The Start of Something Great [Research]

[Kazu]

Joining the Medical Branch was one of the most annoying things that Kotsuko had ever done. That woman and her rules bugged the hell out of the young boy, and it pissed him off even more knowing that he couldn't do anything about it. He needed this facility's equipment, and for that he'd have to comply with their rules. The first few weeks had been nothing but busy work—filing reports, learning the basic medical procedures, performing routine check-ups for patients, and pretty much every other boring thing you could think of. All the while, he had to pretend like he gave a crap. He'd put on a straight face, as smiling wasn't his style, and go to the hospital. There, he'd perform what was asked of him quickly and efficiently. Anything to get out of this introductory period. In a couple of weeks, he'd proven himself enough to be allowed access to some of the reading materials of the branches. He began to break up the monotony of the busy work with some self-taught knowledge when he wasn't needed—anything to keep from stagnating in this wretched place. There were many things he read about, digesting books at a rather fast speed. Anatomy, Biology, Chakra Systems, and more were all subjects that he'd enjoyed reading about. However, the medical knowledge wasn't something you could just just around with. There was a certain order to these things, and he quickly realized that he didn't quite have the skill he needed yet. He was missing the basics. If he was to research anything properly, he'd have to understand the human body in a very intimate way. He began to focus his attention on human anatomy and general surgery, two subjects that he could use to springboard into the rest of the subjects he was interested in. Over the course of a couple weeks, he'd managed to tear through every recommended book on the subjects. The theory was easy enough, and while he went about other tasks in the day, he'd recite to himself, "...and the Lymphatic System is needed to keep the Cardiovascular System working properly. Hormones are what control chemical communication in the body, and they..." He sounded like a mad man, muttering to himself like that. He wasn't very sociable to his other trainees anyways, though, so he didn't really care what they thought. This continued until, eventually, books wouldn't be enough anymore...

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"Alright, I'm making an incision down the abdomen." Carefully with his scalpel, the young shinobi sliced open the flesh of the cadaver. The blade had pierced its lower chest cavity, off to one side, and was currently working it's way down the side of the dummy's torso. He kept going until he'd made it down to around the stomach, where he began to cut perpendicularly to that. He'd had to be careful not to puncture the stomach or intestines, not to mention the organ he was primarily interested in for this endeavor. Kotsuko's goal was to try and remove the dead man's liver cleanly, as an exercise. As he opened up the body by tearing away its skin, the young boy could see all of the cadaver's internal organs before him. He'd done this before, but it was always needed to keep things fresh in one's mind. He could see the liver, a bit shriveled and black, off to the left of the man's cavity. He must have been a drinker to have it in such a condition. It was right underneath the guy's diaphragm, making it just a little hard to reach—that was the point, though. Kotsuko's skill had developed in an odd way in this field, having learned to use some of his unique skills to suit his rapidly growing knowledge of the medical field. Putting down the scalpel, he reached one hand out to hover over a special jar full of iron flecks. Using his magnetic chakra, the young boy began to manipulate the sands to his will. He had them circle right outside of the cadaver's open abdomen, and slowly he had them slip into the body's cavities. The sand allowed the young boy to perform tasks that normally couldn't be done. In this case, he was using his sand to cleanly cut the liver apart from the rest of the body, starting from the back. "Gently now..." With such precise control over his magnetic sand, the young boy was able to make the proper incisions in the organ cleanly, and very effectively. Continuing to uses the sands, the boy lifted the liver out of the body and set it down on the operative table next to him. The sands were all brought out from the body he'd just operated on, and were deposited back into the jar from where they'd come.

Kotsuko looked at his handy-work, proud of the way that he'd learned to operate. He'd come a long way since that run in with the Sennin a few months ago, and was ultimately glad he'd swallowed his pride then. The amount of knowledge he'd been able to take in so far was profound, and he'd never have been able to do it if he hadn't gotten into the branch. The young boy stretched his shoulders, realizing he'd been hunched over the corpse for a while now. He'd have to dispose of it all properly, now that he thought of it...

