It was nothing special to Kabuto. The building was conveniently never demolished or moved into. It was just a simple, forsaken house on the outskirts of one of the shanty "villages" that made up Otogakure. Choosing to meet one of his students for individualized training, he selected this location.

"I hope she's punctual," Kabuto commented to himself whilst tapping his foot. He was sitting on top of some sort of ice chest, cold from the ice that chilled whatever the contents were. It seemed like a perfect match. A student whose specialty was his own specialty. Perfect; perhaps Orochimaru or himself would have an assistant, if he could somehow coax her into the job. She is a Sound ninja, so it possibly wouldn't be hard.

Kabuto fixed his glasses. When he heard the footsteps approaching the door of the old, oriental-style hut, he looked in the direction of the sliding doors. He removed his hands from his lap and stood up. His arms folded passively, as he waited for her to enter the room. The Iijutsu training was about to begin.

Yakushi-sensei.

The name sounded good in her mind. Not just good, possibly fantastic - and the fact that she was going to train with him alone made her blissfully happy. Kimiko told her brother about her training today with the famous Kabuto - maybe she rubbed it in a bit, but her brother replied nonchalantly, "Sure. Have fun." Though not even his deadpan, uninterested remarks would bring her mood down today. She walked with a positive bounce and a spring in her step to their meeting location.

She spent the majority of the morning making a bento for Kabuto - she was originally going to make a twin bento for herself and her sensei, but she didn't have time and was only able to complete her sensei's lunchbox. It was pretty impressive, and featured an arsenal of seasonal vegetables, a rather cute salad and an umeboshi placed strategically on top of a bed of white rice. The carrots were cut into little heart shapes. It was nothing - just a token of appreciation for her dear sensei.

Kimiko wondered why Kabuto selected such a secluded location, but she did not put too much thought into it. She valued privacy anyway, but the location was rather difficult to find. Though she spotted the abandoned building. It looked rather eerie, but she set foot into it.

She opened the sliding door with one hand, and with the other hand she held the bento box behind her back.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, sensei," she said, bowing respectfully. She walked closer to Kabuto so that she could present her token of appreciation / bento box of love to him.
"I thought since we'd be training, you'd might get hungry, so I made a bento box for you," she stated, a little blandly. There were no decorations or attachments involved in her tone as she presented the bento box with both hands to her honorable sensei.

Kabuto looked at the bento box. He smiled a little, and grasped it in both hands, "Thank you, Kimiko." He took a look inside to check the contents, and came to the realization that maybe Kimiko had a little bigger obsession with him than he initially thought.

The bento lunch was very well constructed, and it looked delicious. The heart-shaped carrots weren't such a subtle nod to him, however, but he smiled a little, musing a thought. He closed it and added a comment.

"It looks delicious," he said, stepping over to the ice chest while holding the bento box in one hand. "I'd like to get training started right away. The Mystical Palm Technique, you're familiar with it, right? Well, I'm going to teach you how to take it a step further." He pulled out a kōhaku koi from the ice chest, and set it gently onto a table that seemed to have a few tools laid out, but Kabuto wasn't about to instruct her to use them.

"I found this injured fish outside on the shore, and it's been without water for a while now. It's unconscious, so you have to resuscitate it. Then we'll get it back in water. Trying to get fish to breathe again is a fairly difficult task because the organs are much different from a human's and smaller. It will take some pinpoint accuracy in order to pull this off. If you can succeed, though, then you'll be one step closer to using the Mystical Palm Technique to its fullest potential. Don't beat yourself up if you can't do this; it's a hard exercise, but it will give me an idea of how developed your technique is."

Kabuto walked back to the ice chest and sat down on it, opening the bento and eying its contents once more. He looked up at Kimiko, "Once you finish that, we'll get the fish on water, and then we'll try another trick with the Mystical Palm Technique. Something you can use offensively in combat."

When Kabuto accepted her bento and thanked her, Kimiko's heart went "dokun-dokun-dokun", and a small involuntary smile formed on her lips, though she quickly realized this and tried to keep a straight face. She was overwhelmingly happy that her idol had accepted her gift. When he said that it looked delicious, half of her plan was a huge success... "Make delicious food for Kabuto. And Myself." The other half unfulfilled was that she didn't make food for herself and she wanted to watch Kabuto eat it - that would be the moment of truth for her cooking abilities.

"I'd like to get training started right away. The Mystical Palm Technique, you're familiar with it, right? Well, I'm going to teach you how to take it a step further." Kimiko nodded, and from the ice chest, Kabuto presented the koi fish from the ice chest. He explained her objective was to resuscitate the fish using the medical palm technique. Though for such a small target with such a different physiology, she would have to go about this one extremely delicately.

She walked over to the fish that was set down on the table - it resembled an operating table with the tools laid out neatly around the fish. Kimiko was hesitant at first to see the fish with gaping gills and its glassy, bulging eyes. It stank of... fish and the appearance was slimy. Though she wanted to impress her sensei with what she learned.

That's right. I probably only want to concentrate one tenth of my skill. Too much and I'll overdo it. First, I should concentrate on replenishing oxygen to the cells. Though how should I go about controlling my chakra so minutely?
She looked at her hands, and then performed the hand seals for the Mystical Palm Technique. Her hands glowed faintly with chakra, but she already knew that it was going to be too much.
"I-I can't do it." she remarked weakly. Then suddenly she remembered what her brother had said when she failed in a similar situation.

“Don’t look at me. You couldn’t save a squirrel. What happens when you have to save a human?”

Kimiko remembered her failure. It wasn't a matter of not being able to do it - she had to do it now. Upon remembering, she figured out a way to concentrate her chakra to a smaller area - at that time, she was using too much of it and it worsened the situation. She had to apply a similar amount of pressure to when she cut leaves with concentrated chakra.

"Wait. I think I got it, sensei."
She focused her breathing once more, and this time redirected the concentration to a smaller surface area of her hands.
I have to at least owe this much to my brother for teaching me about how to handle things professionally... Once she established a stable control of her chakra, she set her hands above the dying fish. After a delay of about thirty seconds, it flopped back into life, and the gills pulsated once more.

