Chapter 3

It was near the middle of the school year, tensions were rising throughout the elemental nations and there were whispers of war on the horizon, I sat in my room curled up in my blankets and stewing in a particularly nasty fart.

I was getting increasingly nervous and was making no substantial progress in medical ninjutsu nor the Kaguya bloodline and was hesitant to dedicate more time to it, as it was I spent very little time learning medical jutsu, most of my time "Learning medical ninjutsu" was just memorizing bone, arteries, veins, and tendon placement.

I only had 3 actual medical jutsu to my name, any more then that was beyond Tokma and thus id have to intern or apprentice at the hospital, and that was a no go, I didn't want to get shafted and permanently stuck in the hospital, I was also worried about what the clan elders could do when I no longer impressed them and furthered the Hyuga name.

I decided to go back to brain enhancements, although incredibly risky and without a doubt dangerous they were something I needed, I didn't want to waste time learning time-consuming things that I could later take a glance at and remember forever with me as of yet theoretical memory enhancement.

Corse of action decided I left my room in search of books on the brain or more specifically memory.

Id had little to no luck finding books so I sent my favorite teacher on a mission to find them, with that done I bumbled about trying to find something to do with my time.

I was sitting crossed legged Infront of a mirror I recently had the branch members put my room, and winking at myself and admiring my good looks, I was originally sending chakra to my eyes in small burst varying in both size and density and among different paths, trying to discover new things about the byakugan and maybe luckily awaken the tenseigan but alas I had no luck and got distracted and started admiring my exotic looks.

My mother, of course, walked in while I was doing so.

"Shiro, Tokuma brought the books you asked for…."

'Well this is embarrassing'

We stared at each other

"Thanks, I was just admiring my good looks"

More silent eye contact

"The books are on the table"

'Would it have been less awkward if I made an excuse?'

Maybe honesty isn't always the answer.

I was sitting on my bed, a stack of brain-related books next to me, I was currently trying to summon up the mental strength to do a possible 8+ hour study session, sadly it was not working and I was once again staring at myself in the mirror.

I took the mirror off the wall and turned it around so I could no longer see my reflection, that done I proceeded back to my bed and cracked open the first book on the pile.

"Genjutsu And The Brain Made Easy"

'Probably not what I need but ill take a look'

'Are memories stored in just one part of the brain, or are they stored in many different parts of the brain? Inojin Yamanaka began exploring this problem, about 160 years ago, by making lesions in the brains of animals ….'

Finally getting somewhere after going through half of the books I was overjoyed, I continued reading

'Bla-Bla-Bla… Short-term memory occurs in the prefrontal cortex. It stores information for about one minute and its capacity is limited to about 7 items…'

'Now we're cooking'

'Long-term memory is processed in the hippocampus of the temporal lobe and is activated when you want to memorize something for a longer time. This memory has unlimited content and duration capacity.

Skill memory is processed in the cerebellum, which relays information to the basal ganglia. It stores motor skills, like using hand signs, throwing a kunai, and disemboweling your enemies.'

On the next page was a diagram detailing different parts of the brain

'Jackpot!'

I couldn't keep the grin off my face, this is what I needed, I spent the rest of the day flipping through the rest of the books in case I missed something.

That done I spent the next week with my hand on my head constantly using the diagnostic jutsu, parsing out the different parts of my brain according to the book, I also enrolled Gai to help in my brain enhancements, not that he was much help or that he knew he was helping.

"What do you need my help for my most youthful friend!?"

"I just need you to sit still so I can stare at your head with my byakugan"

"Yosh!, what are you trying to do my friend!"

"I'm finding ways to send more chakra to my eyes, since I can't see the tenketsu in my head I'm using yours, now stay still and quiet well I draw your tenketsu"

Half-truth

"Yosh! Shiro! Let your power of youth explode!"

Gai ended that sentence with a thumbs up and a sparkle in the corner of his eye, he was indeed as youthful as one might imagine.

Short-term memory, prefrontal cortex

Long-term memory, hippocampus

Skill memory, cerebellum

Id identified all the parts of my brain with the diagnostic jutsu and was ready to experiment.

Late at night I sat on the toilet book in lap, hoping that if I fall unconscious my mother will open the door and find me the next time, she has to use it.

I did one last check over deciding my pants should be around my ankles if I was found just sitting on the toilet it would be a tad bit odd.

