A Simple Request [private w/ Ketsueki]

[Yamanaka Utano]

[Continued from "Dust and Knowledge"]

Haji burst through the doors of the hospital, walking in with purpose and a deeply concerning grin on his face. This combined with his long dark untied hair and his bushy unkempt beard caused more than a few to immediately move out of his way. One nurse stood directly in his way, annoyed and smug at the same time.

“What’s your business here? You can’t just bust into here like you’re about to fu-“ Haji cut her off with one hand over her mouth and lifting her out of his way with another set of hands and setting her down. “Is Bugendai in his office?” The nurse gave him a nod and then licked his hand in defiance.

“Wha-? That’s disgusting lady! You call yourself a health professional?” Haji wiped the licked hand on his shirt and hustled through a set of double doors and then made his way down the hallway. As haji headed toward his friend’s office he looked down at himself and realized how filthy he was. He hadn’t been home in at least two days, and that was two days of training and sitting in the dusty dark library corners searching for his hidden treasure which he held tightly under one of his arms.

“I must look” he sniffed himself “and smell like a caveman, no wonder she tried to stop me”. Haji rounded the corner to Bugendai Ketsueki’s office and kicked in the door.
“Yo Boogy-san! I need your help” he said with a wild look in his eyes and a smile on his face.

 

[Santaru Arisu]

Peace…that is what work brought him. Sliding his notes down across the desk he pushed up his glasses. The cold unwavering realization that if you are rational enough everything can be solved. A patient is nothing more than a puzzle that needs to be solved. Some of them even had time limits, though those ones also came with stress, healthy stress for the doctor but terrible stress for the patient. Removing his glasses he rubbed his eyes. That was not to say that Bugendai felt nothing for the patients, quite the opposite. It was a means for him to perform at his best for them. If everyone with a sad story blocked him from thought he would be a terrible Doctor.

Ketsu picked up his glasses and poked his finger through where a lens would be. It made him grin a little as he sighed and reached down for his papers. As he did this though the phone rang and Ketsu picked up his phone. “Hello?” There was a small feminine chuckle on the other side of the phone. “The multi-armed one is on his way to your office. He tasted amaz…” Ketsu slammed the phone off. He shivered slightly. It was not common that weird people were brought to hospitals and work in them because of some off beaten weirdness but she was on a whole other level when it came to Haji.

Speaking of which…

Bugendai got up and pulled open his bottom drawer. He pulled out a can and counted to ten as he walked across the room. The door was suddenly kicked open as the door fell into a hospital mattress that had been placed there…almost as if this was a regular occurrence. “Yo Boogy-san! I need your help” Already covering his nose he let loose the can of disinfectant with a slight smell of oranges. No matter what the outcome he needed this to be able to stand being in the same room as him. Haji appeared to be in a mess which means he either got lost in training or was simply living his normal life.

Haji was good for Ketsu, they were similar in morals but almost completely opposite on some…life decisions. Ketsu stopped spraying and simply said, “Yes, I am sure it is very important.” He gave him a blank look which then evolved into a devilish grin and motioned for his friend to come sit in front of his desk. “I just finished up with a patient and provided I do not have an emergency run in I should have some time to hear out your most recent adventure.”

Ketsu sat down and leaned back into his chair, removing the fake glasses. He had a half smirk, Haji always had the best stories.

[Topic Entered]

 

[Yamanaka Utano]

Haji stood in the doorway taking in the cloud of orangey disinfectant, a look of bemusement and ritual normalcy on his face. This wasn’t his first disinfected rodeo after all, nor was it Ketsueki’s.
“I just finished up with a patient and provided I do not have an emergency run in I should have some time to hear out your most recent adventure.”

Haji was nearly vibrating with excitement while his friend took a seat behind his desk. Holding up all 6 hands in a shrug Haji feigned casualness as he moved to take his seat, book in tow. As he sat down Haji began to grin from ear to ear.

“I found it” he dropped the book down on top of the desk with a thump. “Turn to page I think like, 4 or 5? Whatever the one with the diagram on it, the rest of the book is a bunch of medical and chakra theory and I’m gonna need your help with it, but there is no mistaking that diagram; it’s a book on the eight gates” Haji jumped up out of his chair.

