Starring:
Date: December 9, 2012
Summary:
Mushi teaches Usagi the basics of chakra control for healing
"Ok so here's how you…..nevermind, you got it"
Unknown location
When Usagi asked Mushi to help her out, Mushi set the time at dawn. Every place outside got crowded or noisy or both anytime later than this. As it is, there's already people up: those practicing for the rounds, those waiting to watch the final rounds, security, but they're mostly in passing. Mushi is waiting along the shores of the lake. It's softly lapping against the stones and then receding with a sucking sound between the rocks. As gruesome as the place is, the bodies of water from the lakes to the rivers are beautiful especially in the morning without a bunch of kids splashing through them. Mushi waits on a log wearing her wanderer cloak and sitting as still as a statue as she looks out over the water.
Usagi is coming in slowly, just keeping her eyes low and putting one foot in front of the other. She doesn't look at Mushi, but does come up to stand next to where she sits, still not looking. She takes a deep breath as her eyes roam over the lake, and she asks, very quietly. "Do you remember the first person you lost?"
Mushi looks at Usagi with interest but not surprise when she asks about that. After all, Usagi had just lost two comrades from her village. She looks over the lake with distant eyes and takes a minute to answer. "Yeah," she says. "My mom. I was an apprentice under one of the few healers in the village. None of them were good enough to save her from her wound, so even I tried. I was eight." She sighs and rubs the back of her neck. She speaks of it in a deadpan voice, not one that's really sad or frustrated. It'd been a long time ago. "Why do you ask?"
"I had to carry my dead teammate's body to the proctors….well, probably didn't have to, but I did" Usagi closes her eyes and sighs. "It's something I don't want to ever have to do again. So….I want to start. Here, and now. Please….teach me" She turns to look at Mushi now, a solemn expression on her face. "And I want to learn from someone who I know…can help me learn to not have to do that. You're the best I know that's available, and a lot better than a good deal at the village"
Mushi frowns as she listens to Usagi. Then she'd reach over and touch her very lightly on the head, before reaching into her medic pack and taking out a scalpel. She examines it for a moment before setting it aside. "Okay," she says. "Medical chakra is dangerous. It isn't made to heal someone and conveniently stops. Too much chakra in someone can strain their body even if it's 'good.' That's why they say chakra control is important…so you use enough of it to heal, but not too much. That's why you can't just pour your chakra into someone, you also have to feel it. Know the body, how the chakra is going into it, not just what you see." She places a hand on Usagi, and sends out a wave of chakra that pulses inwards and then back as she reads her vital signs. "You've probably seen this done a hundred times: the Diagnostic Technique. You send a pulse of chakra through someone and it bounces back, giving their vital statistics. You don't happen to know how to do it?"
Usagi takes a moment to nod at her after a few moments of listening. "I've seen it done, never done it myself. Studied up on a bit, since they mainly had me writing things down, checking bedpans, and at best, changing bandages" She sighs softly and shakes her head. "I know the body, I've studied it intensively…the usage of chakra, only read in books. Not practiced"
Mushi nods. "Then I think you're ready," she says. "Allow me to show you one of the most basic healing jutsus. Even I learned this one. It's light healing jutsu." Then she takes the scalpel and with a slice cuts her own arm. A small but substantial cut. And she continues to talk. "Every wound is unique. A healer who tries to heal the same way twice is a bad healer. You have to pour your chakra into a wound. Chakra is what makes a shinobi heal faster, so by concentrating chakra into an injury you can speed it up. Push out your chakra into the wound. Feel it flow into their blood, into their body and use it to seal together the flesh from the deepest point outwards." Then she'd hold out her arm which is oozing blood to Usagi. "Try it now." No pressure.
Usagi raises a brow at Mushi for a few moments, looking at the cut. then back at her. She nods slowly, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes to calm herself and focus. She tilts her head slightly, looking at the wound. She places her hands together as she's seen before, eyeing the wound still as she takes a deep breath again and releases it in a sigh. She places her hands on the wound, her chakra glowing green momentarily as she focuses on the wound. Mushi might feel it for a few moments, but slowly and surely, the wound starts to stitch itself closed, as she said. From the deepest point up. Once it's done, she breathes softly. "I'd say that worked…."
Mushi waits for Usagi to heal the wound, and then she nods. "Well done it worked," she says. "Remember the faster you go the more dangerous the technique can be. Take your time." She wipes the bit of blood on her arm. Then she'd pick up the scalpel again and give it a fling over the lake. A second later a fish would surface limply. Mushi walks across the water and comes back to lay it beside Usagi. "My wound wasn't in a vital area, but you have to actually have more control to heal this fish. It's so small there's plenty of places where putting chakra is bad." And the wound is much, much bigger. "Try this too." She smirks. Then she'd lay the fish right in front of the Nara.
Usagi kneels down, getting both legs under her as she semi-sits and places her hands over the fish, taking a good breath. She closes her eyes and places it over the fish again and concentrates, the green chakra once more forming from her hand and flowing into the fish. She takes a slow, deep breath as she pauses, feeling out what needs to be done before the wound again begins to close, including the organs it pierced.
Mushi takes the fish and scans it before tossing it back into the water. Mushi smiles and says, "Usagi-chan, you're a natural. You know how to feel out with your chakra…maybe it's some of your Nara abilities, since that too has you forming chakra outside of your body. Well, I'll show you the Diagnostic Jutsu. Instead of concentrating your chakra into a wound, you send out an extremely smooth and perfectly even wave of chakra. Once it comes back it'll be shaped in a different way…it'll have read the body. Practice alot on healthy bodies, so you know the difference. If there's harmful obstructions, breaks, such as that. So try." She smirks. "I have a cut from earlier today, see if you can find it." She'd hold out her arm.
Usagi nods and places a hand on Mushi's arm, closing her eyes and taking a moment. Probably longer than most would, but nonetheless she still sends out a pulse of chakra through Mushi's arm, pausing long enough for the wave to return to her, and she looks at Mushi. "Left ankle?" It's a question. she's never done this before, but it definitely felt….different.
Mushi slaps Usagi on the back so hard it'd almost hurt. "Yup!" she says. "You found it just right. Now here's my biggest secret. I'm a pretty good medic…but every time I heal someone even if I seem calm I'm always nervous that I'll fail. Something will go wrong. Once you lose the earnestness of trying to heal your patient's wounds is when you become less of a healer. The nervousness you feel when healing someone and the pride of doing it well afterwards…never forget those. At the same time, never let the patient know you're nervous. Alot of times you'll be the best people have around you. Once you start acting nervouslyand humblyin your abilities is when they become nervous as well. Never let them see you say, 'I'm not sure if I can do this.' And with that practice. Practice. And practice some more. In fact, all that I've shown you practice a hundred times and then come back for your next lesson if you want." She smiles.
Usagi raises a brow at Mushi, then nods slowly. She does rub her back a bit, smiling at her enthusiasm. "Nervous of failure…that's a good way to be, keeps you on your toes, so long as it's not self defeating" At the practice, she groans softly, but nods. "Fair enough….practice makes perfect, huh. So I guess I'd better get a fishing rod" She gives a smile, then closes her eyes and takes a seat.
