Starring:
Date: February 21, 2016
Summary:
Daisuke finally finds time to get out of the office in order to pursue a longterm goal of his, to learn medical ninjutsu
"How to Save a Life part 1"
Hospital – Doctor’s Offices (Konohagakure)
It's just another day at the hospital. This means that Kenta's overloading himself with work as usual. There's always plenty of patient appointments, research tasks and paperwork to go around. The entire morning was focused on research, or specifically, refining an antidote that he created to combat a certain problem. A light fifteen minute lunch followed. Now, the young man's sequestered inside his office to work on a stack of reports and documents that's about the height of his own torso. Granted, he's short, so his torso is also proportionately shorter than most people. Nevertheless, this is bound to keep him busy for a few more hours, until he shifts his attention to yet other work.
A light knock at the door heralds the arrival of Daisuke, opening the door enough to poke his head inside to check if Kenta was there. The Hokage had been trying to find some time to visit the hospital lately and seek some training, and today he had finally cleared a slot in his schedule.
"Hello?" he asks as he looks around, his eyes falling on the stack of paperwork before Kenta. The Hokage knew all about paperwork, and tried to avoid anything like it that wasn't vitally important. Luckily he had his Aunt, Tobiramako, to look after the small day-to-day's. He spots Kenta's head above the paperwork and lets the rest of his body inside. "Kenta, just the person I was looking for." he says with a smile. "Are you busy?" he asks, looking towards the paperwork.
Kenta's head pop up at the sound of Daisuke's voice. His eyes hold a startled light in their depths and the smudge of ink on his cheek makes him look exceptionally befuddled. A second, later the young man has popped entirely to his feet. He slides sideways and around to stand in front of his desk. The reason why he does this is immediately apparent. There's no way to bow until his forehead almost touches his shins if there's a desk in the way. "Konichiwa, Hokage-sama." Kenta holds his position for about five seconds before he straightens back up.
"Umm… I'm never too busy for you, Hokage-sama. Do you need me for something? No, you definitely need me for something if you're looking for me," the medic-nin pretty much babbles. He's really out of sorts at being surprised like this just when all of his attention is focused to a pin point on something else. Kenta grabs a cushion to place it on a big visitor's chair (already cushioned) that's in front of his desk. "Please make yourself comfortable. Tea?"
Daisuke had gotten used to the bowing in the years since becoming the Hokage, though he still was like Atsuro in that he would prefer a warm greeting any day. Regardless, he smiles and nods to Kenta, holding his hand up awkwardly for the five seconds Kenta holds his bow, feeling only slightly awkward.
"Sorry to barge in unannounced like this. I don't get a lot of time to wander out of the office so I take what I can get." he explains to Kenta. He was quite used to Kenta 'babbling' already and just goes along with the kind gestures. "Thanks, tea would be great." he says as he settles down in the chair, looking back to the stack of paperwork. "You have quite a pile up there. I can relate." he says, motioning to the papers. He then gets straight to the topic of his visit. "The reason I came here today was actually because I am interested in learning medical ninjutsu. I'd like you, as one of our top medical personnel, to start me off on the right path. Is that something you would be able to do?"
"Oh, ummm… it's really not that much. I should be done in about four or five hours. Hopefully only four, because I didn't start on the paperwork that Atsuro-senpai put aside for me to work on yet in his office." Kenta bustles over to a side desk where a tea service is sitting. There's a small pot on a little brazier that's steaming, even though the flame's off, so the water must have been freshly boiled. He carefully pours the amber tea into a porcelain cup with a matching lid. The cup is placed on a saucer, so that it'll be easier to carry.
"Ummm… You want to learn medical ninjutsu, Hokage-sama?" Kenta asks in surprise when he approaches to offer the tea cup to Daisuke. "I didn't know that you were interested in that. I mean, you're a Jinchuuriki, so you can already heal yourself anyway. Probably -much- better than Tatsuo could right now too. I thought that came with the whole package. I know it's regeneration, but follows a lot of the same principles of medical ninjutsu already."