"I did it!"
She sighed and wiped the sweat off her forehead, rather gracefully. Using the Mystical Palm Technique was still taxing on her chakra, but she at least reached her objective, although strenuously.

LOL DISREGARD THAT I SUX ****

His eyebrows were raised. Kabuto was legitimately and pleasantly surprised by Kimiko's quick success. Perhaps she'd already had this down... or perhaps it was willpower, pure determination. It didn't matter, because Kabuto actually did not expect Kimiko to pull this off that quickly.

She's truly remarkable, Kabuto thought to himself while he got the koi into a pail of water. It swam around, its mouth opening ajar and closing quickly and its gills reflexively acting the same way. Kabuto looked at Kimiko and shined a crooked smile.

"You've definitely exceeded my expectations. It's not often that Genin have such versed iijutsu. I suppose now we can start the next exercise, but first I think you should take a breather. Restoring the fish's dead cells must have exhausted you. Next, you're going to be learning to cut bone and body tissue... with just your chakra."

"You've definitely exceeded my expectations. It's not often that Genin have such versed iijutsu." Kabuto remarked on Kimiko's apparent skill.
"Of course, sensei. My whole life is sadly dedicated to the medical arts and saving cute animals." Kimiko said in a rather sing-song tone, although it had rather... depressing implications. She had basically given away her life trying to perfect Iijutsu. The guiding mentor in her life was her brother, whose skills would always be a step above hers, no matter how hard she reached.

"I suppose now we can start the next exercise, but first I think you should take a breather. Restoring the fish's dead cells must have exhausted you." said Kabuto. Kimiko nodded in agreement. "Next, you're going to be learning to cut bone and body tissue... with just your chakra."
"S-Seriously?" Kimiko said, her eyes suddenly lighting up at the sound of using what seemed to be chakra scalpels - she heard about this, and her brother would often show off his apparent skill with it by slicing pineapples with his bare hands. "Kabuto-sama, arigatou!" she said, bowing.

"I-I mean Yakushi-sensei." Kimiko added, correcting herself. "Please disregard my rudeness."

"Ahhhhh. That was hard work..." Kimiko remarked in a tired sigh, stretching her arms towards the ceiling. "I'm really hungry--" Kimiko cut her words abrubtly, watching what she was saying.
I-I don't have any lunch for myself.
She blushed and stated sheepishly, "I mean, I'm just a little hungry." After a slight pause, her stomach growled. The structure and the empty silence of the abandoned hut seemed to make the stomach growl much more impressive than it was. Why did her body have to spite her this way? She shuffled her feet a little, embarrassed.

"No offense taken," Kabuto replied to the apology for Kimiko mixing up the honorific. Kabuto would have been fine with just being called sensei, or even just "Kabuto." The honorific was preferred but no prerequisite. "Yes, you'll learn to turn your chakra into scalpels for medical purposes, and even for combat."

Then came the hungered growling. Kabuto drew a blank, and then he popped open his bento lunchbox. "You made this, why don't we share? I'd feel bad eating this in front of you like that." He split a pair of chopsticks that were still stuck together by the thin partition of wood.

"You made this, why don't we share? I'd feel bad eating this in front of you like that." Kabuto said, suggesting that they share. She felt that he was being far too nice - after all, Kabuto was her idol, where she wanted to be in terms of medical prowess. To even have the notion that they shared lunch together was as if some angel descended from heaven and declared to have afternoon tea with you... kind of.
Kimiko looked at the bento tentatively, and almost began to nod, but then she changed her mind halfway when she saw that there was only one pair of chopsticks, and shook her head with a firm 'no', refusing it fiercely.

"There's only one pair of chopsticks. I don't want to catch Infectious Mononucleousis." she said, obviously paranoid. Her fear of germs was kicking in at a very awkward time. Though she said it in such a calm and defiant tone, it might have sounded rather noble, or just simply afraid of a rare chance of catching glandular fever.
"Sensei, you can go ahead and eat it." Kimiko offered, although she regret not making something for herself. "I'll be fine."

Kabuto raised an eyebrow, finding it disappointing that a medical ninja was afraid of bacteria, but strangely befitting of her. He produced another pair of chopsticks from his tool pouch. Interesting place to put them, but it was the most convenient location. He offered them to Kimiko.

"Here's another pair. That should help. I'm not kidding though, Kimiko. You'll need your strength for the next segment of the training. I'm just sitting here instructing you, so you'll need food more than me." Kabuto appeared stern in his judgment, and was pretty adamant to get Kimiko to eat something to replenish her chakra.

Come to think of it, she made a lunch for him, why didn't she make one for herself? Perhaps she simply didn't have the time or resources to make another. Kabuto simply shrugged off the thought while he continued to hold out the second pair of chopsticks, waiting for Kimiko to accept.

""Here's another pair. That should help." Kimiko accepted Kabuto's gracious offering. "Oh." Kimiko remarked, looking slightly crestfallen.
What happened to her chance of looking at her lovely sensei eat the bento she made for him? It had kind of diminished by now. What a lovely deux es machina made of bamboo wood to ruin her moment - she looked at the chopsticks with apparent disdain. At least she had the chance to eat food now.

Damn that Kabuto. Who puts chopsticks in their tool pouch? Oh, I guess most ninja do that. The art of stealth, after all... Got to be prepared.
"Arigatou, sensei." she said, flashing a bright smile that would melt the coldest of hearts. It was too bad the smile was politely fake. "Itadakimasu~" she said, breaking the chopsticks with one hand, by wedging her thumb in the opening and doing some rather weird twist of the hand muscles and the wrist. Yes - Kimiko was that angry at the chopsticks. Though they broke cleanly in half, so it looked as if she had some apparent skill at breaking chopsticks with one hand.

She ate a carrot strategically and waited for Kabuto to pick something from her bento, watching him ever so closely. She nibbled on the heart shaped carrot slowly.
I CANNOT MISS THIS MOMENT. THE MOMENT OF TRUTH. Her heart was thumping against her ribcage. A la cuisine!

OOC: Hooray for Iron chef!

After watching Kimiko take a carrot to each, he used his set of chopsticks and picked up the umeboshi. It looked pretty delicious, so with a little fiddling, he'd managed to get some rice and umeboshi in between the chopsticks, and ate what he picked up. He chewed it and tasted it for a moment, then swallowed, appearing only more impressed with Kimiko.