Well, a bit more practicing with the other organs couldn't hurt, right? It's not like he'd miss them anyways...

 

[Shinrya Kitsune]

[Medical Specializations]
Anatomy, General Surgery - Experienced

 

[Kazu]

A few weeks went by, and Kotsuko had been permitted to take part in a number of surgeries during his duties. His odd method of opening up his patients had spread throughout the hospital, and pretty soon people were getting to know him as "that guy with the black sand." It was especially annoying for the young boy, considering that he was still focusing on many different subjects despite his already rapid learning. While the things he'd learned were useful in their own right, so far he was only able to assist in general surgical procedures. Yes, it took work and skill to get to that point, but there were a lot of doctors who were able to progress this far. Kotsuko would never accomplish his goals if he stayed at this level—he needed to be able to diagnose shinobi and understand the fundamental way in which chakra worked. If he was going to do that, he'd need to study on how the Chakra System worked.

Up until now in his surgeries, he'd had to kind of work around the chakra veins that flowed next to, and coiled around, a persons blood veins and organs. This hadn't been a problem for Kotsuko, due to his uniquely precise technique, but it had definitely been a sort of road block for the young boy. He'd been reading the theory for a while—he began about the same time as his readings on anatomy and surgical techniques, but he hadn't had time to put his knowledge into practice. It was time, though, to test his knowledge. He'd set aside some time every day, for the next few weeks, to do some in-depth study on the various parts of the Chakra System. "Let's do this," the young boy said as he opened up the cadaver he'd requested for this research. As he peeled away layers of skin and muscle, he came to the blood veins that anyone could see. The trick to chakra veins, though, is that they're very difficult to detect. Some shinobi had the ability to see chakra veins with specialized eyes or medical techniques—these were skills that Kotsuko sorely wished he had right about now. Instead of something flashy like that, Kotsuko had prepared with a bottle of a specialized serum that would make the chakra veins visible to those who lacked such gifts. The tricky part was finding the first chakra vein: Kotsuko had to concentrate his chakra into his palm, and carefully run his hand over the area where the chakra vein should have been. When exposed to chakra, even foreign kinds, chakra veins light up with a dull blue glow. The energy in the chakra jump starts the body's natural chakra flow, and temporarily makes itself visible. With the veins detected, the young boy was able to take a syringe full of the specialized serum and inject it into the chakra vein directly. "And there we go..." Pretty soon, the whole body's chakra network would be illuminated with a brilliant blue hue. The young boy could actually make some proper observations now.

Making some more incisions in the corpse, the young boy began to slowly examine the former person's chakra system. It was especially interesting how the chakra veins seemed to run along the same path as the blood veins; that is, until they get to the major organs. Once there, they began to circulate all around them, effectively increasing the amount of veins going in and out of these organs by a significant amount. Kotsuko theorized that the reason for this might be to aid in the process of creating new chakra, but he'd have to test that theory more thoroughly another time. He wrote it down in his notes, though, just so he wouldn't forget. By the end of his session with this corpse, Kotsuko had managed to map out a good portion of the deceased man's chakra system. The one thing Kotsuko had been looking forward to finding, but having been unable to properly locate, were the pressure points that chakra was said to pool at. Apparently there were little nodes all through out the body that acted as gates for the individuals chakra. The Hyuuga clan, with their Byakugan eyes, are said to be able to spot these chakra points and to attack them by shutting them down. It was kind of hard to mold chakra if it couldn't flow through your body. Perhaps he ought to try experimenting on these famous Byakugan eyes, next time? Regardless, his attempts to locate the chakra points on this individual had been fruitless. However, this failure would only spur the young boy to try harder.

