Medical Ninjutsu

For the next while, Kagetsu and Anko trained by Orochimaru's side every day. With notice from the Third Hokage, the Konoha Ninja Academy turned a blind eye to Kagetsu's constant leave-taking and skipped classes.

Anko studied ninjutsu under Orochimaru and accompanied him on missions.

After learning of Kagetsu's plans, Orochimaru took him to visit Tsunade of the Senju Clan and asked her to personally teach him Medical Ninjutsu for a time.

Orochimaru did not make arrangements in Kagetsu's place regarding which ninjutsu he should learn. Seeing how clear-headed Kagetsu was and how he had his own plan for his future path of strength, Orochimaru felt a kind of appreciation as though he were looking at himself.

This made him value Kagetsu even more, and he was willing to give him a push, then stand aside and see just how far Kagetsu could go in the end.

Though Tsunade had become so despondent that she could no longer even step onto an Operating Table, she was still capable of teaching theory and offering a few pointers.

It was only because the one making the request was Orochimaru. Had it been anyone else, even the Clan Head of the Nara Clan, Tsunade, who was now wholly committed to slacking off, would not have bothered taking on such trouble.

"Then I'll leave this child to you."

Inside the Senju Residence, Orochimaru, dressed in a Jonin uniform, spoke to Tsunade.

"Let's be clear first. I'm only responsible for teaching him. If he can't keep up with my pace, or if he learns nothing from me and gets thrown out, that has nothing to do with me!" Tsunade let out a wine-soaked burp, her cheeks flushed red, yet she was surprisingly clear-headed as she bargained with Orochimaru.

"Of course. If Kagetsu cannot keep up or fails to learn anything from you, then it only means that is the limit of his talent." Orochimaru agreed to Tsunade's terms without hesitation. "When the time comes, I will take him away from here."

"Then let him stay. I'll only teach him for two months! How much he learns from me will depend entirely on himself. Also, my lessons are expensive." Tsunade slapped both hands onto the table and forcefully pushed herself upright. Her ample upper body leaned forward as she stared intently at Orochimaru.

"As agreed." Seeing his teammate looking as though she had fallen into a pile of money, Orochimaru felt a headache coming on. Still, he pushed a case filled with money toward Tsunade.

Did Tsunade lack money?

Strictly speaking, she did not.

Did Tsunade lack money?

When it came to entertainment, she desperately did!

Among the Sannin, only Jiraiya was truly wealthy! The rewards from his missions and the royalties from his novels had made him a rich man.

Tsunade, on the other hand, had the Senju Clan behind her and had inherited all of its assets, yet she had the least money on her. During her despondent years, she had squandered the mission rewards she had saved up over the years and her inherited share of the family fortune in Casinos and taverns.

If she did not have Konoha behind her and the status of a legitimate Senju Princess, Tsunade might already have been considering running away with Shizune. It was hard to say whether, aside from their old friendship, Orochimaru's generous payment had played a role in her agreeing to his request.

"You can leave now." Tsunade opened the case and checked the money, then immediately shut it. Her mood abruptly soared for no apparent reason as she issued Orochimaru an eviction order.

"Tsunade..."

"I know! I'll teach him properly! I happen to be teaching Shizune too." Tsunade waved a hand, cutting off Orochimaru's words. Her entire body radiated impatience. "You staying here will interfere with my teaching!"

A trace of helplessness flashed through Orochimaru's eyes. For a moment, he did not know whether leaving Kagetsu with Tsunade had been the wrong decision.

Still, beneath Tsunade's pressing gaze, Orochimaru finally took a step back, released Kagetsu's hand, and left the Senju Clan grounds on his own.

"A brat from the Nara Clan?"

After Orochimaru left, the drunken Tsunade carefully examined Kagetsu in front of her. Then she picked up the case of money, staggered to her feet, swayed in place once, and her unsteady body immediately became firm, her feet seeming nailed to the floor.

