her teammate to the location. It wouldn't have been decent to be late for their mission briefing even if their sensei would be the one to do the talking.
"I hope you don't feel too bad about that training?" Shimo asked on the way, he was strangely talkative today. "I think sensei was just mean and said what he said because he didn't like you, but I was just as much to blame for our butts being kicked as you were, you may have cared about Sugemi's life but I was too concerned over yours, my love for the ladies is just as bad as your wish to save lives…" it was strange how more excited and even possibly stronger Shimo looked, it was just like several days ago Mana and her teammates were children but now they didn't really look like children. In a world where children were hired to kill other children that got in the way of the mission, they looked like warriors if anything, Mana probably couldn't look like a killer even if she put on a creepy festival mask and wielded a scythe…
"Thanks for the concern but… I'd never blame something for what I did and say. I walked by the path I set for myself as a ninja, I just wish that I would be just the same no matter how rough things got." Mana replied smiling back at her teammate. At that moment she could see it, getting close to these guys, just like her father casually meets his old friends from his old days as a ninja as well as new ones. Drinking and talking about old days… It all seemed like it was going to happen one day and they didn't even start working yet. It was strange thinking of how things would end before they even begun.
Shimo was surprised by how many people recognized Mana, there were even a couple of children that stopped by and spoke to her, cheered her on and asked when the next show would be. "That's really awesome" he said, "but don't you think this will get in the way, I mean if everyone around the village knows your face? Won't it make working as a ninja harder?" Mana thought for a moment, Shimo raised a valid point, ninja were supposed to be stealthy and hidden, having her face known around the place would make it hard to work in Konoha, if her fame ever spread beyond the village it'd be really hard to work outside the village too. People wouldn't take her seriously and think that she's less of a ninja just because she's a little star of the entertainment world…
Before the girl got her chance to answer however the Administration building came into view, Shimo didn't look as interested in getting his answer as he wanted to get inside and he rushed at the building. It didn't need any saying that he had to open the door for Mana and then several more ladies that came after her and hold it for every lady passing through. While it was kind of cute, the two could have been late so the magician gently took Shimo by his elbow and dragged him to the fourth floor where the Hokage's office was. Sugemi was nowhere to be seen but Tanshu-sensei was waiting on a small seat near the office.
"Good, you got here, where's the otaku-guy?" he asked, it was quite likely that he'll never learn their names, but then he nodded at the kunoichi and pointed at her with his chin, "You OK, Mana? You're Tsukumo's kid, aren't you?" after the magician nodded the man scratched his forehead, "Too bad, your father has to be the best Chuunin I know, I thought he deserved a less stubborn and stupid brat." Shimo laughed out, "You must really secretly like her, you just called Mana-chan by her name!" It didn't look like sensei was too pleased by this observation, or to be honest, any observation Shimo had made, as it was because of his observation that he got stuck with them to begin with but the fact that he called the genin by her name suggested that he may have cared enough to memorize their names, he just rarely used them.
Finally Sugemi came, just several minutes late but in no rush whatsoever, still reading his manga but it really was no surprise at this point. His arm was probably stuck in a book holding position as he slept… "Well, time for our grinding chores before we are trusted by the village to do actual missions, can't wait for one of them to go wrong or secretly be a ruse so that we can show the village how cool we are…" Sugemi spoke in a dull tone with a dreamy smile over his manga, he didn't even look at his teammates. Truth be told, he looked pretty good for a guy that had his arm messed up just several days ago. Even for a ninja healing a broken or dislocated bone in several days was quite impressive.
