training:

A full day of researching medical papers; what better way could he have spent it? A lot of other ways, he figured, his eyes dull and giving off the sense of a frown. He loved his medical training, obviously, he was so damn passionate about it; but it was easier to get into when he was actually DOING something. Reading through document after document about the different drugs and poisons and their usages and side effects... it wasn't as exciting as the whole reattaching limbs and reviving dead people thing. He preferred to learn with his chakra, not his mind, and as such was in a bit of a haze.

With a flick of his wrist he tossed the leaflet to the side, pages scattering over the floor of the terrace. He had gotten them all from the library, going down at Momo's incessant requests for him to get to know the finer aspects of being a fully trained medical ninja. For a sensory ninja she sure was interested in his medical training, especially considering she had never cared for the teachings herself; but that was most likely because she knew it drove him forward in his career. Therefore she didn't want him getting drugged by an enemy and having no clue on how to get past it beside his normal way of dealing with his problems, which was punching everything until it stopped being difficult.

In the end, he knew she was right, and that it was a good thing he had learned as much as he did. He might be able to actually concoct basic antidotes and the such now; hell, maybe he'd make some of these drugs himself. How could someone fight back if they were high off their ass and unable to move straight, let alone hold their own in combat? He sat up from his casual leaning at this, scattering leaves and herbs in every direction and grinning with a renewed fervor. He had been thinking about this wrong the entire time; again, book learning wasn't his forte, but this wasn't boring stuff he'd never deal with in his life. This was useful information that he could, indeed, USE- and he had every intention to try now.

He crawled over to the papers, not quite caring to stand up and knowing his pride wouldn't be wounded as he was completely secluded. His fingers tugged at the different pages of information, pulling them into a single pile as his eyes scanned over their information- looking for something, anything, that would serve the purposes in his mind. Basic neurotic drugs would be fun to mess around with, and he settled on those, sitting back on his bum and absorbing the text- before his gaze landed on something much, much more interesting, something he had only skimmed earlier.

Now, Nene himself would never agree to be drugged, or under the effects of any mind altering substances, so the fact he continued studying this page particularly was out of character; or not as you'd see it, considering its applications. It was the drug Morphine, a main component in the Opium that was so famously traded. Opium was out of the question, but Morphine was used in serious medical cases to keep the victim from feeling whatever intense pain or physical stress their body was under. It wasn't such a good thing to use on enemies, not unless you'd be able to give them a lethal enough dose that any decent enough poison would have done it better and quicker, but it wasn't unthinkable of to use it in combat. Not enough people were, say, ballsy enough to try it- Morphine could be highly addictive if taken enough, not to mention the withdrawals one could go through when unable to use it; but the sheer fact that it blocked out and dulled the users pain receptors was good reason to try it out.

Nene's willpower was unprecedented, regardless; he wasn't going to be getting addicted to any sort of high any time soon, and he didn't even intend to try and make the drug himself from scratch. What was that he was thinking earlier? That he was better at learning with his chakra and not his brain? All thoughts of drugging in enemy were lost in the rushing thoughts streaming through his brain- think of how strong of a ninja he'd be if he couldn't feel pain! He'd be undeterred from any fight, able to hold his own with even the strongest shinobi, in theory. The logical applications were lost on him, of course, mind flickering through all the scenarios this would be useful in... which would be a lot. He might even be able to reverse engineer it to use on other people, meaning no one he cared about would ever be at the risk of feeling pain, either. He was already strong enough to stop Momo from getting hurt like that again, but now he'd be strong enough to make it seem like it never happened if someone managed to get past him.

Nothing would be able to get past him with this, anyways, but it was a nice thought.

He was too absorbed in his thoughts to note that it wasn't that complicated of a thing, and it wouldn't actually erase physical wounds. He didn't care, however, and he reasoned that this afternoon wasn't all lost; he'd work on this new technique and then he'd of course remember to work with the neurotics what are you talking about. He wasn't THAT one-minded, in the least...

He stood, fingers sliding into an appropriate handseal and interlocking as he took a deep breath. It would be hard to calm himself enough to think with the clear mind needed to employ this kind of chakra, but man was he excited. He'd never... he'd never get hurt again! The thought caused him to stop where he stood, eyes flickering closed and his lips dragging down in a frown. That wasn't right. He was doing this for Momo, for mom, for dad, for the village- the fact that he wouldn't feel the pain was just a note under the fact that he'd be able to fight on despite it. This wasn't about him- hell, he rarely got hurt with the kind of missions he was doing, anyways, Zenchi te enough to get rid of any injuries he sustained.

The handseal faltered, right hand reaching up to touch the ear that was missing a bit at the bottom; the groove resembling the blade of a knife. He had cleaned up the blood after that mission, and it was his own playful carelessness that caused him to get cut at all, but he couldn't help but dwell on it. He wanted to keep this, instead of healing it away like he did to everything else that happened to him. Still... one day, he might be in situations where he was going to get hurt, seriously hurt, no matter what he did; because of either an even matched opponent, or a stronger one, or being distracted, blackmailed- there were so many possibilities. He wouldn't be able to skate by like he was forever. As a ninja, he was going to feel pain, like everyone else does.

But now he might not have to.

He slipped back into position, sighing out and making his face an impassive mask of self control. The dreary line of thoughts had calmed his racing heart just enough for him to concentrate, at the very least.

-------------------

It took veritable hours to get down, even slightly, the sun long past setting and sweat dripping from seemingly every orifice on his body. Nene was panting, finally falling to his knees and grabbing at the garden terrace with every racking breath. His chakra was low, almost dangerously so, and he felt like he had been fighting for longer than he ever had before. In a way he suppose he had, not remembering the last time he had spent this amount of time on learning any ability in the past. Regardless, he knew it was worth it in the end, a grin showing the gleam of his teeth through the night air. He felt it that last time, the screaming of his body being ignored, even for a moment. Tomorrow he'd perfect it, and if not he'd keep trying, the day after that, and after that... he was onto something here. If he got it down just right he could get it put into the medical textbooks, maybe, get the ability known. Soldiers that couldn't feel pain- it something out of a sci-fi horror movie, he knew, so cliche, but just so... simply effective.

For now, however, he was done.




(( Final wordcount: 1455/1000 ))