[Nue Toru]

Checking the clock on the wall Toru cocked his head slightly, seemingly annoyed with the moments ticking by that were being wasted. While his assistant for this experiment was not late by any means, his own early arrival was leading to wasted time. Toru was not normally one to arrive early, but he was admittedly rather excited at the prospect of today's experiment. If this semi-practical proof of concept worked then he knew the path he was moving down was not without fruit to be found.

Idly a hand moved to his abdomen, rubbing the flesh just above where his liver rested. He had to start small less he get himself killed due to an unseen complication or failure, but if this worked then surely he could do more with it. The question was, what limits if any would he discover. If he was lucky he would simultaneously find a way to kill others with ease while ensuring his own survival, but he was more than happy to settle for the later of the two.

"Wound, incision, permeation, severing, disconnect, attach, exit. Wound, incision, permeation, severing, disconnect, attach, exit."

He mumbled the words to himself softly a few times as if it were some sort of mantra. He knew that such a process would not be feasible in combat scenarios, but so long as he could be sure of the principle then he could figure out some way to hasten the process while only needing to rely on himself. If the technique could be developed as he imagined it, then any Nue could have a marginally better chance of surviving in any given scenario. . . that is if he chose to share it at least.

Quite honestly he was on the fence as to whether he should share it with any of his kinsmen. He had brought Reiji in as his assistant since he trusted the skills of a Nue more than others, but that did not necessarily mean he trusted the boy himself. Perhaps though, the two of them could come to an arrangement in this circumstance. At the very least Toru was willing to share the information with the boy if it ensured security against it leaking to others he did not choose to bring into the matter.

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[Reiji Nue]

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Reiji Nue

Reiji moved around the facility, his body snug into his own bodysuit. With one of his long white gloves in his mouth as he wiggled the other on his hand, the Nue made his way towards the point in space Toru had instructed him to go. As the second glove suited up the remaining hand, the young medic had to wonder exactly why Toru had called him there.

 The head medic wasn't much of...a sociable person. He preferred working alone. Which was kinda odd. Having friends meant having hosts to merge with. Or people that come and help you. Even then, the most odd thing was asking him to aid his research. He was just a junior medic all in all. Sure he was very very good at it, as almost all Nue were, but Toru's decision was still odd. He could have asked for just about anyone else there with more practice or experience.

Unless...the thing he needed to do was a thing only another Nue could do. So maybe it was a clan thing? Odd, the grinning man hardly caered for politics. This was the most likely explanation for what he was about to do.

"H-hello Toru-Sensei..." The young nue greeted the clanmate upon arriving to the lab. He was supposed to be there in about ten minutes, he made sure to anticipate his arrival to be ready, yet the other Nue was even more early than him. "I...w-what exactly are we going to do, Toru-Sensei?" The young kid would poke him againg to get a better idea of what exactly was going to happen.

- ❤ -

[Nue Toru]

As the hesitant words broke the silence that had taken root after his mumbling had subsided, Toru's head whipped around to locate the source of the sound. As his eyes came to rest on the younger Nue a wide, almost maniacal smile threatened to split his face in two. As the younger kinsman questioned the purpose of today's procedure, Toru's eyes took on an almost zealous gleam to them as he began to speak.

"Today we're going to push the boundaries of what might be possible, setting the foundations for a technique I've had in mind for awhile. Before we get into the details though, there is another matter to discuss."

Toru began to slightly crouch as he spoke, his face nearing that of Reiji's with his head turning slightly as if examining some particular aspect before him. As the silence took the air while Toru seemed to examine the young man before him his voice would eventually sound once more, this time as barely a whisper, the older man leaning in to perhaps an uncomfortable distance while he spoke. The gleam in his eyes was gone, replaced now by a dull almost dead stare.

"I need to know how well you can keep a secret. While I have the authority to run this little test, it's not something the majority of imbeciles within the village would approve of. So tell me Reiji. . . can you keep your mouth shut or are you the type of person who would be better off without a tongue?"

After his question, Toru simply continued to stare at the younger man, unblinking. He made no sort of hostile gestures and nothing in the tone of his voice indicated any sort of threat; if anything his voice had been as deadpan as if he had been discussing the weather or how many hours he had left in his work shift.

