We are the Parabrahma!

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Mana sighed as she finally left the village. The last couple of weeks were some of the worst yet, then again, knowing the kind of life she‘s leading it was just another week... Sure she may have failed to save a young Uchiha kunoichi and be forced to arrest her own older brother, also almost died inside her own mind, but what is that compared to everything else? Where does it rank compared to seeing your own mother getting killed, fighting a legendary predator of ninja who feeds on chakra and trying to keep peace between two trigger happy villages? Over the four years she‘s been a ninja Mana has experienced more than most people do within a life time and it didn‘t seem like it was going to end any time soon.

She still had to move in to Area 56-B of Fire Country and raid a location notorious for people dissapearing. The reason why it had to be done was even crazier – she needed to find out the goals of an organization which threatened the entire world. To beat it she‘d have to unite ninja from other villages and make them work together... These aren‘t really worries of normal people, not even those of a normal ninja really... Mana always looked with a smile seeing the new generation of genin working with washing the dishes at Ichiraku Ramen or chasing cats in the alleyways. The new generation always made her feel happy and hopeful, they reminded her why she must do what must be done.

At least Mana‘s worries for this particular day and her reason of leaving the village were quite cheerful and more appropriate for a young woman her age. She was off to collect some herbs for seasoning for tonkatsu she was going to cook that evening. For some reason the magician suddenly started to enjoy cooking more and more and started trying harder and harder to improve herself. It was almost like it was her last touch with reality, that and the magic shows she‘s been doing. Lately Mana hosted more magic shows and did it more often, after the whole Parabrahma thing picks up nobody could‘ve known how long of a break she‘ll have to take...

With a calm expression on her face and a kind smile Mana kept walking forward, looking around for the specific herbs for her seasoning. She could‘ve asked some genin to do it in a mission, she certainly had the money for it. Still, leaving the village may have been dangerous. Mana remembered her own first departure from the village going awry as she and Kiyomi were attacked by a bunch of bandits. The two managed to fight them off but they were messed up by the battle pretty good. It was the first time that the Sennin met her friend back then.

“Chakra?” Mana stopped, her sensory wouldn’t have picked it up in her calm state unless it was really something to care about. The Sennin activated her sensory, sometimes she closed it down just like sometimes people closed their eyes to rest them. Instantly multiple chakra shot up, these were familiar chakra of village ninja. They were fighting someone whose chakra was just a little bit smaller than Mana’s own, that of course in no way meant that this person was weaker than the magician, such a small difference meant nothing. Still, none of these men were sensors, if they were they would’ve picked up the difference in strength…

Mana sighed and charged through the bushes and up the tree to move through the branch level. That way she’ll be able to observe the situation a bit better and make a better judgment. The magician looked down, her clothes weren’t the most suitable for the situation but at least she still took her tools with her. By now she knew better than to leave them at home, anyone else would’ve been alerted and would’ve felt cheated by God to encounter something like this and yet to Mana it felt like a casual day. She fought legendary statues and people with impossible abilities once every six months. To be honest it was way too long after the Leech that her abilities were properly challenged. Still, Mana didn’t feel interested in the prospect of battling or excited whatsoever.

Mana stopped by the small opening in the forest to observe the fight. It was a fight of six or more Chuunin ninja or above versus a single man. The man looked suspicious – his clothes were black and he wore some strange face pain or a mask. He looked a lot like a nukenin, still, it wasn’t common procedure to engage nukenin with this amount of force. This was two squads engaging this person, even S rank nukenin rarely had this much people engage them, there were at least two Jounin level ninja. The person dressed in black looked like he had his hands full, he actually had multiple scratches and his black uniform was torn and burned off in multiple spots.

Mana jumped off the branch and revealed herself. The ninja looked relieved to see her. “Mana-sama… I’m glad you’re here, this man… He’s something else.” one of the Jounin spoke. “I’d like if you guys retreated, I don’t want to have your blood on your hands.” Mana said with a rather dull tone. After the incident with the young Uchiha girl she felt really scared to see her companions fighting anything, she would’ve been worried even to let them hunt a rabbit. “But… Mana-sama… This man engaged a couple of genin who were leaving for the Genin Tournament, he injured them right nearby the village gate. He deserves to be taken down by all of our might!”

So that was it. This nukenin attacked Konoha genin departing to the tournament. He beat them up just like Mana and Kiyomi were injured fighting those bandits in their youth. This person is nothing but a pathetic predator of the young. He is someone who enjoys fighting weaker people than him just to enjoy the pleasures of absolute dominance. That’s why there are so many Jounin and Chuunin engaging him, because they’re a response squad. Still, they are taking their sweet time, two Jounin with four Chuunin accompanying them should be doing better…

“Hmmm, you are a nice sight for my eyes, please stand by, Lady, I will kill you in a moment, I like to leave my pleasure after work…” the man smiled as he tightened the grip on his two ninjato. He must’ve been taking her for a helpless young lady who wondered into a field of battle. “So he’s one of the three people in the world who DON’T know who I am… Finally…” Mana’s lips formed half of a grin. She didn’t want this fight but if it had to happen she’ll take this man on just to prevent injury and death of her comrades!

Spoiler:

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Without uttering a single word the two Jounin charged forward with only their kunai in hand. All four Chuunin leapt sideways and tossed kunai of their own. It was an impressive combination, the enemy was supposed to be rooted still when the two Jounin charged forward because the attack is simplistic, in theory he could repel it or counter easily – with ninjato he has the reach advantage. That means he won’t dodge the barrage of kunai which the Chuunin flung by moving, the only way was a very impressive and wide angle block, because of how coordinated the barrage was it was supposed to be a very skilled weaponry user to deflect the weapons.

As the enemy lifted his ninjato to deflect the kunai the Jounin stopped by putting their dominant legs forward and pushing their bodies back, their hands flashed through handseals and spat out huge fireballs. The balls of fire collided together and slammed into the area where the enemy was supposed to stand. The action in his mind was the complicated and wide angled block, he was supposed to be incinerated in a moment. Mana’s eyes and sensory never stopped observing the enemy. His chakra dropped but didn’t disappear. The man appeared from the firestorm covered with flames with his black uniform completely torn off and his chest and arms exposed and burnt slightly. He laughed out.

