Road to the top (training)

Learning: Ketsuki Gyouku (Blood Coagulation) 0/10


For a few hours after his training, Nero was sitting cross legged on the ground. His eyes were closed as he focused on his meditation, trying to recollect (part of) his lost chakra. The ever present bugs were scurrying about over his body and on the ground near him. Runner had moved from his previous spot, walking around the clearing, sniffing left and right but always alert and looking around. His ears pointed up every now and then as he heard something interesting. Sometimes, a nearby wild animal got his attention and his nose would stick up, sniffing the air to determine the threat.

After a while, Nero opened his eyes. Tilting his head back he focused on the sky, sighing softly, causing Runner to walk up to him and push his nose against Nero's cheek. "Yup, I know. Lets continue." He grabbed the scroll and quickly read over the notes he made after successfully creating his first leaf bandage. It was still nice and tightly wrapped around his arm. "Mhmm, aha... Alright, seems to be in order." He had copied the general information from the book onto the scroll and had scribbled all kinds of notes around the text. He rolled the scroll further out, giving him new space for his next technique.

Opening the book, he went through the index again and moved down the list once more, skipping the once that he had already determined were too difficult, for now. "Next up is~... Ketsuki Gyouku: The user focuses chakra around their hands, creating a faint white glow around their hands. The user then places their hands on the wound, focusing chakra into the blood and coagulating it. Bigger wounds require more time bla bla bla... Yada yada... Alright! Runner, heel." Runner walked over and sat next to him.

As he reached for his pocket, Nero pulled out a kunai and aimed for Runner. "Now, I'm going to stab you so that you bleed and then I'll try to fix it with this technique. What do you think?" Runner jumped back and growled at him, his head low to the ground and his ears flat on his head. "Good thing I was joking..." With a simple motion, Nero brought the Kunai's point to the back of his hand, stabbing it. "Ouch!"

Not one of his best ideas ever, Nero did have a bleeding wound now. He put his hands together and quickly gathered the chakra in it, causing the blue glow to appear around his hands. The blue chakra didn't seem to do any clotting what so ever as Nero stared at it. "Hmm... It says here, white chakra, so I must be missing something." Releasing his chakra, Nero started to think about what he had learned about the human body and blood. According to what he had learned there were two stages to blood clothing: basically blocking the wound with the round thingies, they always had to use difficult words for it and then add proteins to paste it all together and let the healing begin.

So Nero came up with two options. Either blocking the wound with chakra until nature would clot it on its own, which could take a very long time depending on the wound, or to use chakra to sort of lure those round blocking thingies and the proteins to the wound, making it clot faster. He imagined some sort of net for the building stones that he needed but it wasn’t as easy as he thought. He wrote down one idea after another, most more ridiculous then the previous one.

In the end, the scroll doubled in length with notes from the book, his own thoughts scribbled around them and with doodles from when he couldn’t think of anything. Deciding on action, rather than thinking, Nero placed his hand on the back of his other hand, only to notice that the wound had already clotted on its own. Look, Runner. See how good I am. I did the jutsu without even using chakra… Runner barked at him in a way that sounded like a laugh. With nothing else for it, he scratched at the wound, opening it up again until blood started trickling out once more. With his hand on the wound he pushed his chakra into the blood, trying to sort of fish out the things he needed. He imagined a net inside his blood that caught all of those round blockers that he needed and tried to gather them in the wound’s exit. Then he focused on gathering the proteins and adding them to the wall.

He quickly lifted his hand up to see if it was working but the wound had been so small that he couldn’t tell if it had clotted naturally or if he had actually fixed it with the jutsu. He continued to scratch the wound open, just so he could practice on envisioning how he would perform the technique. After a while, Nero felt confident that he could clot any wound and so, he drew his kunai again and cut himself over the back of his hand, leaving a large bleeding gap in his skin.

He dropped the kunai on the ground and focused on his chakra, pulling it to his hand. He already focused his chakra into a net, pushing the net into the wound to gather up the materials he needed to close the wound. When he opened his eyes he was satisfied to see that his chakra was no longer entirely blue but looked white. As he focused on the jutsu he could see how the bleeding was slowly stopping as the cut seemed to darken slowly the more it closed up.

”Look, see. I did it. Damn, it hurts.” He proudly showed the closed wound to Runner, who gave it a quick lick. Using the technique he learned earlier, Nero applied a bandage of leaves and grass to his hand, wrapping it around tightly and sticking it to his skin with chakra. Of course, cutting yourself with a knife never felt good, not even when the wound closed faster. With a stinging pain in his hand, Nero got up, quickly followed by a swarm of bugs that returned to their hive and Runner, his ever faithful companion, who jumped around him, barking and happy to be going home. Nero stopped on the way for dinner, eating at a Ramen stand along the road, buying one cup of ramen for himself and a big piece of meat for Runner. His ever present bugs continued with their chakra diet.

