Chapter 67: TED talks with Utakata

Chapter 67 - TED talks with Utakata As the fish exploded, Ren wiped the bits of flesh off his face and turned to look at Utakata. His Sensei showed no reaction to the mess, as if this were nothing out of the ordinary. Instead, he simply asked, "Why?" Ren frowned slightly, then answered, "Too much chakra." "Half," Utakata replied. Ren lowered his head, falling into thought. After a moment, he responded, "When I first healed the fish and it responded, the healing process had already started. But then it stilled again, likely because I used too little chakra. Still, that didn't mean the initial healing did nothing. The fish had recovered slightly, so when I used the same amount of chakra again, it added to the previous amount. That combined chakra was too much for its body to handle so it exploded." There was a glint in Utakata's eyes as Ren finished, and he gave a small nod. "Good analysis." Without saying anything else, he pulled another fish from the bowl and let it go still on the desk. Ren immediately performed the hand signs and placed his palms over the fish. This time, he carefully adjusted his chakra output, considering the earlier experience. A few seconds passed, and the fish began twitching. As soon as it started flopping again, Ren tossed it into the bowl, and it swam off as if nothing had happened. "Good work. Keep going," Utakata said, already reaching back into the bowl. This time, he pulled out two fish and let them go still. "Now there are two targets that need healing at the same time. If you don't heal both, one dies. You have to perform simultaneous healing." Ren nodded and made the hand signs. Instead of using both palms on a single target, he placed one hand on each fish. Technically, the jutsu required both palms because that helped focus the chakra better, especially for beginners, but with Ren's advanced chakra control, and having already gauged how much chakra was needed for one fish, he could divide his output between both hands evenly. And just as expected, a few seconds in, both fish began twitching, then flopped fully to life. He scooped them up and returned them to the water. From there, Utakata continued training him, this time increasing the difficulty by injuring the fish in different ways, sometimes shallow cuts, sometimes deeper wounds. Ren had to carefully assess and adjust the chakra output each time. Despite the Mystical Palm Technique being an A-rank jutsu, the chakra cost wasn't overwhelming in this case since Ren was only using it on small animals. Thanks to that and his high-level chakra control, he was able to heal all of them properly without any problems. Once he had practiced the Mystical Palm Jutsu enough to use it fluidly every time, Utakata pointed at the poor pig and said, "Your next task will be healing it." The pig, which Ren had earlier turned into a fountain and used multiple times to practice Accelerated Coagulation Jutsu, hadn't moved since Ren arrived. It was likely sedated or poisoned. Since the next step was healing it, Ren began by using the Sensory Diagnostic Jutsu to identify the problem. He sent a pulse of chakra throughout the pig's body, and when he received the feedback, he found that the pig was indeed poisoned, and the toxin had spread through its entire body. It also had several torn blood vessels from the earlier bleeding, and its blood levels were very low. The first thing Ren did was use the Poison Extraction Jutsu. If he had used Mystical Palm first, the poison might have circulated even faster as the body began healing itself. So instead, he spread his chakra through the pig's blood vessels and carefully guided all the poisonous substances toward the heart. Once the poison had gathered, he used Chakra Scalpel on his index finger to make a very small incision near the heart. He then extracted the poison from that point and stored it in a small bottle that Utakata had already placed in front of him. Ren used the Sensory Diagnostic Jutsu again to double-check for any remaining poison. Finding none, he made the hand signs for Mystical Palm and placed both palms above the pig. He sent small pulses of yang chakra into the body, stimulating cellular regeneration and repairing the torn blood vessels, reinforcing them slightly to reduce the chance of tearing again. After finishing, he once again used the diagnostic jutsu to scan the pig. The only remaining issue was low blood levels, which could be treated with a transfusion or simply over time. The incision near the chest had also healed. In essence, Ren had completely healed the pig. It was fortunate that the poison hadn't reached the organs; otherwise, he would have needed to make an antidote as well. Ren looked to Utakata, who raised his hand and hovered it over the pig to confirm the healing. A second later, he spoke. "Good work. The poison has been removed, and the vessels have been healed. If this was a normal patient, what would we do next?" Ren responded immediately, "We would hook the patient up to an IV drip and perform a blood transfusion to replenish what was lost. Once the patient wakes up, they'd be advised to increase their liquid intake as a follow-up." Utakata nodded. "Perfect. Since you now have basic understanding of medical jutsu and medical knowledge, you'll start working at the hospital." Ren was about to say something, but Utakata cut him off. "Just send a shadow clone to the hospital. You can continue to train like every day without any change. I'll talk to the staff to make sure there's no problem. You'll first spend a week in the regular hospital and then two months in the shinobi hospital. After that, I'll give you the scroll." He let that sink in and continued. "Even though your medical jutsu is good, scratch that, they're excellent since even for a genius it takes a month or two to be able to use the Mystical Palm Jutsu, you doing it in 2 or 3 tries shows your talent and the practice you've put in." As Utakata