Of Like Tastes

[Willoria]

There were so many plans laid out in her mind, so many steps to be taken, and Ume had so much to do. It felt overwhelming, but at the same time it was exhilarating. She had a purpose again, a feeling she hadn't had in a very long time it seemed. She woke up to meet the day with a goal in mind and spent her entire day working towards it and that day had been no different. She had spent the earliest parts of her day training with Jinsai as had become their custom. If it weren't for the landscape of the village they would have been watching the sun rise as they trained. But once the day had fully begun she had showered and dressed in her usual daily attire to go in search of someone to help her train more complicated matters of Iijutsu.

She wore her usual green and blue dress, the fur-lined jacket discarded for the day and instead a bag slung over her shoulder with items she might need. It was filled with a few supplies for medical work but also to be able to take notes. She set off for the main hospital of the village on her own, insisting on it actually. It had taken some effort and arguing with Jinsai but as usual she had won out in her stubbornness in the end.

Before long she was in the hospital proper and made her way to the front desk to ask the first person working she could find. "I'm looking for Nyūsen Natsumi? I was told I could find her here today."

[Niro]

Natsumi had been stuck at the main hospital for the last few months helping with the war effort. It was basically her second home at this point; she'd go out on a mission to help secure some area or prevent another force from moving on their land then come back to the village and head straight to the hospital to tend to the wounded. Now that it was over, however, the flow of patients had shifted from overwhelming to manageable. She was able to find some time off to meet with her husband and check on his own progress.

For today, her purpose was more simple than usual. She was to take care of one of the greenhouses attached to the hospital which contained a special medical plant. It could be harvested for a myriad of uses by the hospital and was one of the key ingredients in making sure shinobi were able to return to the battlefield. Each plant had to be stimulate with a specific amount of chakra for it to blossom and even finer control was required to harvest it.

The receptionist at the front desk looked the woman in front of her up and down for a moment for injuries before looking over a chart to her left. Her nail glided across the paper until it found the name 'Natsumi' although the last name was different. The receptionist tapped it thrice before turning her attention back to Ume.

"You'll find her in the eastern greenhouse but she doesn't use her maiden name anymore. Probably best to just address her as Natsumi." The woman advised before pointing her in the direction of the greenhouse.

[Willoria]

'Maiden name?' Ume wasn't sure if that meant she should wish the woman a simple congratulations or not when she met her. The receptionist didn't make it clear how long it had been, though Ume made it a mental note to revisit the person she'd gotten the name from to ream them out for making her look a bit like an idiot for using an outdated name. She simply raised an eyebrow at the receptionist's remarks however and thanked her before following the directions towards the greenhouse. On the way she kicked herself a bit for not asking for the woman's married name. It would have made things a bit easier, or at least less awkward, if she knew what it was but she set the thoughts aside as she went. She was there to get training after all, what did it matter if she had to press through a couple of awkward moments to get what she needed?

She made her way to the greenhouse and pushed one of the doors open to try and find the woman. She wasn't hard to spot from the description she'd been given. She made her way over and gave a short, courteous bow. "Are you Lady Natsumi?" she asked carefully. "My name is Akari Ume, I was told to see you if I was interested in further medical training..."

[Niro]

The door to the greenhouse slid open quietly and the quaint echo of footsteps alerted the blonde haired woman to a visitor. It felt like every day someone was seeking her out for some sort of duty; to check some sort of fuuinjutsu, help with a portion of Jikukan research, or even just try to see if she knew where her husband was. Still in the middle of this particular flower, she didn't turn just yet and continued her focus on the plant in front of her.

"One moment, please." Her voice travelled from her lips, a bit more thick than one would expect when looking at her.

Natsumi gripped a planted pot with both hands and gathered her chakra. She directed it through the roots of the plant and along the entire stem before it coalesced into the yet-to-blossom flowers of the plant. From there, she coaxed it through the plant and watched as it blossomed beautifully into a large bushel of flowers. The flowers were a dark blue with flecks of orange along the edges of their petals. She picked up the pair of pruning scissors laying on the table and began to snip at the stems.

"If you're looking for help with medical training, this is the right place to be. These plants are grown by the hospital and processed to create several life saving medications. However, they only blossom with the right amount of chakra applied to them. They have a minimum amount of chakra required for their flowers to blossom but the more you put in and the better it's refined, the larger the yield." Natsumi explained as she finished removing the blossomed flowers and placed them in a large container at the end of the table. The blonde turned on her heel to face Ume and a smile graced her features as she stared her with her amber eyes. She swept her arm out behind her, across the entire greenhouse.