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[Reiji Nue]

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Reiji Nue

Reiji shrunk down when the other one promptly shoved his face in his personal space, blabbering something about tests and secrecy. If he needed to do secret stuff, then wouldn't be able to do it alone? He seemed to do alot of stuff alone. Maybe this thing was more complicated than usual. Reiji had to wonder what exactly was that complicated that it would require not one but two Nue to do.

So it was a secret thing and a thing that people would not look at and agree with it. Then again, since when they had ever said anything good about their techniques? Try as he might, people always pointed fingers at his clan, calling em parasites and other expletives. But hey once they are on the floor bleeding they don't mind the parasite merging with them, sedating their pain and then patch them back up.

"W-well, I don't see h-how this is any different from usual doctor confidentiality...Toru-Sensei..." The young Nue would answer, hoping that the reply given would be enough to get his cousin out of his bubble. "You're asking a second opinion on something, I don't s-see why I would go t-tell anyone about it." He would add. Not only that, but he also didn't have many people to even talk to, so he couldn't really tell anyone even if he tried.

- ❤ -

[Nue Toru]

The moment the word confidentiality escaped the young Nue's mouth, Toru's own mouth almost seemed to split his face in two with the wide grin that appeared. What would likely be to the young Nue's pleasure, Toru did in fact move out of his personal bubble; his hands moved to be clasped over his chest at the same time as his back was turned to the young boy. The older man seemed to vibrate with jubilation, words flowing from him with mirth equal to that of a child on the day of a festival.

"Yes! Yes, yes yes yes! Exactly! Not different at all. This is merely pushing the boundaries a little further as to the survivability of our clan. An emergency measure if you will. After all, if the medic dies then who could possibly save those who get injured? It's only natural, nay our duty to ensure our own well being first!"

With that last statement, Toru's arms shot out and away from his chest to quickly grab a curtain and tore it aside revealing the individual that had been concealed behind it. It was a man, likely in his thirties with numerous straps holding him firmly against a metal chair. The man's eyes were unfocused and his mouth gagged. Even to someone with less experience like Reiji it would be obvious that he had been sedated.

"Behold our lovely volunteer. A naughty, naughty boy who thought stealing the goods of the pitiful unlearned dullards was his best prospect at a better life. Not to fear though! With this act of mandatory volunteering he will finally be giving something back to the community he has only taken from up until now."

Toru now stood behind the man, slowly circling as he turn the chair to maintain his position behind while making the slack jawed man vaguely look towards Reiji. Toru's hands softly caressed the side of the man's head while simultaneously keeping it lifted and facing towards his kinsman.

"Before we begin Reiji. Tell me. What is the standard treatment to deal with unknown medication in a patient's bloodstream? That is, someone without our own abilities. Once you've answered you may cleanse the drug from his blood in any manner you like. . . without removing the restraints of course."

His eyes watched, unblinking the smile still threatening to split his face in two. It was a mild enough test from a medical standpoint, but from an ethical or moral standpoint the answer could prove enlightening about the younger man's thoughts when it came to experimenting on conscious humans.

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[Reiji Nue]

NOTES ❯ Yes I actually looked at med stuff for this.
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Reiji Nue

Reiji's eyes looked at the guy on the table, then back at his cousin, then back at the guy on the table. So this was some kind of experimentation of some kind of drug? Clearly, the guy was a criminal, and his cousin seemed to have been given permission to use them for his research. That, or he didn't have any permission at all and was doing things in secret again. The young nue sighed, not really sure how to go about it. Toru said it was the betterment of the clan, yet he didn't have a full picture.

Still, the answer for Toru's question was easy enough. He responded with absolute confidence. Being a member of his clan didn't mean he didn't know how to treat things the normal way. Not everyone could merge with people and fix them from the inside so he would need to be able to direct other medics with procedures.

"Observe person and patient safety, remove patient from source of poison and support vital function, establish and maintain a clear airway, ensure adequate ventilation and oxygenation. Monitor blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, respiratory rate, pupil size and responsiveness."

The young Nue would then move to answer the second part of Toru's would-be test. "The subject is clearly sedated. If we are dealing with an unknown substance in his blood, I'd rather run a dialysis on him if we are unsure of the complications that might arise between anesthesia and the unknown substance. I don't feel comfortable merging myself with something unknown."

- ❤ -

[Nue Toru]

Toru watched patiently as his younger cousin seemed to take in the situation. The young boy's face looked between him and the sedated man a few times before he finally began to respond. The response was a correct one, although the first aspect was more a means of buying time to evaluate what the effects of the poison were rather than removing it, but giving additional information hardly hurt. When Reiji mentioned preferring to use dialysis to remove the unknown substance from the restrained man's blood due to not knowing what complications might arise if he were to merge, Toru quickly nodded agreement.