Learning: Seimei no Jutsu (Clean and Pure Technique) 0/10


Nero was up and ready the next day. His hand didn't sting anymore and the wound seemed to be healing nicely, all natural like. He sat at the breakfast table, scraping his eggs of his plate, under the table, for Runner, while eating the bacon and the bread. Although he hated the man on the other side of the table, he didn't even think of not eating the food. Every medic knew that not eating was a stupid idea.

With his scroll and book under one arm he ran out of the house, jumping on the fence across the road and making his way through town , jumping from one roof to another with Runner at his side. The dog had no problem keeping up, barking at nearby pigeons, scaring them and making them fly up and away.

The loud sound of people yelling and something crashing caught their attention as both man and dog turned their head towards the origin of the sound. With a sudden stop, Nero slid forward a little before turning his direction towards the sound. Two jumps later he ended on a roof overlooking a construction site. Part of the construction had collapsed, trapping two men underneath it and a third one was lying motionless next to them.

With a relaxed and easy drop of the top of the building, Nero landed on the ground and quickly crossed the street. The workers were already removing the loose rubble, making the weight easier on the two trapped workers. With a flash of the headband wrapped around his arm, Nero was allowed access to the site. He looked over the third, motionless man. With his medical knowledge he could determine that the man was merely unconscious and in no real danger. He had two other workers carry him away before turning his attention to the now freed workers.

One man had been lucky, only breaking his ankle in the crash. The other man was not so lucky. From a first glance he could see the blood soaking the man's clothes and, upon cutting his pant leg and revealing the wound, he could see the large, bone deep cuts on the man's leg. Where he normally would have used his newest jutsu, using the man as an extra practice dummy, Nero could see that it would be a bad idea here. The wound was filled with dust and little stones, all sorts of little buggers that messed up the healing process.

Nero recalled reading in his 'medical skills for dummies' book that there was a jutsu to help clean out wounds. "Stay back people, give this man some air. I'm a ... professional." He swallowed lightly after mentioning it. When the men didn't really want to move back, slowly suffocating the patient, Runner came in and started barking and growling at the crowd, which had them clear out quickly. From, what they thought was, a safe distance, they continued to watch.

Nero pulled out the book and opened it, quickly running through the index and searching for the jutsu. "S..S...S... Sei...Seimei no jutsu. There it is." The pages flipped until he reached the topic and quickly moved his finger down the explanation, reading it out loud. "Cleans out a wound so that it can be bandaged and fixed properly. Really? That's it?" After a moment of thinking, he figured that water would be needed, or would make it easier for an untrained medical nin as himself. "I need water, guys!" One of the surrounding workers grabbed a gourd from his belt and held it out. With a quick glance at Runner and a short fetch command, Runner ran over and took the gourd from the man, biting down on the cord around it. From the top of the construction site, a man hanging upside down was looking at the events below him. His face was covered with a white animal mask depicting a frog. He moved so little that he looked more like a statue. Not that anyone could see him anyway.

Before Runner was even in range of his arm, Nero stretched out with his arm to grab it. At his command a whole swarm of bugs crawled out of his skin and trickled down his arm before connecting to each other and creating a black, bug scaled claw that reached for the gourd, pulling it towards him. His little show got some surprised gasps from the crowd, but Nero ignored them.

He quickly poured the gourd's contents into the wound, cleaning out almost all of the larger rocks and dust, leaving the wound already cleaner. He placed his palms together and gathered his chakra before placing them just above the wound, not touching the man. With a push of command, his chakra flowed into the wound. As he was sending chakra into the wound, Nero formed his chakra to stick to the remaining dust without sticking to the skin, flesh and bone of the patient. For this he used his the principle of the Gantai no jutsu and added some extra properties.

With a push from chakra from the left he started to rotate his chakra, trying to pull the remaining dust and little bits of rock and sand out of the wound, cleaning the wound. His chakra slowly moved the dust, rolling it with the motion, quicker and quicker as Nero watched and concentrated his chakra on sticking to all the nasty things inside the wound. The first little bits of rock fell on the ground, invisible if not for the little dots of blood on them. Well, the technique wasn't perfect yet. As the patient remained in pain, Nero worked his way through the wound, sweat running down his forehead and back. If he made a mistake here and somehow killed the man, the crowd wouldn't be too happy with him, to put it lightly.

Nero's work finished with the last clot of dust falling out of the wound. With a close inspection, Nero couldn't really see anymore dust or anything and, considering that it was only his first time in practice, gave himself a mental pat on the back. But the work wasn't finished yet. Nero's chakra went into the wound a second time, this time in the mental form of a net, scooping out the building blocks needed for his Ketsuki Gyouku jutsu. At first, more sweat was running down Nero's body, soaking the back of his shirt, which was invisible to the bystanders because of the black color. Only the sun's reflection gave away the fatigue Nero was going through, reflecting on the sheen of sweat on Nero's neck, arms and forehead.