“You idiots…” he said with a rough voice as his hand quickly moved up, the two Jounin jumped back and slashed at the Chuunin. Two of the four ninja didn’t expect their superiors attacking them so they didn’t even attempt to avoid the attack, their blood splattered as they fell down in pain. Their flak jackets were supposed to protect them from lethal injuries but they were out. This man knew what he was doing – he was so obviously a weaponry user as well as puppetry. Mana could feel the chakra inside the strings that the Chuunin didn’t notice, still, by the time she noticed it she couldn’t alert them, she probably wouldn’t have blocked the attack completely herself in the place of the ninja.

She should’ve interfered, this was taking long enough but it was also quite useful. This small scuffle was giving her intel on the opponent, he may have had a lot of his chakra wasted fighting the genin squads and these guys. He wasn’t one of the people who kills enemies in an instant – he was toying around with these six ninja the whole time. To be able to toy around with two experienced squad leaders and four Chuunin was impressive, especially after a battle with multiple genin squads. Mana wanted to step forward but the Chuunin raised his hand backwards. He knew why the magician was so passive. He wanted to give her intel on the man’s abilities.

“These are our squad leaders, Mana-sama, we cannot let them hurt you, if this man defeated you using our power we couldn’t live with ourselves!” the man yelled out. Obviously the puppeteer looked surprised. “Defeat? Is this young woman supposed to challenge me? Why is she not fighting with you then? You guys need all the advantage against your superiors, right?” he taunted them. The Jounin charged forward again the puppeteer forced them to make the same hand seals again to fire off the same fireball jutsu in sync. “These are the only moves he knows they can do, he observed the way they fight so that he could attach strings to them at the right moment while they had their guard down, the strings were on the whole time, attached during the battle without these men noticing it… This guy is good.” Mana thought as she continued to analyze the battle.

Both Chuunin flashed through hand signs and erected walls of earth from the ground to block the fireballs. “This won’t do… There might be more of them but just taking their superiors on won’t do.” Mana realized as she saw the Jounin charge forward with kunai again clashing them with the Chuunin. It was a pretty great battle, for a while the Chuunin could hold their own and block every strike but the puppeteer was working his puppets pretty well. Mana’s eyes shot wide open when she noticed just now the weird tattoos all over the puppeteer’s body, almost like they were… Seals…

“Seals… Why would he have seals all over his body? Just like… Seals of silence. This man is from the Parabrahma!” suddenly a realization hit the magician. She remembered the lady who was inside Konohagakure shadows telling her that she and her husband had seals of silence all over their body because her husband was from the Parabrahma. That meant that so was this man, but why was this man here? Why would he attack children going to a friendly tournament, what good would the Parabrahma gain from it? Mana stepped forward, “That’s enough, you guys, this man is an opponent you can’t fight, move back!” she ordered.

“No way, not until Senpai is free!” one of the Chuunin jumped forward passing by the Jounin superiors, it was a foolish move, their knives quickly dug into his back as he wasn’t able to block behind him. Of course the puppeteer was the weakspot but one couldn't just ignore his puppets outright! But something was oddly wrong. After the Chuunin moved forward and was struck down the Jounin stopped fighting for some reason, they just stood there and didn’t move. “He grabbed the strings! He’s using Chakra Absorption to hold the strings blocking the signal!” Mana realized as she jumped forward with a kunai in her arm and quickly cut the strings behind the arms of the Chuunin where the flow of chakra was being interrupted.

The Jounin moved back from their puppeteer and nodded at Mana. “Thanks, Mana-sama. I don’t think Koji would’ve noticed, nice reflexes…” one of them complimented the magician. “Get out of here, now!” Mana grunted out “Take the friends you’ve struck down and retreat to the village, take them to the hospital. This person is not someone you could handle, he was toying around the whole time!” the Sennin was really angry at both herself and these ninja that they insisted on fighting him. The intel on the man’s abilities was useful but not if it cost one of these ninja their lives. They were useful to the village, they worked together well, they had amazing cooperation skills. Mana as a clanless ninja was expendable, she could always be replaced by another ninja with a bloodline.

“You!” Mana pointed at the Parabrahma member as the Jounin picked up their subordinates and left, “You’re from the Parabrahma, right? Why did you attack the Konoha ninja leaving at the Genin Tournament? Why is the Parabrahma interested in ruining it?” The puppeteer kept standing where he stood, the magician wasn’t sure if he was reacting at all with that mask or paint on his face. “Ruin it? No, stupid lady, why would we do that? A competition of strength is healthy for ninja, strength of ninja is what Parabrahma values. We just didn’t think it was really fair for the genin to fight their own ranks, why would they be imposed by rules and regulations? Life isn’t like that! In a true ninja tournament they would all have to fight for their lives, in conditions where any trash would perish so that only the strong can survive! That is the Parabrahma way. I would've challenged them all in a struggle for their life, the ones who survived would've been the fine ninja who can life in this world, ones that are strong...”

Apparently the man was getting short on breath – his seals may have noticed he said something close to something he wasn’t allowed to say. For some reason just the exact goals of the organization were hidden, it didn’t matter, Mana can just read this man’s mind eventually if she can take him down using her interrogation technique. She was a little afraid – this man was from the organization that drove fear even into the hearts of someone like the lady from the hidden Konoha organization that oversaw the village business from the shadows. He managed to hold his own against two squads of ninja with just a fraction of his skill without using his puppets, just using his enemy as a puppet. He was an impressive enemy.

“Say, girl, you’re the Konoha's Sorceress right? I couldn’t identify you in that tense brawl without your stupid getup… Shit… I’m a bit winded, you know, any chance you’re one of those fair kind who would let me get my strength back?” the man shrugged and laughed out, his wicked smile revealed that his face was painted after all. “You’re bluffing, you barely lost any chakra, you were fighting those guys with your physical prowess and weapons alone.” Mana smiled back at him, she wasn’t going to be played by this man, he wanted her to let her guard down so that he could kill her with one swift unexpected strike.

