Starring:
Date: December 3, 2016
Summary:
Daichi introduces Kenta to a new aspiring medic, Yamanaka Katsumi. Kenta shows Katsumi the same chakra control exercises that he's been working on with Daichi.
"Another Eager Young Student"
Konoha Hospital
It's noon again, time for a lunch break. But Kenta is skipping that again today too, since he invited Daichi over to his office for a sensei-student chat. It's not officially a lesson, though it could turn out that way depending on how things go. Due to this, half of the medic-nin's desk is cleared of paperwork while the other half is completely overloaded. Part of the reason for the latter is that much of what he removed from one side is set on the other.
Kenta's seated on the master chair, a big leather covered thing that dwarfs the medic-nin himself, and working on filling out a few forms while he wait. There's some water heating out on a side desk, the ceramic pot resting on a scroll that produces heat. Curls of steam is already coming from the spout. It's an idyllic scene that should get disrupted as soon as Daichi makes an appearance.
Daichi got the invite and firstly would have went to find Katsumi. Luckily it wouldn't be too hard, and if she was quickly be found they could make their way to Kenta's work place. "Kenta invited me out for training today, so I can introduce the two of you. Maybe he could test out your chakra control and such." He grinned as he quickly made his way to Kentas as not to be late. Upon arriving he would rush in completely ruining this scene, and stares at Kenta. "Ummm…. I hope you don't mind that I may have brought a friend. She wants to be a medic-ninja so I though I could introduce you during my next lesson." He smiled before walking on in with Katsumi if she followed!
When Daichi had come and found the girl, Katsumi had just been let out of class for lunchtime. "Ah, good timing!" she'd said to the boy, her eyes alight with such excitement that she'd almost thought she's jump out of her skin. The student had followed the Genin as fast as she was able, her eyes settling upon the Medical Entrance with a lax jaw and wide eyes. She was about to speak to a medical-nin, who's work had already been pointedly shown as spectacular. When Daichi ran on ahead it took the girl a moment to notice, but then she quickly picked up her feet and sprinted after the boy with an inner laugh. 'I'm gonna meet a medical-nin!'
Once she'd arrived at said medical-nin's office, Katsumi brought her feet to an immediate stop just outside and peered in shyly. She would offer a small wave to Daichi's Sensei, along with a smile that showed in her eyes far more than on her mouth. "Konnichiwa.."
Kenta gets up when his office door slams open. "Konichiwa, Daichi," he greets warmly, as if the boy didn't just do something incredibly rude and potentially damaging to the door. It's happened so often that he doesn't even worry about it. That door gets slammed and rammed open a lot, from multiple people that decide to bother him. That can actually be seen by how the metal of the inner doorknob is slightly dented from multiple impacts against hard objects.
Kenta does show some surprise when it turns out that Daichi had brought along a friend. "Ummm… nice to meet you. I'm Akiyama Kenta and I guess Daichi already told you that I'm a medic-nin. I'm also the leader of Team Lunar. Please come in and have a seat, umm…" Kenta's voice trails off at this point, since Daichi never introduced her properly.
Daichi frowns as he remembers he didn't introduce them. "Oh sorry. Kenta this is Katsumi, and Katsumi as you may know already this is Kenta! I uhhh…. I brought Katsumi along because she wanted to become a medical ninja. I figured who better to help her then you." He found a seat now tired from running so hard, but it was worth it to get here on time. "I figured you would probably show her that thing that I worked on. Though maybe you have something else….she is still a student by the way." He looks between the two of them for a moment before speaking once more. "So ummm…. Yeah.. Get to meeting each other then to lessons!" He grinned widely before letting those two speak some.
Katsumi gave a somewhat awkward grin as the Sensei introduced himself, then when Daichi introduced her. The Genin had already said why she would have wanted to come along, but she thought it might be best to explain herself in her own words. "I want to become one of the /best/ medical-nin… But I guess I might have to get a little more skill, before I can train alongside Daichi-san." She smiled slightly and gave a glance to the boy as he sat, following Kenta's instruction - and Daichi's form - and taking a seat out of the way. "I hope I don't impose, or anything…"
Kenta shakes his head slightly. "Don't worry. I'm glad to meet anyone who's interested in the path of the medic-nin, Katsumi." The young man settles back down on his seat. He nudges the work that he was doing aside and folds his hands on his desk. "Ummm… I teach many medic-nin every year, so it's not a problem to take a new student. It doesn't matter that you're not a genin yet either, Katsumi. I started learning medical ninjutsu from my grandmother before I even joined the Academy. The most important thing is a willingness to learn and to work hard. To become a good medic-nin, not even the best, requires experience with many subjects besides just the ninjutsu aspect. You'll have to become well versed in chakra control, herbalism, biology, chemistry and more. I hope you considered that already."