Nero tasted dust in his mouth and licked his lips, noticing the lack of fluid in his mouth. As he continued to focus on the technique he borrowed part of his chakra and sent it to the bugs, who promptly formed a claw like hand to grab the gourd and put it on Nero's lips. He quickly drank from it, finishing the gourd. The gourd fell to the ground as the bugs abandoned their cause and returned to their hive. After a moment, Nero realized that the wound was too big for his limited skill to quickly close so instead he got Runner to fetch him two pieces of wood, about the same length as the man's leg.

Looking around for any leaves to stick together as a makeshift bandage, Nero panicked for a moment. In the middle of town, there were no trees and thus no leaves. Without anything to make his bandage into, Nero looked around, distressed that his ability to help the man ended here. He reached for some plastic packaging, trying to use it as bandaging for the set he was making.

From the top of the construction site, the man hanging upside down noticed that the boy was at the end of his wits and also at the end of his chakra reserve. Without a sound he disappeared from his position, reappearing on the ground, knelt down next to the kid. "Not bad." was all he said as he grabbed Nero's wrist, stopping him from attempting to create a bandage out of some packaging lying around.

Nero dropped back on his ass, startled by the sudden appearance of the black dressed man. He started at the white animal mask the man was wearing, almost missing the chakra that flowed into the man's hands as he placed them on the leg of the worker. Before Nero's eyes the wound closed as the man healed the leg. Realizing the extent of his power, or lack of it, and the lack of knowledge, Nero got up, angry at himself. He was swaying on his feet, his breath ragged on heavy. He didn't see the worker getting up on his feet, barely any pain left. He wanted to thank both the boy and the masked figure but before he could get out of the ring of friends trying to make sure he was better, both had disappeared.

"Interesting potential..." The masked man whispered to himself, his clothes and scarf flowing with the wind as he looked down from the top of the construction site, his eyes following the two dots that were the boy and his loyal companion. And then he was gone, disappeared once more.

Learning: Sansokyoukyuu (Oxygen Supply) 0/10


Nero had a good siesta, sleeping after lunch to regain his chakra that he lost trying to help the worker in the morning. His bad mood had also cleared up. Instead of being mad at himself he was now more motivated then ever. After having read up on the book, he learned that the rest of the starter techniques required certain wounds or ailments which he couldn't give to himself nor his friend. So Nero hatched the perfect plan. Steal a patient from the hospital. Perfect plan. Nothing could go wrong with that, right?

Luckily it didn't go quite that far. Nero simply applied as a medical help at the hospital, taking a small test to show his knowledge. Upon being returned his test paper, he passed with more then 80%, he was asked if he knew any jutsu that might help in the hospital. I learned Gantai no Jutsu, Ketsuki Gyouku and Seimei no Jutsu. But I was hoping to be able to use new jutsus... He added softly. He knew that neither his age nor his experience would award him his own patients to test his skills on but he would assist other doctors, both medical nin and normal doctors and perhaps learn something from them.

He didn't have much time to think about it as he was shoved into the dressing room and ordered to put on the customary nurse clothes, which were a bit too big for him. The hospital often had youngsters come over who wanted to learn but the biggest part of them never returned after the first day.

Runner had to stay outside, unfortunately, so, after a bit of dog whining, growling and barking, Runner stayed outside near the entrance, watching every person that went in or out of the hospital with inspecting eyes. When approached, a light growl and show of teeth was enough to keep the interested parties away from him.

Nero was immediately moved into a doctor's office, assigned to help him for the day. Most of the day was pretty boring. Patients with cuts and bruises, some elderly people complaining about their backs or ears and giving him candy, one pregnant woman who came for a check up but had turned the wrong way and had ended up with the wrong doctor. Nothing of much interest to Nero. So, by the end of the day, Nero, curiously, went through the list of patients, looking for things he could help with. His doctor shift had ended already but he had decided to stick around.

A couple of patients on the list had symptoms that he could treat and one amongst them had a new challenge for him. He had trouble breathing on his own and was now attached to a machine that was making him breath. So Nero, with his book and scroll ever present under his arm, went to look for the patient. He had to dodge a guard and a couple of nurses, easily slipping by them with his ninja skills. He finally found the patient and snuck into his room, using the man's legs as his desk. The book was opened on the page of the index and his finger ran over it down to the right technique. "Right... so... Sansokyoukyuu: Widens the respiratory passages to allow a higher oxygen flow. The user focuses chakra out into their hands, creating a faint, green-white glow around the user’s hands. The chakra flows into the respiratory system, widening the passages and stimulating the flow of oxygen. After two movements, the flow is restored normally, clearing most obstructions via chakra. User must maintain the technique in order to make sure the passages remain fully open." Sounds easy enough...

Nero settled himself on the bed, straddling the man's legs, making sure not to put his weight on him before beginning to gather his chakra in his hands. The basic of the technique seemed simple, just use chakra to widen the respiratory tracts without widening it so much that it ripped apart.

Without much hesitation, Nero started his treatment of the patient. His focus shifted from potentially being caught to helping the man underneath him. His chakra glowed around his hands as he placed one over the man's nose and one almost around the man's neck. The patient was kept asleep through medical means to make it easier for him to have a tube stuck down his nose.