“I have been looking for this for so long man, so much so that I’m not even mad you sprayed me down with orange shit again! In fact, I kinda needed it… But this, this is something that you can’t deny looks exciting right? There isn’t anyone around the village that can teach me this stuff, so I need you to help me interpret the theory mumbo jumbo so I can get to the good stuff.”

Haji looked at his friend through thicket of bushy hair and beard and then gestured at the book again. “Cool shit, yeah?”

 

[Santaru Arisu]

Haji began to grin from ear to ear. Ketsu thought he must have some really good story. “I found it” watching the book drop with a thud on the table made Ketsu flinch. Poor book, never needed to be handed in such a casual manner. The thought of Spider barbarian went through his mind and it gave him a small grin. Haji was no barbarian but he was typically more so an act now shinobi then a pause and think shinobi.

He moved the book in front of him and took a look at the cover. With a questioning gaze he opened the book and suddenly caught a brief glimpse into what was going on. “Turn to page I think like, 4 or 5? Whatever the one with the diagram on it, the rest of the book is a bunch of medical and chakra theory and I’m gonna need your help with it, but there is no mistaking that diagram; it’s a book on the eight gates”

Ketsu looked up briefly at him and turned the pages eventually making it to the one with the diagram on it. He swallowed and leaned back in his chair a bit and rubbed his eyes. See this is why he knew Haji should never have been taught how to read. Haji couldn’t even contain his excitement as he hopped out of his chair. “I have been looking for this for so long man, so much so that I’m not even mad you sprayed me down with orange shit again! In fact, I kinda needed it… But this, this is something that you can’t deny looks exciting right? There isn’t anyone around the village that can teach me this stuff, so I need you to help me interpret the theory mumbo jumbo so I can get to the good stuff.”

Ketsu slipped his fake glasses into the collar of his shirt. He leaned forward and gazed at the book again thinking. “Okay yes, excitement can be one way to look at it and I am not too familiar with chakra gates but poking them is “forbidden” after all.” His gaze however caught sight with Haji’s. It was a mutual respect, an acceptance that while Ketsu was the more cautious one, he craved adventure. “Yea, I can see a number of benefits if handled correctly. As your Doctor I advise you against it, as your friend I advise you against it, but as your brother in arms…I eagerly await the challenge.” Shinobi were not expected to live long lives. They were intended to be made into powerful weapons, and this did just that.

He stood up with a confused expression. He walked around to his small bookshelf with a few books on it and looked at them. Haji knew Ketsu was in and was already trying to puzzle it out. He pulled out another book and walked back to his desk, opening a page that had a tabbed mark on it. “Rarely there have been tests seeing if potentially messing with a chakra gate could help in terms of life threatening and dangerous medical situations.”

He gave a bit more of a serious look, “We are going to do this the right way, slow, steady , and barely any actual usage and even if there is, highly monitored. There is a reason one of them says Death Gate okay?” He pushed his finger down on the book. If Haji wanted Ketsu’s help it was going to have to follow some rules. His pride as a doctor would not allow for a friend to die before him.

He also slide his finger downward on the diagram with a grin on his face, “Also seriously this Wonder gate bro.” He chuckled to lighten the mood. He had been a bit too serious maybe.

 

[Yamanaka Utano]

Haji was excited, but he knew better than to interrupt his friend, and he knew how much he was asking of Ketsu. This was a “forbidden” technique, and even though Kumo had some pretty loose laws in regards to Kinjutsu, it was considered forbidden for a reason.
Haji knew that his friend was going to help him even before he got into his office, the thirst for knowledge was strong in his friend, and the chance to research and possibly even test effects of the chakra gates was too tempting to pass up. Plus Haji figured that Ketsu knew even if he didn’t help, Haji would just find someone else to, or worse, start testing it on his own without any supervision whatsoever.
Scary thought Haji smiled inwardly to himself.

“We are going to do this the right way, slow, steady, and barely any actual usage and even if there is, highly monitored. There is a reason one of them says Death Gate okay?”

Haji frowned.

“You’re no fun, but I guess I can’t argue that…” Haji smiled again “But you gotta admit a Death Gate sounds cool” his face smoothed out into a serious look “and powerful”

Haji watched his friend’s finger slide down the diagram.

“Also seriously this Wonder gate bro.”

Haji let out a hearty laugh. “Yeah I thought that one was funny too, god learning how to use that gate better not blow my dick off or anything because if it does you know who is gonna have to put it back togeeetheeeer”

Haji chuckled and then leaned over the book placing his hands on Ketsu’s desk. “So… where do we begin?”