 

[Shinrya Kitsune]

[Medical Specialization]
Chakra Systems - Experienced

 

[Kazu]

BGM: The Devil Is In The Details

Kotsuko waited, impatiently, as the centrifuge spun, and spun. The faint humming sound of it working was slowly chiseling away at the young man's patience, his fingers beginning to drum on the table's surface with an ever quickening rhythm. The vial of red liquid kept spinning. Kotsuko never took his eyes off of it, despite him having to hold the gauze on his arm in place. The small puncture didn't bother him, especially not when he was so close to being able to get some potential answers to the questions he'd had for years now. What, exactly, could he do? This may sound like an odd question to ask, but Kotsuko had never really understood his abilities as a shinobi. He knew he could control magnetic energies around him, and he knew he did this by turning his chakra into magnetic fields. This much he could postulate just through experience. Many people had told him that his powers must have been due to a Kekkei Genkai, a bloodline skill that was passed down from one generation to the next. The line of questioning usually ended there. However, Kotsuko hadn't just ended the search there. He asked his parents, researched into the matter, and had never been able to find someone who shared the same abilities that he did. How could his skills have been passed down to him if there was no one else of his family that had the same abilities? This discovery had made the subject curiouser and curiouser for the Sasaki. What kind of abilities did he actually have, then? Kotsuko had spent many months researching into the very nature of bloodlines, trying to understand how he might be able to track a person's lineage. If Kekkei Genkai were passed down by blood, then it was only natural to assume there was some sort of genetic sequence which was unique to that bloodline—a sort of genetic index, if you will. He could cross-reference his DNA with a database of known bloodlines, and could see whether he had any sort of definitive connection to any clan.

That's what he was waiting on now. He'd taken a sample of his blood a few moments ago, and was currently waiting for it to separate. He needed to get to the white blood cells, since they were the only part that could really give him any decent DNA samples. It took a few more moments, but once the centrifuge was done separating the blood sample the real fun could begin. Kotsuko extracted a little bit of the Lymphocytes, and took it over to another machine. It was here that Kotsuko would extract and purify the DNA, so that it could be used properly to cross-reference with a bunch of other stored data. The village, in its wonderful decision to keep tabs on many of its villager's medical information, had developed some of the most well compiled databases in the world. Thank Kushin, for that. He'd be able to tell if his blood matched any of the village's known clans, or any of the other clans they might have stray research on. All with the click of a button, these days.

Kotsuko loaded the machine, and began to process. It began to whir, coming to life with sound and light. The DNA sequencing wouldn't take too long, as the machine was rather advanced. The young man waited, impatiently, for it to finish. He could feel the machine's innards working, the metal moving around like messengers relaying commands. Eventually, however, the machine had an answer for him. It began to print a sheet of paper, with many complicated numbers and sequences on it. Ripping the page off, Kotsuko began to read through the jargon and the technical nonsense to find the really important information. As his eyes skimmed the page, his brow furrowed more and more. Finally he set the page down, trying to think through what exactly he'd read. Only a slight murmur escaped his lips, "...Santaru, huh? Figures."

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The following logs were discovered in the personal medical notes of one Sasaki Kotsuko.​

MEDICAL LOG #17
Reign of Akira Saito, Year XX
10:07 pm, February 17th

I've discovered an interesting phenomenon regarding the origins of my ability to manipulate magnetic fields. While the controlling of electromagnetic forces may have manifested itself as an affinity towards metal and magnetic objects, it seems that in it's most pure form the ability has more to do with electricity than anything. I've  ran a few tests on the iron sand when the magnetic fields are coursed through them, and I've found that they're actually reacting to a sort of electromagnetic current that's running through them at a microscopic level. However, there didn't seem to be any indication that this skill was linked to any bloodlines, as no one in my known family tree has any shinobi abilities to speak of. That's why I decided to run a DNA sampling of my blood, to see if anything came up positive.