Nero guided his chakra through the man's skin, looking at the mental map of the human body in his head to determine when he would g-... Aha, there it was. He imagined his chakra to be a solid, yet fluid substance, allowing it to keep a certain form but also allowing it to flow through the man's respiratory system, slowly returning it to its proper size. A sudden sound in the hallway caught Nero's attention and his chakra flared up, pushing the patients airways beyond the human standard, causing the machines to start beeping.

Nero quickly pulled his chakra out, the airways collapsing around the tube once more. As the nurse walked in, Nero slid off the bed and hid behind the curtains, staying very still. The nurse checked on the machines, who were quiet once more and left after a while, satisfied with the results. Nero stuck his head out from behind the curtains to watch her walk out.

As he walked from behind the curtains, his focus moved back to the patient, not even realizing that outside the window, a dark figure was looking at his progress, following his every action from behind a white, animal shaped mask.

Nero positioned himself once more over the patient, quickly forming his chakra and pushing it through the man's nose and skin into his airways. His chakra formed around the tube of the machine and began pushing outwards, slowly increasing the size of the respiratory system back to its original size. His chakra remained in place, forming a tube from the man's nose all the way down into his lungs.

Nero remained in the same position for quite some time, unaware of the shift of time around him. His chakra was replaced little by little every every few minutes, keeping the tube intact, allowing the air to flow in around the machine tube, mixing mechanically breathed air with naturally breathed air. With a sigh of relief, Nero sat back, putting some weight on the man's legs. Slowly, he lowered himself off the bed and collected his scroll and book.

He opened the window quickly and stuck his feet to the balcony of the room above him, easily sticking to it. He closed the room window after him, making sure no evidence of him having ever been in that room remained. With the window closed, Nero turned around, looking right at the black dressed masked man. As he blinked and rubbed his eyes, Nero figured he was seeing things, due to the exhaustion from the day. When he looked again the roof on the other side was empty. Skillfully, Nero dropped himself from floor to floor, using the chakra in his feet and hands, combined with the bug claw to get to the ground without any problem.

Proud of himself, Nero moved through the streets, Runner by his side, barking at him, seemingly happy. "Well, that was a good idea. We should come back next week." Nero laughed as he placed his hands on the back of his head and continued walking.

Learning: Kanetsu no Gyou (Heat Seeker) 0/10


Nero had been attending his medical aid job at the hospital on a daily basis, returning each day to work with the doctors, helping them with the patients whenever allowed. Sometimes he got to apply the treatment for light wounds or easy cuts. Usually he was just told to watch.

Nero returned to his medical aid job in the hospital. Runner stayed once more outside the front doors, waiting. Before starting, however, Nero went to have a look at the patient he had helped the previous night. When he entered the man was sitting up in his bed, without a tube through his nose and breathing all on his own. "Excuse me, sir. How are you feeling today?" - "Very good, thank you. The doctors here are really good at what they do." With a smile, Nero left the room. Once more happy, healthy patient.

He slipped into the doctor’s office, helping out through the day. Most of his job was calling off names of a list of patients and watch as the doctor performed whatever checks were needed. Whenever he had free time, Nero was reading his 'Medical techniques for dummies'. He read through the starter techniques that he already knew, quizzing himself about them. He also read up on the other techniques, trying to envision how they would work.

Later in the morning, Nero got the perfect opportunity to try out one of the new techniques. Just as the doctor has left for a break, two young shinobi came in, one leaning heavily on the other one's shoulder, shaking very hard. "We were sparring and he got hit by my water explosion, which knocked him into the lake. I thought he was fine but he didn't surface so I jumped in after him. He had passed out from the impact. He's really cold. Nero quickly cleared the table for the patient and helped the other ninja to put him on it.

From this close he could easily see that neither shinobi was much older than him. He quickly opened his book, which had the non-shaking shinobi frowning at him. He quickly read from the page as he was wrapping the man in a blanket. "Kanetsu no Gyou: Raises the body temperature bla bla bla Red glow... Heating the body yada yada... too long, equals fever... O~kay... . With the, seemingly, practiced motions of a medic, Nero placed his hands above the shinobi’s body. He gathered his chakra into them, as per usual, drawing more easily on it then when he started from the book. His chakra swirled around his hands, moving in circular motions.

With the mental image in mind of everything hot that he could imagine, Nero started to adjust the properties of his chakra. He flowed it from his hands into the patient, who was still shivering and his teeth were clacking together. At first, blue chakra flowed into the patient and was withdrawn just a moment later, while Nero focused on hot things in his mind, trying to visualize 'heat' in his chakra. Slowly but sure the second shinobi could see the chakra changing color, turning a very, very blue-ish purple and slowly turning towards a more purple color.

The shivering started to ease, and the sound of teeth clattering together seemed to stop. Nero's chakra continued to flow in and out of the patient. His concentration was purely on the 'heat' in his mind and his attempt at making his chakra send out the same heat to the patient without burning him up. At a certain point, the other shinobi grabbed his hands and pulled them away. Just as he was about to yell at him, Nero smelled and saw the smoke rising from the blanket. With a quick draw of chakra, the shinobi pulled a splash of water onto the smoking part of the blanket. Upon removing it, Nero could see that the heat had started to burn the space between the shinobi's clothes and the blanket, causing the smoke to appear from the blanket.

