Height Doesn't Matter [Kato]

[Yamamoto Minami]

The closing bell had long since signaled the end of classes for the day. Most of the students left the academy as soon as their teacher dismissed them, perhaps even a little earlier, save for a handful of people who decided to stay behind for whatever reason; Minami was one of them. There was a certain part of the lesson that had struck an impression with her and she wanted to look into it a little further before going home.

"Of course, medical ninjutsu is not restricted to the techniques taught by the medical branch, but that's not a topic we will delve into for today's lesson," was what the teacher had said. She was interested in becoming a medical ninja herself, and having more options available to her certainly sounded appealing. Therefore, she decided to stay back and try to read up on these alternate medical methods the teacher hinted at; going back home early wasn't very appealing to begin with.

Minami's feet had taken her to the academy's library. Shelves upon shelves of scrolls were stacked for the students to read, though many of them went untouched. She started searching immediately after lessons ended, and her efforts had finally born fruit about an hour later. There was a scroll located on a particularly high shelf titled "Alternative Medical Ninjutsu" that sounded like it could contain what she was interested in. The only problem was that she could not actually reach it. At her height, she could barely even touch the bottom of the highest shelf even when she stretched as much as she could, much less grab the scroll itself. A ladder would have been convenient to have, but there were none in sight; the librarian must have put them away before going home.

Should she try to climb the bookshelf to reach the scroll? The idea left Minami's mind as soon as it had entered it. Not only was that reckless, it was against regulations. So she just kept reaching for the scroll in hopes that should could move it little by little when touching it from the bottom. It would take her a while, but it was possible.

[WC: 363]

 

[Michinori Kato]

As the bell rings Kato gets out of class and sighs a little as he can finally go relax. Suddenly he remembers his original plan
to go to the library and find books and the shadow arts. Though Kato was a tall kid and not one of the popular ones he never really tried to stand out but, shadows and working with them have always intrigued him.

After checking in with his teacher about a past homework that he missed. Kato heads to the library getting kind of excited to see what he will learn. Walking rapidly through the Academy he continues on to try and (eventually) find the library.

"I need to start coming here more often very quiet"Kato mentions in his head before turning down the aisles and looking across the shelves as he grabs his book on shadows before continuing to the next few areas.

Kato turns down one of the Aisles and sees the girl struggling to grab the book. "Hello there, would you like some help?" Kato says gently with a smile before helping her grab the book of she says yes. He emanates a slightly ominous aura but he seems to smile ever so innocently. "My name is Michinori Kato, what's yours?"

(Sorry IRL caught up with me all day)

 

[Yamamoto Minami]

Minami was a little startled to hear someone talking to her; she thought she was alone in the room. She momentarily lost balance and stumbled a few steps back, but managed to stay on her feet. She turned around to face a tall figure towering over her with a warm smile on his face. That was weird, she'd never seen this teacher before. Was he new? That might also explain what he was doing there at this time.

"Your help would be greatly appreciated, thank you for your kindness," she said while bowing politely. She accepted the scroll he so kindly offered her and cracked a momentary smile after finally getting it in her hands.

"My name is Yamamoto Minami, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Michinori. Pardon the question, but I've never seen you before. Are you perhaps a new teacher? It would be a great help if you could answer any questions I might have while studying this scroll. We weren't supposed to study this for our lessons, but I was a little curious about its contents," Minami said. After taking a closer look, this teacher looked a little young. He was too tall to be a student, but perhaps just a little too rugged to be part of the staff. What a curious fellow he was.

 

[Michinori Kato]

Kato keeps smiling before laughing a little. He understands that people get him confused a bit. As well as the fact that he has grown quite tall for his age. "Ah, no no. I'm not a teacher I'm actually a student. " He smiles at her.

Kato reached up for a second while scanning the shelves. After looking through the shelves he grabs a few different colored books. Kato goes through scanning them cover by cover while listening Minami. After a minute he puts back the rest of the books leaving just one book in his hand.

The book pitch black with seemingly grey figures stretching across it. He turns and looks back at the Minami and smiles. "So what are you here studying, Minami?"

 

[Yamamoto Minami]

He was actually a student? Even if he was a year or two older than Minami, that still made him much taller than any boy his age could normally be. But it's not like a deviation from the norm was that unusual; after all, Minami was below the average herself. She was actually a little embarrassed she jumped to conclusions so fast, though it didn't show on her face.

"My apologies, I assumed you weren't a student because of your height and because most others have already gone home. What I was looking for was a method to treat wounds using ninjutsu separate from the one most medical ninjas use. The teacher mentioned it was possible in my last lesson, so it caught my attention since I'm looking to become a medical ninja in the future myself," Minami said while pointing at the scroll's title "Alternative Medical Ninjutsu".

"What about you, Kato? It's rare to see anyone here after lessons are over."

 

[Michinori Kato]

Kato smiles to her and waves it off. "It is quite alright most people do that." Kato says while smiling to her before listening to her explain her reasoning. "A medical ninja? I don't see that so often extremely useful." Kato thinks to himself while continuing to listen.

"Wow, what got you into medical ninjutsu? if you don't mind me asking I just don't see that a lot of the time." He says as he kinda rubs the back of his head a little embarrassed.
"Alternative medical ninjutsu? interesting." Kato listens closely before talking "Huh alternative medical ninjutsus that is quite interesting I didn't think there was any. Have you found any yet?"

Kato listens before she asks him the same. "Well, after getting the few assignments I have missed from my teachers, I decided to come down to the library and try to learn more about the chakra nature of Shadows." Kato shows his book saying "Shadows and you."

 

[Yamamoto Minami]

Why, huh? Minami didn't actually stop to think about the reason before because she didn't really need to. The moment she was taken in by the Yamamoto clan, she had to follow their rules.