“Shit, you might just be as good as they say… Guess there’s no use playing around with you, you're not like those trash genin or those other guys, I should switch to the next mode, what do you say?” the man playfully replied. Mana’s eyebrow moved up, “The next mode?” she asked. “What does he mean…?” the confidence in which this man faced her despite finally realizing who she was really intimidating all by itself. Most ninja or bandits would’ve given up just by hearing her name, so this is the kind of power Parabrahma accepts. People with no fear, with enough confidence to face a whole response squad alone and one of the most famous ninja in the world right after? This may just have been trouble…

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

The puppeteer scratched the back of his head and laughed out. His eyes suggested that he was acting, they were still focused at Mana, they kept observing her arms for hand seals. Even this nukenin from the Parabrahma knew well of the abilities and specialties of Konoha’s Sorceress. That was the main disadvantage of being the most famous magician and one of the best known ninja in the world. Her fame in entertainment department made her career as a ninja a “fun fact” that quickly spread together with her fame. At some point everyone knew of her, the fact that Mana so often assisted the other countries didn’t help her case too.

“You’ll have to forgive me, Konoha’s Sorceress. I’d love to play with you, fight you with the skill you deserve to be fought with. Unfortunately I’ll have to skip the second mode, you see I damaged my scroll of summoning my army of the Nameless. It was just the perfect mode to match your skill, both ironically and otherwise. I was forced to substitute with my scroll to survive that fireball and it was scorched… Unfortunate, lost a hundred puppets with one careless move…” the man spoke. Mana kept observing him as well. By now she noticed that the puppeteer’s skills were more efficiently used when defending. He was able to perfectly defend and counter attacks of two squads but wasn’t able to overpower a couple of Chuunin using Jounins as puppets.

Of course the downside of the decision to play defensively was being forced to listen to this man go on about his own greatness and dismissing anyone else as “trash”. “Oh well…” he continued as he pulled another scroll from his pocket. He opened it quickly on the ground in front of Mana and made a handseal. “They were bodies of trash anyway, I just gave their useless lives meaning by using them as my Nameless, I guess in the end a hundred units of trash are still just a bunch of trash.” A puff of smoke accompanied the puppeteer’s handseal as he unsealed a puppet from the scroll. It was a body of a young woman, she wore a purple dress and a headdress covering her face – she likely lived in the desert when she was alive.

“This one is the most powerful warrior I’ve beaten, she was too strong for my first mode but she eventually fell to the Nameless. I think you would have fallen too but unfortunately by having to skip one mode I will come at you with too much force… Oh well…” the man smiled. Mana couldn’t see the puppet move, she felt sharp pain in her chest and saw her blood splash on the purple dress of the puppet. How could the puppet have been so quick? Mana grunted out in pain and fell on her knees as the puppet withdrew back to defend its master from a counter attack. It was impossible for a puppet to move this fast, it surpassed the speed of even the most famous weapon masters.

The magician looked at several more splashes of her blood fall on the ground – it wasn’t a good sign but she didn’t feel like dying. The speed was also very much a disadvantage of the puppet – it wasn’t able to be precise, it had to be stopped at the perfect time to use its sword properly and not just bash into the target. Apparently the puppeteer missed the timing and inflicted a minor cut instead of the lethal blow it was supposed to deliver. “So this is the combination of a master of arms with a master of puppetry – someone with no regards to the medical side of puppetry or poisons. Just pure speed and aggression.” Mana thought as she stood up.

The bleeding was about to become a problem – it needed to be treated but most of all Mana needed to be sure that she’ll survive the next blow. Fighting this purple flash is gambling for one’s own life, one had to quickly think up of a strategy until the time the puppeteer played his cards right and killed his victim. “Oh… I seem to have missed. The lady of the desert didn’t miss, you have to forgive me, I merely am borrowing her skills. I think once I kill you I’ll also make a puppet of you and call you two “The Twins”, do you like it Konoha’s Sorceress? This will be your legacy.” Mana’s lips formed a slight grin from the previous twist of pain. She could feel a small torrent of blood coming down but she had a plan.

“Sorry, you seem to lack skill in making the puppets. You’ve covered your puppet up completely to mask the hideous scars you’ve left out of your impatience. I can only imagine how little tolerance you’ve had making your Nameless, I bet they’re covered up too? After all, why should you work so hard on “trash”, just cut a lot of holes in them and take their guts out by hand, who cares about the esthetics? I'm a girl who takes great care in how she looks, I'll have to refuse.” Mana replied, she could notice the wavering of her tone. The pain and slight bloodloss was already affecting her and she needed to get away from the straight out one on one fight. The puppeteer looked offended by the words of the magician, his fingers tensed – he was about to strike again.

Before he could move Mana jumped backwards and made a handseal. The puppeteer had that stupid grin on his face as he commanded his puppet to strike again. The young woman faced fast opponent’s before, she knew that in order to beat their speed she had to predict their actions and act not by countering their actions but by moving based on their “tells” of impending actions. Just like right now as Mana dashed back making the handseal she activated the tags she placed before when collapsing on the ground. The blast threw the puppet to the side tearing it’s dress and headdress open. Such was the disadvantage of investing all into speed – it was easy to throw the force away and make the speedster lose balance.

The gruesome puppet hit a tree. The damage which was caused by the careless evisceration was apparent – her lips were removed and some of her teeth broken to install some sort of weapon shooter, her guts were removed through a carelessly done cut through the abdomen – a giant slash by which she was likely killed was very much present and not even sewn together. Her arms were clearly broken by the rude insertion of weapons and the bones had to be reinforced and fixed, from the awkward posing it could’ve been guessed that even this little effort was too much to ask of from the puppeteer. He had no respect for the bodies he used, they were just his tools, just something to be replaced. Mana would rather have blown her body to bits than become a grotesque figure like that. It barely resembled having been human at some point.

Luckily enough the dust cover allowed Mana to utilize a chance to hide and cover up her wound. She didn’t feel too good about running around with her dress cut open and her blood leaking on the ground – she needed to summon Usushiko soon enough to heal her. Within just a couple of more minutes this bloodloss would’ve proven dangerous to her life. It wasn’t a deep cut but the blade must’ve been built for slashing as are all blades of the desert people. Still, Mana needed to deal with that poor puppet, the poor woman deserved a better fate than being a twisted version of what she once was, she deserved better than being used by a madman to kill other people. She deserved better than knowing from the Afterlife that after her gruesome fate she was a tool used by an architect of similar gruesome fates.