Tanshu grunted something out and entered first, leaving the door open for the rest to come through. Shimo didn't disappoint and gestured that Mana walked in first as he held the door. Had the magician not seen this behavior for years in the Academy it would've been getting annoying at this point. Just as expected – Sugemi didn't even look at the Hokage, he just kept eating up his manga with his eyes. For a moment it seemed like Hokage was confused by it but then he just let go of it, children that are taught to kill silently in their early years often end up a little weird and to be honest this whole team was a team of weirdos…
"I hope you guys aren't expecting to save the world just yet… These will be your jobs for today." Hokage said as he pushed a bunch of files forward on the table. He looked at Tanshu-sensei with a confusing stare as if encouraging him to pick them up but the man instead just walked up to them and read them, he looked annoyed but then again – he always did. "You won't be taking the files with you?" Hokage asked when sensei replied rudely, "I've got better things to do than carry a bunch of papers with chores in them, it's because I owe you that I got into this mess, Howoku." It was really rude to address Hokage by his name, without even a single honorific, his assistant looked really shocked and almost dropped his own share of files and his glasses. Hokage laughed out and let them go, Shimo did pick up the files just in case.
Inside the files were a bunch of chores: gardening, cleaning dishes at Ichiraku Ramen, doing some tax and finance paper work for some shop, sorting out tools and weapons in the weapon shop, filing all the confiscated illegal objects in Police Force building. Sugemi didn't seem too happy about it, he had every reason to, for a boy who put so much love into his manga he even bothered to read the files and didn't see anything to his fancy, "What the hell?! At this rate I'll never have a manga written about me!" he yelled out, "What's the point of those useless missions! No one remembers or cares about people that clean dishes!" he shouted out in a questioning tone at sensei, expecting without a doubt a nugget of wisdom from his superior. Tanshu shrugged.
"No point at all…" Shimo and Mana couldn't hold a laugh inside of them, these jobs really didn't annoy the girl at all, she was used to small errands like this to make her childish money as a kid while she was in the Academy, this was just the same except these will go to her dossier as a ninja. While it didn't help her own dream of making her appreciation of life and love around the world, it was however certainly a useful bunch of errands, helping people was something that the magician was always willing to do. "Come on, Shimo, let's go home! This is stupid!" Sugemi grunted out throwing one of the files on the ground, only for the white haired Yuki boy to pick it up. "Nah, we need to get through those to become real ninja." Shimo answered placing the file in between two others.
"Out of all people I expected the richboy and the starlet to wish to do those jobs the least… This could be pretty interesting." Sensei grinned. He was sort of right, one would think that the son to a rare and powerful clan, an heir to two separate businesses in the village and a girl that was a rising star in village entertainment would be the first ones to complain about washing the damned dishes. At least sensei found his own sick way of enjoying this, if he was happy he was less likely to get into clash of ideals with Mana. Sugemi kicked a can and yelled out, still a bit embarrassed of his words. "All right, new plan! I'll be so good at washing those dishes that they'll make a dish-washing manga about me, then I can realize my nindo first and laugh from you all from the top! Let's go you two, you won't get in the way of my dish-washing manga!" Sugemi yelled out looking back at Mana and Shimo as the two nodded and followed him.
"Wait… You guys can't be serious… Excited over some errands…" Tanshu-sensei laughed out and fastened the pace as Ichiraku Ramen was just by the corner. The owner looked really excited, the place was a famous fast food place in the village and it got a lot of greasy dishes accumulating and the owner's daughter couldn't really handle them alone. Everyone knew that Ichiraku Ramen commonly hired young ninja to do their dishes but this time it was bad – apparently the ninja that were supposed to do these dishes were sent back to Academy so now even more dishes piled up. After seeing the endless columns Sugemi moaned out, "Wow, with that amount of dishes you'd think they'd bump up the rank of the mission! How is this D-Rank?!" Shimo mockingly smiled "What's the matter? I thought you'll have a manga written about your mad dish washing skills, won't work if I wash more! I guess I'll be the one getting manga!"
"Shut up, you womanizing-bastard! Don't you dare take from my pile, mine is this one and that one and that one, all plates on the ground are MINE!" Sugemi yelled out grabbing every plate and swiping it with unseen devotion. Mana had to hand it to Shimo – he really was a genius and he wasn't even the Nara on the team. Tanshu relaxed by the wall and smiled, one wouldn't have believed that he was annoyed at this very moment at all – "Well well, I guess you losers will be pretty fun after all…" he spoke silently.