…
Murakami sat under the shade provided by the roof of his balcony with Aiko by his side.
"It's rare to have this much free time with you." Aiko said then looked at him. "You don't have any new projects to work on?"
Murakami shrugged. "None at the moment."
He had done the best he could in trying to understand the thread of energy he acquired after breaking through his body's limit to reach the *skin refining*, but till now, he was unsure of it's full capabilities.
"Hmm." Aiko hummed and narrowed her eyes at him. It was rare for Murakami not to have something doing at one particular point in time. So for him to say this could only mean he was stuck. "You're stuck aren't you?"
Murakami neither agreed no denied and said. "I just need to live like a normal Shinobi and complete more missions."
"I didn't know there was a category of normal and abnormal amongst shinobi." Aiko rolled her eyes at him.
Murakami didn't bother with her words and asked. "Have you come in contact with medicinal plants that help with strengthening the body?"
"Medicinal herbs for body strengthening?" Aiko asked, then shook her head. "Unfortunately not, but perhaps you could ask your Nara best friend."
"Katsuro?"
"Yeah." Aiko nodded. "The Akimichi clan should know a thing or two about that. They do have those secret energy pills they use to boost their chakra by converting excess fat at the cost of their health."
"Hmm." Murakami hummed but didn't react to that. He was already aware of the three colored pills of the Akimichi clan, but that wasn't what he was interested in.
He was focused on getting stronger but he wasn't about to do that at the expense of his health. What would then be the point of being strong with a sickly body.
"You don't seem interested in that." Aiko said and Murakami shook his head.
"Not at all." He paused as he found the right words to use. "The herbs I'm curious about are the herbs that have components that aid in strengthening various parts of the body."
Aiko's brows furrowed at his words. She understood what he meant, but at the same time, she didn't.
She was aware that there were certain herbs that are used to treat different kinds of wounds and sickness, but this was the first she was hearing about herbs strengthening the body.
"Do you mean the herbal medicines we use in the hospital?" Aiko asked, tilting her head. "Like medicinal compounds?"
"Something in that direction," Murakami said. "What do you have?"
She thought for a moment, organizing what she knew.
"Well, there's Kika Root we use primarily for blood circulation. It thins the blood slightly and improves flow to damaged tissue, which is why it's common in post-surgery recovery."
"It speeds up how fast nutrients reach the injury site." She paused. "Though it's only useful in controlled doses. Too much and it works against clotting."
Murakami nodded in understanding. "What else?"
"There is the Moxa Leaf. That one generates localized heat when processed and applied to specific pressure points. We use it to stimulate chakra pathway recovery after serious blockages. It doesn't do anything to the pathway directly, it just makes the body's own recovery response work faster in that area." She tapped her chin.
"There's also Genkon Bark. It's bitter and difficult to process, but it reinforces cellular density in muscle tissue when taken consistently over a long period."
"We use it for shinobi recovering from severe muscle trauma who need to rebuild from a significant loss of mass."
Murakami's attention sharpened slightly at that last one.
Aiko noticed.
"Genkon Bark?" He asked. "Tell me more about it."
Aiko straightened slightly, shifting into the particular posture she took on whenever a topic crossed from casual conversation into something she actually wanted to get right.
It was Murakami asking afterall. He was like the mentor she didn't want looking down on her.
"Genkon Bark comes from a tree that only grows at high altitudes, cold climates mostly, which is part of why it's not common down here." She began, organizing her knowledge as she spoke.
"The active compounds in the bark are what the hospital calls 'structural reinforcers'. They don't heal damage the way a standard medical compound would. They don't close wounds or reduce inflammation."
"What do they do?"
"As I said earlier, they work at the cellular level. Taken consistently over time, the compounds bind to muscle fiber and gradually increase its density, not in size, but in structural integrity."
"A muscle treated with Genkon Bark over several months becomes more resistant to tearing under high load." She paused. "The hospital uses it specifically for rehabilitation because it rebuilds damaged muscle stronger than it was before the injury, rather than just returning it to baseline."
Murakami was quiet for a moment. "Side effects?"
"Bitterness aside…" she made a face, "... the main concern is joint stress. Denser muscle fiber puts more load on the tendons and joints it attaches to. If someone took it without corresponding care for those connective tissues, they'd be reinforcing one structure while quietly overloading the ones around it." She glanced at him. "Which is probably why nobody's thought to use it outside of supervised rehabilitation."
A moment of silence passed as Murakami considered its effects. Aiko made it sound like there were a lot of disadvantages to using it without supervision, but he wasn't one to care for that.
Supervision or not, he wouldn't ingest something that could potentially ruin him.
"Make more research into it," Murakami said.
Aiko gave him a long look. "You're thinking about taking it, aren't you."
He didn't confirm or deny it, which was confirmation enough.