"You sure know how to prepare food," Kabuto said to Kimiko with a gentle smile, "I think it's delicious." He sampled everything: the salad, the rice, the carrots, and the vegetables. He tried vegetables with rice, tried carrots on the salad, and it was all great. Kimiko appeared to know which produce to use and she knew how to simmer rice just right. He genuinely enjoyed it, and his favor showed.

"You sure know how to prepare food," Kabuto said to Kimiko with a gentle smile, "I think it's delicious." Kimiko swallowed the carrot and she blushed upon seeing the smile of the idol and her sensei that she adored. She almost choked on her carrot, but she swallowed down the contents painfully. Again, her heart went "dokun-dokun-dokun" at the sight of his smiling face.
Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaah~! Kabuto-sama smiled at me... Ahh! Where's my camera when I need it?"

For a few seconds she was just staring at Kabuto with a giddy smile on her face. Then she realized that she WAS staring at Kabuto with a giddy smile on her face, and she realized she should have replied to his statement to keep the conversation rolling.
"A-Ah, yes!" she stammered. "My mother teaches me how to cook. Flavour! Presentation! Perfection! A man's stomach is connected to his heart, but only in a metaphorical sense!"

She just realized what she said and she corrected herself, trying to hide her blush with her fringe.
"... It's for the sake of nutrition. Don't misunderstand. Healthy eating promotes wellbeing, after all." Kimiko said, suddenly being all tsun-tsun. She took a bite-sized ball of rice with her chopsticks and ate it.

Kabuto thought Kimiko made a total goof of herself. The subtlety in that episode was but water vapor. Kimiko was apparently very determined to impress him, but seemed to keep it quiet once she changed her attitude. But it wasn't like Kabuto to poke at such a thing. He quietly resumed eating.

"It certainly is very good, though," Kabuto commented while he ate the heart-shaped carrots. "You would definitely be good at catering for a second job." All this flattery and Kabuto hadn't realized just how much it was touching Kimiko's little heart. Oh, how adorable.

He spared much of the food for Kimiko to eat, making a fair division of the meal in half for them to share. Kabuto was careful not to get his "germs" all over the food, so that Kimiko would be all the more willing to eat.

"Keep eating," he said at one point when he noticed - or at least felt - that Kimiko was slowing down, "you still need your strength." The next training segment wasn't going to be as quick as the last, and it was definitely going to be more taxing on her chakra. Most Genin don't even know Iijutsu, so to create chakra scalpels would take a genius. It was time to see how willing Kimiko was to learn this.

""Keep eating, you still need your strength." Kabuto said, and Kimiko looked down at the lunchbox - a perfect half of the meal was spared evenly, though Kimiko spied a stray grain of rice that was on Kabuto's 'side'. She tried to ignore it - Kimiko did not want to wimp out and ask her sensei to finish off the crumbs of his 'side' of the bento, just because she was afraid of germs. She cast her eyes to her side, and tried to finish her meal in a more hurried fashion, all the while chewing carefully and making sure not one rice grain was missed.

Though that single grain still irked her - she wanted it gone. After all, it wasn't nice to waste food. It was an insult to the farmers of the rice paddies who worked so hard to harvest the rice. Otogakure's main economy rested on the quality and the abundance of its rice.
'I-Indirect kiss...' she whispered to herself. She shut her eyes and ate the single grain of rice, swallowing it as if it was a bitter pill or a deadly poison.

Nothing happened, which surprised nobody - well, it surprised Kimiko slightly, but she put away the bento box so that she could take it home to be washed and re-used.
"Gochisousama deshita." she declared, finishing her meal formally.

She wiped her hands frantically, and from her pocket she got out a small bottle of what looked like hand sanitizer. She sighed in relief, and she looked at Kabuto with rather determined gold eyes. She was going to learn how to use chakra scalpels - that is, if she was successful at learning it today.

"Sensei, chakra scalpels can be used in battle, right?" Kimiko began. "I'd like to learn a few skills before the chuunin exams, but I'm not very good at Taijutsu. I didn't even get a mark on my final grade for Taijutsu, because the instructor saw that I had no hope..." she admitted.

"Once you get the hang of the chakra scalpel, hand-to-hand combat will be far easier. You'll never have to strike your opponent; just stop them from striking you." Kabuto lifted a flat hand, and a sharp blue aura appeared around it, forming the chakra into a sharpened state to become a "chakra scalpel."

"Considering you've got the hang of chakra flow as a medical ninja, I'm going to have you use your Mystical Palm Technique in order to sharpen your chakra and materialize it to make scalpels." Producing an apple from the ice chest, he placed it gently on the table. "We'll start with a stationary target. I want you to cut that apple in half, and then remove its core, all without touching it."

Kabuto smirked, understanding that the Mystical Palm Technique was nigh impossible for Genin to master. In fact, to even use chakra scalpels was practically impossible. You had to know how to sharpen your chakra by forming it into a gradient, causing it to get sharper as it reached the edges of the aura. That was, of course, considering you could even materialize your chakra. It would take effort, but it would be worth it.

"First, see if you can materialize your chakra. That's just the first step. You have to do it using only your Mystical Palm Technique and nothing else."

Materialization and the control of chakra is easy if you are completely focused. You use different brushes to paint different things, right? Don't think of chakra as a giant jumble of energy that's intangible. Chakra is malleable. That is why iryo ninjutsu is the most elegant form of chakra control. We're in complete control of our potential.

Don't stress, Kimiko, if you don't get it now. I'm teaching you things at a jounin level so that everything I teach you is in it's unadultered form. Nobody writes books on Iijutsu for kids anyway.

Her brother's words ran through her head like a clear stream of memories. Her pretentious, cold and aloof brother... Suddenly such words were reassuring rather than daunting. At the time when Hiroki spoke such words, Kimiko felt alienated. Though compared to her brother, Kabuto was not a harsh teacher at all. He took things step by step with her, and Kimiko felt she developed a stronger understanding of medical ninjutsu that way. Whereas her brother would set her practical work, and he would demand "Do it. Immediately."

Before, she knew so many medical terms, but they were all foreign to her and she was detached from her learning. Now, her knowledge was consolidated.