Daisuke chuckles at Kenta's assessment of time it takes to get the paperwork done. Truth be told, if this was a year or so ago, it would probably take Daisuke twice that time, between the moaning and groaning. He looks up to Kenta and politely takes the cup, thanking him before taking a sip. If perceptive enough, Kenta would see a slight twitch of Daisuke's brow when Kenta mentions the word Jinchuuriki, though he does a decent job of masking his dislike for the word. He sets the cup down on the saucer before speaking up. "The ability to regenerate comes naturally due to the bond between man and beast. Unfortunately it doesn't really require or help in any form with healing others, learning to treat injuries to bodies and chakra, ex cetera. If my thinking is correct, though, I believe I will be able to apply that knowledge, along with the chakra from Son, and work on something very useful. But the first step in my goal is to learn as much as I can about the use of medical chakra and techniques." he explains to Kenta.
Kenta nods his head up and down thoughtfully. "That makes sense. It'll probably come easily for you too, even if you don't consciously know how your regeneration work now. Chakra control is the most important skill that most budding medics have to learn, but you can pretty much skip that step. You're already a master at chakra control. I mean, the way you handle Bijuu chakra already requires very delicate chakra control." The medic-nin holds up one of his hands and starts ticking off fingers. "After this, you need to focus on expanding your -knowledge-. How the body works, the types of problems that can occur within it, how to diagnose those problems, what medicines and herbs to use in different treatments, how to mold different types of medical chakra…" Kenta has to switch hands at this point. "…how to transfer medical chakra into another person's body properly, how to treat problems with chakra networks, ways to neutralize poison… Umm… there could be more if you intend to specialize, but those are the basics."
"I do not think chakra control will be a problem." Daisuke says with a nod, agreeing with Kenta. He takes another sip of his tea, listening to Kenta rattle off the next step…and the next…and the next. He was getting a bit caught up in all this knowledge. Things were so much easier when he just focused on blowing things up. "I see…" he says, wondering what was after 'the basics' with all that stuff he listed off. "Well I think I have a pretty good idea of how the body works. I did a little studying before and after the First Aid course that Atsuro ran. As for the rest, do you have any recommended reading material for herbs, poisons, general diagnosing techniques…. really anything you would suggest. I don't imagine any of them will be 'light' reading." he says with a hesitant chuckle.
Kenta nods his head up and down once again. "Oh, that won't be a problem Hokage-sama." The young man disappears as he leans sideways and downwards, so that his big desk hides him completely from view, except for a bit of the side of his torso. There's the sound of a drawer being pulled open, followed by the rusting of paper and heavier objects. "Here's a list of all the reading material that I recommend to new medical students," Kenta states upon straightening back up. He holds a sheet of paper with a list of over two dozen books listened on it over the stacks of paperwork on the desk. "Ummm… you should be able to find copies of all of these at the library or around private book stores in Konoha."
Daisuke looks on curiously as Kenta rummages around in his desk, handing him a piece of paper. Daisuke accepts the paper and looks it over, his eyes widening a bit at the amount of books on this list. "Phew, I'll probably be able to finish this in about two years…" he says as he looks down the list. "Any of these you strongly recommend…" he asks, looking a bit hopeful. As for the rest of the steps Kenta listed off as basics, holding the list out for him to look at and, hopefully, mark.
"As for the molding of medical chakra, I assume the molding isn't the hard part, more so the transferring into another person's body. Do you have any steps for that that I could start with and check off the list? In terms of the actual production of the chakra itself, that is."
Kenta opens his mouth. Shuts it again. It's pretty hard for him to pick only a subset of what's on the list. "Umm… start with the first five first. Then, we'll see how things go. Those are the most basic books, which is why I put them on the top of the list," the medic-nin eventually says. He rubs at the back of his head. "Well, molding medical chakra properly isn't hard if you're already very experienced at combining Yin and Yang chakra. I think you're already doing that with you use various Bijuu non-elemental abilities, so it's really more a matter of knowing the ratio and the exact form that the chakra has to take. It -is- harder to perform the transfer properly." Kenta pauses for a second here. "Have you ever done any chakra transfer before?"
