Chapter 3
From the age of eleven to twelve Ikari Kai decided to expand his education a little bit, and looked for part-time learning from the residents of his village.
While giving some help in manual labor, he was able to learn the basic of healing from the village doctor, something that Kai knew would be helpful to him, since although he had Furinji Hayato's memories, he did not know the local fauna and flora enough to utilize his inherited knowledge in an effective manner beyond the most basics.
And although the local doctor did not know anything about healing with Chakra, he did know at least what having Chakra meant when it comes to patients.
Even the most common civilian had a Chakra network in their bodies, making it so that they were more hardy then the common man in either of his memories sets.
By corelating to his memories of Furinji Hayato, Kai knew that some of the common herbal remedies utilized by the people of this world could have some minor adverse effects on the common man in his previous world.
It was such knowledge that led Kai to gain greater and greater desire to learn the local medicinal arts in greater depth.
Kai's experimentation with Chakra was cautious.
Because Kai had Furinji Hayato's template, and Furinji Hayato was a genius of the highest order, perhaps one that is simply beyond any other in all the history of his world, he was more than capable of deriving Sage Mode from first principles, but Natural Energy was a double edged blade without a hilt that at the first fumble would spell his doom.
No matter how helpful the second hand experience with Ki may help him, Kai was not foolish enough to become a reckless experimenter with something that, with some lateral thinking may transform him into stone.
That's why Kai did not even entertain the idea of trying to translate Furinji Hayato's Ki sensing ability into a Chakra sensing one.
No way would he tempt fate with such daring act without quite a bit more experience and knowledge.
What Kai did manage to do was to derive more Chakra exercises of Shape Manipulation type, most important of all was the Chakra strings one.
Using his inherited wood carving skills, Ikari Kai made quite a few small puppets with which he experimented to his heart's content.
Looking at his reflection on the mirror, Kai came to the realization that he did not look twelve years old, but closer to fourteen.
Even with the template of Furinji Hayato to improve his body, Kai's body was growing at an astonishing rate.
Mainly by expending money to have a superb devised diet, something that was extensively studied by Furinji Hayato so that training could be maximized.
The fact the at this point in time things such as pesticides and chemical preservatives was rare was also helpful, but the diverse diet that was needed for his growth was also somewhat expensive.
By Kai's estimate he had at most two more years of savings if he continued to supplement his diet and living with his occasional hunting and foraging in the local woods.
Not that anyone would hear him complaining, his growth was beyond his expectations.
Kai was already over 1,50m tall and his body would have been considered well sculpted by the greatest body models of his previous life.
By his estimates he would reach close to two meters tall when he finishes growing.
With dark hair coming down to his shoulder blades and bright green eyes and a symmetrical and well proportioned face, Kai was a handsome devil in his opinion.
It was six months after Kai's twelve birthday that he decided to leave the nest.
He already learned everything that he could from the local doctor and others in the village.
After talking things over with the leader of the village on his plans to sell his house once he got to the nearest city and hosting a dinner to give his farewells to every villager that helped him out, Kai got himself a cart and an ox so that he could travel with all his personal belongings and anything he decided to sell to improve his financial situation.
It may have been only half a day travel from his village to the nearest city, but he still decided to wait for the weekly caravan and their guards.
No need to tempt fate, Kai had no need to have a random encounter so close to the starting point of his journey into the wider world.
Fukuyama City was one of the many medium sized cities in the Land of Fire positioned in an advantaged geographical location for trading between the border and the interior.
Not that Kai decided to stay there, but by being the nearest city to his home village, it was also the best place to find a buyer to his house.
After finding himself a brokerage house where by a small fee he could then leave the sale to people with a lot more experience than himself, Kai looked at what he now had access to.
The first place he looked for was a bookstore, where he could expand his knowledge base as long as he was willing to expend his savings.
Something that he was more than willing.
It took three whole weeks for the brokerage house to sell his house, and in that time Kai took full advantage of now having access to new books, a few of which even on the very basics of medical Chakra techniques.
Nothing fancy or expansive, but a few small tricks where someone could enhance the natural healing rate was a godsent to Kai's now acknowledged thirst for healing information.
Something that even civilian doctors with subpar Chakra capacity and control could use with a few months of self training, even if the usage would have been sparse.
Kai, in particular, took only a week to learn the technique and he was forced to admit that it would accelerate his physical training at least threefold now that his resting period between exercises was shortened.
But with a new small fortune from the sale of his house, Kai decided to go forth towards his destination, the city of Hinoshita where the only student of his father that he met worked as a Guard Captain.
With someone to vouch for his background, Kai expected that his next step on this learning journey of his would have be somewhat easier.
It took Kai three whole months of travel to reach his destination, it was close to five times the normal travel time for such distances with one was not in a hurry, not that he was complaining.
The fact that he decided to travel with a cart full of personal belongings and goods to supplement his finances made it so that the safest path for him was always to go along a planned caravan.
Even in the interior of the Land of Fire, bandits and thieves sometimes still became a problem to civilians.
Towns and villages were safe enough in times of peace, but in the roads between settlements travelers sometimes became the targets of outlaws daring or desperate enough to go against the Daimyo's Samurai.
Not that Kai was in a hurry.
His life as M*** was one where, if he was honest with himself, he did not truly appreciate.
So Kai decided to enjoy this world to the fullest.
In this three months he enjoyed two different local festivals, the expectable of a travelling circus and eight theater performances, and that does not take in account all the locations that he visited, such as waterfalls, fishing lakes and even a town where some enterprising people created the local equivalent of kite surfing.
But now that Kai arrived at Hinoshita, he had some important things to do.
The first of which was meetings Morisato Isshin, his father's student.
POV change
Morisato Isshin kept his face impassive as the boy entered his study, hiding behind years of experience his troubled mind.
Ikari Genzo was someone that Isshin felt a great debt towards.
When Isshin was younger he had become the apprentice of an older samurai that was later found to have been a corrupt one, and the only reason that he was not implicated was due to Ikari Genzo's intervention.
To find out only now that he has been dead for over two years gave Isshin a heavy heart, something he decided to sooth later with some good sake.
But now that his son was in front of him, Isshin felt that he could finaly repay the help he recieve years before.
"I'm happy that you have remembered me, Ikari-kun, we have only met once and you were only five years old at the time. But I wonder how I can help you now that you are here?"
Looking at the boy's soft smile as he inclined his head in an informal, but acceptable, bow, something that made clear that although the boy has been alone for some years, his mother, Rin-san, was through in his education in etiquette, Isshin felt that Genzo-dono would have been proud of his son for being so well mannered even so young.
"Morisato-dono, I hope that I can take advantage of your magnanimity in helping me find a mentor in the healing arts. I find myself thoroughly intrigued in the fild of medicine. I have already been learning with the local doctor of my home village, so I am not truly a complete novice, but his expertise was only in mundane healing, and I find myself truly draw towards the Chakra Arts used on healing, something I hope you can help me with."
Isshin held back a frown.
What the boy was asking from him was both easy and hard.
Easy due to the official policy where anyone with a clean background and the necessary means would not be barred from learning medicine in the Land of Fire.
Hard due to the fact that most doctors utilized their influence to make it harder for those who want to learn from them, having suffered difficulties during their own learning years.
And that was the doctors without appreciable Chakra capabilities.
Most doctors with enough knowledge in Healing Chakra Arts were even more difficult to appease in taking students.
Isshin held back a sigh.
Well, he never thought that repaying his debt would have been easy.
AN: I have still not unveiled the ppoint in the time line in which Kai finds himself in. It's a surprise.
P a treon . com *slash* daofatherdarkimperial