Mana’s hands flashed through the handseals making a shadow clone with wind chakra in it. She leaned by a tree for support and allowed the clone to charge out. While the style of the puppeteer himself was defensive, there was no way that the puppet was used for defense – it was an all out attacker. The clone charged with a kunai blade as Mana’s arms went through some more handseals. “Get up, damn it!” the puppeteer ordered the poor desert girl as her lifeless body jumped up in a disgusting manner of the ground. The naked and grotesque version of the desert warrior stabbed Mana’s clone and it was just what the young woman in the forest was waiting for. She spat out a jet of fire to hit the explosion of wind.

A loud blast went through the Konohagakure forest close to the village. A lot of trees came crumbling down as the shockwaves cut some of them down, pulling out others with their roots. A combination of wind chakra and fire chakra was destructive enough to destroy whole battlefield, Mana has many times experienced her own destructive capabilities. Even right now the burning leftovers of the forest field threatened to start a forest fire. Such was the level of destruction of a battle between ninja of level matching each other.

Spoiler:

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Pain resonated all throughout the body of a young woman who found herself in this very same situation way too often. The shockwave and the destruction really shook her up a lot, it may have done some damage to her bones too. The only positive thought in her head at the moment was that none of the many trees taken down crushed her to death or even hurt her at all. There were some small specks of wood that lodged into her body or left some scratches but they were nuisance level injuries at best. Mana could only imagine the damage to the puppeteer who was close to the blast – there could’ve been no doubt that the puppet was destroyed. Mana couldn’t feel chakra being sapped from the Parabrahma member’s supply which meant his puppetry jutsu was over.

There was simply no way that a puppet that wasn’t even reinforced didn’t blow up to bits after something so huge. Still, Mana regretted quite a lot about not being able to not destroy the area she was fighting in once again. Sometimes one wasn’t able to win without having to blow everything up to bits… She tried to stand up but the pain was just too much, the wound on her chest was now spitting blood up in series of splashes. With a lot of effort Mana went through the handseals and bit her finger. Usushiko appeared in a huge puff of smoke and looked around. The level of destruction seemed to stress him a great deal.

“WHO DID THIS, DAMN IT!” he roared out with his powerful voice causing gusts of wind by itself. “I’m sorry, Shiko-san… I had to use a bit too much of force…” Mana’s weak voice must’ve sounded even weaker from his position. The rabbit looked down and started healing the young woman. Mana felt the familiar sensations of warm liquid being poured on her body that Usushiko’s healing jutsu had. It was like that liquid found every wound in her body and treated it, as if it took care of the pain and refreshed her body. “Next thing after this, I’ll stomp the shithead who made you do this. He’s the one really responsible!” the rabbit said making the magician laugh out and then grip to her chest as her ribs started hurting again from the laughter.

“Sorry, Shiko-san, I’ll still need to interrogate him before this. It’s a very good opportunity for me, I need to find out their goals and set out to stop all of them. They plan to take over the whole world or at least that’s what Lady-san told me…” Mana said, she could feel her voice slowly getting stronger. Somehow now that the colossal ball of fur was here she felt safe, she softly hugged his ear as her strength returned. Usushiko looked confused and wriggled a bit but he must’ve liked it because he didn’t pull the ear out of the magician’s arms. “Just checking my strength, Shiko-san, the puppeteer wasn’t in the center of the blast and his chakra is still strong. He must just be out cold so I will ask you to hurry before he recovers…” Mana made up a lie. “You’re just like a little kid, you know that?” Shiko replied with a grunt.

Not everything Mana told the rabbit was a lie – the puppeteer was really likely to be much less injured than it took for him to be out. He must’ve just been recovering both from intensive physical damage and the shock to his pride of having someone he looked down on having overcome his “mode” which he considered excessive. The Sennin knew that the man no longer could use that specific puppet, the destruction and liberation of the soul of the desert swordswoman was the only thing she was certain of. Usushiko removed his ears and wrapped them around Mana’s body. Half of her dress was slashed off and burnt so she felt the soft fur of the rabbit as he lifted her on his head. “Now, where the hell is that little shit, it’s been a while since I had a dirtbag to crush!” Usushiko yelled out causing more gusts to blow leaves off of the poor trees that still were standing around the area.

Mana got on her knees – her wound was closed up and there was barely any sign of it, the multiple scratches were healed as well, just the smallest ones were ignored. Usushiko was really amazing, the magician just wanted to be able to use him more often, due to his size he only fit for last resort scenarios. The rabbit started slowly making its way towards the most intense point of destruction. Mana could feel the puppeteer’s chakra starting to glow and pulse more intensely – he must’ve been aware of what was going on and was now beginning to try to avoid his death.

“Oh… Now you’ve done it! I will take your body for a puppet now FOR SURE!” a loud yell echoed from down below. The man could barely hold his own on two feet as he was staggering and struggling just to stand still. And yet he still had threats to make, did he have more modes to use? How could he fight using a puppet efficiently when he can barely stand? It should all be over and yet he still seems to be so sure of his victory. Mana was starting to get a bad feeling about this. Usushiko healed her, he was enough of an intimidating presence all by himself, the puppeteer did well but he was at a tremendous disadvantage for making the mistake of underestimating Mana. His third mode achieved nothing, his enemy was not only not injured but had a “mode” of their own against him, why was he so confident?

“Go to Hell, ya shit!” Usushiko yelled out as he charged forward and tackled the man sending him through some more trees. The fact that the rabbit’s attack succeeded surprised the magician. She never would’ve taken one of the Parabrahma for being an idiot and taunting someone like Usushiko with empty threats. She expected some sort of a comeback. Anything, at the very least a pathetic attempt to block. Loud coughs reached Mana’s ears from the wreckage of the trees and dirt that Usushiko’s tackle caused. There wasn’t too much force but something this large hitting one head on should’ve busted all of the man’s intact bones. He must’ve been pretty tough skinned to take this much punishment.

A cloud of smoke suddenly erupted from the pile of wreckage and dirt, the debris just flew wildly around the surrounding area. Both Mana and Usushiko observed in awe as a giant figure even more disgusting than any other puppets rose from the wreckage. It was a large blob of fat, a giant humanoid shape that reeked of sweat and fat. The smell was simply unbearable as even Usushiko took a couple of steps back. The giant only reminded of a human due to the familiar smell of human material and humanoid shape.