Daisuke takes the list back and looks over the first five Kenta mentions. Seems like he will have no luck cutting down the list a bit. As for the chakra, Daisuke sets the list down and takes a sip of the tea as Kenta explains. He nods his head throughout, understanding pretty much everything that is said, a benefit of not being a completely new student. "Funny you should ask that." he says to Kenta with a smile, straightening up in his chair. "I have learned recently that the ability to transfer chakra comes even easier to one with a Bijuu, though obviously there are some repercussions if the shinobi is not prepared or in good standing with their beast. This ability to transfer not only part of my own, but Son's chakra, to another shinobi to temporarily restore stamina, regenerate and also boost their abilities, is what I have been striding towards lately. It is also the reason I came to you to learn." he says with a chuckle. "Now, I have never once had to carefully place my chakra inside another body to identify and heal a wound, but yes, to answer your question, I have transferred chakra."
"Oh, that'll definitely make it easier for you then. The fact that you can surround someone with your Bijuu cloak and not injure them also comes in handy here, because you know exactly what degree of 'force' you can use before you cause problems." Kenta sounds extremely thoughtful. "If you've even started training chakra transfer already, you've already taken some major steps towards medical ninjutsu. What we do when he heal someone is really all about chakra transfer. The only difference is the type of chakra and what we target. I bet that up till now, you mainly try to infuse your chakra directly into another person's network. For most medical ninjutsu, you have to let the chakra seep into the person's injured flesh. Depending on the type of ninjutsu, you either have to mold the chakra so that it's absorbed by the other person, or you keep a 'hold' of the chakra and use it to extend your own senses inside their body to manipulate it."
Daisuke nods his head as Kenta makes sound judgment on how it is that he utilizes his cloak to surround others. "Indeed, it isn't as pinpoint as anything medical-wise. I think I've got a pretty good general idea of what you are explaining. I've got my reading list here, and as for chakra moulding and finding the right ratios, is that found in the books or do you have advice on that?" he asks Kenta curiously. He knew all about ratios when using Yin and Yang together, as his, and any Bijuu's host, ultimate move is all about precise ratios or it will blow up in your face, and the general surrounding area will suffer. He sets the empty cup of tea down and waits for Kenta's response.
"Some of the reading material on that is takes about basic medical ninjutsu. That's what you would start with once you begin learning how to heal people with chakra instead of medicine and first aid techniques." Kenta shifts aside the stack of paperwork, trying to clear as much space on the desk between him and Daisuke as possible. Once a slim gap has been created, he lays his arm across the desk with his palm up. "Umm… we might as well try something simple now. Since you're already familiar with manipulating chakra in very fine ways, this shouldn't be too hard for you to get the hang of. Can you try sending your chakra into my hand without doing any damage, disruption to my own chakra and without molding it in a way that my body would absorb it?"
Daisuke nods his head as he looks down at the list again briefly as Kenta clears out the top of his desk to make room. As he lays his hand down on the table Daisuke looks towards Kenta again, setting the list down.
"Sure, let’s try that." he says as he holds his hand out just above the palm of Kenta. At first his hand begins to glow blue, though the hue quickly turned a more purple-ish as it begins to go red, and eventually Kenta is sitting there with his hand surrounded in a warm cocoon of Bijuu chakra, connected by Daisuke's hand. Daisuke sighs and shakes his head, moving his hand away to break the connection. "Old habits." he admits.
Kenta makes a thoughtful noise deep in his throat. "It might actually be better if you don't use your Bijuu chakra for this yet. That adds another level of complexities that you might have to manage. From what I understand, Bijuu chakra is a bit different from human chakra, so it can throw off medical ninjutsu until you figure out what variables need to be adjusted as part of it."
The younger man flexes his fingers and stares at his hand for a second. That had felt strange, but he didn't detect any bad consequences, so they're technically already at a good start. "Umm… let's try that again without the Bijuu chakra. I need you to maintain the chakra. I also want you to try to sense your chakra when it's already inside my hand. It'll be harder to detect when it's surrounded by something outside your flesh, but I know you can do it, Hokage-sama."
