[Mikatakujira Ruto]

Wandering was how Ruto spent a majority of his time these days, moving from one small village to another to decrease the chances of being found, followed. He tried to live a simple life, one that wouldn't draw too much attention, but he was still forever gripped by a subtle paranoia. That meant he always had to be on the move. Occasionally, this wandering would bring him back to places he had visited in times past. 

In Bird Country, he knew of a small orphanage with a medical practice manned by a young man who was still getting his medical bearings. Ruto had helped him once. The injured were always safer in his hands than the sick. He wasn't interested in blood, just decay. In that way, he had made something of an ally, though he hesitated to describe anyone with that label these days. 

He came bearing some supplies. Just a small package of things that are always usefully donated, such as fresh bandages and clean needles. Things he could afford to purchase; his wallet was chronically empty. 

The people here knew him, just vaguely, in the way many people in many small villages did. The kindly doctor who briefly visited and then left again. 

He arrived at Hotaru's practice and waited patiently for him to come out, not wanting to interrupt any appointments he may have. 

[Uchiha Hotaru]

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MEDICAL SCHOOL 医科大学

Hotaru- or Kazutoshi as he was known, had made his home into a small hospital. Only one room on the top floor had he kept for himself as a private quarters. Below he had a small staff of assistants, mostly young adults whom he had never found homes for that he relied on to keep the place running. He had basically trained them to act as nurses and administrative assistance.

Connected to his home was another two story building where abandoned and rescued children resided. Between his practice and the occasional criminal activity outside of these lands, it was a thriving orphanage better than most. In fact the first person that Ruto would encounter would be a shirtless young boy with a bit of a potbelly walking by munching on an apple. The boy passed them as the door opened.

The door to his home slid open and Hotaru stood, he was in a relaxed attire today, a sienna yukata.

"It is nice to see you, sensei,” he said with a bow. The medical supplies that they brought with them were vital to his operation, as he tried to avoid going east as much as he could. They had always been helpful to him, though he was suspicious of their mastery of medicine. They had to have been from a village, with the skills that they possessed.

But contrary to popular belief, there was a such thing as a stupid question. Ruto hadn’t done anything to make him weary, and they were the closest thing that he had to a teacher left in this world.

"Thank you for coming to visit, you must be weary from your travels,” he said. He could see the supplies they carried, but he was never one to be presumptuous. "Would you care for tea?” he asked.

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[Mikatakujira Ruto]

Kazutoshi came out to greet him and Ruto nodded his head in a small bow in turn. All those social formalities still sat so strangely on him even though he'd been reintegrated into society decades ago at this point. Now that he was out roaming on his own, he felt such things slipping. Was it not possible to show respect more through actions than idle little mannerisms? There was no real point to ceasing. People put much stock in their signs of respect. It would be harder to gain trust if he acted oddly. 

"I'm not too tired," he said, voice soft, a smile on his face. It was the tired sort, the sort that barely reached the eyes. "I've been travelling for a long while, after all." Two years on his own, but he'd been a wanderer long before. "I appreciate the concern, however, and I would enjoy some tea," he said. 

He came to the young man and held out the supplies. 

"I picked these up on my way here. I wasn't certain if you needed them, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to provide." 

An orphanage is always in need of proper donations for things like this, especially one attempting to run its own medical facility. The small children must be a lot to handle. He's treated them before. They can be fussy, difficult, obstinate. Some adults are like that, too, though. 

"How have you been?" 

[Uchiha Hotaru]

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"Please come inside,” Hotaru said as he slid the door open and allowed room for Ruto to pass. The first floor of his home had been turned into a makeshift medical facility. There was a desk with young adults manning it, with several log books stacked on the table. The rest of the room was lined with privacy curtains, some closed. In the ones that were not there were empty cots.

"I’ve been well,” he said as they entered. Behind the desk was a stairwell leading up and an elevator with a hand crank. To the right of it was a kitchen area and at the end of that a large bay window with a sitting kotatsu table that awaited them. Moving through the kitchen was somewhat hectic, as teenagers were cooking large pots of rice to feed the children of the orphanage. It was a small ecosystem that he was pushing towards self-sufficiency, but it still relied on the occasional bit of mercenary work on his part to keep functioning.