She performed the hand seals that Kabuto did a while ago. Tiger, Horse, Rabbit, Rat and Dog. Kimiko focused her attention towards her hands. Like a fuse or a broken light, her hands lit up with intense blue light, and it faded just as violently. There was just too much surface area to concentrate over... Maybe it would be better to start more compactly and more precisely.

Kimiko tried again, but instead of focusing on both hands, she bought her palms together in a prayer like position after she performed the seals. She tried to hone her chakra to make it sharp, but she overdid it. Instead of the gradient-like shape, her technique was too stiff and acute.

Feeling as though she got it, she tried to cut the apple in half with one hand. However, it rolled uselessly across the table, and her attention was out of control. Her hand slipped as she missed her target, and she wounded her leg.
"Ite-!" She cried out in pain, and held the wound on her thigh. The scalpel cut through cloth, and the incision was clearly visible. Although not serious, it was still a deep cut. She looked at her hands and she was rather horrified when she saw her own bloodied hands. From using her chakra wrongly, her hand was also cut up, but in smaller, thinner wounds.

"K-Kabuto, help me..."

Kabuto got up to his feet and quickly approached Kimiko, using his own Mystical Palm Technique in order to heal the wound that Kimiko had made to herself. Carefully, the tissue stitched itself back together and began to grow new cells to replace the damaged ones, and the wound was closed. However, there was nothing to be done for the cloth; Kimiko's thigh would be breezy. Kabuto finished cleaning up the blood from Kimiko's skin.

"Let's try this again," Kabuto sighed. He raised his own hands, and proper chakra scalpels formed in them. However, Kabuto held it in place and didn't do anything with the technique. Keeping it operating, he simply wanted to give Kimiko a visual example of what her technique should look like.

"Can you see what I'm doing? Naturally, there is a greater concentration of chakra extending from my hands, as they are the nexus of chakra. However, the chakra on the edges of the aura are far too soft in ordinary cases. You have to manage to make your chakra sharper part-way out, which is easier said than done. If the sharp chakra comes too early, you cut your own hands. It's a lot like water-walking, in that it requires great control over your chakra."

Kabuto ran these scalpels along the table, writing his own name in Kanji in them. His name was neatly engraved, and none of the incisions seemed out of place. "It's difficult, yes, but without hurting yourself a few times, you can't get the hang of it. But that's why I'm here."

Taking both of Kimiko's palms into his own hands, Kabuto's hands glowed green. The micro cuts all over Kimiko's hands began to seal up, as well as the more visible ones. Her flesh was restored in the same manner as her thigh was. It must have been a fairly strong feeling for Kimiko to have her idol holding her hands. He did actually hold them in a strange manner, but he appeared to be detached from whatever emotion might be expected from such.

She watched Kabuto perform first aid on her injured leg, and all the while, she was thinking about how cool he looked while he was concentrating on his mystical palm technique. Kimiko watched him clean up the blood with a (hopefully sterile) cloth. Though in all honesty, she was disheartened by her failed attempt that went horribly wrong. There was no use hiding it - on her face, she looked positively cheerless and glum. The fact that Kabuto rushed to her aid cheered her up a bit, but not substantially.

"Let's try this again," Kimiko heard Kabuto sigh, and she wondered what his sigh contained. Was it frustration, tiredness, boredom, or something totally different? She was far too afraid to know. The room was suddenly lit with the gentle blue blaze of Kabuto's own perfect set of chakra scalpels, and her attention was immediately drawn to him.

"Can you see what I'm doing?" Kabuto said. Kimiko nodded slowly. "Naturally, there is a greater concentration of chakra extending from my hands, as they are the nexus of chakra. If the sharp chakra comes too early, you cut your own hands. It's a lot like water-walking, in that it requires great control over your chakra."
She saw Kabuto write his wonderful name into the table. Such beautiful graffiti, and precise, aesthetic brushstrokes. Kimiko thought that he had wonderful handwriting. She was so lost in his penmanship, she wasn't drinking in Kabuto's words fully.

"...But that's why I'm here." He took both of her hands, and she gasped, starstruck. Then she realized that he was merely healing her hands. Though her mind was frizzled by his actions. Kabuto was touching her hands in a rather romantic way. Though his face was completely devoid of emotion, and she could feel that his heart was absolutely deserted of any sign of feelings, the fact that he was quietly holding her hands was overwhelmingly groundbreaking for Kimiko.
"Thank you. Yakushi-sensei is too kind," Kimiko said, sounding like she was on the verge of tears.

She formed the hand seals again, and she tried once again. Though she managed to obtain what looked like a fully formed chakra scalpel on one hand, she wanted to test out writing her name next to Kabuto's. Compared to her sensei's, her writing was spidery, small and thin. Unable to hold it for long, she released the blue light that surrounded her hands. Already, she was feeling the strain of using so much chakra. If one listened closely, her breathing quickened as her heart rate became faster. Kimiko grasped the edge of the table for support, feeling almost ready to collapse. Kimiko remembered that she still had to core an apple.

"Rest as much as you need to," Kabuto said, "We'll be here a while, but you're getting the hang of it slowly. You just have to push yourself against the strain. Some people don't enjoy Taijutsu, but Ninjutsu taxes the body similarly from extended periods of use. This is one of those cases."

Kabuto produced a chakra scalpel on just one hand to continue giving a visual example to Kimiko of what she was supposed to try for. "You're opening up new chakra veins you haven't used before. It won't feel comfortable at first, but like exercising a weak muscle, it will get stronger, and fairly quick. Just picture it as stretching out."

Kabuto wondered just how quickly Kimiko was able to get a hold of this. She would definitely prove to be of great use to him and Orochimaru's cause in the future, if she could keep it up. Kimiko certainly was a prodigy to him simply because she was able to perform Iijutsu, but he wondered just how much further she could push herself. Though, Kabuto didn't wish to overwork the poor girl, some extent of harsh training was necessary just to get used to the pain of physical effort.

"You're opening up new chakra veins you haven't used before. It won't feel comfortable at first, but like exercising a weak muscle, it will get stronger, and fairly quick. Just picture it as stretching out."