With an apologetic look on his face, Nero continued, once more creating the heat in his chakra, although this time more controlled. The patient was soon lying still, no more clattering of his teeth an no more uncontrollable shaking. When they felt his skin, it felt cool to the touch but not dangerously so. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Nero closed his book. As he did, the doctor walked in again and asked what was wrong. The shinobi explained what had happened and the doctor just looked at Nero before telling him to leave. Nero rushed out quickly, making sure he had his book and scroll with him.

After the door closed to the doctor’s room, three clouds of smoke poofed into the room as the men released their Henshin jutsus. Instead of a doctor and two patients, there were now three black clad masked men, all three wearing the same mask. The only difference in their looks were their height and the build of their bodies. ”What do you think?” – “He seems capable. Quick learner. Good under pressure it seems.” – “Next time, you get to be the patient, my teeth are still clattering.” Two of the three men disappeared and the third one returned to his doctor form as the door to the office opened for the next patient.

Learning: Suji Rirakkusu (Muscle Relaxer) 0/10


Over lunch in the hospital, a few weeks after the shinobi incident, Nero was informed that he would no longer work with his regular doctor. The nurse informing him didn't really know why but mentioned something about being requested by another doctor. As it didn't matter to Nero which doctor he was with, as long as he would learn from it and improve, he simply shrugged and acknowledged the information.

He finished his lunch and went to the information desk. "Excuse me, could you tell me where I can find the office of doctor... euh... Kaeru?" For a moment, Nero felt like an idiot, asking for doctor Frog, but the nurse at the desk quickly pointed him in the right direction. Nero followed the instructions to the letter and ended up in front of a door with tag 'Kaeru' on it. After knocking on the door he waited and only when he heard someone say enter did he open the door.

The office wasn't much to look at, just like all others, square, white walls, a desk and three chairs around it, a seperate chair on the side, assumed to be for Nero, a checkup bed in the corner and some cupboards for all the supplies. The same as usual. He was greeted by the man himself, standing up from his chair and stretching his hand out for a handshake.

Upon closer inspection, Nero saw that the man was near his 40s, still young but showing experience in his eyes and the dedication to help others. It was something he could relate to. For his clothes, the man wore the customary white robes of the doctors around here but he had a tag sewn on it, indicating that he was a medical nin, instead of a regular doctor. He smiled at Nero and ran his hand through his hair as he said down again, pointing to one of the chairs for Nero to sit.

"So? Nero, is it? I heard you're quite the helper. I could use your help for a few days, maybe longer. You worked in the doctor's office at the front, right? With the old ladies and the cuts and bruises? He chuckled slightly as he describe exactly what Nero had been doing so far. "The work I do here is more serious, though. Burn wounds, deep cuts, even a cut of limb if we get lucky. I've been told that you have some of the beginner techniques learned, is that true?" Nero nodded, impressed by what he was hearing. No longer would he be the assistant of the old lady doctor but he would actually get to help people that were in some sort of danger. The reason why he had joined the hospital in the first place.

Although Nero's day had already passed halfway, he was looking forward to his work here. His youthful mind already dreamed about all the wounds he could help heal and the thanks he would get for helping. Doctor Kaeru quickly snapped him back into reality. "Nero? I can't have you spacing out like that in the middle of work." - "I apologize. I'm just a little overwhelmed. Sorry, sir." Nero blinked and smiled apologetically to the doctor.

That's about the time that the door of the office burst open, a nurse running in and telling the doctor that there was a patient in shock and something about a wound. The doctor rushed out and Nero followed on his heels, hoping to pick up something new from it. For Nero, who was used to cuts and bruises, this patient was a little too much. He had a gaping hole in his side, something or someone got a chunk out of the side of the man's body. Blood was pouring out onto the bed and dripping down onto the floor as he was pushed down the hallway to the operation room. Nero, although a little woozy from the unexpected amount of blood everywhere, followed a little later.

As soon as he entered one of the nurses tried to shove him out of the room but Doctor Kaeru stopped her. "He's with me. Nero come over here and tell me what you see." Although the situation was hectic, the doctor asked for Nero's opinion first. A little shaken, Nero moved over to the wound and, after making sure he was ok with all the blood, examined the wound. "Euhm... Looks like...A wild animal bite wound? Or maybe a piercing jutsu? And it took part of the man's side off?" He wasn't quite sure but that's what it looked like.

"Nero, I need you to apply Suji Rirakkusu to his body. The patient is in shock and completely tensed. We can't help him if he remains in this state." - "Suji Rir... O-Okay." With his mind racing through the pages he had read, he tried to remember the jutsu. Something about muscles. Muscle relaxing. "The user focuses chakra into their hands and... and causing a light blue glow to emit from their hands. The user euh... then places their hands over the afflicted area, relaxing t-the muscles over time." Nero murmured to himself, taking comfort in the fact that he knew.