On their way he grabbed a kettle that was being kept hot for him. He inspected the goods that Ruto had brought for a brief moment as they sat down. Sighing with relief at the sight of sutures and antibiotics, he tucked the package away for the time being.

"Thank you,” he said as he withdrew two cups and began to pour for Ruto. "I was out of synthetic sutures, and producing them from linen is quite time consuming.”

He had shown his hand at having some knowledge of medical ninjutsu in the past, but he was lacking many fundamentals such as creating sutures from chakra.

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[Mikatakujira Ruto]

Ruto followed closely, looking around the place as he joined his companion. The kitchen was interesting. It was lucky it was attached to a hospital. In his years of medical research, he had learned that kitchens, especially those manned by youths, were hotbeds for disease activity. Being at least moderately overseen by a doctor probably meant that these quarters were cleaner than most, less likely to spread illness to the children in the orphanage. 

He sat politely across from Hotaru and folded his legs under him, finally taking off the hood of his robe and letting it relax around his shoulders. He watched Hotaru inspect the supplies. 

"They are difficult to create," Ruto agreed. "I've had to hastily make supply before. It's difficult to prepare them in an emergency, though. That is part of why I taught myself the chakra stitch technique," he admitted. Though he was fond of experimenting, he never really relished others dying. One time being unable to stem another shinobi's bleeding had been enough to convince him to acquire the skill. 

Hotaru was a skilled doctor, but he certainly lacked much experience in the jutsu realm. Wherever he had run from, he had done so before he could finish his learning. Or he was a wandering nin. Ruto had never bothered to ask, and would continue not to so long as he was extended the same courtesy. 

"Do you need a lesson in how to utilize them?" 

[Uchiha Hotaru]

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Hotaru poured tea for himself next, and took a small sip as he listened to Ruto speak of the chakra suture technique. He even offered a lesson. His usual manner of staying cool and timid was betrayed by a brief look of excitement before he quickly collected himself.

"Anything you can do to help would be appreciated,” Hotaru said. He had been trying to get away from seeing things as debts. It wasn’t giving aid that made him embarrassed but receiving it, making it harder to adhere to the philosophy. By instinct he thought of how he could return Ruto’s kindness. "As always, so long as there is a bed free you may board here so long as you wish.”

He had said that more for himself than for Ruto, who likely needed no reminder. He kept the hospital bed on the second floor next to his room ready for this benefactor or a patient in need of long term care. Usually things were pretty tame in these parts, so it was usually open.

"I’ve tried to emulate that technique before, but I can’t seem to find the right way to mould it just by guessing. I can get the string shape and the thickness, but it is like an uncooked noodle and will not bend.”

His chakra control was good but it was subtle nuances of not finishing his training that made things like this difficult to perform. He had likely taught himself a bad habit in trying to ham fist the jutsu together without proper instruction.

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[Mikatakujira Ruto]

That was an issue many younger shinobi ran into in their training, he recalled. They found that the forms either felt too rigid or too loose, refusing to move or hanging limply. Neither was ideal. In some ways it was difficult to practice without having a target to practice on. If you just tried to create the strings without affecting injured flesh, you do not have the body's own criticisms to compare against. However, it was also far too risky to employ it in an emergency situation without confidence. It made it a rather tricky technique to perfect for many. 

"If you're making it too rigid, it sounds like you may be taking the chakra concentration too far," Ruto speculated. "It's a very delicate technique. You have to severely condense your chakra without going overboard. I find it useful to look at sutures themselves. It can be difficult to see at this scale, but if you held it under a microscope, you'd see many small overlaying fibers. They're not one solid structure, but rather a collection of microfilaments. If you're trying to create one single thread like a puppeteer might, that may be your issue." 

He reached into one of the pouches hidden beneath his robe and took out a knife, palming it. 

"Getting practical experience may be more helpful. If we sterilized this with some of that boiling water, I wouldn't mind making a careful incision on my forearm." 

[Uchiha Hotaru]

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Think of it like a real suture. He hadn’t thought of it that way, and Ruto’s call that he was basically making a failed puppet string was likely correct. Maybe if he spent four or five years on it he could make something of it. It was an entertaining thought, but shikon no jutsu was enough of that kind of nonsense for him. He didn’t have time for it.