"Sure, that sounds fine. Let's try that out." Daisuke confirms with a nod, rolling up the sleeve of his haori as if he were getting ready to arm wrestle. "Here goes nothing." he says as he holds his hand out over Kenta's palm again, this time focusing a bit of chakra prior to starting so that he has an auxiliary pool to pick from. He moulds the chakra within his hand, hovering over Kenta's hand, maintaining it at a steady level before he begins to transfer it into Kenta's hand. His eyes narrow for a brief moment as he confirms that it does take a bit more effort to detect his chakra once it begins to transfer to Kenta, which was strange to him, having utilized dozens of chakra arm extensions at a time by drawing on his Bijuu chakra. It was almost refreshing, using just basic chakra for something more advanced than a good boost of speed or sealing techniques. "How's that so far? You are right about the effort needed, it took a bit to adapt, but I can feel my chakra." he asks as he looks up at Kenta, the chakra levels seemingly consistent.
Kenta's eyes aren't completely focused at this point. He doesn't need to concentrate to feel what's generally happening inside his body most of the time, but trying to sense exactly what Daisuke's doing requires a little more of it. The young man allows his senses to move almost entirely into the hand that Daisuke's touching. He can feel exactly how the foreign chakra is filling it without mingling with his own chakra, though there's a -tiny- bit of bleed at levels so subtle that only someone with a lot of experience would notice. That's normal though.
"Oh, that's -very- impressive, Hokage-sama. The way you're controlling the level of that chakra is every bit as good as the best medic-nin. Ummm… now let's see…" Kenta give his fingers a couple of twitches. "Can you feel that ripple in the chakra that you extended into my hand? Not physically with your sense of touch, but with your chakra senses. Can you also sense how there are differences between the way that your chakra's soaking into my flesh versus my bones? There's a lot of difference in composition and density that affects speed of transfer and the 'shape' of the chakra when it's fully 'contained' within the specific part."
Daisuke looks down at his hand atop Kenta, still focusing enough to maintain the level of chakra flow transferred. "Hmm." he says as he notices Kenta twitch his fingers, finding it interesting. It was almost similar to water walking way back when, he thinks. The way the water ripples affect your chakra flow and the way you have to adapt the flow to compensate for the movement. That was quite awhile ago, and by this point it just comes naturally to him to compensate for ripples, so for now he tries to focus on the other things Kenta describes. He tests a few things out trying to 'feel' the differences in bone and flesh, composition and density, a few other things to affect speed and shape. "It is very interesting. I can see why most medical ninja prefer to be away from the front of battle in order to perform. It takes quite a bit of precision and focus even now."
"It's most complicated when you're first starting off, Hokage-sama. You don't know what all the sensations mean yet and you don't know the best methods of doing this type of sensing. Using your own chakra in its natural form like this is actually -very- inefficient," Kenta explains to the older shinobi. "You'd have to expend a lot to send it throughout my body. The characteristics of the chakra is also not good for carrying back impressions, so everything you do sense become incredibly muted even after a lot of practicing. The deeper into the body, the less likely you'll feel anything.
Since Kenta and Daisuke are in physical contact, the medic-nin uses the opportunity now to start sending his own chakra into the Hokage's body. "What you're doing now is learning the most rudimentary principals of the diagnostic jutsu. The diagnostic jutsu and all its variants are fine-tuned over generations of usage. If you focus, you can feel how I'm sending pulses of chakra into your body." He makes the pulses stronger, so that they'll be even more noticeable. "Pulsing is less taxing than flooding your body with chakra. It's also less disruptive. But this only works with specially molded medical chakra. It's made to be 'reflective', so that it hits the parts of your body that I want it to and bounce back as an echoes. These echoes are the original pulses that were altered by training through your body. By reading the speed, density, texture and rippling of the echoes, I can tell what's going on inside of you. Just like you can vaguely sense the difference between my bones and my flesh right now."