"That definitely would be the safest course of action when dealing with an unknown poison and having all the time you desire such as when at this hospital. I however dislike wasted time, so we'll be speeding the process up some."

With that Toru placed his hand on the restrained man's chest just above the heart, his fingers merging into his chest slightly while his left hand reached out to hover over an empty steel tray. After a few seconds a small, but consistent plinking noise began as what looked like tiny beads began to drop into the tray.

"Do you know this technique Reiji? You isolate the foreign bodies by creating chitin cells around the foreign substance and then purge it from your own body. Obviously it goes much quicker if you connect yourself to the heart where all blood flows through. Granted I do know that this is Flunitrazepam, so it's really not much of a risk. Such a beautiful sedative, one of the most effective when administered correctly."

As the constant stream of plinking sounds began to gradually slow, the man on the table began to gradually regain consciousness. Naturally he squirmed against his restraints and muffled yells could be heard, but he was quite secure thankfully. That of course did not stop him from continuing to throw himself against the restraints futilely.

"Tell me Reiji, have you ever thought of what you would do in particular situations? Actively speculated on scenarios and how you might get out of them. I know that I have on many occasions where I had little else to do. One of the scenarios that stuck out in my mind was multiple organ failure in a combat scenario. An idea came to me you see a wonderfully terrible idea and it's that idea I want to test today."

As the plinking sound came to a full stop, Toru's right hand unmerged from the restrained man's chest. Toru's hands went wide for a moment as he extended his index and middle finger on each hand. The boy may not have realized, but on each hand Toru now had chakra scalpels at the ready.

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[Reiji Nue]

NOTES ❯ Yes I actually looked at med stuff for this.
HEX ❯ #3f85a3
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Reiji Nue

Reiji's mind turned back to the time he had to rescue Hakurei from his wounds when the Yuki jonin literally dropped in on him instead of going to the hospital. That had been a handful. He had to remain merged with the other one for three whole day and completely grow him a new spleen.

Trying to ignore the guy struggling on the restraints, he would turn his gaze towards his older cousin. He was familiar with the technique he was showcasing. There was not one single jutsu from his clan he hadn't already learned or begun training for. He nodded at him, then addressed the other topic.

"I admit it's hard to think on the spot, but I was able to save Hakurei from a ruptured spleen after he dropped in on me in the middle of the night. I had to remain merged with him for three days and regrow the whole organ from scratch while he lived off of mine. A-all in all...Y-Yuki bodies are very resilient."

He would gloss over just how much he enjoyed being with Hakurei. No need to point that out. He would instead return the attention towards the experiment Toru wanted to do. "Organ failure is a very threatening condition to treat, even for us. W-what do you have in mind?"

- ❤ -

[Nue Toru]

As the young man explained the troublesome situation he had been involved in, Toru nodded his head in eager understanding. His statement of Yuki bodies being very resilient was quite a true one, Toru having always preferred merging with people from the village compared to enemies in the field. Being in a healthy body always felt so much more comfortable and safe compared to the weak bodies one often found on the Southern continent.

"It is indeed a threatening condition! Most would die within minutes of suffering such grievous wounds if left untreated. This brings us to a question that came to my mind. What if there were some handy spares laying around."

As he said the last sentence Toru's hand began to pat the restrained individuals head as one might a prized bull ready to be brought to slaughter. His eyes were dull and without any hint of mirth, but his face remained in the unsettling grin.

"Imagine, you've managed to escape a hard fought battle with grievous wounds in an enemy city, their civilians are all around you. Surely the death of an enemy civilian is a far better outcome than your own death. You could merge with their body, but who knows if they'll be complacent in your intrusion. We can't remove the organs with permeation though, at least not through the normal method."

As if to emphasize these words, Toru formed a small thin layer of chakra onto his hand. For a few moments Toru looked between himself and the man restrained on the table before turning his smiling face to stare at Reiji; this time there seemed to be genuine excitement in his eyes. Without any indication the chakra blade moved down quickly, piercing Toru's own upper abdomen directly where his liver laid. The moment it made contact, the hand dragged across from his right side to his left leaving his liver horribly wounded and blood pouring down his front and onto the operating room floor.

