The God War Part 6
Healing chakra inserts itself into someone in order to heal him or her. In the Namikaze clan, they can only accept so much chakra into their system before their body stops accepting it or they give chakra in return. Normal medics give chakra, but they cannot accept it so their healing techniques stop working. Before, Kotone allowed Tsunade's healing chakra to flow through her hands while she directed the chakra Masao's body was attempting to give back into herself. Tsunade learns to accept the chakra and use it to heal alongside her own. When someone uses his or her own chakra to heal, it speeds up the process. The Namikaze call it a technique for simplicity even though it is not a jutsu.
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Masao pushed himself into a more comfortable sitting position, ears listening to the run-on story Minato told and eyes watching Kotone signs as she explained the situation. He pieced the information Minato gave on the village together with Kotone's information, gaining a better understanding of the situation.
As Minato started to tell of the most recent events, the door to the room slammed open.
"What are you doing sitting up? You nearly died two hours ago!"
"I'm fine—"
"Let me repeat myself, you nearly died two hours ago."
"Kunoichi-san—"
"Don't you dare pull the same respectful routine as that woman!" Tsunade stomped in and yanked Minato off the bed. The boy screamed and twisted uselessly in her grip as she tucked him under her arm and pressed a hand covered with green healing chakra against Masao's stomach, talking over Minato's indignant screams. "You had massive ruptures in almost every organ and it was all I could do even with her help to seal them. It's still not healed properly—" she stopped abruptly.
"I can heal myself, Kunoichi-san."
"You shouldn't even be conscious—"
"Please unhand my son." The authority in his voice made Tsunade instantly drop the boy, only to catch the back of his shirt before he could hit the ground and get hurt.
Minato quieted at the abrupt changes in motion before scrambling underneath Masao's bed and clinging to one of Kotone's legs as she stood up slowly.
"Tsunade-san—" Kotone began, snapping the teen out of the shocked trance Masao's tone put her in.
"I apologize for my outburst." Tsunade turned on her heel to run out of the room, but Kotone zipped in front of her, Minato still clinging to his mother's leg and looking up at her with his tongue sticking out.
"Minato!" Masao scolded in a low voice. Minato turned his face into Kotone's loose pants while she talked over the entire incident.
"Tsunade-san, I promised to teach you a new technique."
"You must be a phenomenal kunoichi for Kotone to teach you anything," Masao noted.
Tsunade's face turned red.
"Do you have a moniker yet, young lady? If not, I'm sure we could find one for you."
"What are you insinuating?" She spun around angrily only to freeze when she saw Masao's soft smile. "You did that on purpose!"
"Yes, do I have your attention now?"
Tsunade nodded once.
"Good. I really do want to help my clan mates, and I'm sure you're eager to learn something new."
She nodded again and Kotone guided her towards the side of the bed, moving easily as if Minato was not clinging to her leg.
Kotone lifted Minato onto the bed. The boy curled against Masao's side watching carefully and holding perfectly still. While Minato settled into his place with Masao's arm around him, Kotone guided her hands to Masao's collarbone and began to explain the process. Not long after, Minato fell asleep, arms wrapped tightly around Masao's bicep. An hour later, Kotone declared Tsunade ready to try it, but she balked at the idea, jerking her hands away.
"Don't worry about making a mistake, Tsunade-san, I won't let you mess up," Masao assured her but she shook her head.
"I shouldn't be trying this on someone before—"
"You did the exact same healing as when you channeled your chakra through my hands," Kotone reminded her.
"He was about to die then; it was an all or nothing decision—"
Masao interrupted, "Tsunade-san, my chakra control is among the best in the shinobi world. I can even control others' chakra in close proximity. While you use your healing chakra on me, you can't make a mistake."
"You can heal yourself—"
"True, but that will take a long time and I can't help the rest of my clan. I know you're smart, young lady, the only thing that matters in this technique is the strength of your mind."
"Fine, this is on your head."
Masao smiled reassuringly as Kotone guided Tsunade's hands over Masao's chest. "Start with the heart, allow your chakra to form a connection with his and flow in while his flows into you. Use one hand to accept the flow and the other to heal. When his chakra begins to wrap around yours, don't try to control it or push it away; allow it to join with yours and speed up the healing process."
"This doesn't feel right," Tsunade grumbled.