So he positioned himself out of the way of the nurses and the doctor who had been stabilizing the patient while Nero was talking and thinking. He gathered his chakra in his hands and started to apply it to the man’s stomach, keeping his hands out of the way of the wound so that the doctor and nurses could get to it when needed. When he thought about relaxing, either sleeping or a massage came to mind. He was sure that putting the patient to sleep was way beyond his capabilities so he went with the massage idea.

His chakra rushed through the affected area, settling on all the muscles before slowly starting to wave, causing it to pressure the tensed up muscles, like a massage. Nero had the tip of his tongue between his lips from concentration. He was sweating much more quickly than usual, mostly because of the stress and only a little bit because of the exhaustion. He kept most of the gathered chakra in the patient’s body, exchanging little parts of it at a time, continuously moving the chakra up and down, massaging the muscles. He forgot about the time and everything else around him faded out.

It was only when he felt a hand on his shoulder that he looked up from his chakra coated hands. The two nurses were staring at him and Doctor Kaeru was smiling at him, his hand resting on Nero’s shoulder. The wound of the patient was covered up with a white sheet and, although he was sweating even more then Nero, doctor Kaeru was relieved. ”We’re finished. Good job, Nero.” Nero looked confused and puzzled at the patient, the two nurses and the doctor. It was already done? Only a few moments had passed. As he wanted to speak, Nero felt his legs buckling under him as he started to collapse next to the operation table. As his sight blackened out he could see a hand reaching for him.

Learning: Shosen no Jutsu (Healing Hands Technique) 0/10


With great care, Nero wrote down all the things the doctor was explaining to him. His pen was scribbling over the scroll adding note after note to the image that was imprinted on it. Runner was sitting silently to the side, his tongue hanging from his mouth, moving up and down with his breathing as he watched the man explain and his master write as quickly as he could.

"Shosen is the main medical technique. All Medical nin must know it to heal the wounds of their team mates and fellow village members. You've seen me use it multiple times now, what can you tell me about it?" It had been a while since Nero had helped out in the operations room, fainting afterwards. Since then he had been at doctor Kaeru's side every day, coming back for more. Most of the time it had been quiet, although every day a few patients passed by and some were even passed onto the 15 year old Medical aid, whenever Doctor Kaeru knew that he could take it.

"Err... Shosen no jutsu... has green chakra, unlike the normal blue chakra. It requires... time to heal wounds and I've seen you do it with both one and two hands... That's about it?" Runner barked as before stretching out and looking for a place in the shade, lying himself there. They were on their lunch break and Doctor Kaeru had brought a bento for both of them. But both lunch boxes were untouched, as Nero had asked about the healing hands technique he had seen so many times but had never been able to understand.

Doctor Kaeru rolled up his sleeve and took a kunai, which he had borrowed from Nero to show him how it was done the first time. He made a small incision in his skin, only drawing a trickle of blood. With that done, he dropped the knife and held his hand above the wound, slowly he gathered chakra in his palm, making sure that Nero was paying attention. The boy was glued to the scene, both eyes wide open.

The chakra flowed from the palm into the cut, the green glow almost illuminating the skin as it passed through it. Slowly but surely, Nero could see the wound close before his eyes. With the wound closed and disappeared, Doctor Kaeru picked the kunai up again and held his arm out to Nero. "Larger wounds take more time to heal, so I suggest you start with small wounds." He made another small cut, looking at Nero.

Nero looked at the cut, a small drop of blood running down from it, dropping into the sand. Nero put away the scroll and pen and brought his hands up to the wound, creating a dome over the wound with his palms. He gathered his chakra in them and closed his eyes, allowing him to better concentrate. He had read a lot about the technique but only after getting Doctor Kaeru's explanation did he truly understand how to do it. His chakra began pumping out and pushing into the wound, turning green as soon as it was drawn upon. Having seen the jutsu in action plenty of times before, Nero thought about everything that he knew was beneficial for the body and the healing process. He made his chakra help in the rebuilding of the wounds, he made it stick the skin back together, like nothing had ever happened. The green glow of chakra coursed through the wound and back up to his palms, only to be replaced by new chakra.

The cycle continued for a few minutes, although Nero felt like maybe three times that time had passed, at least. When he opened his eyes, the wound was less deep and no more blood was trickling out, but it wasn't closed yet. "Not bad, Nero. You seem to have a real talent for the medical arts. Have you thought about becoming a doctor, perhaps?" Doctor Kaeru gave him a smile as he closed the rest of the wound with a trickle of his own chakra. "Well, I don't know about you but I'm hungry."

Learning: Mushihenge no Jutsu(Bug Transformation Technique) 0/10


Another day, another... something that rhymes with day and means jutsu... Well, anyway. Nero is early out of bed, as per usual, Runner right on his heels, generally happy to go outside. Both man and dog are running through the streets, one carrying his bento with him, stuffed into his belt pouch, the other jumping around and barking. They soon leave the safety of the village walls, disappearing between the trees of the forest. Although difficult to orientate oneself in the forest, the boy and his companion have been there so often that they know the way blindfolded. They soon arrive at the clearing, where Nero plants his stuff on the ground, taking off his belt and pouches and stacking them up in one place.