"Go read and study on your own first! Let Shizune take care of you! I'll teach you when I get back." As Tsunade passed Kagetsu, she reached out and patted his shoulder, then eagerly ran toward the front gate.

Watching Tsunade, whose mind was clearly no longer on him and whose figure vanished almost instantly, Kagetsu could only turn his gaze toward the girl around his age nearby.

When Kagetsu looked at her, Shizune almost wanted to cry. She did not dare complain about Tsunade-sama, who had taken her in, so she could only force herself to hold on and make herself look calm and dependable.

"F-follow me!" Shizune said, her opening words trembling slightly. Then she led the way ahead, signaling Kagetsu to follow.

The two stopped before a somewhat dilapidated building. They entered, pushed open the door, and revealed boxes upon boxes inside, along with scrolls scattered about in disarray.

The room contained many cabinets and appeared to be specifically used for storing scrolls and books. Many had been tossed into corners to gather dust, looking as though no one had touched them for a long time.

Some of the scrolls had been opened. Shizune's small body, not much taller than Kagetsu's, moved back and forth through the room, occasionally picking up a scroll or book. In the end, she carried a bulky pile of scrolls and books over to Kagetsu, who was sitting beneath the eaves outside, and set them down.

"These are books Tsunade-sama told me to read. I think you'll need them too." Shizune caught her breath and sorted the scrolls and books she had brought into categories, her expression serious as she explained them to Kagetsu in detail.

"This is the complete set of materials on the Mystical Palm Technique, along with all of Tsunade-sama's notes on it." Shizune handed the sorted scrolls and notes to Kagetsu. "If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me. If I can't answer either, then we'll have to wait for Tsunade-sama to return."

"You started out by learning the Mystical Palm Technique?" Kagetsu was somewhat surprised.

The Mystical Palm Technique was A-rank! A technique that activated the cells in a wound, rapidly restoring and healing it.

It sounded simple, but one only had to see its ninjutsu rank to understand how high its threshold was and how difficult it was to control.

"Yes. Tsunade-sama said that as a Medical Ninja, the Mystical Palm Technique is something you must learn and master. If you cannot learn it, then you can only become a very mediocre Medical Ninja without much significance."

Having relaxed considerably as she spent more time with Kagetsu, Shizune immediately gave a serious answer upon hearing his question.

Medical Ninja were very special, and the requirements to become one were extremely demanding. Generally speaking, to become a Medical Ninja, aside from possessing or cultivating Yang Release Chakra, one's control over their own Chakra also had to reach a highly refined level.

Put simply, if the Chakra output required for a ninja's technique was assigned a value of ten, and two ninjas used the same technique with the same power, Ninja A might use seven units of Chakra while Ninja B used five. Then Ninja B's fine control over Chakra would surpass Ninja A's.

This did not mean Ninja A's actual combat ability was inferior to Ninja B's. It only meant Ninja B could achieve the same destructive power with less Chakra. And when learning ninjutsu that required delicate control, Ninja B would learn faster than Ninja A and display greater talent.

"So, are all the scrolls and books in here about Medical Ninjutsu?" Kagetsu did not dislike reading. Looking at the room full of scrolls and books, his eyes even lit up with delight.

The only clan in the village that could rival the Senju Clan in terms of books and knowledge seemed to be the Uchiha.

"There are also quite a few ancient texts recording the clan's history. The rest are research materials left behind by Second Hokage Tobirama." Shizune answered honestly.

"Materials left behind by the Second Hokage?" Thinking of Tobirama Senju, known as a mad inventor of Forbidden Techniques, Kagetsu felt even more drawn to the books in the room. Of course, he also knew that even if Tsunade did not mind him reading those books, he might not necessarily find anything valuable within them.

Sure enough, Shizune spoke the next moment. "Actually, anything valuable was already moved to the Hokage Building during Tobirama-sama's time. A few years ago, the Third Hokage also sent Anbu to review everything again and took away another portion. Aside from some research materials and the Medical Ninjutsu Tsunade-sama added later, there are no Forbidden Techniques or ninjutsu left here to learn."