"This should be very interesting."

There was obvious pain in Toru's voice, but happiness resided right alongside it in a twisted union at the temple of his ambition.

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[Reiji Nue]

NOTES ❯ Yes I actually looked at med stuff for this.
HEX ❯ #3f85a3
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Reiji Nue

Reiji had little time to ponde anything his cousin said because said cousin decided to open himself up from side to side. The young Nue jumped at the gesture. He knew Toru was kind of crazy, but had he finally gone into full on delirium or was this an elaborate plan to kill himself? Was this supposed to be some sort of test for him? To see what level of mastery he had over clan and normal medic technique? Toru was extreme but this was kind of too extreme, considering the damage he had inflicted on himself. He could very well die if he didn't get any healing that very moment.

"Toru-sensei!" He exclaimed, scrambling around at the copious bleeding trying to find a hemostat, supplies-anything that would stop whatever had gotten into his cousin's head. "I am one hundred percent sure this is not how you treat organ failure, you need to lay down before you bleed out!"

- ❤ -

[Nue Toru]

While Toru managed to keep the smile on his face, the slight grunt of pain as he pulled the chakra blade from his abdomen made it clear that he was not okay by any means. Letting the chakra dissipate he focused on his younger cousin for a moment, taking on something of a confused look before responding to what he said.

"Of course not. This is how you cause organ failure. You can't treat organ failure if no organs are failing after all."

Shaking his head with a look as if Reiji had said one of the most foolish things that Toru had ever heard, the head medic moved himself closer to the patient on the table. Reaching out a hand and lifting a leg as if to shove him off the bed with his hip; Toru instead began to merge with the restrained patient through the cellular permeation technique.

Within the span of a few heartbeats, the majority of Toru's body had disappeared into the body of the man restrained on the table with only Toru's head, right shoulder and right arm remaining outside its new home. While there was always a part of Toru that enjoyed being inside the body of another, a certain level of satisfaction in knowing he had so many redundant organs and flesh protecting him; he was far more satisfied with knowing he was taking a step forward.

Now, typical medical doctrine among the Nue would mean Toru should have just kept himself connected to the patient to ensure his survival by stealing blood from the prisoner to make up for the blood loss caused by his wound; the idea being to keep himself alive long enough to heal the damage his liver had suffered. While Toru had clung to that wisdom dozens of times throughout his long life, this was not the time to be safe, but to push the limits of what he could.

Slowly Toru gathered his chakra and sent signals to the point where the prisoner's liver connected to the rest of his body and triggered apoptosis in those specific cells. Even as those cells died Toru shifted his cells via permeation. The cells of his ruined liver were shifted away until the organ seemingly slipped out of the prisoner's where it dangled precariously above the floor. Simultaneously the points where his liver had connected to the rest of the body moved in to replace the dying cells of the prisoner that had been killed with apoptosis.

"Take the ruined organ and do what you can to repair it. He'll be needing a new one soon enough. Would be a shame to lose a valuable test subject with a single procedure."

Once Toru was sure that those cells were securely affixed to his own he tried to move. This time though he did not try to move through permeation, at least not completely. Instead he merely tried to slowly sit forward attempting to pull the organ towards the surface of the prisoner's abdomen through force since he could not control it through permeation.

Naturally a cry of pain resounded in the room, both from Toru as well as from the prisoner as the organ was trying to foribly push its way up to the muscle at the abdomen wall. Still, even as Toru cried out in pain, there was a zealous glint in his eye. So far everything was going well or as well as it could be for the first trial. Naturally Toru already had dozens of notes on how he would need to improve the process to speed it up.

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[Reiji Nue]

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Reiji Nue

Reiji was completely confused about the meaning of whatever was going on, not only that but he wasn't kinda okay on what was going on. Toru was doing some weird and clearly painful things to the other guy and it was clearly contradicting the whole point of being a doctor. Do no harm and all that. 

He guessed being a shinobi first was what Toru thought of himself.

He quickly went through the motions to just do as he was told and do so in the least painful way he could. He just hoped to be done soon so he could just get back to his own stuff and forget what he was seeing..

"I would very much like to know why you're subjecting someone to this kind of experiment. Enemy or not I don't see how this is anything useful." The young nue reiterated with as much skepticism in his voice he could. Perhaps he could come back later to the guy on his own just to merge and soothe the guy's pain. That felt the right thing to do.

- ❤ -