Don't Treat the Injured as People

"You've already learned some theoretical knowledge, but Medical Ninjutsu can't be mastered by rote memorization alone."

Teacher Ueno lifted the white cloth, revealing what lay beneath—a row upon row of anesthetized frogs, rats, and even several rabbits.

A wave of gasps immediately rose through the classroom. Everyone knew what they were about to do.

"A medical ninja's hands must be stained with blood. If you can't even perform a dissection, then go back to the Ninja Academy and play house."

Quite a few faces instantly turned pale, their eyes filled with resistance and fear.

The girls in particular looked positively green at the sight of the slimy frogs.

"Bleurgh—"

When the first blade cut open a frog's belly and its organs spilled out, one girl finally couldn't take it anymore. Covering her mouth, she rushed out of the classroom.

"There's no time for hesitation on the battlefield. Time is life, and your teammate's life rests in your hands."

Teacher Ueno's voice did not waver in the slightest. "Now, pick up your scalpels. Start with the most basic anatomy and suturing. Anyone who throws up will clean it up themselves, then... continue."

Cruel and direct.

For a time, sobbing and retching rose and fell throughout the classroom.

Nohara Rin's little face was deathly pale. The hand holding her scalpel trembled slightly, but she gritted her teeth and refused to take even a single step back.

Shizune was doing slightly better. Though her brow was tightly furrowed, her hands remained fairly steady.

As for Aoba—

He expressionlessly pinned down a rabbit and precisely sliced through its skin with the scalpel.

Mainly because, to a foodie like him, the snow rabbit looked far more like an ingredient than an experimental subject.

He was simply used to chopping with knives or hacking with Kunai. Switching to a scalpel now felt like embroidery, and it was rather awkward.

Aoba also noticed that, whether deliberately or not, Teacher Ueno had assigned most of the rabbits to the boys. The girls got either frogs or rats.

For these young girls, it was practically a double assault on body and mind.

All Aoba had to do was correct his habits and remind himself internally.

This is for an experiment, not an ingredient!

I can't just chop it up!

"System, activate the assistance function."

[Scanning biological structure... analyzing muscle texture... marking neural nodes...]

A faint blue light flickered in his eyes behind the sunglasses. Chakra gathered in his palm as the Chip rapidly scanned and constructed a 3D model, projecting it onto his retina.

[Beginning record... snow rabbit nervous system distribution map... comparing data...]

If he wanted, Aoba could have avoided every major blood vessel and kept the bleeding to an extremely low level. But he did not do so. He even had to make it look as though he was making frequent mistakes.

Yet even so, Aoba's somewhat "clumsy" technique still stood out like a Fire Fly in the darkness—so distinct, so exceptional, those melancholy eyes...

Ahem, no, wrong channel.

Aoba's technique caught Teacher Ueno's attention.

"Such steady hands."

A hint of surprise flashed through Teacher Ueno's eyes.

Still, something about this technique looked a little off.

"Have you practiced before?"

Teacher Ueno adjusted her round-framed glasses and asked curiously.

"My family runs a restaurant."

Aoba answered with a straight face.

That was not a lie. He really did run a Hot Pot Restaurant, though his hunting grounds were in the Forest of Death.

"Just as I thought. I was wondering why the way you held it down looked like you were handling ingredients."

Teacher Ueno nodded approvingly, then spoke loudly to everyone. "Not bad. This is the feeling you need. The first thing in treatment is overcoming your psychological barriers. When you become official medical ninjas in the future, you'll encounter all kinds of wounds while treating injured comrades. At that point, you can no longer treat them as your comrades, or even as people.

They can be experimental supplies, frogs, rats, or even corpses. Thoughts and emotions can cloud your judgment, cause you to make incorrect decisions, and affect the treatment."

"This student performed very well. He immediately understood the teacher's intentions."

Aoba: ???

The others around him cast envious looks his way.

"So that's how it is."

There were quite a few smart people present, and they immediately caught on. They began trying to shift their focus elsewhere.

"Aoba-kun is amazing..."

Rin murmured softly. Then she took a deep breath and forced herself to look at the bloody organs, imagining them as something else. Whether it was an illusion or not, the scalpel in her hand seemed to steady somewhat.

Huh? Did it?

What the hell had he understood?

Faced with the grateful looks occasionally sent his way, Aoba was completely baffled!

Although there had been a few setbacks, the Experimental Class's lessons continued progressing steadily.

The days passed one after another amid this dull and bloody learning.

However, Aoba's days also became much more "fulfilling."

Of course, this fulfillment did not come from studying medical theory, but from being able to openly purchase all kinds of medicinal herbs and medical equipment under the name of "study and research."

More importantly, as a student of the Experimental Class, he could apply to access materials he had previously been unable to reach.

Back at the Ninja Academy, the teachers had only taught basic fundamentals like the Three Body Technique. As for deeper applications of chakra, they had mostly glossed over them.

Advanced knowledge such as Shape Transformation and Nature Transformation also needed a reasonable source, and now Aoba had one.

Because of his outstanding performance in the anatomy lessons, Teacher Ueno taught him a ninjutsu ahead of schedule—Medical Ninjutsu.

Yes, that was right. It was simply called Medical Ninjutsu, or [Basic Medical Ninjutsu].

It was also a ninjutsu every medical ninja had to know. Only after learning this technique could one be called a medical ninja.

Later, when Rin entered Team Minato and treated Kakashi and Obito, she used this same ninjutsu.

Ninjutsu effect: Stimulates cellular activity through chakra to repair wounds, with healing and hemostatic effects.

Take note—it stimulated cellular activity. It did not accelerate cell division to repair external injuries. The technique that could accelerate cell division was the A-rank [Mystical Palm Technique].

The A-rank Medical Ninjutsu, Mystical Palm Technique, could activate every cell in a wound and heal it in just five minutes. It was a ninjutsu that even Tsunade found difficult, not something just anyone could use.

Since students in the medical Experimental Class would have to learn it eventually anyway, Ueno gave the ninjutsu to Aoba early as a reward. It also happened to encourage the other students.

The effect was fairly good. Fewer people threw up during the anatomy lessons afterward, and the teaching progress advanced by a large stretch.

The core of Medical Ninjutsu was precise chakra control and Shape Transformation, and it also involved the Nature Transformation of Yang Release.

Using that as an excuse, Aoba could borrow relevant ninjutsu materials from the library. Since chakra's Yang Release had Nature Transformation, did the other five major chakra attributes also possess Nature Transformation?

Aoba "sheepishly" asked the librarian.

After receiving an affirmative answer, he carefully hesitated and struggled for a long while before requesting to borrow the materials. He easily obtained borrowing privileges.

The librarian even gave him an approving look and praised him, saying, "What a studious child."

Was looking after juniors also a senior's responsibility?

A medical ninja who was absurdly young—oh, still a trainee, but that did not stop her from wanting to look after a junior.

After all, as ninjas, getting injured and ending up in the hospital was hardly unusual. When the time came, having an acquaintance there...

Ahem...