"Stretching out... huh?" Kimiko breathed. She imagined her body not as human, she had to change her thinking to go on. She had to become a machine, a collective set of systems working together. After all, no matter how much you dress it up in pretty words, a shinobi was a tool, a pawn. Again, she repeated the seals - Tiger, Horse, Rabbit, Rat and Dog. Even the author of this post remembers the seals off by heart - mainly because Tora and Uma form "Trauma".

Kimiko needed to replenish her chakra supply, badly. The fact that there was food right in front for her motivated her more. Kimiko was stubborn - she would not give in to her own weaknesses yet. If she did, rice would not be served for three days. That was the sort of punishment she received if she didn't do well in medical ninjutsu.

With the chakra scalpel, she peeled the skin off the apple, and cut it into quarters. She cored it with precision, and the remains lay on a neat pile. She barely realised her own accomplishment until everything was cut perfectly. There was a three second delay as she examined her work, and then she cheered in celebration.
"I did it! I get to eat rice tonight," Kimiko said in a rather tired but happy tone, her words slightly abstract to Kabuto, unless he sympathized with her situation.

She ate a piece of the apple, tasting its sweet and crisp flavour. It was a refreshing reward after her efforts.
"Want one?" she said, offering a piece to Kabuto.

DELETE.

Kabuto shook his head, extending his hand and waving it to decline the offered apple pieces. "You eat the apple," he said, "You'll need your strength. That last training exercise nearly exhausted all of your chakra." The signs of exhaustion were clear on Kimiko. Turned to the ice chest, Kabuto walked over to and sat down on it, hands in his lap.

"You're showing a lot of improvement quickly," Kabuto said, apparently proud of the effort that his Genin had put into her training. Quickly she was growing, and now Kabuto had to figure out what else was on the right level for Kimiko to learn. But just for now, she was going to need to rest and regain her strength before he could teach her something else.

"I don't want you losing consciousness, or I'll have to carry you back to the village." He tapped his fingers upon his thigh while he contemplated what they could spend time practicing. A technique that was low-level enough for Kimiko to use, and didn't require much chakra. He thought he might have an idea, but... no, that technique was too strenuous. Even now, Kabuto appeared as if he were stuck in thought.

Kimiko ate the apple with ravenous ferocity, though still managing to appear delicate - rather, cute and childlike. She chewed it and felt satisfied with this as a temporary reward. No doubt, medical ninjutsu training was hard work - using up so much chakra this fast made hunger rise, due to the use of so much energy all at once. After she ate the apple, she leaned against the table and eyed Kabuto, who took a seat on the ice chest, his hands neatly folded in his lap.

"Sensei, did I perform... to your expectations?" Kimiko asked rather suddenly. All of the sudden the headstrong and confident aura was gone from her when she asked the question. She seemed somewhat shy and afraid of the response. Though if Kabuto looked at her, Kimiko's eyes were shining brightly, full of love determination to prove herself that she would be better than her brother in three years time.

"I don't want you losing consciousness, or I'll have to carry you back to the village."
Well, I wouldn't mind that at all...
"Daijobu, Yakushi-sensei. The Fukashi residence doubles as a medical clinic. Everybody in my family are medics, apart from my dad. Losing consciousness is no big deal."
Especially if it's for your sake, Kabuto-sama.

She burst the silence with a question.
"Are we going to learn anything else?"

"Are we going to learn anything else?"

Though not at a loss, Kabuto was still wondering if it was a technique Kimiko would be willing to learn, let alone could learn. Something hit him; a technique - while classified as an A-Rank technique - would be very helpful for what he might have planned for Kimiko in the future. A technique that would disable opponents and enable her to escape when necessary.

"Actually," Kabuto started while his palm was surrounded with his chakra, "yes, we are, but first... I need to see if you can overcome this technique." He thrust the palm into Kimiko's chest over her breasts, but the thrust wasn't really a strike so much as it was patting someone on the back fairly hard.

Electrical impulses were sent channeled throughout Kimiko's nervous system, disrupting the connections between them and her brain. The sudden shock should have been enough to paralyze her for a few seconds. Though after that, if Kimiko attempted to get up, she found that only other body parts would respond to what she tried to control!

"Actually, yes, we are, but first..." Kimiko perked up at his affirmative reply, but there was two things that threw her off: he mentioned a 'but first', and she could sense that there was something slightly malicious behind his words. 'Buts' did not please her. The second thing was that his hand glowed with a different chakra she'd never come across before. She had no idea how to react, she was nervous.
"I need to see if you can overcome this technique." he thrust his hand hard towards her chest, and there was no time to react - his movements were so fast that her own reflexes paled in comparison. Kimiko let out a choked gasp as his hand impacted just above her sternum, and fell to the floor. It may seem exaggerated, but Kimiko's body, physically, was frail and weak.

Automatically her body went into panic. Her brain told her to get up, but her body rebelled - after a while, she could barely feel the pain in her chest, although she knew it was still there. Kimiko flopped uselessly on the ground, rather like the frantic koi fish when it was on land.
germs germs germs germs germs... I can feel them! Get up!
What are you doing, useless girl? Has your brain lost its use? Use your head and analyse the situation, idiot. Identify the problem. Bacteria are the least of your concerns now, they won't even kill you. I'll shove dairy products down your throat when you get home.

She gave up struggling and lay still. Kimiko sighed. She tried to move her left arm, but her right knee moved instead. She moved her right knee, her left arm moved instead. She tried to use her wrist but the joint of the foot moved. Everything had been flipped, but Kimiko didn't have the motor skills or the co ordination to overcome it yet. All the while she gazed at the ceiling and noticed that it had a crack in it. Her mind was aware of the situation, but her body was dumb. Once again, she sighed as she had solved the mystery jutsu in theory, but she lacked the capacity to fight against it.
"This is... A nervous attack." Kimiko said weakly, her voice was strained.

Kabuto - for all the malicious intent there might have been with this training method - smiled at Kimiko. He tortured her with the threat of germs only in the same method a mother spanks her child out of love for him or her.

"I suggest you hurry up and try to figure that out. You could take your time, unless you think of those germs on the floor as shinobi... Shinobi waiting to infiltrate your body, contaminating you from the outside and covering you in filth... Goodness help you if one of those ninja give you the flu."

