Chapter – 45: 'Learning' medical ninjutsu

[Rei POV]

After sending out the clone, I start to ponder on what my next actions inside Konoha should be. For now, I have the blood clone attending the academy which should be enough for the time being. However, ever since the starting day when I said I wanted to be medical-nin, I haven't shown much interest in it afterward.

Should I go ask Masaki-sensei? I want to be able to treat people in the open as soon as possible…

'Oh, I know, didn't Rin learn medical ninjutsu from somewhere? let's just ask her. Although I don't need teaching as I already have the memories of the best in the business, well I can't tell anyone about it, can I? So, I should just follow her and join in when she tries to learn it…'

The next day, inside the Academy.

"Hi Rin, are you busy? I wanted to ask you something," I say.

"Rei, Hello! Ya tell me, what do you want to ask?" asks Rin with her signature kind smile that made Obito head over heels for her.

"Okay, you already know I want to be a medical-nin, right? I heard from Obito that you are also learning medical ninjutsu, can you help me a bit? where do I start?" I ask.

"Oh, that's easy! I just asked for Masaki-sensei's help. He introduced me to a doctor at the Konoha Hospital. Let's do it this way, meet me at the hospital after the classes today, I will take you to meet sensei and we can both learn together!"

"That's great! Thanks a lot!" I say with a huge smile.

"Ya, no problem. See you after the class then…"

"Yeah, Bye!" I say my goodbye too and take my seat at the usual place.

The rest of the classes went like usual; I have two words for it 'utterly boring'. After the classes were done, I went to meet with Rin at the hospital.

"Rei, here!" I heard someone shout as I neared the hospital, I look over to see Rin waving at me and walk towards her.

"What took you so long? Let's go, sensei should be inside," saying she took me to meet the doctor she was learning medical ninjutsu from.

Ichijou Takuma is a medical-nin and a chunin of Konoha who is currently working at the Konoha hospital. He seems to be an old friend of Masaki-sensei, so when Rin asked him to learn medical ninjutsu, he took her to his friend and she's been learning from him ever since.

When both I and Rin enter, we see Takuma treating someone, "Takuma-sensei, this is Uchiha Rei, he is the one I told you about."

"Oh, Rin! and nice to meet you too Rei," says Takuma, "Just give me a minute, I am almost done."

After finishing his work, Takuma-sensei says, "Rin, you go continue with where you left yesterday. Rei, you come with me."

Rin nods, "Hai, sensei. Bye-bye Rei, see you later!"

"Bye," I say and follow Takuma-sensei to his quarters.

"I believe Rin has already told you about me, so we won't waste time on introductions, but I would like to know, why do you want to be a medical-nin?" asks Takuma-sensei.

From Tusnade's memories, I already knew every aspiring medic will be asked of this just to test their motivation and loyalty, so I had already prepared for this question, "I have seen too many injured comrades coming back to the village after the last war, and I can already see the raising tensions inside the village after the skirmishes started recently too. I know I am not talented enough like Kakashi to become some great shinobi to have any impact in the upcoming war, but I want to help the village too; no matter how small it is. Therefore, I thought if I could become a medical-nin, I might be able to save some lives and contribute to this village that I love so much!"

"Good!" nods Takuma-sensei, "Saving lives is the kind of goal that every aspiring medical-nin should have. You have the right mindset and attitude to become a good medic. If you had said something else, I might have sent you back, but you pass."

"Okay then, let's not waste time, Rin has already been learning from me for almost two months. We need to hurry if you want to catch up with her."

"Medical ninjutsu is a branch of ninjutsu that uses chakra to repair any harm to the body by guiding, accelerating, and enhancing the body's natural healing processes. One sends chakra into a wounded area to rapidly increase its healing ability to repair the damaged cells of both external and internal injuries. The greater the injury, the more difficult and time-consuming it is to heal it, and not every wound can be healed."

"Fundamentally, it requires one to convert their chakra into a state that can be accepted by the recipient's chakra system without rejection. Therefore, the most basic requirement to become a medical-nin is superb chakra control!"

"The second most important aspect is Knowledge. In addition to understanding the human body in extreme detail, a medical-nin should also be able to recognize different poisons, diseases, etc., so that we can effectively treat them. And we should also learn to identify and use the right medication for the right problem. There is just too much knowledge for us to learn and remember."

"There is also the self-defense part like chakra scalpel, but I am not very good at those. So, I will only be teaching you the first two. Do you have any questions?" Takuma-sensei asks.

Now I know why Rin is so terrible in combat, her teacher is just as bad!

Seeing me shake my head, he continues his lecture for a couple of more hours; nothing I didn't already know of, but I continue to act unknown and listen with utmost concentration improving his impression of me.

"Okay, let's end here for today. I have made a list of books here they should be available at the academy library. Make sure to memorize everything in these books, it's very important for our next class."

"Takuma-sensei, when can we have our next class," I ask eagerly.

"No rush, first finish off reading these and once you finish, come back and you know where to find me…"

"Good night, Takuma-sensei! I will memorize them in a flash and return…"

[Rei Clone POV]

After leaving Konoha for Kiri, this is the first stop I am making. There are three routes I could have taken to reach Kiri, one each through the land of Wave, the land of Hotsprings, and the land of Noodles. I am taking the Land of Noodles route as it involves the least travel by the sea. It takes about eight to ten days of travel with the full speed of a chunin to reach Kiri by this route.

There are two important things I need to arrange before I reach Kiri, Communication, and Transportation.

With the A.I chip, communication is not an issue as all my clones are linked by subroutines. The major concern is transportation. Even in case, I acquire some blood samples or other research materials, how to securely take them back to the main body? I am not willing to trust others for this task so, that only leaves me and my clones. I could have a shadow clone carry it to Konoha, but a single shadow clone having to make the trip is risky and easily trackable.

The solution I came up with is simple; I have seen it many times during the Olympic games in my previous life, 4 x 100 meters relay. The idea is to leave behind a shadow clone at specific intervals during my travel to Kiri. Once the clone reaches Kiri and gets his hands on some research materials, he will create a new shadow clone and sends it to the nearest one to hand over the materials and take its place and wait. In this way, the research materials are passed from one shadow clone to the other all the way until the last one comes back to Konoha where he will hand them over to the main body and dissipate. The reverse transportation works too, in which case the main body will be the one to create the shadow clone. Even though the risk is still present, it will be lesser than sending just one as there will be more than one target to track.

With my chakra capacity, I can make up to six shadow clones. So, I decided to leave behind four shadow clones at two-day intervals and leave the rest for emergencies.