It’s head was comically small and unfitting for its colossal 100ft size, its arms were chubby and the entire puppet was circled with numerous belts to keep the chunks of fat in check. It must’ve been nothing else but just bunch of material crafted from human fat made into a statue which was controlled from inside of it. Apparently controlling this thing was pretty easy with most of one’s bones broken as the puppeteer had absolutely no trouble moving around. The flabby giant twisted its arms around and gripped its humorously oversized sword. “ROARGH!” the giant yelled out a grunt as the sword left its sheathe and slammed into the ground. The slash was so powerful that it sent projectiles of compressed wind slashing trees in two and even left a dent in the village wall several hundred metres further. This was a puppet to siege countries with!

“What a slow pile of lard!” Usushiko mocked the gigantic puppet that easily matched the rabbit’s size. “It’s because we broke the user’s bones, Shiko-san, I’m sure he didn’t mean it to be slow enough for you to dodge so easily and gracefully.” Mana replied. Indeed Usushiko sidestepped and avoided the damage. Still, the amount of destruction just swinging this blade did was unparalleled. With a single swing of this sword around one’s axis one may have destroyed an entire settlement, with a single ravaging slash one could’ve sent shockwaves and sliced multiple buildings. “So this is the power of the Parabrahma? Even in such a pinch, so severely beaten and weakened this man has such an ace to pull…” Mana thought to herself.

“Be careful, Shiko-san, you could only take one blow before going down. We can’t afford to make a single mistake or we’re both dead.” Mana advised her partner. How many more members did this organization have? Were they all so ridiculously powerful? Now it made perfect sense for a single man to siege the headquarters of the Genin Tournament and take on all the ninja there after interrupting one of multiple Konoha genin parties departing to the tournament. With this mode the man would’ve easily taken down anyone strong enough to survive his initial modes…

Spoiler:

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

„Be careful, Shiko-san, let‘s take it easy and simple, dodge and answer...“ Mana said softly to the large ear of the rabbit she was on. The colossal giant puppet wasn‘t going to make it too easy but having in mind how damaged the puppeteer was the magician believed that she had a chance at the very least. Once more the puppet raised the arm and slashed crushing the ground below and leaving a cataclysmic fissure but Usushiko nimbly leaped to the side and then using the same force from the leap jumped forward and tackled the thing. The process was repeated multiple more times to the point that to the magician it looked like they‘ve been doing it for eternity.

The surrounding area was simply devastated and the young woman was worried for the village wall just several hundred meters behind the battlefield. Every slash sent a blow of compressed air to whittle away the wall‘s integrity leaving huge damage marks on it. The fisures made it hard for both sides to walk around the battlefield as Usushiko had to try harder to leap around and the flabby giant had to try much harder not to be swallowed by the ground it ruined by carelessly flailing its blade. Mana was happy that Usushiko didn‘t seem to yet be tired, it carefully and gracefully leapt away from each strike responding with a tackle of its own and each tackle found the target.

„Ugh, this is hopeless, I‘m not leaving any dents, it‘s soft and squishy but it won‘t wear off...“ Usushiko grunted out. He was right, they‘ve been at it for a while but it didn‘t seem like the giant puppet took any damage. If anything this battle would be decided by the puppeteer‘s chakra depleting or the ground swallowing the gigantic puppet. At least the magician was confident that if it happened to Usushiko the rabbit could dispell itself before it took too much damage. Mana‘s hands shot forward, as the monstrous puppet missed another slash and Usushiko closed for a tackle the magician shot a point-blank lightning bolt of her own aiming for the joint of the right arm.

„No way!“ both Mana and Usushiko yelled out as the puppet took no damage not only from the hearty tackle of the rabbit but also Mana‘s lightning bolt. It was supposed to at least crush the arm or the joint it hit making it near impossible for the giant to move around that blade. And yet no damage was taken, the flabby giant was standing just as tall slow and strong as it was to begin with. „Ugh, it‘s like it‘s made of rubber or something...“ Usushiko grunted out. „Don‘t sweat it, dear, an entire settlement tried their luck against Tarunda no Kiyojin once and all they managed to do was blow off it‘s jaw... Your stupid effort only delays the inevitable...“ a voice came out from the puppet‘s blown off jaw.

„Heh, this guy loves to make himself heard huh? Went through the trouble of enforcing his own voice...“ Usushiko joked with a bit of irony making fun of the fact that while the blown off jaw wasn‘t repaired but whatever he used to enforce his own voice worked flawlessly. „We‘re in a bit of a deadlock, sweetheart, you won‘t put a scratch on my Tarunda no Kiyojin but I‘m too worn out to land a hit on you too... This way it‘ll take forever... Maybe you‘re willing to just give up and kick the bucket, then we won‘t have to hurt your precious country and your own village!“ the voice echoed strong throughout the land surrounding the village wall.

„Shit! He‘ll target the village next, Shiko-san, he‘ll force us to stop his blade!“ Mana shouted out with horror in her tone. Targetting the village was a horrendous and disgusting way to break the cursed loop but it would‘ve worked, Mana would‘ve been glad to give her life up to protect the village. „I mean all I need is just to attack the Tournament grounds now that the Konohagakure party is intercepted, I don‘t want to blow up Konohagakure, it‘d attract too much attention and you don‘t want your people to die so let‘s compromise huh?!“ the gigantic puppet kept spitting out words, by now it was sure that no hits will land on the rabbit.

„Like hell she will!“ Usushiko yelled out as he charged forward with his body pulsing with chakra. The puppet was thrown backwards by the awesome force of the tackle as it crashed into it and expelled a deafening sound and a shockwave that blew away the rubble. The puppet wasn‘t able to withstand the chakra empowered tackle and was taken down but the magician could feel that it still took no damage. Usushiko was breathing heavily, without a doubt the mightiest of rabbits has reached his limit. „I‘m sorry, Mana-san, I don‘t think I can go for too much longer...“ the rabbit spoke with fear in his tone which the young woman has never heard before. „No, I‘m sorry you had to spend chakra healing me, I failed you as a summoner...“ Mana replied as she hugged as much of the rabbit‘s ear as she could reach.