There was no condescending chuckle from Kabuto since he didn't want to push Kimiko so far that she would think he was torturing her for fun. He was only saying these words to strengthen her psychologically. "You better hurry up, though, because I think I see the Swine Flu on its way inside your nose." In a realistic situation, Kimiko would probably be near death by now, so Kabuto had to push her to regain leverage over her body quickly.

"I suggest you hurry up and try to figure that out. You could take your time, unless you think of those germs on the floor as shinobi... Shinobi waiting to infiltrate your body, contaminating you from the outside and covering you in filth... Goodness help you if one of those ninja give you the flu." Kabuto taunted with malicious intent. It was nothing new, but Kimiko clenched her teeth and continued to work on moving her body slowly. First, a twitch, a fall, and then a twitch again.

"Shut up," Kimiko uttered softly, wanting to concentrate. Although his ploy was working. In all honesty, she was scared. She wanted to take a bath as soon as she got home, to feel the soft feeling of hygiene on her skin again. She tried to move her leg, and her arm moved slightly - it was now raised up towards the ceiling, and now it was a matter of manipulating herself to stand up. She tried to push herself up using her elbows as somewhat of a lever to get her upper body upright and off the ground.
I hate this.

Her intelligence was apparent, but she was forcing herself to get up as fast as possible - the fastest, and the easiest way. She bought her knees up to her chest rather slowly and rigidly. She was moving like a ball-jointed doll, and then she placed one hand on her knee, and the other hand tentatively on the ground, and she raised herself up. Standing up was just a matter of push and pull against the surface of the ground, and walking was just a controlled manner of falling.

She smirked at Kabuto at her success. Kimiko really had to owe it to him and his method of training. Though she didn't exactly know how to walk under this technique yet, but it wouldn't hurt to try. She just had to control how she fell. One, two, one, two... And she started to walk slowly. Hmph - wasn't that easy?
"Yakushi-sensei, are we--" her words were cut off by a gasp as she actually fell when she tripped over a tile that jutted slightly out of the ground, falling towards Kabuto.

Kabuto bolted forward with his arms, sliding onto his knee and catching Kimiko in between his forearms. The sudden thud would have probably knocked some air out of Kimiko for just a slight moment. Kabuto looked down at Kimiko, his glasses sliding down from the bridge of his nose to just the tip, almost about to fall off.

Kabuto touched Kimiko's hair gently with his bare fingers. "Are you alright? You aren't hurt?" He helped Kimiko to stand up straight, but gave her support with his arms just to prevent her from collapsing again. Then he removed a hand from behind Kimiko's head.

In between Kabuto's index finger and thumb was a rather small dung beetle. The bug was shown right in front of Kimiko's face. "A bug crawled into your hair while you were on the floor."

"Are you alright? You aren't hurt?"
Kabuto caught her, and Kimiko realised that she was in Kabuto's arms. His hands and his body was warm, and she felt the slightest touch of his fingers in her hair. She seemed to freeze up with realizing how close they were. She couldn't even utter any words on how she was feeling, all that came out were small, cute stutters as her brain failed to think of something to say. Frantic, hysterical thoughts of a fangirl ran through her mind.
He's touching my hair with his hands! I'm so happy, yet I feel so violated! He's looking at me with his glasses that need pushing up. I want to push them up, but would that be awkward? I should have worn something nicer today, I shouldn't have said 'shut up' to Kabuto-sama earlier...

"A bug crawled into your hair while you were on the floor."

A look of horror was briefly on her face and it looked as if she wanted to scream, but then horror turned into complete anger. She seemed to overcome the effects of being bound and immobilized by Ranshinsho, and aggressively grabbed Kabuto's hands, looking down at the evil bug that ruined her perfect pseudo-romance with Kabuto. She drew out a senbon needle and impaled the tiny insect immediately, and the poor animal stopped squirming and died.
"I-I want to take a bath..." Kimiko breathed, her voice seething with rage.

"I-I want to take a bath..." Kabuto sensed the anger that Kimiko was releasing. Being the Jounin, he was both compelled and obligated to help her to calm down. "We'll go to the bath-house, how about that?" He hoisted Kimiko higher into his arms. But, he recognized how light she felt to him. So, he decided to make the trip back to the village easier.

Kabuto hoisted Kimiko on top of his shoulders with her thighs on either side of his neck and on his shoulders. Rather embarrassingly, she was in a piggy-back position. At least, it might have been embarrassing for Kimiko. Kabuto didn't feel absurd doing this, as it was simply a more logical and quicker method. Kimiko was resting on his upper back and shoulders a little uncomfortably - much heavier than a little kid - but Kabuto could manage.

At least he wasn't flouting this piggy-back ride about like a certain Leaf taijutsu specialist. She began carrying Kimiko out of the building, leaving the tools and the ice-chest from inside the building alone. He would return to retrieve the items and the fish that Kimiko resuscitated, but for now, she was the priority. "I'm proud of you, Kimiko. You've proven a lot to me through the training we've done today."

He was cutting off the Ranshinsho training for now. They could always return to it later, or even another day. Kimiko's state of hygiene seemed far more relevant at this point, or at least Kabuto was respectful enough to let her tend to it without trying to fuel her phobia.

[I will speed things up a bit as our characters arrive at the bathhouse. So forgive me for auto-ing Kabuto putting Kimiko down. Buhyo~]

"We'll go to the bath-house, how about that?"
Kimiko's eyes lit up with excitement, and her hands were clasped to her chest as she smiled excitedly. "I can take a bath?!" she exclaimed. "Thank you so much, Kabuto-san!" She was then hoisted up on top of Kabuto's shoulders, and she was wondering what her sensei was doing so weirdly.

A piggyback. Kimiko would have felt insulted in any other situation, but because she was going to the bath-house it would be okay. In fact, it was rather fun... It reminded her of the times when her brother would carry her like this and stroll around the village on quiet, sunny afternoons.
"Hey, Sensei, will we get cold drinks after bathing?" Kimiko suggested. It was a tradition of hers, and she rather liked what the local Sento stocked - juices, Ramune, things like that. He carried her out of the abandoned building, and judging from how the sun was positioned and how bright the sky was, it was about two o' clock in the afternoon.

