A Kunoichi At Heart

Chapter 89: We're All Doctors Here

You'd done an exercise like this before in the Academy.

Hosho watched intently as you sent a steady stream of chakra towards your palm and placed your hands over the scroll. Your fingertips glowed, warm and blue. Your arms tingled.

He nodded in approval. "Ah, excellent, excellent. It's a good start. Now the next step, the skill of basic healing, and the most versatile technique of a medic-nin's repertoire." He took your hands, placing one over the other as he guided them over to the center of the scroll again. You'd only just realized that the character for fish was inscribed on the paper in special ink. A summoning scroll.

With the activation of the inscription, he released a limp, floppy excuse of a fish from the seal. It lay on the paper, sopping wet and dewy-eyed under your hands. You gave Hosho a questioning look, wondering if you'd missed his instructions somehow.

He smiled. "If you don't hurry up, the fish will die." Oh, so you were supposed to heal it. It didn't take much to put two and two together, and realize that you just had to apply what you'd been doing earlier to the fish.

You didn't know chakra was universal.

But you didn't question him. You let chakra flow from your core to the tips of your fingers again, and you brought your hands closer to the fish, almost grazing its slimy skin. You could feel the rapid drain of energy from your system as it absorbed your life force...dizzy, light-headed, and your half-formed thoughts were telling you that you were probably doing something wrong...

Hosho suddenly gripped your wrists tightly, and your concentration snapped. The flow of chakra suddenly broke off. The blue glow faded.

"Now look here," he told you seriously, forcing you to meet his gaze, "At this point, your energy to chakra conversion efficiency is dangerously low. In short, you're using up more than what should be necessary, and that's a waste." He let go of your wrists. "I want you to focus on perfecting your chakra control first, until you can do it without thinking. Know it by instinct."

This was the main reason why medical ninjas had to have perfect control of their chakra, he told you. If you used up so much like you did today, you'd only be able to provide as much energy as your body contained, before passing out from the strain. It wouldn't even be possible to attempt to heal severe injuries — you'd die without question.

He supervised you as you trained, watching anxiously as he tried to keep you from expending too much chakra. It was easy to focus on one task at a time — controlling your chakra, or injecting it into the fish. But when it came down to combining the two, you needed practise: lots of it.

But your fundamentals were top-notch, and it only took you about a week to officially 'graduate' from chakra training. Hosho was pleased, and made you keep practising on the fish until you had mastered not just chakra-transferring, but actual healing. As the blue glow in your palms intensified and deepened into turquoise, then transitioned into green, you hardly noticed the drain in your chakra reserves anymore. You didn't even realize that your technique had solidified.

One afternoon as you were training with Hosho, a young woman dressed in medi-nin attire barged into the room.

"Hosho-san, where is Hosho-san?" she demanded, scanning the room for him. Before you could react, Hosho waved her over, and she hurried to his side and began speaking urgently in his ear. Hosho nodded, then nodded again. After a moment, he suddenly turned to you.

"[Name], do you think you're up for a mission?"

The woman looked affronted. "This is a rookie you're asking on a mission. I don't want to be in charge of your apprentice, she's just a kid!"

"And that's precisely why. She's a good kid, don't worry. This is Oyone," he told you. Then he turned back to the woman. "Trust me, she's great. She won't slow you down."

"Ah, fine," she sighed. "I'll take her with me. No guarantees that she'll get to do anything though."

"Nothing to worry about," Hosho promised. "I just want her to have a chance to watch a real medical-nin at work. It could be good for her. So, [Name]?"

Yes! Go to Chapter 129.

No, thank you. Go to Chapter 130.