Before he knew it Ruto had brought out a knife and was offering to make a small incision. He tensed up for a moment and wanted to tell Ruto of the cadaver he used as a decoy sealed in a scroll upstairs… but he wasn’t sure how they would take that information. Hotaru didn’t see anything wrong with it but understood that many had a taboo with the dead.

He would trust that his teacher wouldn’t offer it if he wasn’t able to correct any mistakes. He took the needle and placed it into a small dish, pouring boiling water over it to let it sit.

"I know you could fix it without a problem if I made a mistake,” Hotaru said in his normal soft spoken manner. "But thank you, it will not be in vain,” he assured.

While the needle was sterilizing he made a hand seal. Instead of making a straight line of chakra he made tight compacted coils at a microscopic level. The suture that he formed in his hand had a bit of an odd curl to it, like loose fishing line. Thanks to his old habit of making a straightened construct he had been trying to cure it by using less chakra to make it thinner. The result now was born from those overcorrections and using too little of his chakra.

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[Mikatakujira Ruto]

"I don't mind it. There are some things you can only learn through experience," he said. "Sometimes it's better to learn them in a controlled environment than under immense pressure. I'm happy to let you do this now if it means you can save someone in the future." Though he did not value life particularly much, it was still true. Many other people cared about that sort of thing. It would distress Hotaru if he were unable to save one of the children under his care because of his own inability. 

Once the needle was sterilized properly he took it from the hot water and rolled up his sleeve. They took a moment to find a decent place, using their anatomical knowledge. They didn't want to do any permanent damage. Using the needle, they dragged it across the back of their own forearm, where they were less likely to damage any tendons. 

The blood pooled, but it wasn't anything too severe. Honestly speaking, they probably wouldn't even bother with sutures if this happened to them in an actual fight, but that made it a decent practice subject. They weren't in genuine danger of bleeding out. They made sure the blood didn't drip onto Hotaru's table, looking up at him to ascertain if he was ready. 

"That's closer," he speculated as he looked at the stitches currently held by Hotaru. "That could work in a pinch. You aren't concentrating enough into it." 

[Uchiha Hotaru]

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Hotaru nodded and felt the suture in his hands, he was able to pinch his finger down and break it far too easily. He closed his eyes for a moment and then formed the hand seals to begin making another attempt.

"How do the roads fair?” he asked as he formed another suture in his hand, tiny microscopic particles of chakra interweaving with one another. "I’ve heard little news of late.”

He always tried to keep track of happenings in the shinobi villages. Particularly with politics between Sunagakure and Iwagakure when they arose, as Tori bordered both nations. He also always kept an ear out for news of his homeland as well. He thought it unlikely the leaf would ever venture this far, but was weary sharing a border with one of their allies.

He would open his palm and the suture that he had formed this time was definitely stronger, there were some odd little notches in the threads like little plastic bumps where the execution wasn’t quite perfect and little bursts of too much chakra had made small concentrates.

"I could probably use this, but I know it could be better,” he said. It was frustrating, he had a good grasp on chakra control but new things took practice and patience.

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[Mikatakujira Ruto]

He kept away from bustling noise for the most part, away from major cities, where the chances of him being caught by hunter nin where higher. He wanted to stay alive and live freely as long as he could, until he had finished his research and could be harmed no more. Of course, that meant he was largely disconnected from society, from all the interesting going-ons out in the world. 

There were dangers to living in such uncontrolled places, too, though. No ninja village in the nation meant they had to rely on outsiders to control crime, and that meant there was much more unchecked crime. Bandits were a real worry on the road. He'd been decent at avoiding them, but the chance was always there. 

"It has been mostly the same as usual," he said. "There have been some vague whisperings about strain in the world of trade." Mostly with the small merchants who loved to gossip, and with the townspeople who would invite him in for dinner after he mended the leg of a child who fell out of a tree. "Not sure how much credit there is to that stress, though. I haven't seen anything troublesome yet." 

He watched Hotaru's efforts. He was progressing decently well. "Just dismiss that and try again. Go slow. Sometimes it helps to form things gradually when you're not familiar with them."