"What better way is there to get better at medical jutsu than by refining your control? Let's get to work."

[Willoria]

As she was asked to wait a moment, Ume fell quiet and waited patiently. She watched Natsumi with interest as she worked. She found the plants fascinating, already wondering if she’d be able to secure one or two for her own little office clinic at home if their uses were broad enough. If she could use them for her work in replicating useful shiin or even just helping young Akari have a safe place to seek healing, she’d love to have a couple. But it was a request to push aside for later.

She listened as Natsumi explained the plants, smiling as she gave more information about their use and found her interest in them piqued all the more. Though as Natsumi made it clear that Ume would be training with her by working with the flowers, Ume suddenly found the task daunting as she looked over the sheer amount of plants. She swallowed hard as she looked at them but she nodded quickly. ”To work then.” she agreed, moving to a table of the plants and taking up a position at a corner as she expected to be working her way through the entire table of them if she was able to do all of them.

She glanced at Natsumi before putting her hands on the pot of the first plant and started to channel chakra into it. She thought about what she had seen Natsumi do, considered the fact that the plant needed nourishment from the chakra itself and closed her eyes as she focused on not just the plant but specifically tried to focus on the roots of the plant. Of course the roots were buried in the dirt in the pot, but she tried to guide her chakra that way, tried to envision it seeping into the earth in the pot the same way water might in order to enrich the soil to enrich the roots.

As she envisioned the chakra encircling the dirt, so it did. It seemed into the dirt and sought out the roots and Ume took a deep breath as she tried to push it further. She needed her chakra to envelope and enrich the roots themselves to enrich the plant. For the moment the blooms did not respond, the roots soaking up the chakra Ume offered. Eventually she opened her eyes, frowning as she saw her own lack of progress but still she kept up with the flow of chakra as she tried to understand what she might be doing wrong. One hand left the side of the pot itself and she thrust her fingers into the dirt, hoping that maybe a direct connection with the plant might help her. ’Am I focusing on the wrong area?’ she wondered, looking at the plant for a moment.

Focusing more closely on her chakra flow she thought finally to guide it further into the plant, up the roots and further into the plant, the woman took another deep breath to try and force herself to relax as she worked. ’Stressing never helped anyone…’

Stat Training: Control (510/1000)

[Niro]

While Ume was busy trying to get her first plant to flower so she could begin to harvest it, Natsumi had taken to the next table over and was starting on another plant. She firmly grasped the potted plant and closed her eyes as she flowed her chakra into the base of it. She offered her chakra to it like water, allowing the roots to reach out on their own and begin to consume the energy. Once she knew she had established a connection between them, she gently but firmly increased the flow of chakra until the plant stem became taut and the pods began to blossom.

The gorgeous colors of the flower drew the eye for a moment before Natsumi began the process of cutting the stalks and prepping the actual flowers for usage. She took a peak over to Ume and saw her struggling just a teensy bit.

"You can force your chakra into it to start but you'll find it harder to finish that way. I find it easier to start by providing my chakra like a pool of water for the roots to find and then pump them full; immediately gunning it through them makes them fight it and try to self-regulate." Natsumi provided as a tip as she went back to her own.

[Willoria]

Ume frowned a bit, chuckling in slight embarrassment at the correction she received from the other woman. ”Patience has never really been my strong suit.” she admitted. ”Guess that’s something else I should work on… but I don’t think that’s something I can really train.” She glanced over at Natsumi and saw what she was working on. She was a little embarrassed to see she was already on to another plant and Ume herself was still working on this one. Of course she knew Natsumi would be moving much quicker, it was why she was there to learn from her. She was better than her. But she was still embarrassed, it wasn’t something she could help really.

She turned her attention back to the plant at hand and closed her eyes again. She tried to take Natsumi’s suggestions into account better. Rather than forcing the chakra in she tried to surround the roots as if offering the chakra, pooling it around the roots much like water would pool around them in nature. She kept her eyes closed and tried to focus on offering the chakra, rather then pushing it where she wanted it to go. It took a few moments, she could feel the roots still processing the chakra she had already force-fed it moments ago. But after those few moments had passed she could feel the plant begin to take the chakra she offered and a small smile crossed her lips.