Once he’s settled everything, Nero pulls out the book and the scroll, reading over each technique he has learned and checking his notes to make sure they’re all alright. Although he is quite meticulous about the details, he often checks again, rereading things and sometimes adding new things to the list. At first he was very attentive, but on the third read through his notes he felt his focus wavering and started to play around with his bugs, pulling some of them to the surface and watching them move about over his skin.

Not soon after, Runner got up from his spot and moved over to his now sleeping master, curling up beside him, his head resting on his master’s back, who was sleeping on his stomach. The bugs were moving about and exploring around Nero as Runner kept a look out for any danger.

Nero was sitting in the clearing in the forest, the same place he had fallen asleep. Everything looked fine from where he was sitting, although the foliage surrounding the clearing was blurry and hazy, making it impossible to focus on it. As he looked left and right, he was trying to find Runner, to see if he could tell him what was going on but Runner was nowhere to be seen. As he focused back on the space in front of him, a giant Kikaichu bug was standing in front of him. He knew that he had to know who the bug was but he couldn’t place it.

In front of his eyes, the bug exploded in a cloud of smoke and then he was looking at Runner. Another explosion and he was looking at himself. A third explosion and Nero was looking at… A giant tongue licking his face. With grumbling noises and arm swaying he tried to defend himself from the big tongue. Only when he rolled over on his back and looked up at the sky with squinting eyes did he realize he had been dreaming. Runner walked over to him, the culprit of the end of Nero’s dream hanging from between his teeth.

Nero was soon working on making his dream a reality. It had given him a brilliant idea. You take a man sized bug and turn it into something else. But because he didn’t have a man sized bug inside of him, Nero had to settle for many small bugs. After taking a sip from his water and rubbing his eyes to wake himself up more he stood himself in the middle of the clearing. With an unvoiced command, the bugs came swarming out onto his skin and clothes, almost covering him entirely in a bug coating.

”Runner, stay!” Walking around Runner, Nero observed him from every corner, taking in the details and comparing his height to his length, the size of his head to the length of his legs, his tail to his nose, etc… Once he has a good image in his head, he forms a seal with his hands, gathering his chakra into the mass of bugs that is gathering around him and, with the image of his faithful companion in mind, pours his chakra into the bugs, transforming them.

After the smoke clears out and both man and dog have looked at the rough statue of Runner, made from what looks to be wood, although upon touching it, it doesn’t quite feel like wood but more like stone, Nero releases the jutsu and the statue of Runner explodes in a cloud of smoke and a swarm of bugs. As all the bugs return to Nero’s body, a single female Kikaichu settles on his shoulder for a while, with Nero being unaware of the bug. After a moment, the bug buries itself into Nero’s skin and disappears into the endless tunnels inside his body.

Learning: Chakra Enjitou (Chakra Scalpel) 0/30


Nero's time in the hospital had been increasing after he had learned to use Shosen no Jutsu to a minor degree. His own training time had been cut shorter as more time was spent on watching and working with doctor Kaeru. Although he was only starting to get used to it, the sight of blood and insides on the outside wasn't as effective on Nero anymore. Although he still felt dizzy when seeing it in large quantities, his senses had started to dull, slowly, to the effects of deep wounds and the large amounts of blood.

Whenever possible, Nero would spend time with doctor Kaeru, either helping him with patients or, when there were no patients or they were on break, practicing and refining the skill he already knew. When a certain procedure was too difficult for Nero to complete and he was working on the side, either to stabilize the patient, keep him relaxed or provide him with oxygen, he would always keep an eye on doctor Kaeru to see how he acted towards certain wounds.

He often noticed the small blue extensions at the doctor's fingers, which was one of his most used techniques, apart from Shosen (at a much higher speed and rank than Nero). One day, with curiosity boiling over and no reference in his medical book for dummies towards the technique, Nero asked the doctor about it, over lunch. "Doctor? What technique is it when you gather your chakra at your fingers and then you stab the patient with it... I can't seem to find any info on it in my book.

The doctor smiled at his ever observant student. "It's a chakra scalpel, much better then a regular one. It allows me to make incisions without having to break the skin. Very useful in operations where Shosen alone would not be enough. He then continued on for a moment about how it was better then a normal scalpel, explaining that it couldn't be affected by diseases, how you didn't need to wash it and also how dangerous it was, since you had to know the human body near perfectly.

The more he talked about it, the more Nero desired the technique. Not only would it, in his mind, complete his apprentice doctor training, it would also allow him to help even more people, although he realized that he wouldn't be allowed to use it in the hospital until he was much older, he still wanted to know the technique. The doctor was already smiling as he saw his apprentice boiling over with questions, which soon came flooding out of his mouth. "Yes, I can teach you how to use it and no you probably won't be allowed to use it in the hospital." He said, cutting the steady stream of questions off.