 

[Santaru Arisu]

Where do we begin? That was an excellent question. Ketsueki sat down and pulled up the diagram book, only to actually begin reading it. Ketsu flipped between this book and the book on his desk. Chakra moved from his eyes as if he was using his chakra to speed read. Ketsu did very few things better than his peers, one was being a surgical genius and the other was his chakra control. Everyone had always told him to be a Genjutsu user and they felt his talents were wasted on Taijutsu and Ninjutsu. To be honest he was happy he was where he was…but this was off topic.

Flipping through the pages he eventually put the books down. Hopefully it had not been too long. After setting it down he took a pencil and started to gnaw on it…terrible habit. He pointed down to the stomach. “Okay so lesson time from back in the academy. Haji pay attention I promise it makes punching better.” He grinned like an idiot but knew Haji was more than interested anyway.

“So the Stomach is the source of all chakra or well maybe not the source but where it swells and stores. Gates are sort of like dams that hold back the chakra. So in your case you need to begin mastering your chakra so you can…well break the dams.” It was a very unscientific way of stating things but to the end they needed to understand it that was the deal.

“So of course there are two ways, you either open the dams up or you break through them. Either way will garner the same effect though, it’s really hard to re close them after you open them. Anytime you try and do this you will need medical attention pretty quickly. Hence it is forbidden.”

He sighed…it was a scary thing to play with. “Basically, your killing yourself to break through your limits, the body puts limits up so you do not kill yourself. You are basically saying eff that I need to hit that thing harder than anything has ever been hit before.”

Looking at the gates he also wanted to stress one thing. “At absolute most I will never allow you to go beyond opening the third gate in training purposes. Anything beyond that permanently hurts you for life. Once you understand the first few, you sort of will understand the rest. I will stress it once again. Never. Past. The. Third.”

He was dead serious. If he pushed to the fourth it would be bad and anything beyond that would certainly spell trouble. Gates were not meant to be toys. Even to be capable of opening the eighth gate would mean he was training to hard. The more he thought about it the more he grew concerned for his friend. He wanted to back out of the idea the more he learned…it was also probably clear on his face.

 

[Yamanaka Utano]

“Okay so lesson time from back in the academy. Haji pay attention I promise it makes punching better.”

Haji really had to try not to outright ignore his friend out of spite for that, but he knew Ketsu was joking and Haji couldn’t help but smirk himself. Plus, this was kind of the reason he came to his friend: to learn. Haji shuddered at the thought.

“So the Stomach is the source of all chakra or well maybe not the source but where it swells and stores. Gates are sort of like dams that hold back the chakra. So in your case you need to begin mastering your chakra so you can…well break the dams.”

Haji nodded as he listened. This may have been the longest he had gone without interjecting. He was proud of himself, and continued listening. It was getting kind of hard though… Ketsu really could go on and on.

“So of course there are two ways, you either open the dams up or you break through them. Either way will garner the same effect though, it’s really hard to re close them after you open them. Anytime you try and do this you will need medical attention pretty quickly. Hence it is forbidden.”

This caught Haji’s attention, he knew that it was dangerous to open the gates, but guessing from how Ketsu had begun speaking about it, even he didn’t sound so sure about the damage it might deal. Haji began to worry that his friend wouldn’t help him, but then remembered that Ketsu would rather be around for the inevitability that Haji would attempt to break open the chakra gates on his own.

“Basically, your killing yourself to break through your limits, the body puts limits up so you do not kill yourself. You are basically saying eff that I need to hit that thing harder than anything has ever been hit before.”

Haji audibly laughed at that. “Sounds like something I would do. You really know how I think Ketsu” Haji grinned and waggled his eyebrows lewdly at his friend. But then Ketsu got a serious look on his face that made Haji pause.

“At absolute most I will never allow you to go beyond opening the third gate in training purposes. Anything beyond that permanently hurts you for life. Once you understand the first few, you sort of will understand the rest. I will stress it once again. Never. Past. The. Third.”

Haji nodded. “Can’t promise anything!” He smacked his friend on the shoulder and smiled. Haji had already made his mind up a long time ago about how far he would take his training; as far as he could. To Haji, any power he accumulated equated directly to freedom for him, the freedom to choose without being suppressed by anyone else, because they wouldn’t have the power to. Haji didn’t want to exert power over others, he just wanted the ability to keep them from doing that to him. Each chakra gate was another binding he could throw off of himself, and in his eyes that was living, even if it led to his death.