”Working with the nature of the plant, not fighting against it.” she muttered, shaking her head. ”Makes sense.” She opened her eyes and watched the plant as she felt it take the chakra and she offered it more. Her smile only grew as she finally started to see blossoms slowly appear on the plant. ”I’m so used to ending life… to be able to encourage life instead… this is surreal…” she whispered. Naturally as an Akari she had been raised into so much bloodshed she had been accustomed to violence all her life. Her instinct had been to force the plant along much like she had been forced along all of her life. She had been forced to consume shiin, to kill, every step of her life included being forced or dragged along. Yet the plant she watched as it required a gentler touch, encouragement but not force. She watched the blossoms slowly open up and fan out as she gave a slow and steady flow of chakra to it rather than trying to brute force it. As an assassin her life had only become all the more violent.

For a moment she realized this was the first real step she took towards studying medicine, study beyond simple books for even in the field with jutsu her hands ended up covered in blood. But here in her hands was life. ”I think I’m going to like this… so much more than what I did before…” she said quietly. She couldn’t remember how long it’d been since a genuine smile crossed her face without burdens or baggage hiding behind it, but here it was.

Stat Training: Control (1025/1000)
1 Stat

[Niro]

"You'd be surprised. I was once quite impatient myself but I've learned that that impatience doesn't ever seem to help the situation. I can feel the tension rising in my shoulders and spreading through my back and neck as I look back on something just not going my way and my patience running thin. I eventually learned, with a bit of help from these plants, no matter how much I rush or how irritated I get it won't change what needs to be done." Natsumi explained as she moved to another plant and began to go through the motions with it.

"It is quite the nice change of pace at this level but the more advanced skills you learn, the more violent it becomes, just like anything else in this world. It's not uncommon for me to walk through the rows of recently wounded shinobi who've come back from a mission or a front and see gruesome injuries. Some'll be forced out of service, some'll be lucky to even learn the facility. Unfortunately, our world is a vicious one." Natsumi continued on, focusing her chakra into the plant's base and allowing it to feed from it.

[Willoria]

Ume nodded, sighing rather heavily as she listened to what Natsumi said on the matter of impatience. ”Impatience has cost me a lot in my life.” she admitted, unable to help it as memories of both Tatsuo and Kotaru came to her mind. Even memories of Koyama came up as she remembered times she was chided by him in training, and even his lectures the day he died, her stubbornness had literally led to his death after all.

She moved on to the next plant and slipped her fingers into the soil, feeling the roots with more gentle fingertips this time as she began differently with her chakra. This time she merely began as suggested by Natsumi and offered her chakra throughout the soil, gently filling the soil just as water might and allowing the roots to soak it up just as it might the nurturing water. As Natsumi mentioned seeing the wounded Ume found herself faltering for a moment, though it only lasted the moment. ”Yeah… I rushed into a mission without learning more Iijutsu before. A few years ago. My guardian died for that recklessness, if I had known Mystical Palm then I could have saved his life, instead he died in my arms.” she admitted, shaking her head lightly as she tried to focus on the plant even as she spoke of Koyama. ”But that’s part of why I’m here now, I’m tired of not knowing, tired of sewing only destruction as a shinobi… I want to know more about how to heal too. I need something more constructive in my life.”

Ume couldn’t help chuckling to herself as she felt the chakra she offered be soaked up by the roots, and slowly fed further up into the plants. She hardly knew this Natsumi woman, and yet she simply was bearing out things to her she knew better than to speak so openly on. ”I’m sorry.” she suddenly said. ”I seem to be talking too much today.” she admitted, shaking her head again. ’What is going on with me? Is it just because of seeing Kotaru so much lately?’ she thought to herself, taking a deep breath to steady herself and force old feelings back down as she tried to focus on the plant.

She was happy so far with what she could feel from the plant before her, this time she didn’t feel like she was stuffing chakra into it so much as it felt like her chakra was being accepted by it. Her chakra was flowing into it at a slow and steady pace and it left her with a small smile on her face as she felt like she could almost see it flowing up the stems and into the main part of the plant now. ”I feel like I’d love to have one or two of these at home… I bet it’d be handy for a small clinic, even if it is just a one room sort of thing.” she remarked idly. Her words were practically under her breath.