With his Bento in his hand, the doctor walked towards the roof access door, where they had spent most of Nero's training time, whenever they had time off. As lunch time was still on and the hospital was quiet, with only one patient so far, they sat down on the roof, undisturbed. The doctor started to explain the technique to Nero, from how it was first trained (using two pieces of paper, cutting only the second one while stabbing through both) to how it was used, in theory. For now, Nero was listening and scribbling down on his scroll, which was nearing its end, as his scribbles were reaching the end of the scroll.

Learning: Chakra Enjitou (Chakra Scalpel) ??/30


Nero was walking after the doctor. He had no idea where they were going. Doctor Kaeru had told the nurse to relay any patients to the other doctors, who were equally bored today. Only two patients had come in yet. Normally, a doctor should be happy with no patients, because that meant everyone was still healthy. But then again, if everyone was healthy in a ninja village it usually meant nobody was doing anything either.

The doctor guided him down the stairs and Nero could quickly feel how the air was becoming colder and colder as they went deeper. They passed a few doors with labels on them, letting Nero know that they had passed medicine storage and disease freezing, where any potentially weaponizable diseases were kept by the hospital.

Nero almost bumped into Doctor Kaeru when he suddenly stopped. Curious, Nero looked past him towards the door. 'Morgue', that sounded promising. Nero had a grim smile on his face. Lots of dead people. He wondered why they were here. What could dead pe-... Of course... Nero waited as the doctor opened the door and greeted the single woman in the room. "Good afternoon, dear. Could we borrow one of your dead?" The woman smiled and blushed profusely at doctor Kaeru. "Of course. What for? Oh... Who is this young man?" She smiled at Nero, patting his head like he was a little boy.

"My apprentice. He's here for some practice." Nero puffed up with pride and seemed to grow a few inches as he stuck his chest out and straightened his back. "Nice to meet you, miss. I'm Nero, apprentice to Doctor Kaeru." He enjoyed the taste and sound of the word apprentice as it rolled over his tongue and out his mouth. Apprentice. That didn't sound so bad.

The morgue lady pulled out a list and moved her finger down the words on it, tapping one and moving to the wall, pulling on the handle to roll out the deathbed of one of the people here. A middle aged man, completely naked, only covered by a white plastic, was revealed. "Meet Ichou, recently deceased ninja spy." She didn't elaborate on where he was spying or where he came from, nor on how he died. But it didn't matter to Nero. This was body was just a piece of paper, shaped like a person.

With the help from both the doctor and Nero, the lady moved the body to a table, rolling the table to a corner of the room where they wouldn't disturb anyone. Nero grabbed a low seat and stood on it so he could easily reach anywhere on the body. Doctor Kaeru sat himself on a what seemed to be a metal barstool, near the head of the test subject, placing his fingers in a seal and putting it between his eyes. "Alright. Why don't you start with a little muscle cutting in his lower arm?"

Nero focused his chakra on his hand and from there to his fingers, extending it out. He placed his fingers against the arm, trying to visualize the inside of the man's body from the pictures on the scrolls he had seen and memorized. He made an incision with his scalpel where he thought the muscle was and cut through bone, muscle and nerve alike in his first attempt. "Ok. Let's start with something else. Cut off his fingers." He stated, with his seal still between his eyes. Nero looked surprised but didn't hesitate, using the scalpel to sever the five fingers of his left hand.

"Now, take a finger and cut the bone from the outside, near the edge. Like so. Don't worry, you have 20 chances." Doctor Kaeru released the seal between his eyes and picked up the thumb, placing his finger near the severed side and cut the bone clean in two, visible from the side when looked at. Nero looked at it for a moment and then picked up a finger, placing his fingertips on the edge and cutting through the bone and everything. "Oops..."

He continued to practice with the fingers and after 8 failures moved onto the toes. With the toes he started to get the hang of things and managed to cut only the bone. He continued on with the remaining toes to improve his skill. When all 20 toes and fingers were cut, Nero had managed to cut 4 bones, the rest he had cut more then just the bone, one time even the skin when doctor Kaeru had 'accidentally' bumped into him.

It was a good thing that the corpse was dead. By the time Doctor Kaeru told Nero to stop the man had split bones just about everywhere in his body. Where Nero had first attempted to cut the body the inside looked like it had gone through a meat grinder. Bones, flesh and muscles were cut alike and turned into a mix, rather then a body. The last cuts he had made looked more professional, leaving only the desired body part cut, whether it was the bone, the flesh or the nerves.

Exhausted but satisfied, Nero followed doctor Kaeru outside, after thanking the morgue lady for the body, promising he would return later when he had time, to practice more. The temperature above ground felt hot on Nero's cold body and he stretched to relax his frozen muscles. "You've learned how to use the Scalpel but what you need, most of all, is the knowledge of the human body, the anatomy of it. But that is for another time." Exhausted, Nero smiled at the doctor and slowly walked out the hospital, exhausted to the point where he could barely run, where he was greeted by a bark of his ever faithful companion.