„Well, before I even the village to the ground, leaving no stone on a stone, why don‘t I try this!“ the puppet yelled from the top of it‘s lungs making the sound deafen the magician for a moment. Mana was sure that the sound of the giant reached the village by now. She hoped that evacuation was on its way and that people were to be brought to safety. The titanic puppet swung it‘s blade again but this time horizontally. The blow was even slower than usual – without a doubt such an attack forced the user to exert himself even more than vertical blow. „Go to hell, ya runt!“ Usushiko yelled as he used the slow attack as an opening to jump on the blade with his back legs and kick off for a head tackle taking the puppet down for the second time.

„It‘s like I‘m hitting a bunch of marshmallows... Stinky marshmallows...” Usushiko grunted once more as his huffing got harder and harder. “I’ll die before leaving you against this thing unscathed, if I don’t leave a scratch it’ll ruin the rabbit reputation!” Usushiko said after getting some breathing done finally. “No. Konoha will remember the rabbits as its last line of defense, not that this thing will reach it!” Mana replied. She tried to make her voice sound strong but she couldn’t no matter how hard Usushiko or she would’ve attacked this thing it barely had any sign of damage on it. It had this mushy and slippery surface that deflected all blunt force blows.

“Why aren’t there hundreds of ninja here lighting this thing up?! Their village is at stake!” Usushiko cursed as the puppet started to get up. “No, this is good. They’re saving every villager they can, they’re saving people and making sure no one gets hurt. They left it up to us, Shiko-san. We are the opening they need to save everyone!” Mana said while looking back at the village. Normally the trees would’ve obstructed the view but after this battle the whole forest and the very soil will need all the Senju repairs the village can muster up… The magician was happy that the ninja troubled themselves with saving the villagers and left this thing to her and Usushiko, at least for now. The horizontal blow left a huge dent on the village wall, a huge scar and it was apparent that just couple more blows would take it all down. Mana couldn’t allow that.

“Alright then, you’ve brought it on yourself. I guess it can be helped! Konohagakure, here I come!” the giant’s voice echoed and without a doubt reached the village. “We can’t allow that, no matter the cost we must push this thing away from the village, the wall can’t take a single blow more!” Mana ordered Usushiko. The rabbit charged forward and started pushing the giant away. It was stronger than the tired and broken bones of the puppeteer and the puppet was sliding backwards. “GO!” Mana ordered Usushiko as the rabbit using its last strength pushed the giant so hard that it sunk into the soil halfway. It wasn’t going to go anywhere for a long time.

“I’m sorry, Mana-san… I have no more strength left…” Usushiko let out and lifted the young woman off his head before disappearing with a loud puff of smoke. Mana was now alone against the crippled giant. It took a moment for the puppeteer to realize this. “Hmmm, what to do now? To crush you fast and bother with escaping the trap of the soil or to free Tarunda no Kiyojin now and crush your village. To grant you swift death or to make you beg me to kill you after seeing everyone you love burn… Why do I always have to make the hard choices!?” the maniacally happy voice of the puppeteer echoed through the land forcing Mana to cover her ears. She knew the purpose of these threats – to scare the village, to make the villagers blame Mana for not giving up and dying preventing their own deaths.

Not only was this man terribly strong but also quite the mad sadist…

Spoiler:

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

The gigantic puppet containing the puppeteer from the Parabrahma inside of it struggled to pull the lower half out of the ground. Fortunately enough for Mana it seemed that its soft and bouncy surface now served as a disadvantage for the giant to pull its legs out. As hard as it tried to wriggle left and right it only drove his arms into the dirt. Had Mana been capable of Suiton techniques she may have even finished the damned thing off by making it drown in mud completely. Ultimately the „Tarunda no Kiyojin“ dug its own grave – it was too large and strong for its own good and its rubber substance stuck it in its earthly grave.

Of course at any point the puppeteer could‘ve cancelled the technique but that would‘ve exposed his crushed and mangled body for Mana to interrogate and bring in. The young woman had no doubts that if the puppeteer revealed itself it would be completely disabled by all the damage it took from Usushiko‘s tackle previously. Her enemy was beaten but the poor magician just couldn‘t get to him, she was so close and yet still so far. It annoyed her to no end that she would have to face these odds and probably get beaten being so close to victory.

The puppeteer suddenly realized how stupid his „perfect“ puppet looks trying to pull itself out. All out of a sudden the pulling action ceased and the puppet just froze still with it‘s half-broken face glaring at Mana. It had some sort of strange eyes, the young woman could remember reading of some animals having pretty amazing huge and deep eyes, „Tarunda no Kiyojin“ had those same kind of eyes except it was evident they were taken from a dead animal. They had no soul or feeling beyond them, they just looked cold, hurt and longing for some point of their life.

„Where are my manners, why don‘t I ask the lady? So, lady, how do you like me to proceed? Do you want my magnificent „Tarunda no Kiyojin“ to crush you now? I promise not to touch your village if you choose it... Or I can just keep pulling myself out and then go for the village, without your stupid rabbit you‘ve got no hope of taking on my masterpiece. Neither does the village, I‘ve conquered and destroyed many others...“ Mana‘s head lowered, she wanted to tell the puppetmaster to just crush her then and there, sacrificing her life for the village was the best death that the magician could‘ve asked for but... All the genin in the Tournament grounds, the puppetmaster would head there after Mana is dead...

„Maybe I should summon someone and send them to the village with a message and then ask that thing to crush me? No, Usushika has told the rabbits of the situation by now, no rabbit would be stupid enough to leave me for death...“ Mana‘s mind desperately tried to find ideas of how to escape death but nothing came to mind. The puppeteer was right, it was death now or witnessing her village and loved ones die. Eventually this thing will pull itself out, maybe it‘ll take an hour, maybe two. Maybe the village had what it takes to take this thing down, but what if it doesn‘t? Mana had no right to risk even a single life in that village when she herself cost that village a life of a young Uchiha girl already...

„What‘s wrong? Do you still try to find ways to destroy my masterpiece? Don‘t! Many have tried. You know, when I made Tarunda no Kiyojin from a mixture of human fat and an organic material it was barely the size of a dwarf. Every time I conquered a settlement or a small village with this thing I took the fat of everyone I killed and made it larger to the point it is now. Right now it’s simply unbeatable! So tell me, girl, do you want to die now or do you want to see everyone you love die first, prolong your suffering, cling to life in the cost of seeing other people die because of you…” Mana’s eyes shot wide open. She knew what she had to do! The puppeteer was a stupid idiot, he just revealed something that will cause the downfall of his greatest masterpiece.