"You're doing it right," Masao assured her, focus on the healing, not on the chakra exchange.
"It's healing too fast."
"Can you keep up?"
"Yes, but this isn't normal."
"You're right, it's not healing as fast as normal, but I think that's just from the long-term exhaustion. The others will be easier to heal."
Tsunade made a face at him. "Heart and lungs are mostly healed," She announced after a minute and drew her hands away.
"Good job, Tsunade-san," Kotone said
The teen smiled at the praise before slumping back onto a low stool. "I don't like using people to try techniques on."
"If you didn't have a natural inclination to Iryo-Ninjutsu, you would be practicing on a mouse, but since you know what you're doing and Kotone's a great teacher, I figured it would be fine. Besides, when it comes to charka, it takes a lot more than you have to cause harm when I'm around."
"That doesn't reassure me."
"Give me five minutes to finish healing myself and I'll supervise while you start healing my clan mates."
"You can't heal all that damage in five minutes."
"I bet he can," Kotone interjected.
"Ten ryo says he can't," Tsunade retorted.
"Aren't you a little young to be betting?" Masao asked.
"I'm eighteen!"
"Almost, but not quite, don't lie about your age to a medic-nin."
"Tell you what," Kotone interrupted before Tsunade could express her anger. "If he can do it in less than five minutes, you have to study under him for a month, if you can't, he'll be working under you for the same amount of time."
"You are so going to lose, old man," Tsunade snapped, crossing her arms.
"Watch me, time starts now." Masao pressed his right hand against his abdomen.
"Why are you using your right hand? You're left-handed."
"It's not worth waking Minato up over."
Four minutes later, Masao announced himself finished. Tsunade pressed a hand against his forehead doubtfully.
"How can you ease your own chakra exhaustion? It would be a paradox—" Tsunade demanded, stomping her foot while Masao sat up slowly, shifting Minato into a more easily carried position and wrapping one of the smaller blankets around him.
"I know a lot of tricks. Anyways, the technique only works for me; it's too dangerous to teach to anyone else."
"Are you kidding? To be able to ease chakra exhaustion—"
"Would be a dangerous ability to have," Masao swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "I'm a medic so I know the limits of my own body, but most people don't and I have a feeling that includes you."
"Tsunade-hime!" The call rang throughout the building.
"If he comes in here, I'm going to kill him," Tsunade grumbled.
Before she could make good on her vow, Jiraiya burst into the room, took one look at the small, surprised family and wrenched Tsunade in front of him. "Save me, Tsunade-hime! They're multiplying!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Tsunade grunted as he wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in the small of her back.
"They're a family of demons!" Jiraiya answered readily, voice muffled
Tsunade tried to twist out of his grip but she could not pry his hands off her waist. "Let me go, baka!"
Jiraiya tried to shuffle out of the room, keeping Tsunade between himself and the family. "Sensei wants to see you."
"Well, he can wait. I need to finish here first!"
"Those demons have Minato-kun!" Jiraiya cried suddenly, jerking out from behind Tsunade.
As soon as he stepped fully into view, Masao automatically shifted into a defensive stance, holding Minato behind Kotone and using the rest of his body to complete the shield. "Calm yourself, young man, this is a hospital," Masao ordered, hands flashing through a jutsu to immobilize Jiraiya when he continued towards them.
His words held the opposite effect as Jiraiya started to struggle violently against the jutsu.
"JIRAIYA!" Tsunade shrieked, hitting him over the head. Jiraiya collapsed, suddenly released from the jutsu.
Who is this? Masao signed to his wife.
She shrugged in response. Placing Minato gently in her arms, he stepped forward with a hand outstretched to help him to his feet.
"I believe we got off to a poor start, Jiraiya-san. I'm Namikaze Masao, Minato's father. I can see you've already met my wife and son."
Jiraiya's eyes narrowed and a second sharp rap on the head from Tsunade sent him leaping too his feet and gingerly shaking Masao's hand.
"I'm Jiraiya, The Great—"
"Nice to meet you," Masao interrupted before Jiraiya could continue. "While on the battle field, my wife and I have been compared to demons; however, I would like that comparison to remain on the battlefield and not become a title in everyday life, just like I'm sure you don't like being called a child or a joke in a serious situation, understood?"