"It's because that's what is expected of me. As a member of the Yamamoto clan, I am meant to offer support to the other ninjas in the village. Joining the medical branch is the least I can do to achieve that goal," she said. It was probably not what Kato was expecting to hear, but that was the truth. There was no childhood dream, no moving story about a medical ninja saving her life; just a sense of duty.

"I only just started delving into this subject, so I haven't gotten any results yet. This scroll is the first one I've found that seems to have some promise, so I'm quite curious to see what its contents are," Minami said. Even if she didn't end up finding anything she could use herself, she was still curious about the logic behind it. Why would someone try to find alternatives to the conventional medical ninjutsu? What was it that they lacked?

From what Minami knew, Shadow ninjutsu was rather complicated to use. It was certainly not something you'd see any academy student mastering in their time there unless they had some kind of innate talent for it. This boy was very intriguing.

"Does that mean you can use Shadow ninjutsu? Could you possibly show me?" she asked.

 

[Michinori Kato]

Kato looks kinda sad at the fact it's expected of her but nods understanding. "Expected huh, well as long as that I'd what you want to do then it's alright." Kato smiles to her. "Sorry, just don't like the idea of being expected to do this one job and etcetera." Kato looks at his book reading it a little before he looks up to her.

"Well I'm not very good at it yet but, I can try." Kato takes a deep breath before he does a few hand seals and focuses. His body slowly starts to become that of an afterimage as the shadows envelope him, Kato looking a bit blurry to Minami before it suddenly disperses and he slumps a bit.

Kato looks up to her and rubs the back of his head smiling a little. "Ah, sorry I'm still trying to get used to this ninjutsu, wish I could of done a bit more to show you."

 

[Yamamoto Minami]

Minami carefully observed Kato's handseals and his chakra taking the form of a shadow before starting to envelop him. Was this the kind of technique that could completely conceal his form? She already had trouble making out his finer details, so she might be completely unable to even see him after the technique was done. But like he said, he was still not proficient at it; it was slightly disappointing. The shadows dissipated as quickly as they appeared and left no trace of their existence behind.

"I see, you can use shadow ninjutsu as a camouflage of sorts, huh? I'm really curious to see what the perfected technique looks like, but you needn't apologize about it. We're in this academy precisely because we're still learning," Minami said. It was already unusual enough that Kato could use such a complicated element at his age. Had he fully mastered its use, he would probably already be a Genin.

"If you don't mind me asking, how come you can use shadow element ninjutsu? I'm not that knowledgeable about it, but it's not something a beginner should be able to use, right? It's already a feat for an academy student to use a simple element like lightning or water, so I'm honestly surprised," she said.

 

[Michinori Kato]

Kato smiles a little before nodding. "Yes most of the time I do use it for camouflage but, there are some offensive things I do know just this really isn't the place to try them." He puts back his book before continuing. "I do have some elemental mostly fire and water but shadow is what I am trying to train with." Kato looks off into the distance for a bit as Minami asked him how he can even use shadows.

"Ah well I guess I just have a decent connection with them? I don't really know." He thinks a bit more before he looks at her. "It might be Basara that helps me.." Kato thought out loud before realizing and waving his hands. "N-never mind I probably just have a connection or something haha.." Kato smiles trying to change the subject but, if she did ask he is wondering wither or not he should tell her.

"I need to be more careful I can't be telling everyone about Basara.." Kato thinks to himself as he then looks at Minami. "I have to tell you though I've always been interested in the healing ninjutsus but for some reason every time I have tried I ended up actually hurting my target. How can you do the medical jutsus Minami?"

 

[Yamamoto Minami]

Minami couldn't help but gasp in surprise. Not only shadow, but fire and water too? How could someone who was able to use all three of those still be a student? The only way it made sense was if some bizarre stroke of bad luck made him fail his classes. It was already taking everything she had just to use one element, but this boy... And he could also use offensive jutsu with it? That could be nothing short the work of a genius. Perhaps she could learn a thing or two from him.

But there was something even he couldn't do, huh? "Actually, I can't use any kind of medical ninjutsu yet. Even the most basic ones are beyond my level at the moment, which is also one of the reasons I was looking into these alternative methods. But according to all the books I've read, it takes incredible patience, control, and precision. It's not unusual for medical ninjas to specialize in their field alone and have almost no knowledge of any elemental ninjutsu; though those are edge cases," Minami said.

"My suggestion if you want to seriously pursue medical ninjutsu is to focus entirely on it. You are currently trying to master the use of shadow ninjutsu, correct? Then it would be for the best if you prioritized that for the time being," Minami suggested. The same rule for studying applied to everything. You can't learn anything properly if you keep switching between subjects; ninjutsu was just another topic to memorize.

 

[Michinori Kato]

Kato slowly looks over at the clock just to make sure he still had time before his next class. He goes back and continues to listen to Minami while slowly regaining his chakra.
"I could ask if she would like to see the fire jutsu I use the most it doesn't take the much out of me."<i></i>

"Hmm..." is all Kato says after given Minami's tip. "That is probably why I can't learn medical ninjutsus I don't have patience." He laughs a bit "That is always the thing I need to work on. If when you start learning more you ever want to take up a student maybe you can tutor me? if your up for it."

"Kato it is too nice here time for some cold..."<i></i> The air around these two slowly drops in temperature as Basara tries to cause mischief. "You know with what you were saying how ninjutsus are something that you must studie and memorize I defintally can relate with that but, do you have just one type of ninjutus you just seem to get...naturally?" Kato looks at her generally trying to figure it out as Basara decrease the temperature a little more all the while laughing.