"I'm proud of you, Kimiko. You've proven a lot to me through the training we've done today." Kabuto said, and Kimiko smiled softly and blushed at his words. She was flattered by him, and honestly, she knew that she was like putty in his hands whenever he said words like that. She knew this for a fact, but for some reason... she was proud to have Kabuto as an emotional weakness.

They arrived at the bathhouse, and from the window, a female at the register looked at them and raised an eyebrow at the odd pair. Kabuto let Kimiko down from his shoulders, and she followed her sensei closely. The female was assertive in her approach, and specified one admission for an adult and... free admission for Kimiko. Oh, a discount. I only need to pay for a towel and soap. Kimiko put the money on the counter, and Kabuto paid for his amount as well.

Though as she was about to venture to the divided female section of the bath house, the woman stopped her and tapped Kimiko on the shoulder to get her attention.
"Excuse me, children cannot be left unattended. Please follow your guardian." Her voice was loud enough so that Kabuto could hear her. Was that why she didn't have to pay for a ticket? She was mistaken for a child! Kimiko bit her bottom lip, excused herself and followed Kabuto to the male changing room.
"Children cannot be left unattended." Kimiko whispered to Kabuto, mimicking the words of the annoying lady in a mocking tone.

Kabuto was half-way done undressing himself until he noticed that Kimiko had wandered into the changing room. He flinched a little upon seeing her, but then immediately realized why the admission was free for Kimiko.

"Actually, you being confused for a child is convenient from an economic point of view." Kabuto shrugged and continued to shamelessly undress himself. He placed his clothes in a properly indicated basket. "If anyone start looking at you suspiciously, Kimiko, I'll make them look away if I have to twist their neck." He removed his glasses and put them in a pocket in the outfit he wore over his under-clothes.

He stepped into the bathing area and approached one of the showers to wash off in, lathering soap over his body and letting it be washed away by the cascades of the shower's faucet. When finished cleaning himself off, he stepped into one of the baths.

While he settled into the warm bath, he would shut his eyes and relax, waiting for Kimiko to follow through.

The whole time, her head was downturned, avoiding eye contact with anybody who happened to walk by. However, business was slow during these hours, so it was probably better this way. As she walked, she seemed to be muttering curses that consisted mainly of "flat-chested", "wimpy-looking", "no ass", and "just you wait woman, puberty will help me", which all seemed to be directed to herself. She seemed to have poor morale, having her self-esteem lowered significantly. She hid in a corner of the change room and covered herself with the towel as she removed her clothing. If one could look closely, they could see hitodama floating around Kimiko.

"Actually, you being confused for a child is convenient from an economic point of view." Kabuto remarked, and his words burned her. She seemed to let out a cry that sounded like a sob and a squeak at the same time - a cry of despair. Kimiko folded her clothes and put them in the designated basket, all the while, hiding underneath the towel, like a bathroom ghost, or like a makeshift veil. "If anyone start looking at you suspiciously, Kimiko, I'll make them look away if I have to twist their neck."

"Eh?" She looked up at Kabuto, and he had just taken off his glasses. She then proceeded to be mesmerized by the phenomena of Kabuto without glasses, as she meditated on his fine, coal black eyes.
K-Kabuto without glasses... She then blushed, and realized what else was happening around her, and hid her face in her towel again.
Kabuto without clothes...

D-Daijobu! There is nothing to be afraid about - we're all medical-nin here. The body is just a set of systems and organs! No different from looking at a hairless, tailless monkey!

"Y-You are all hairless, tailless monkeys." Kimiko said with burning confidence, and an old man heard this and looked at Kimiko, confused. She tossed her towel on top of her clothing, a little bit dramatically. Her morale boosted as she walked with confidence into the Sento, and proceeded to wash herself thoroughly and methodically. First, she washed her hair, and then her body, rinse, repeat. If... Kabuto happened to glance at Kimiko, he would notice that she had no scars or bruises on her scrawny body. It wasn't the body of a shinobi at all.

She hopped into the bath, a few metres away from Kabuto, and she sighed with a happy grin on her face. After a few minutes of silence, she started to sing / talk to herself in a sing-song voice. Horribly. First it sounded like a scream - which would have made Kabuto concerned in any other situation. Then she started giggling hysterically. Kimiko loved bathing that much.
"I love taking baaa~aaaaaaaths! Kill the bacteriaaaaa~ ahahahahahahh. This is so fun!"

Kabuto stared at Kimiko awkwardly, or rather in her direction. He'd been paying no attention to her physical details... much. He actually felt appalled by the atrocious singing. Even the choice of lyrics was bad, and kindergarten at best. But nevertheless, it was against Kabuto's nature to point out to Kimiko such a thing. If it were Ninjutsu or something, then that would be a whole different story, but this felt to him like making fun of a person's stuttering.

But ignoring the singing, he looked at Kimiko's body for a moment, and did indeed notice a distinctive lack of scars. This was strange... Her background entailed harsh training methods, and yet her body lacked scars or any physical injuries that might leave a mark.

Kabuto continued to settle into the bath, keeping his eyes closed and would wait for Kimiko to finish washing off. She would catch up with him soon, and he expected that she would get in the bath and stay close to him. It didn't bug him; the entire environment actually seemed natural to him. He was a medical-nin, why should he care so much about a naked body?

Kabuto had seen more disgusting things, and the embarrassment didn't matter to him simply because it was natural. Feeling ashamed to be naked was like desiring you only had one hand. At least, that was the way that Kabuto had chosen to interpret bath-houses.

She felt as if somebody was watching her, but that was okay, right? Kabuto would twist their necks if anybody was looking at her weirdly, so she didn't have to worry about strange men who had a taste for young girls. However, though the one who was watching her was the one who suggested protecting her.
Kimiko giggled quietly to herself, enjoying the experience of bathing, and made giddy by the knowledge that she was at least sharing bath water with Kabuto. She glanced at him briefly, and his eyes were serenely closed. He looked much calmer and still without his glasses, or maybe that was the effects of relaxation.

Kimiko moved closer to Kabuto, and a trail of golden hair followed her when she moved through the water. They were about a metre away from each other now. "Ne, Yakushi-sensei," Kimiko said, still using formalities, even when in the bath. She then blushed, and bit her bottom lip. She looked positively cheeky, like a kid that caused trouble in class, but she was also shy.