It was made mostly of body fat, originally it had a rubber mixture, sure but if he did as he claimed and only added fat to the puppet he now had a ticking time bomb. This was going to be crazy, the worst thing was that Mana would probably kill the man inside the puppet but it just had to be done. She relied on the fact that the density of her next technique was really bad and wondered if perhaps there was still a way to preserve this man’s life. Even if it is an individual who could threaten the existence of her village he deserved to live, also he had information on the Parabrahma. Mana’s hands flashed through handseals, she heard a loud grunt inside the puppet.

“Katon: Tengoku no dai Sanji no Jutsu – Fire Style: Heavenly Catastrophe”

Mana chanted out with some pride in her voice. Obviously she was happy to have found out the solution to the problem but she wasn’t sure if the puppeteer even knew about this. The lips of the young woman smiled before spitting out a jet of scorching flames into the air and forming a large Sun-like sphere above. With just the brief stronger blow of the flames she caused the sphere fall down on the opponent like a meteor. Almost instantly upon impact the flames enveloped the entire structure of the puppet. Maybe its dwarf version wasn’t flammable, maybe not this hard but the one with so much body fat in its consistency had to be.

It obviously didn’t mean that the puppet would just be incinerated instantly but just that the flames would not fade before they burned off every single bit of body fat from the thing reducing it to just the organic rubber that the man put in it. If the puppeteer won’t die in flames – he’ll die from suffocation or being crushed by his own organic material once it shrinks down. Now the puppet master had the choice of his defeat: move out of the puppet and surrender or stay and die together with his masterpiece. Mana didn’t want it to be the second part – it would’ve required her to drag his stupid body out herself.

“YOU STUPID BITCH! LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE DONE!!!” loud shouts echoed through the land letting everyone in the village know that the titanic puppet threatened them no more. There will be not a single body that will join the fat supply of this grotesque and twisted construction. Mana jumped back several leaps to avoid the flames that started rampaging rapidly. This amount of flames would’ve resulted in a forest fire if there was much of forest around to burn. Most of the outer village area was no just a fissure ridden wasteland. It will take some serious repair works to bring the forest back to life but at least it can still be done – Konoha will survive for another day…

A loud thud echoed throughout, something metal was banging from inside. Just a moment later the Tarunda no Kiyojin was busted open from inside splashing his still burning fat around. Mana had to escape using her Mystical Wings technique so that the chunks of burning fat didn’t crush her. This was impossible, could there have been something inside the giant? Just as the magician settled in the air, just barely managing to dodge all of the falling chunks of fat a giant head of what looked like it used to be a man tried to eat her alive. With a dash sideways the young Sennin managed to avoid being eaten. She flew backwards to let the flame and smoke settle down to see just what the hell happened.

Another head, Mana dashed to the side to avoid it. There were two gigantic heads that burst out of Tarunda no Kiyojin in its final moments, could the puppeteer have had another mode at his disposal? What on Earth was that? Third head appeared out of nowhere and Mana was forced to quickly descend to avoid the third. She started running through the ruined forest using that same jutsu to carefully outmaneuver every head trying to eat her. “Four – Five – Six – Seven – Eight – EEEK!!!” Mana tried to count before something hard hit her. Luckily enough for her she wasn’t eaten, the head just hit her and sent her into the rubble from the previous battle.

What appeared from the debris was a grim reminder of what monsters looked like. Something that looked like a gigantic, headless corpse of a naked woman with heads coming out of them like the body was a dragon. It was a puppet nightmares were made of. Mana grunted as she tried to get up – her entire body was in pain and she was winded from all the dodging, she probably couldn’t manage to dodge the whole series of attacks again. This was it, for her and possibly even the village. How can anyone stop this thing? What even is that thing!? Mana’s head looked backwards. The busted village wall was the last defense if she died, a simple pebble thrown at it could probably make it fall down.

“I have no right to die here, not unless I take this thing and that bastard with me!” Mana thought as she forced her body to stand. She noticed that each and every one of the nine heads had cracks all over them – they couldn’t take much punishment so even by hitting the ground they cracked. This wasn’t an ace puppet, it was a last resort! “Alright, let’s try this again!” Mana shouted at the giant hydra-like puppet so that it noticed her still alive and didn’t just walk away from her. This thing will not make its way to wherever that damned tournament was being hosted, even if Mana will die fighting it she’ll make sure to render it useless and foil this man’s plan.

Nothing was decided just yet but the decisive moment was so close!

Spoiler:

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Without waiting for the gigantic puppet to attack again Mana threw all of her explosive notes into the air. This wasn‘t a moment to hold it back, everything had to go out now. As the magician saw the puppet‘s heads brace for another barrage of attacks she quickly made some seals and blew the tags in the puppet‘s general direction and then activated them. A series of explosions echoed throughout, the young woman was hopeful that the puppet wouldn‘t withstand something that once took her entire mansion down. So far it hasn‘t shown any feats of endurance so there were no reasons to think that it would‘ve survived it. It was supposed to take the whole thing down.

„So you‘ve noticed, huh?“ a loud voice came out of the puppet, voice no longer full of confidence and cold and calculated arrogance but instead full unadulterated madness. „Kyu-to Hidora“ isn‘t a very gutsy one to say the least, it‘s not a fighting puppet, it‘s a tool of destruction... You‘ve done it now, you‘ve broke it to the point where destruction is all it‘s capable of.“ Mana‘s heart filled with joy, she interpreted those words as a victory, as if the village was protected already, the tournament‘s procession was ensured, this man would have no more puppets to siege it and would be injured himself.