"Oh, right. Have you tested your Chakra attributes?" As though remembering something, Shizune asked in a fluster.

"Yin, Yang, and Lightning." Kagetsu answered. If he had not tested positive for the Yang Attribute, Orochimaru would not have sent him here to be trained by Tsunade.

"That's great! Otherwise, you would probably have needed to learn how to cultivate the Yang Attribute first." Shizune patted her small chest in relief.

Kagetsu did not mention that his Yang Attribute had been gradually developed little by little. He merely immersed himself in the scrolls and books laid out before him.

For Kagetsu, the ninjutsu knowledge recorded in scrolls was no different from having someone patiently teach him hand in hand. With his talent, he might even absorb knowledge from the scrolls on his own faster than he could learn it from someone's direct instruction.

When Tsunade returned in a rage, reeking of alcohol, she found two small figures in the yard taking turns working over a half-dead fish.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune, whose face was covered in sweat after just completing another failed attempt at the Mystical Palm Technique, seemed to sense something. She looked up and saw that Tsunade had finally returned home.

"Why are you still here?" Ignoring Shizune's greeting, Tsunade glared at the darkening sky, then at Kagetsu standing beside Shizune, and bluntly demanded an answer.

"Tsunade-sama, we were waiting for you to return. Didn't you promise Orochimaru-sama that you would personally teach Kagetsu-kun Medical Ninjutsu?" Shizune raised a hand, somewhat dissatisfied with Tsunade's attitude. She always felt that Tsunade-sama was wonderful in every way except that she was too despondent, too lazy, and too infuriatingly troublesome.

"Didn't I already have you show him some ninjutsu scrolls? As a major clan of medicinal knowledge, the Nara Clan itself should not have much of a barrier when it comes to reading and learning Medical Ninjutsu, right? Do I really have to personally teach him from the very beginning?" Tsunade shamelessly argued.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune's face instantly flushed red, and her soft voice rose in volume.

"Fine, fine, I get it! Let me see what you accomplished today first."

Tsunade irritably scratched her hair, shuffled over to the pair, and looked at the fish in the basin, which had been worked over so badly that it did not even want to flop anymore. Her face revealed no expression.

A green glow suddenly lit up in Tsunade's right palm, thick with Yang Release Chakra that represented life.

"Watch carefully. I'll only demonstrate this once for you brats."

As she spoke, Tsunade demonstrated the Mystical Palm Technique for them. During the process, she also pointed out the areas the two needed to improve and learn to control next.

Though the treatment with the Mystical Palm Technique lasted only two or three minutes, during that brief time Tsunade meticulously identified the pair's weak points and shared her own understanding and experience of the technique.

Kagetsu and Shizune could certainly have relied on repeated experiments to discover their own mistakes and weaknesses, but that would have taken time and many attempts, not to mention issues such as Chakra consumption and endurance.

But having a top-tier Medical Ninja teach them personally, even for just a few minutes, allowed Kagetsu and Shizune to further deepen their understanding and mastery of the Mystical Palm Technique far more quickly.

As for how Tsunade could see at a glance where the two were weak and what they needed to correct and learn, she had likely noticed and sensed it through the fish's body while they were using the Mystical Palm Technique. Thus, as she repaired and healed the fish, she taught them based on its specific problems.

Though she looked utterly despondent and reeked of alcohol, when it came to her specialty, Tsunade was still the one and only top Medical Ninja in the shinobi world.

After finishing her explanation, Tsunade casually tossed the now lively, flopping fish to Shizune. "Prepare this fish. We're eating it tonight!"

"Orochimaru-sama sent money, didn't he? It's already so late. Can't we go buy something to eat?" Shizune clumsily caught the flopping fish and complained a little.

Tsunade's expression immediately changed, and she once again put on that impatient look. "Eating out is expensive! Next time! Next time, I'll get Jiraiya to treat us."

"Did you lose all the money again?"

Hearing Shizune's chilly voice behind her, Tsunade stumbled, then quickly vanished from her sight.