Sure enough, it seems I've got some Santaru blood in me. It makes sense. High control over electricity, manifesting itself as Jinton Release instead of as a pure Ranton Release. Anyways, the important part about this is my discovery of the source of the magnetic control. If I can l can learn to tap into the control at a micro level, instead of always a macro level, then some new possibilities may yet reveal themselves.

//

MEDICAL LOG #18
Reign of Akira Saito, Year XX
1:57 am, February 21st

I'd theorized that the microscopic electric currents could be used to a much higher degree of control, and the data I've collected is revealing some very interesting phenomenon. An atom is comprised of protons, neutrons, and electrons — that much is common knowledge. The only thing binding them together is their strong and weak nuclear forces. However, electrons and protons each have a distinct charge, negative and positive respectively. Theoretically, with a degree of fine control it should be possible to forcibly rearrange the electrons and protons in an atom to form different arrangements, and thus different elements. It's a well documented fact as to how many protons, neutrons, and electrons exist in different elements, so all I'd need to do is take the parts from one element and rearrange them into another. It begs the question as to how accurately I'd be able to manipulate the subatomic particles, and also how long it might take to produce reasonable results on a large-scale. I'll worry about that, though, once I can prove it's feasible on a small-scale.

//

MEDICAL LOG #19
Reign of Akira Saito, Year XX
3:34 am, February 22nd

It worked! By Raiden, it actually worked! It wasn't a lot, but I was able to actually rearrange the protons and electrons of a few helium atoms in order to create double the amount of hydrogen! The leftover neutrons were dispersed, floating around as radicals. If left alone for long enough, they should turn into more proton, neutrons, and an antineutrino; however, this isn't a closed environment so they'll probably be absorbed by surrounding atoms before they can do that. It seems that, even at a microscopic level, my ability to generate magnetic fields is able to actually influence the subatomic particles in a meaningful way. The next step will be to be able to do this at a relatively larger scale, and with more speed and accuracy. I need to do more testing if I want this to go anywhere meaningful. This research isn't over, not by a long shot. I'll have to continue this privately — I don't want anyone to know these kinds of secrets. If it was revealed that this sort of ability existed, things might get a little troublesome.

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Only the dull light of the lamp illuminated the dark unlit room. A figure stood hunched over a microscopic, unmoving and still. He made no sounds, moving occasionally to adjust the magnification and scale of the little instrument. A few moments later, the figure stood up from his chair and procured a cup of coffee from a nearby table. He downed what remained of the drink in one gulp, placing the ceramic cup back down on the desk. It took him a second to realize it, but he'd placed the cup down on his personal notebook and had left a coffee ring stain on the paper. Scowling the young man brushed as much off as he could before giving up and placing the log on the table so that he could write on it. He scribbled a few notes down, keeping a record of the things he'd observed, and leaned back in his chair. At the top of the page, you could see the words "MEDICAL LOG #19." Without looking, he grabbed a tape recorder off of the desk in front of him and brought it up to his mouth. With a satisfying click, the tape began to whirl. "Audio log number twenty-seven. The experiment was a complete success. Hydrogen atoms are maintaining their structural integrity, and they don't seem to show any signs of decaying. No ions seem to have been created, and the free neutron seems to have been absorbed into other particles outside of the experiment. It's unclear how it would operate in a closed system, where it might be given enough time to decay into a proton, electron, and antineutrino. I'll have to run an experiment with these conditions to try and test the hypothesis. Otherwise, the experiment seems to have been a success. With this, it should be possible to change material composition on a large scale as well." The young man released the button on the tape recorder, finished with the notes he wanted to record. Dropping the device onto the table, Kotsuko let out a sigh of having completed an impossible task. A thin smile spread itself over his mouth as he leaned back in his chair. This discovery, though it was known only to him, would most definitely produce some monumental results.

 

[Shinrya Kahako]

[spoilername="Medical Specialization Unlocked"]Kotsuko gains novice in Chemistry and Bloodlines. Don't forget to update your profile! [/spoilername]