[Uchiha Hotaru]

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Hotaru nodded and placed the bumped strand of suture onto the table, and then repeated the technique. He put more attention into the molding, and as he formed it he took several seconds longer and controlled his breathing. Sometimes as a more experienced shinobi he would make assumptions and rush things because he knew he had the talent to achieve greater things, but Ruto’s advice to take it slower proved to do the trick this time.

It took a bit longer overall, but he held a good suture in the palm of his hand at the end. He let it slide through his fingers, and felt none of the imperfect bumps that had been there before. He also gave it a bit of a tub to make sure that it would not easily break.

"That seems better, doesn’t it?” he asked. He smiled and handed it to Ruto so that he could inspect the chakra stitch himself. He didn’t want to start threading and stitching until they gave their approval of the stitching, in case there was some flaw in it that he hadn’t seen. He looked forward to closing the incision, he knew that Ruto was probably fine but his instincts made him want to take care of it right away.

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[Mikatakujira Ruto]

It did look better. Ruto took it in his hand and analyzed it anyways, turning it over to search out any imperfections. It'd be difficult to really ascertain the perfection of it without being able to see into the fine details, but that didn't really matter. What mattered was that it wasn't going to snag, that it seemed strong, that it could do what it needed to do. He tested the strength and it didn't snap easily in his hands, so he nodded and passed it back over to Hotaru. 

One of the things he'd always found interesting about chakra constructs was that they were somewhat inherently sterile. At least thus far. Bacteria didn't really grow on such surfaces, inhospitable to life as they were. Even healing things could be off-putting in some ways. It meant he didn't have to tell Hotaru to clean it again before making use of it, or pester him to make a new one. 

"That one should be fine to use," Ruto confirmed, holding out their arm. The bleeding from the wound had already slowed somewhat, but it wasn't scabbing over yet either, which implied it was at least somewhat deep enough to need the help. He was sure he could heal just fine without it, but practicing the sutures was the point. 

"Once you have the wound sewn, you can continue to influence the chakra threads while you're within range of me," he explained.

[Uchiha Hotaru]

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"That makes sense, thank you,” Hotaru replied. He took the sterilized needle and carefully looped the suture through, he found that it was actually much easier to thread than normal. Afterwards, he leaned over towards Ruto’s arm, a brief meeting of their grey eyes before he focused on the wound.

First he would pull a tiny scroll from a compact medkit at his side, and unsealed several clean cloths that were treated with a sterile solution. He used it to clean the cut, though he was careful not to disturb the work that Ruto’s platelets had already done for him.

Next the stitching would begin. Precise hand-eye coordination was required, and the young medic had to be sure to keep steady throughout the procedure. His constant handling of the senbon made needle work like second nature to him, that and the practice he had gotten with patching up not only the children of the orphanage, but many of the gentry of Tori who supported his cause.

As usually his needle work was good, arguably of a jounin medics level of skill, though perhaps a true shinobi doctor of the grade could point out minor flaws that a medic like himself would see as pedantic.

"How long do these usually last?" he asked. He knew that they were not indefinite, but they would free him from worrying about supply as much as he could make them on the fly.

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[Mikatakujira Ruto]

The stitches Hotaru made were tidy. Went through easily. Some people might be squeamish about this kind of thing, but he's been neutral and unflinching about medical procedures since he was a toddler, just about. His circumstances were, of course, unique, but they were helpful here. He just watched Hotaru work without any issue. There were some things that could probably be very slightly improved, but quite honestly, those were aesthetic things. A lot of what doctors worried about was performative neatness. Patients liked it better if there was a clean row that was precisely spaced. Hotaru wasn't even far off that mark, half a millimeter maybe, but it was a mark not especially worth reaching for.

"A few hours," he answered. "You'll have to continue exerting chakra influence to keep them around, so it can get somewhat tiring, but if you only have to apply them in one place, you can comfortably maintain them for, I'd say... six or so hours? That's the area I'd feel confident in. You could probably maintain it for longer in an emergency. It also depends on how much moving the patient has been doing. On the children, it will probably be easier than if you were patching someone else up to run." 

He doesn't know Hotaru's life. Beyond what he does here, at least. Hotaru could need this on some venture. 

"You can influence them to be more elastic so someone can move the limb about freely without causing anything to tear."