Haji could tell his friend wasn’t going to like the sound of that though and haji wanted his friends help, despite his feeling of assurance that he would help him anyway. That isn’t how friends treated friends that help them.
“Alright, alright! I promise not to go past the third during training” Haji said throwing all six hands into the air. “You’re no fun” He smiled sheepishly at Ketsu.

Now it was Haji’s turn to be serious.

“All I ask” Haji said softly “is that if I tell you to let me keep going, trust me that I know what I’m doing” he looked down at the book on the desk. “I need this Ketsu”.

Then he brightened up again. "Other than that, let's get this bitch goin'! Anything else you think we need besides this book?"

[Wc 639]
[MFT]

 

[Santaru Arisu]

Haji was listening to Ketsu for really only three reasons. The first was that he was interested in what he was saying; the second was that it was something really interesting, and third was so that he could get really excited and ignore his warnings. Apparently…

Ketsu could not hide his disappointment when Haji nodded but basically said yea no I will do what I want. Such is the fate of a doctor though…tell a person to eat less and they don’t, tell them not to smoke, they continue, tell a guy to not open magical nodes in his body so he does not disintegrate, still opens the gates.

Haji was trying to reassure Ketsu and for the most part it did not work but there was something that did. A Shinobi’s dream. Above anything else Ketsu never wanted to get in the way of someone’s dream unless it was stupid. Not stupid in the traditional sense either because what Haji was doing was stupid. When Ketsu first had a serious moment with Haji during a mission…flash backs to when they were captured and held against their will passed through his mind.

It was one of the many times they were close to death. If the jailers had not been stupid or if Haji hadn’t kept hidden two more arms hidden and Ketsu had not managed to use his blood to break the locks…that was beside the point…Haji told him his dream…or Ketsu guessed his drive. Being chained down to anything was not life for Haji. It was during that mission that Ketsu really came to understand him and thus became something closer to brothers than friends.

Ketsu was always a little fearful that life itself was too much of a chain for Haji…

Ketsu would not shatter this for Haji despite the fact that he should.

He sighed and simply turned and sat down back at his desk. “We need someone to train with you that is durable enough to handle you beyond 100% and not instantly get wreaked and that isn’t the overseeing Medical Shinobi. I’ll probably ask Ting to help us, maybe someone else. For now just wait till I have some time off. In the meantime do light training with a higher focus on chakra control and also maybe bulk up a bit in terms of calorie intake to take some stress off of what little fat you have, otherwise when you use it it’ll go through muscle and that is counterproductive”

With that being said he focused on the two books…he would study and study to keep his friend alive at all costs. Haji was dismissed for now.

[Topic Left after Haji unless he stops me]

 

[Yamanaka Utano]

“We need someone to train with you that is durable enough to handle you beyond 100% and not instantly get wreaked and that isn’t the overseeing Medical Shinobi. I’ll probably ask Ting to help us, maybe someone else. For now just wait till I have some time off. In the meantime do light training with a higher focus on chakra control and also maybe bulk up a bit in terms of calorie intake to take some stress off of what little fat you have, otherwise when you use it it’ll go through muscle and that is counterproductive”

Haji could see the look of disappointment on his friend's face. Ketsu knew what Haji was willing to put himself through, but Haji knew it probably hurt his friend to know that whatever he may have said, or concerns he may express, it couldn't stop him from doing this. This technique, as far as Haji was concerned, was an eventuality for him. Ketsu was sure that it would cause Haji's death in one way or another, and he was finding it hard to argue him on that point the more he learned about it.

Ketsu turned back to the books silently reading as if Haji had already left. Haji smiled faintly, and lingered for a moment to look upon his old friend with fondness. They had been through a lot, and Haji felt a tug of guilt in his heart knowing that he had pulled Ketsu into an experiment that may force him to watch one of his closest friends literally disintegrate. Brotherhood nearly kept Haji from proceeding with his endeavor, but he knew that he couldn't please everyone, and this was the only way he knew how to live. Fast and free.

"I'll see you later old friend" Haji muttered under his breath as he left the office. There was no turning back now.

[Topic Left]
[Continued here "Lock Picking the Gates"]