Forming hand seals much slower than Shizune, I performed the jutsu by moving chakra around my body using the corresponding chakra pathway.
Like the first time, I felt a cool sensation engulf my hand as a bluish glow emerged around it.
I then brought my hand to the cut on the fish and began using knowledge of the various things I'd learned over the past few days, like cells, capillaries, blood vessels and the like to heal it slowly.
The aura of my jutsu flickered softly as it made contact with the fish and soon began to work its magic as granulation tissue formed in the cut to create a temporary structure in which cells from both sides of the cut spread and started to close it up.
I felt a marginal but substantial amount of my chakra drain away from my body before the cut fully closed up and I stopped expelling chakra to keep the jutsu going.
Shizune inspected the fish for a few seconds before poking and prodding it for a few minutes after which she was satisfied.
"Not bad for your first attempt! There are a few structural issues since you left a scar on the fish, otherwise, it was perfectly done! Good job! What do you think Tsunade-sama?"
"Hmm…it is a good job for a first try. If you practice this for a little more time, I can see you getting good enough to heal a slightly deeper wound next time."
I felt happy. This was the first time I'd used my 'superpowers' to be able to affect the world. I suddenly felt like a god, one that could alter reality to his whims and fancies.
Tsunade seemed to have noticed this since she perked up a smile that reached her eyes, but she remained quiet as Shizune plopped five fishes on the table and cut them open with a chakra scalpel.
"You have five minutes to heal each of these fishes! One minute for each and not a second more!"
I soon got lost in training my very first jutsu under Shizune's strict guidance and by the end of the day, I was tired from having used chakra continuously throughout the day.
Tsunade had already left at some point and I didn't waste my time looking for her, knowing this early in the day she was probably out practising to look at blood again or in an Izakaya gambling with some old men.
As Shizune began packing all the fish that now smelled terrible after being dead for so long out in the humid weather, I asked her to help me out with something.
"Shizune-sensei, could you teach me how to fight?"
Shizune was startled by my sudden formal title for her as she nearly dropped the bucket with the fish, but then she looked at me suspiciously and questioned, "Why?"
"I mean, I won't get stronger just by learning to heal will I?"
Shizune thought about my reason for a few seconds before speaking, "I'll ask Tsunade-sama if I can do that. And only if she agrees will I teach you how to fight. After all, once you start learning to fight, you'll have much less time to dedicate to training yourself in the art of Medical Ninjutsu."
I nodded before saying, "Maybe I can learn to heal bruises? So that I can treat myself after fights?"
"Hmm…that feels fine. Maybe Tsunade-sama will agree to that."
I accepted, looking forward to what Shizune would tell me tomorrow. I personally didn't see any reason for Tsunade to stop me from learning how to fight.
I slept like a dead man that night because I was exhausted from using chakra all day. It felt not only like I'd been climbing a hill but also like I'd studied solving complex math equations all day.
'How come reading Tsunade's books doesn't give me such a headache?'
'And by the way..how did I learn the jutsu so quickly?'
'Is it because of my Innate Ability? Key Insight it was called?'
'I need to figure out what my ability actually does to use it better consciously.'
Waking up the next morning I felt refreshed and relaxed until I noticed something strange within my body.
'There's a random spot in my body where my chakra magically disappears?'
I could feel a strong suction force in my navel. It felt as if a simple tilt towards it would pull me away to another dimension.
I didn't really know what it was, but my intuition led me to believe it would teleport me back to Paradise if I consciously poured my chakra into it.
'Is this the wormhole that lets me teleport between the two worlds?'
Shizune opened the door once again after a soft *knock* and escorted me to the small yard of the hotel we were living in.
"Tsunade-sama has permitted me to teach you the basics of combat! I hope you're ready to get beaten up!"
"Why do I have to get beaten up!?" I asked as Shizune took a stance to attack me.
"Because you know nothing about combat! And the fastest way to learn is to take part in actual fights! And since I'm a competent healer, I can beat everything I know into you!"
I shivered a little at the not-very-veiled threat as I mimicked Shizune's posture thinking it was suitable to start a fight with.
I was soon taught otherwise.
By the afternoon, I was left panting heavily with several bruises all over my body. My face was swollen from getting repeatedly punched, my arms and legs hurt since all of Shizune's blows felt like I was being struck by iron. And my brain felt a little numb because of all the pain I was currently in.
Shizune walked up to me and showed me a simple bruise-healing ninjutsu while I was in such a beat-up state.
'I don't think even cruel donkey owners beat their donkeys into such a poor state.'
"All you have to do is apply a little bit of your chakra to the bruised parts after using these hand seals to bring out the yang nature in it. That'll improve your natural healing speed so your muscles heal and grow stronger without needing rest." Shizune said showing me the exact hand seals for the bruise-healing jutsu.
"Are there no downsides to doing this?"
"There are, and they are critical. Speeding up healing recklessly will cause your cells to lose their vitality, which will make your body age much faster than normal, causing you to die of old age much younger.-"
"-But these effects are only important when you overuse this method to heal deep injuries repeatedly and quickly. It'll be fine if you only heal your bruises and not serious injuries."
I nodded before performing the jutsu Shizune taught me for a few dry runs and then began to heal my bruises. Even then, I did my best only to heal the bruises that prevented me from moving, leaving my body's natural healing factor to take over the others.
Soon about a month of me doing all this passed and two things happened.
First, I gained enough mastery in medical ninjutsu that I was able to heal light flesh wounds and my Taijutsu mastery reached a point where instead of getting beat for sixty minutes before being able to land a blow on Shizune, I could do it in thirty minutes.
Even that was only because Shizune was going a little easy on me.
The best part of getting beat by Shizune, however, was that I learnt exactly how to use my Innate Ability.
Second, I noticed the suction force in my navel grow more and more prominent by the day.