„However!” the man followed up forcing the heart of the young Sennin to sink down to her toes. “While that does mean you’ve beaten me, I’ll make this puppet serve its purpose – destruction! I’ll make it so there’s no more village for you to bring me in to, it’s shattered, broken, unable to take too many blows so it’s capable of just single charge of my ultimate technique but… It’ll leave you homeless, Konoha’s Sorceress!” Mana couldn’t believe the man’s words initially, could there have been a jutsu so terrifying that it would’ve leveled the entire village? It couldn’t have been possible, right? Surely this man couldn’t…

“Who am I kidding, this is the Parabrahma… Of course he could do it…” Mana realized as the smoke from her previous attack cleared out completely. The grotesque hydra puppet was shattered and covered with cracks everywhere, it looked like it was barely held together but the magician had no more tags. The heads opened their mouths and started charging up a blast. Balls of fire chakra formed in them and started growing, to reach the village the puppet would have to spit it in some sort of a beam which would explode upon collision and the blast radius should’ve been almost too great to believe.

“I can’t give up, I can’t!” Mana shouted as her hands went through more handseals and tried to use the gigantic meteor like technique again. She spat out the jet of fire and kept breathing it out until it formed a great ball of flames, she couldn’t have been sure in success but it had to work, the consequences otherwise would have been too great. She would’ve won, the puppet would’ve collapsed but… There would be no more Konoha to bring the man to, she’d have only one honorable option for failing her village as a protector. Mana pointed her hands at the heads, this jutsu was just too slow – the technique of the puppet was already formed. As the puppet fired the blast it collided with Mana’s technique increasing the size of the ball and shaping a large floating flaming sphere of fire which spat out jets of flames every couple of seconds.

“It won’t hold! I need to get the hell out of here!” Mana thought to herself as she saw powerful jets shooting out of the static ball of flames containing both the puppet’s beam of concentrated chakra and her own jutsu. It would have to dissolve in some way and it was getting unstable. Mana’s hands lowered, she had no hope of outrunning this explosion or to hide behind any of the trees simply because there were none. This was the final stand but one thing didn’t give Mana’s mind the piece she needed to accept her own death – the village. Will the explosion reach it? She didn’t know if anyone will die from the blast but one thing was for certain, the wall will go down. It will be impossible to protect the village without it, it will become open to threats and people will die. Despite everything she’s done, she failed the village as a protector.

“Protector! That’s it! Sorry, I’ll have to borrow your tough armor!” Mana said as she made some handseals summoning a wide and strong skinned creature that the Protective Service Ninja called the Forbidden Protector. She then looked at the great creature and smiled shyly. “I’m sorry for making our first meeting so strange but… I’ll need to borrow your wide armored body to protect the village.” Mana said as she scratched the back of her head. The creature didn’t say anything back, it just used its trunk to move Mana behind him and braced for impact.

The ball of flames finally became too large and heavy for its own good and it descended on the ground, upon contact with the ground it splashed it’s destructive power. The Forbidden Protector grunted from the impact, the force of the blow was really powerful but he managed to withstand it. He started moving backwards from the sheer force which made Mana move with him, she braced herself behind the creature as it stood against the force of the blast with its tough skin. “Urgh… Happy to serve, Mana-san…” the elephant exclaimed after taking the blast in and disappeared in smoke.

“G-g-god… Damn it…” the voice of the puppeteer echoed unenforced by his puppet anymore. Shards and pieces of the puppet started falling off making the whole structure collapse and the magician took the absence of a new one as a sign that this was finally it. “Phew…” Mana thought to herself, this was really dangerous for a moment. For a single man to threaten an entire village… It was a siege likes of which Konohagakure may have never seen before and all because Mana didn’t let the man proceed to the location of the Genin Tournament. “Who is that guy? Where did he come from? Why did the Parabrahma want to target the Genin Tournament and what were their overall goals?”

Mana had many questions and all of them were about to be answered. Mana covered her near naked body with the little cloth that remained of her dress from the epic battle that took place and proceeded towards the man who was laying down on the wasteland he himself made from the place. The ground didn’t look like it had much left, little bit more punishment would’ve started making sinkholes and then the whole puppet would’ve fallen inside leaving Mana with no one to interrogate. She slowly made her way to the man and put her hand on his head.

“Hozuki Oroku… Castle in Area 56-B…” a weak voice came from the man, his seals started to glow forcing his body to start shaking in agony. “Come on…” Mana shouted out loud. She couldn’t believe it – before she even started her interrogation technique the man intentionally triggered his seals of silence by giving her a name. The seals started glowing purple and the poor puppeteer was shaking and spitting out some sort of liquids that were in his lungs. “No! No! No! No! Live!” Mana yelled out but it didn’t look like the man would be making it. How was she supposed to get any information?

“I still have a couple of moments… I have to…” Mana realized but she noticed the man’s arm holding a kunai. “I have to move but I might still… Shit…” she thought as she stayed by the man’s side the man extended his arm. Mana felt a sharp pain in the side of her body as a tip of the knife stabbed into it, “I have to… Keep reading…” the magician closed the pain out just to get as much from the body as she could, the man’s arm wasn’t strong enough to inflict a lethal injury, his knife barely got inside as it did. Just one sight, one picture remained in the magician’s mind as she moved back from the lifeless body.

“Daimyo hat… They’ll target the… Daimyo…” Mana thought to herself as she looked at the left side of her stomach area where the kunai stayed. It was an injury powerful enough to disable her from carrying the body, eventually the fissures would shift taking it inside, she couldn’t allow that. “Best not to remove this blade, it’s not in deep but it’ll bleed really badly if I do remove it.” Mana thought as she just laid back and relaxed. She was injured far worse before. “That thing is gone, Mana-sama is down!” she could hear familiar voices of Protective Service comrades. They waited it out, they concerned themselves with saving the villages. They were taught well.

Mana smiled as one of the ninja took her in his arms. “Please take the body of the man with you, maybe the seals will still tell you something, Parabrahma love to modify their bodies, maybe he’ll have some strange implants or something like that…” Mana’s voice was weak, she felt really bad. Her chakra was almost gone and the half stabbed kunai in her side looked really bad even if it didn’t threaten her life. “You just stop worrying, Mana-sama, you’ve done great, no one died, we saved everyone. You just get better now.” The ninja responded. The crew moved way slower with no trees around to move on, it’ll take the village some time to grow the entire village back but it was nothing – the village was safe and sound.

“But I mean, come on, it’s worth some PSN favors, right? Can I have Tuesday guard duty off?” Mana joked, the man carrying her removed the mask from his face and smiled, “You don’t attend those anyway, Mana-sama!” and the two shared a brief laugh before Mana grasped her side from the pain.

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