With that done I took a hair sized string of chakra from the tenketsu at the very top of the head and guided it down to the prefrontal cortex and started cycling it then back to my tenketsu while thinking that I could afford to lose some short-term memory…

Nothing seemed to happen, I continued sending chakra through my brain and proceeded to read the book on my lap, again no noticeable success but no failure either, I figured no success would come from my half-assed attempt but continued nonetheless, I ran a second string of chakra to the hippocampus and repeated the process, I took a look at the book read a few sentences and looked away recalling them word for word vividly right away.

Success!

Overjoyed with my success I continued to flip through the book, slowing my perception, enhancing my short- and long-term memory, trying to see if I could memorize the whole book

It was working, I could recall everything id seen and read, a grin stretched across my face only to leave as quick as it came, I snapped the book closed and closed my eyes, a headache pounding behind my eyes, I felt extremely hungry and very tired.

I let out a sigh, a partial success, I put the book on the back of the toilet pulled up my pants and stumbled out of the bathroom, down the hall and into the kitchen planning to quietly have a mid-night snack.

After a day of rest missing school and training in the process I was back to experimenting late at night.

Sadly it seems, much like how shadow clones cant slow their perception they can't use the memory enhancement as well, even with its obvious downsides id still call it a success, though my headaches seem to have slowly decreased the more I used it I believed I wouldn't ever be able to permanently use it.

It didn't allow me to view memory's only creating very vivid new ones, the short term memory enchantment only seemed to work with the long term enhancement and vise versa, the Skill memory enhancement has yet to be tried, the book claimed that the cerebellum is responsible for learning and memorizing new motor skills like katas, I believed that the Sharingan move copy thing probably had something to do with this part of the brain as well, I had high hopes that I could run around copying moves like I had a Sharingan but like the long-term memory, enhancement didn't make pre-existing memories clearer the same most likely applied to the skill-memory part of the brain.

I spared a minute of thought on what I would name my memory enhancements but came up blank, I decided to end my night and perhaps come back the other memory enhancement later, maybe after id burned some medical texts into my brain.

A few weeks passed I was once again in my much too large classroom, in the protagonist's seat, burning a book about the respiratory system into my brain, no longer experiencing a headache for a couple of minutes of use.

I had made explosive progress in memorizing the medical books needed to use medical jutsu, compared to before when It took 6 months to memorize something that is now 3 weeks of memorization.

It was extremely impressive, some would call it extremely youthful.

Yes, I was very youthful indeed.

I spared a second to look at Gai, yes most youthful.

Id since added chakra scalpels to my medical jutsu repertoire, I've also started to practice something I call medical mode, which is just me circulating medical chakra around my body and speeding up my already impressive regeneration.

Improvement aside, I had very little experience using medical jutsu on humans, only animals, there pretty much the same thing, right?

Left.

I was sitting beside an extremely excited Gai, we were doing Konhoa's equivalent of a midterm test today to decide who moves up a grade who goes down and who stays where they are.

I believe this is when Kakashi advances to the final grade to soon join team Minato.

I might advance as well, I've got some impressive taijutsu, average ninjutsu, impressive medical jutsu, but very mediocre written grades, as I never really paid attention and sometimes stopped halfway through assignments handing them in half blank when I got bored.

The written test was alright, if an answer took too long to write id half-ass it, I couldn't be bothered to explain my reasoning mainly due to general laziness.

I decided that id leave my advancement somewhat up to fate, and not try my hardest on the written test.

The tests were soon collected and the next part of the test started, we went through some physical exorcize, the teacher marking when a student dropped out, that finished we were lead back to the classroom, most of the class sweaty and miserable looking, Kakashi, Gai, and I standing out looking rather unruffled.

The final test started, slowly person after person left the room some returning some not, and midway through it was my turn, I was brought in to a cleared classroom and made to stand in Infront of a group of 3 teachers.

They made me go through the academy katas, then the academy 3, and told me to go to room 2A which I guess meant I passed and had been moved up.

I walked down the hall and thought about Gai, though I was sad, to leave Gai behind I had to move on with my life and continue to gain strength.

I walked into my new classroom and stared at a class full of 10-year-old children most of them being from the clans.

I made eye-contact with Kakashi and the little ass snorted and looked away

I ignored whatever that was and looked towards my favorite seat, only to find it already taken by a brown-haired average joe.

I absentmindedly stared at the class and started thinking about ways to get average joe to give up my seat.

I was scared out of my thoughts by a loud.

"Line up Brats, its time for sparing!"

From directly behind me.

Note to self: perhaps don't stand in doorways.