Daichi kept looking between the two of them watching Katsumi as she seemed pretty interested so far. He himself wasn't much of a medic, but he did want to learn basic medical stuff at least since he saw how useful it can be. Shinobu has helped plenty of times before on missions and that was something he deemed important at all times. "Oh? Chakra control? Are you going to get her to do the thing I did?" He looked around trying to see if Kenta had that scroll anywhere. "And ummm….what did you want me to learn today as well?"
The girl had indeed already read up on much of what would lie in store for her, if Katsumi took the road for this particular training. Biology and herbalism were both things that fascinated her, as well as chemistry - though she wasn't quite so familiar with that last one. She would have to ind some things to read, so that she didn't feel thrown to the wolves. With a slow nod, Katsumi's expression grew rather serious, the crease between her eyebrows starting to make an appearance. "I understand… I've actually wanted to find a way to optimize my chakra, just so that I can control it as well as I possibly can." Her head tilted curiously, as she finished her sentence - and passed a look to Daichi once again, when he made some mention about the Sensei having had the boy work with chakra as well. "Could you help me with that, too?" She already had decent chakra control, that she was aware of. But she wanted to make it even better.
Kenta's attention ships to Daichi. "Well, I was going to work on a different exercise with you today, but I don't think we'll have time now. That doesn't mean that you can't have some good practice too, Daichi." The young man bends to open one of the bottom drawers of his desk. From it, he pulls out a scroll and sets it on the cleared section of the table. When he spreads out the scroll, Daichi can see that it's covered with some very familiar seals. "I'm going to have you show Katsumi the scroll exercise. Since chakra control is so important, this is also one of the very first exercises that I go through with new medic students. We can consider this both a test and the first lesson for Katsumi." Kenta watches Daichi, clearly expecting the boy to do as instructed.
"Oh? So you want me to explain this to her? Alright Kenta." Daichi stands up and gestures for Katsumi to as well, so she could se what he does. "Alright so this scroll thing changes color based on how much chakra you put into it, and from experience I can tell you that it is hard to not get tired from the higher ones." He would start sending his chakra into it and could easily hold it in red while chatting. "See how it grew to a bright red? This one is the first, and after this would come yellow. Then we go to blue, and finally white. You probably are not expected to go past yellow if you even make it there, so I would say take your time…. I eventually got better at it." He smiled softly before showing him able to make it into the yellow and then blue. "Now your turn Katsumi… I would try to see how well you can hold it in the first stage first and get comfortable before moving forward."
Katsumi stood up as soon as Daichi told her to step forward, her feet carrying her enthusiastically to the table where he explained the scroll laid out across the Sensei's table. She watched, her eyes flicking between the boy and the scroll, as the first seal grew red with his chakra - her eyes widening with excitement. When Daichi went beyond, to the yellow seal and then the blue, the girl tilted her head and bit her bottom lip with a sudden wave of nerves - which she quickly pushed aside, once the Genin told her to just try and focus on the first one.
She focused her chakra, then, taking a slow inhale and pushing it out toward the scroll with a steady exhale as she watched the first seal. She did her best to not be expectant of her own skills, but her passion for what she wanted to become drove her to give it her best shot. She had no idea just how much chakra she was pressing into the scroll, but the stubborn part of her hoped it might be enough to impress - maybe even get a little bit of yellow showing, from the second seall
"Besides the amount of chakra you can channel into the seals, it also takes effort to maintain each color," Kenta explains once Katsumi starts trying to work with the scroll. He waits a second longer for her to get a feel for what he's about to explain in detail. "You'll notice that red is very, very easy to maintain, because a wide range of chakra levels can create that color. The range becomes narrower when you get to yellow. At blue, it requires both a substantial amount of chakra for beginnings and staying within the range of chakra that keeps it blue is hard. At white, you're nearly not allowed any fluctuations at all. I make all my students practice until they can maintain white for ten whole minutes without it dropping down to blue even once. This is so that a student can practice gradually controlling her chakra to a degree that the amount she channels into the scroll won't bounce up and down unintentionally."
Daichi nods slowly as Kenta speaks and he also watches along with Katsumi's practice. Then his mind went back to recent happenings and he decided to start idle chat with Kenta. "Kenta. Did you hear that Hige made me lead a mission. It wasn't a tough one, but then he also made me sign a report on it. I didn't know what to do at first…..(Little does Daichi know that Hige also wrote a report and had both sent in.) Though it was pretty fun being leader of the mission. It was weird to. Supposedly there was a lot of chakra paper being delivered, and some workers when grabbing on to the box accidentally would cause them to activate in mass….caused a lot of problems to say the least."