said this, he remembered how he was praised by the greatest medical ninja ever for successfully reviving his first fish in one and a half months. He wondered how she would react if she heard about his student. Ren scratched his head with a small smile. He wasn't really used to being praised either in this life or the previous so he didn't know how to respond. Utakata didn't mind and continued, "However, even if you have exceptional knowledge and talent, what you're aiming for is applying that knowledge to your own body, which inherently has great risk. So even if it feels bad or unethical, I want you to first study medical jutsu on patients and expand your knowledge." Ren was surprised to hear such advice from Utakata, but the man had always been like this calm, logical, and extremely rational. And Ren understood the help he would gain by studying others' bodies before learning to modify his own. He remembered how Sakura had Tsunade to guide her when she learned these techniques. He didn't, so he accepted it. Ren nodded, and Utakata continued, "You also improved the Eight Gates technique, correct?" "Yes. I used seals," Ren replied. He had already used the jutsu in front of Utakata, so he had no problem admitting it. Utakata nodded, then said, "That was idiotic." Ren blinked, surprised at his sensei's blunt remark but he understood why he said it. "Do you know why?" Ren nodded. "That was an S-Rank forbidden jutsu. I tried to modify it and even used it on myself without any supervision or confirmation." Utakata continued, "Exactly. The Eight Gates is inherently dangerous, which is why it was forbidden. Many people have tried to improve it over the years, but they all dropped it for one reason or another. Some couldn't get past the third or fourth gate. One person ever reached the fifth gate only to die due to the backlash of the technique he used to improve it." Ren was shocked at hearing that. "That's when the Third Hokage placed a ban on experimenting with the technique beyond the third gate," Utakata said. "If I hadn't told you this, you would have, at most, taken a year and probably 6 months more, before you perfected the third gate and tried the fourth right?" Ren nodded. That had indeed been his plan. "Then what do you think would have happened if something went wrong? While I believe you would have succeeded, there's always a chance that something doesn't go as expected. This is why I want you to understand: Right now, you are not at the age where you need to experiment to increase your strength. The village has many techniques and jutsu for someone at your level you just have to prove your worth and earn them." He looked at Ren and asked, "What did the Third Hokage say when he gave you the Eight Gates scroll?" Ren recalled. "That I can only use the technique up to the third gate without your supervision." "Exactly," Utakata said. "The Third Hokage has been leading the village for decades. He's seen many young prodigies and guided them. He's called the Professor for a reason. When he said you can only use up to the third gate without supervision, it's because he could judge your body with a glance and estimate what it can handle. Even the third gate was him being cautious. You could probably handle the fourth gate with little to no problem, but he still said the third because that's the level you'd need right now." He sighed and looked at Ren. "Even though your improvement worked, and you were able to use that last technique, it was still a very risky gamble to modify a forbidden jutsu and use it on yourself." Ren looked a little embarrassed, and Utakata continued, "I'm not saying you were wrong to experiment. You should experiment, it's how a shinobi grows but slow down. Right now, you can grow at a fast pace even without trying dangerous things." "Sorry," Ren said. He didn't know what else to say. He had just been living a normal life when he ended up in a world full of killers and gods. So, he was desperate to grow stronger quickly. He hadn't expected anyone to notice his urgency, but now he understood that his Sensei and most likely his father too had seen through it all. Utakata sighed again as he looked at Ren, who was still thinking over his words. His tone softened. "Your father and I we're two of the few people, along with the Uchiha, Hyuga, and Akimichi clan leaders, who have both the strength and say in the village. If we wanted to, we could even get you access to two or three S-Rank techniques. So don't rush. Use everything your predecessors have left behind first. After you've exhausted them, then you can go ahead and do as you wish." He waved his hand to dismiss him. "Report to the general hospital tomorrow at 9. And from now on, either have me or your father review any changes you make to existing techniques or any new ones you create." Ren stood up and bowed. "Thank you, Sensei," and turned to leave. Just before he exited, Utakata's voice came again. "Ren, your father and I, we can only help you if you ask." Ren paused, then left the room. Once he was gone, there was a flicker in the room. Juichi appeared and sat down in a chair. "Thanks for that," he said. "He needed to hear it." Utakata looked out the window. "No need to thank me," he replied calmly. "I am his godfather, after all." ~~~~~~ {Well, the medical jutsu part is over, and I won't be discussing medical jutsu in detail like this in the future unless it is a new technique.} {This is one of the Chapters I really wanted to write, but I don't know if many of you will like this since it was kind of heavy. Also, I could've had Juichi have this talk with him, but I felt that Utakata doing so would be better. There won't be any follow-up or Ren's perspective on this for now; this is one of the few things that should just be there. It should be left alone and shouldn't be expanded further.} {Anyway, please comment on how this Chapter was. I really want to know what you guys think before I make any more of such Chapters.}