Afterall, as along as proper research was made, he would know in which direction he would go.
She sighed, but nodded. "I'll look into the dosage literature. Processing methods too; raw bark is too inconsistent for controlled intake, the concentration of active compounds varies too much between samples." She paused. "It'll take some time."
"Take the time."
He was still in the skin refining stage; a long way from muscle refining. There was no need to rush.
"I will." She settled back, then glanced at him sideways. "Are there others you want me to look into? Or is it just Genkon Bark?"
"Others," he said. "Anything with compounds that work on the body's physical structures specifically. Skin, flesh, bone, muscle, tendons." He paused. "Anything that reinforces, refines and heals."
Aiko stared at him for a moment.
"You're not asking about medicine," she said slowly. "You're asking about enhancement."
Murakami said nothing as he kept his gaze steady.
She turned the thought over, working through its implications with the methodical patience of someone who'd spent months training herself to think like a medic.
It wasn't a small ask, the distinction between medicinal application and physical enhancement wasn't one the hospital literature spent much time exploring, precisely because nobody had ever thought to draw that particular line and then walk along it deliberately.
"That's a different kind of research," she said finally.
"I know."
"It'll take longer."
"I know that too."
Another pause. She exhaled.
"Skin, flesh, bone, muscle, tendons," she repeated, committing the list. "Reinforcement, refinement and recovery." She looked at him. "Anything else?"
"Marrow," Murakami added, almost as an afterthought. "If anything exists for that as well."
There was the stage of marrow cleansing in those martial arts worlds after all. He couldn't exclude that possibility in this one.
Aiko's brow climbed slightly at that last one.
Marrow research sat at the far edge of what the hospital even considered accessible territory, the literature on it was sparse, the compounds involved obscure and largely untested outside of theoretical texts.
She looked at him for a long moment.
"You're going to make my medical career very strange, you know that?"
"Probably," Murakami smiled and said, there was something close to quiet amusement in it and Aiko picked up on it.
"Then I'm looking forward to seeing what wonder you'll create." She said but Murakami chuckled.
"Who said anything about me creating them?" He asked and stood up.
Aiko blinked. "What do you mean?"
Murakami looked down at her with the same even expression he gave most things. "I said make research into it. I didn't say anything about me creating them."
It took her a moment to put things together. Then her eyes narrowed. "You mean me."
"You're the one training to be a medical-nin."
"I'm a first year genin on the medical track."
"Who just got fast-tracked into real rotations," he said, turning toward the sliding door. "I have every confidence in you."
"Murakami." Her voice carried the particular weight of someone who had just realized they'd walked into something and couldn't quite identify when it had happened.
He paused at the door, glancing back.
"You said you wanted to be the best kunoichi you could be." His tone was the same as it always was, flat, unhurried, and entirely unreasonable. "Being the best medical-nin you could be is a part of that."
Aiko stared at him for a long moment.
She thought about arguing. She had several good arguments available. She was twelve years old. The hospital's research library required a senior medic's clearance for anything beyond basic texts. She had rotations starting next month. She hadn't even mastered chakra scalpel precision yet.
She also knew, with the particular resignation of someone who had known this person for most of her conscious life, that none of those arguments were going to do anything useful.
There would be a sound counter argument for every excuse she could come up with.
"Fine," she said finally.
Murakami nodded once, satisfied, and stepped back inside.
Aiko remained on the balcony a moment longer, watching the late afternoon light settle across the rooftops of the residential district, turning the thought over with the quiet and slightly incredulous feeling of someone who had come over for dinner and somehow left with a research assignment.
She looked down at her hands, the same hands Tsubaki-sensei had told her last week showed unusual promise in diagnostic application, and thought about Genkon Bark, and cellular density, and marrow, and the particular way Murakami had said "I have every confidence" as though it were simply a fact he was reporting rather than an opinion he was offering.
She exhaled.
'He's going to get me to build something no one's ever built before and act like it was obvious the whole time,' she thought, with equal parts exasperation and something she recognized, after a moment, as anticipation.
She stood, smoothed her clothes, and headed inside.
The lights adjusted as she moved through the house. At the entrance, she pulled on her sandals and lifted her bag from the hook beside the door.
Murakami was in the kitchen, already cleaning up the last of the dishes.
"I'll find what you're looking for," she said.
"I know." Came his even response.
She left, the door clicking shut softly behind her, the Keystone Seal shimmering once as it re-engaged.
Outside, the village had settled into the easy noise of early evening, Aiko walked home with a research list in her head and the distinct, familiar feeling that her life was about to get considerably more complicated.
But…
She didn't particularly mind.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Like what you read? Vote and Add to library for more. Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.
I'ma be writing and posting on my patr@on page for a while. Interested individuals can check it out here. I've got extra chapters there.
[email protected]/This_Young_Lord