Jiraiya's jaw hung open at Masao's words and the silence stretched on awkwardly. Finally, Jiraiya regained some of his composure. "How did you," Jiraiya jabbed a finger at Masao, "Find out about Senjutsu?"
"You're a much better ninja than most people give you credit for, correct, Jiraiya-san?"
"No one knows the extent of—"
"All that bluster is just a front you put up to hide something else. The logical answer would be you're hiding a past, but I don't think you have a problem with that. It's something else. You're wearing civilian clothes and your hands were recently stained with ink. To most shinobi, you would appear to be a scribe of some sort, except the quill sticking out of your pocket is a Fūinjutsu pen, the tip is too sharp for paper, it's for creating blood seals."
Jiraiya looked torn between confusion and anxiety.
"Your act isn't perfect yet, kid. Your hands are too stained. No self-respecting scribe would allow their hands to gather that much ink and risk smudging their work. You would do better to go without weapons. You've given me more information than you're trying to hide. The quill tells me you're reasonably adept at Fūinjutsu, your age tells me you're only beginning to find your specialty in the shinobi arts, by your outfit, I would guess it's in infiltration and espionage. Now back to what you're hiding. I already mentioned it's not a past, so that leaves something bigger than yourself. You mentioned your sensei when you first entered. You didn't come to deliver orders, you're fulfilling them." Masao used the pretext of tucked the trailing blanket around Minato to shift himself between Jiraiya and the rest of his family. "You named Minato immediately, even though the blanket covered any way for him to be immediately identified. Someone sent you here."
Fists clenched, Jiraiya took a defensive step backwards.
Raising his hands in surrender to calm Jiraiya, Masao continued, "But you disagree with the reasons for your mission. Even though you act immature and irresponsible, you're not petty, unsympathetic, or selfish."
"What makes you so sure of that?" Jiraiya smirked, but the scorn in his voice didn't fit his expression of fear.
"This whole front isn't put up for me."
"Enough," Jiraiya snapped defensively. "You never answered how you knew about Senjutsu."
"If someone walked into this village with tainted chakra, wouldn't you do your best to find out everything you can about them?"
"My clan specializes in chakra manipulation; you can understand my curiosity. Outside of your summons, I assume only your team and your sensei know about your use of Senjutsu, correct?"
"And you, that boy, her."
"Relax; I don't know anything more than its name and no one else knows that. I paid a visit to your village a while ago and that is all the information I could turn up."
Jiraiya studied him carefully. "Enjoy the rest of your day." With a breath of displaced air, Jiraiya vanished.
Kotone detached Minato's grip from her shirt and placed him in Masao's arms. "I'm going to keep a watch outside the doors."
Nodding once, Masao wrapped the blanket tightly around Minato, shielding his face from the light while Kotone hurried out of the room. Tsunade stood dumbfounded, staring after Jiraiya.
"Tsunade-san," Masao interrupted her thoughts. "We have my clan mates to heal."
"Yes, sir," She refocused, leading the way out of the room. Except for a handful of individuals watching the doors, most of the clan lay on makeshift mats, curled under blankets and against each other. "They're like puppies!" She blurted, freezing mid-step.
Those watching the doors jerked their heads towards her, holding back laughter. "Yes, and most of them are injured," Masao reminded her.
"Right," Tsunade continued forward and knelt beside the woman closest to her. She woke slightly but when she caught sight of Masao, she settled back into sleep.
"Go rest," Masao ordered the individuals keeping watch. They nodded and found places in the scramble of sleeping bodies, overcome with exhaustion.
"You must be as exhausted as them!" Tsunade exclaimed softly as she finished healing the woman's broken wrist.
"My clan comes first, I'm sure you can understand," Masao responded. "They've been protecting me for long enough."
Following her through the tangled limbs of the sleeping clan, Masao watched Tsunade heal, occasionally intervening to correct one of her techniques; advice she patiently received. The longer Tsunade worked through the sleeping clan, the further away Masao drifted, no longer needed in the healing.
After an hour of healing, Tsunade left without a word, leaving Masao to sit in silent vigil in the center of his clan. Outside the main doors, Kotone held her own guard alongside Sakumo, softly debating the effectiveness of the lightweight, traditional kunai versus her own heavier, multi-pronged version that had become popular in the clan, the only topic they could agree upon without crossing any unspoken boundaries.