Stat Training: Control (506/1000)

[Niro]

Natsumi wasn't one to mince words when it came to battlefield deaths. She had been too many happen, either being the cause of them or trying to heal them. She knew not everyone made it home, something she had recently been starkly reminded of. "Well, then you've already learnt your lesson the hard way, unfortunately. However, it's not unlike others first wish they knew some sort of medical jutsu. I'd reckon similar situations would dominate a list or poll if any were taken among incoming medical ninja."

As they continued to work and Ume expressed an interest in taking home a plant, Natsumi's gaze wandered over the entire crop in an attempt to get an estimate. Satisfied with the current amount, she nodded to herself before piping up once again. "For every twenty you help me harvest, you can take one home with you."

[Willoria]

As another plant blossomed at her fingertips, Ume couldn’t help a smile. It was becoming akin to soothing to see, watching the plant blossom before her very eyes as she fed it her chakra. Perhaps it was almost more rewarding than healing a patient, if only because healing a patient felt almost more stressful than anything. There was almost always blood, sweat, and tears involved. This was almost relaxing with this beautiful reward attached, the process and reward both were so very different, and the results beautiful. ’At the same time though, aren’t the rewards of healing a patient beautiful in their own right?’ she thought to herself as she moved on to another plant.

Her fingers slid into the dirt, the cool feeling of the earth filling the gaps between her fingertips and even under her nails becoming something of a comfort in spite of the words spoken by Natsumi. The pain associated with thoughts of Koyami still came but Ume was thankful the tears could be held back now at least. She didn’t fall apart like she used to. Instead she took a deep breath and let it out slow without incident and simply nodded. ”It’s amazing how many things would be different if I could go back and change just that one thing.” she whispered to herself. But the regrets that tried to flood in with the words she released as quickly as she began letting her chakra flow freely. She let it all go as she offered up her energies to the plant.

Those regrets didn’t serve her anymore after all, they were useless to her. But this power was useful to the plant and that was what she needed to focus on. She smiled as the subject shifted and the other woman offered plants to her and that smile spread into a grin. ”Thank you.” she told her, her lavender eyes still fixed on the plant in front of her. ”It’s hard to get reliable care in the Akari compound sometimes, it’d be good to have something like this added… I’m trying to have even just a small clinic where my kin can go for care without fear of further harm.” It felt like a dream, one that might slip through her fingers if she wasn’t careful.

Just as she might lose the plant if she didn’t focus.

She quickly refocused her mind on the task at hand and continued offering her chakra to the roots below the soil. Once her mind was on the task at hand again she found it greedily taking the chakra again though she quickly realized there had been a gap in her offering. A look of concern crossed her expression but her lapse in attention couldn’t be fixed, that time had passed. All she could do was continue now and so she did. She watched and felt as the chakra moved along the roots and up into the flower, the blossoms slowly revealing themselves. They seemed to move slower this time, and the color seemed to be a bit off. Ume’s brow furrowed as for a moment she simply, ”Humph.” at it.

”What’s the biggest challenge you’ve ever faced as a medic?” she asked suddenly as she stared at her small puzzle.

Stat Training: Control (1049/1000)
2 Stats

[Niro]

"If you had a ryo for every time a medic had that thought, you may just bankrupt the entire world." Natsumi replied to the whisper Ume thought only she had heard. "Every medic has their 'if only I was' story. If only I was fast enough, if only I had enough chakra, if only I had more bandages...it goes on and on. If you allow yourself to wallow in it, you'll shrivel up and die. Not a physical death, but a mental death. You'll become so scared to move forward, to be ambitious towards something that you just freeze and you're stuck."

"Akari compound, huh? Good luck, the amount of violence on the street may not be as bad as it was when they first joined village but the wounds on those coming out of the Arena are...well. They speak for themselves." Natsumi left it at that. Not many non-Akari knew of the Arena and its true purpose; they knew from the rumors and stories that had morphed into something akin to the Akari eating any and every one. Natsumi opened her mouth to speak again but the loud speaker in the room buzzed to attention.

"Natsumi, we need you in the operating theater."

Instead, the woman sighed and began to head towards the exit. She'd clean up later, right now it was time to get prepped for another surgery.

"Feel free to take a few plants. I'll see you around." The blonde called over her shoulder as she exited the double doors and made her way down to the OR.