"Yakushi-sensei... Do you have a girlfriend?"

Now that was a sudden boot to the head. "Yakushi-sensei... Do you have a girlfriend?"

Kabuto opened his eyes and looked at Kimiko - making eye contact - and then looked away. He shut his eyes and leaned back again. "No," Kabuto would nonchalantly reply, "Even if I did, my significant other would probably leave me. The burden I take entails too much for me to have the time to see eye-to-eye with someone like that."

He simply sighed. Kabuto felt that he was explaining too much to Kimiko, or... too little? "If I had a date, I wouldn't be able to make it. If I had an emergency to tend to, I'd have to hope I wasn't already in the middle of one." There was no despair in Kabuto's tone. It felt so monotonous and yet there was a tinge of sadness that could be sensed, if not by the tone then simply by subtle hints in his body language.

"And hell, I don't have much time to train a squad of Genin, either... But, it's my duty. If an upper echelon of mine requests I do something, I would follow through without fail. That is, if possible. Unfortunately, I'm the right-hand man to the village's leader. Personally, it's a great honor, but a tedious one, if nothing else."

Kimiko's initial reaction would have been a mental "wakuteka!" (tremble with excitement), but Kabuto's monologue that entailed silenced any excitable qualities that she would have shown. She was sure she could sense some degree of sadness in the tone of his voice, it broke the monotony and his matter-of-factness, only a little - it was a very subtle detail, like a gradual shift of colour in a palette, or noticing a fine layer of dust on a piano.

The sigh was already an indication, but it made her even more curious about the stoic and wonderful Kabuto. Her curiosity was overtaking her actions, as a small hand slid on top of Kabuto's, she was taken into what seemed like an emotionally black abyss - it was an emotional black hole, because that was how suppressed his emotions were, that they all jumbled into each other onto one dense singularity, never to be seen by anyone. Such a phenomenon like this could hardly belong to a human being.

Then what was that wave of sadness that washed over her earlier?

As she thought that, she just realized how close they were to each other. Skin was touching skin, but his time, Kimiko's cheeks failed to light up into a rosy pink. For once in her life, she actually felt guilty for prying into somebody's secret thoughts, and a single, noble tear rolled down her cheek. She held the hand that touched Kabuto's close to her chest, as if it was a precious treasure that would fade away suddenly.
"I-I'm sorry to pry," Kimiko said. "I'll be a good girl, sensei, I'll do anything to please you... Kimiko will train hard, I won't disobey you ever again, because... Because..."
Wouldn't it just be fine if I could tell you how much I adore you, but you won't even register my feelings for you.

I want to save your humanity.

Her little speech probably made no sense in regards to what Kabuto had just said regarding his lack of partner. She whispered a submissive, "Gomenasai" and became taciturn. She was touching her lips unconsciously with the hand that reached into Kabuto's emotional desert. Her knees were up to her chest protectively, and her head was downturned, once again.

"I never doubted your abilities or loyalty for a second, Kimiko," Kabuto passively commented. He had once thought that Kimiko would be useful to Orochimaru's cause, but felt a little disheartened to put her in such a position now, but just a little.

Kabuto continued to focus on enjoy the bath, but he felt Kimiko touching his hand. It gave him a gentle tinge of emotion - whatever it might be - and began feeling that Kimiko's affection for him might dig deeper than he thought. But unfortunately, Kabuto felt confusion as to how to feel about Kimiko's loyalty.

After all, all he said was that he's very busy. Did it have that much impact on her? Was it the way he phrased it? Kabuto closed his eyes and decided to give the subject some long and hard thought for the moment. He knew at the very least of Kimiko's bloodline. Maybe at least, she could make him feel a little better about his circumstances.

Kabuto didn't understand the full scope of it, actually, as much as he thought he did. That affection Kimiko treated him with... He felt a little warmer when she touched his hand. He sunk gently into the bath, covering his shoulders and most of his neck.

Kabuto tried to reach out under the water for Kimiko's other hand, an awkward gesture since Kimiko's free hand was on her other side. But, prematurely, he gave up and moved his hand back to his side, nicking Kimiko's thigh with his finger.

As she was looking down, there was movement in the water, and she saw and felt the movement of his hand reaching out for her own hand, but Kabuto pulled away and gently nicked her thigh with a single finger. Kimiko felt tingles throughout her body at the slightest touch of her leg, which he had healed so well earlier that day. She glanced at Kabuto, who seemed as calm and relaxed as ever, his body fully submerged in the water. Was it possible that he wanted her to comfort him? It was unbelievable, improbable - but it just happened.

Underneath the water's surface, a small hand reached out for Kabuto's larger one, and she felt his fingers, before holding them with a stronger, more substantial grasp. She looked nervously around her, but the small number of men present didn't seem to pay attention to her or her sensei at all.
"Nobody can see us like this, so this can remain a secret between sensei and his student," Kimiko shyly uttered, her voice soft and a little meek. "Sensei, you're so stressed out... I think you need this bath more than I do."

Her rational side wanted to scream and protest against this sudden course of action. What do you think you're doing? You're his student, and he's your teacher. First, you ask him if he has a partner, he tries to hold your hand, and then YOU try to hold HIS hand? Please, get real. What if he's lying to test you? Don't you think that him touching your thigh seemed somewhat staged rather than coincidental?

"I, I think I should get out of the bath, Kabuto," Kimiko said, all of a sudden, her voice sounding somewhat scared and paranoid as she forgot to call her sensei with any honorifics. She was almost ready to step out of the warm bath, but her legs had a bad case of pins and needles and prevented her from moving as well as she could. Nor did she want to depart from Kabuto's side, but parting was always such sweet sorrow. She glanced briefly at Kabuto with sad gold eyes, feeling somewhat self-conscious as she hid her undeveloped chest from his view.

She got up slowly, her legs feeling weak, and she suddenly had the attention of almost every man in the room once she stepped out of the bath and started to walk back to the change room.

[OOC: a little pointer for future posts, after bathing, it's common to lounge around in a yukata and then enjoy a cold drink. ^^]