Katsumi's ears easily filtered out the young Genin's voice, as he started to chat with the Sensei beside her. She had managed to get the red seal to glow fairly vibrantly, but she still wanted to push herself to see if - just maybe - she could get to the second seal. As Kenta Sensei had explained to her, it was rather easy to maintain the first seal even with their distraction happening. But as she focused harder to try and get to the second, it was almost as though she had come up against a wall. Stubbornness had her push harder, practically clawing at the 'wall' until - for a split second - she managed to see a flash of yellow. It was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, however… and Katsumi was left panting, a drop of sweat falling from her temple. She stopped, then, and wiped it away with a glance between the talking pair and a brief twitch if her brow in curiosity.
Kenta gets up and gets the steaming teapot sitting on his side desk. He fills a small cup with water, which he offers to Katsumi. "Umm… don't push yourself too hard. This exercise can be difficult for students. It's difficult even for some Genin, although others pick it up right away. It depends a lot on the individual. I'll let you keep the scroll, so you can practice the exercise. Work together with Daichi when you get the chance."
The medic-nin smiles softly and goes into explanation mode again. "Umm… There's a very important reason why I'm having you do this. A lot of medical ninjutsu require strong chakra control because you have to continuously mold and channel medical chakra into a patient. Unlike, say the Great Fireball jutsu, you don't mold all the chakra at once and release it. You can to maintain the amount at the correct levels for anything from a minute to hours. Because of that, even small fluctuates can cause the jutsu to fail or damage the patient instead of heal. This becomes even more difficult in the middle of combat when patients are moving around, you have little time to perform healing and might have to defend yourself at the same time."
Daichi listens to Kenta's explanation to Katsumi, and surely has way less interest then she does. Though he does show some interest because he knows the effectiveness of having medics, and he wouldn't say no to learning it. Just between everything else he does he barely has time. Adding on that he just got to learning fire ninjutsu and it becomes much bigger a thing. Although right now he can only spit out a small flame that doesn't even do much. "Kenta. What kinds of exercises comes after this anyways? Were they the things you were going to have me do?"
Her stubborn streak had gotten the best of her, and Katsumi didn't let her sudden feeling of being tired waver her concentration. Every word that Kenta Sensei spoke to her was important to her, and only after he had finished and Daichi had spoken up again did the girl realise that she had just been given the scroll she had been practicing on; she was a real medical-nin student, now! A fresh wave of excitement completely wiped away Katsumi's fatigue, for the moment. It might sneak up on her later, but she didn't mind that. Her head was set on practicing the push from red seal to yellow seal - right after she stuffed her face with lunch and finished class for the day.
Speaking of which… "Ah! I should probably get going…"
"Well, I was going to have you work with another scroll with a partner. One person channels chakra into the scroll and the one doing the training has to put in the exact equal amount. Then, he has to hold to that level for as long as he can. To make it more tricky, the other person can fluctuate his own chakra levels and force the trainee to match it. We won't have time to do that today, but remind me to show that to you in the next lesson," Kenta tells Daichi.
The medic-nin turns to Katsumi. "That'll be useful for you too, but I usually start out with actual medical ninjutsu training once a medical student has enough chakra control for the basics. Ummm… once you're further along, I can have Tatsuo or Kyu work with you. They're both capable of real medical work now." He smiles and bends to take something else out from a drawer. When Kenta straightens, he have a few modestly thick volumes in his hands. "Please take these along with the scroll. These books contain introductory material that I give to all my medic students. You can learn about some common herbs, medicines and some anatomy details from this."
Daichi stares at Kenta for a moment after he explains what they would have done. "Yeah I will make sure to remind you next time of that. It sounds like it would be tough to do though if you continued to move your own chakra around." He scratched at his cheeck for a moment before stretching some. "I think missing out on it for today was worth it though for Katsumi to get a head start on medical training. She just seemed really excited when I told her about you, and being a very good medical ninja. I had proof of your skills as well because of that burn you healed." Daichi then chuckled some before getting comfortable in the seat…
The girl took the texts from the Medical Ninja's grasp, placing the now rolled-up scroll of seals on top of the stack and grinning from ear to ear. "Arigato gozaimasu, Kenta Sensei~!" she replied, bowing deeply with the collection balanced in her arms. Her eyes briefly went to Daichi, as he spoke, her head tilting as her smile glowed. She had a whole lot of hard work ahead of her… But no matter how difficult it would be, she was convinced even now that in the end it would be worth the sweat and tears - maybe some blood scattered along the way. "Thank you for bringing me, today, Daichi-san. We'll have to train together, soon, so that I can get better! In both Taijutsu, and now chakra control!" With that, the student bounced on her toes and spun herself around to leave Kenta's office. She would have to make a quick stop to drop off her new texts, before she ran back to class.
