Even though teaching a student with zero foundation was difficult, Yakushi Nonō happened to have experience—plenty of it.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
Nonō knelt down on the tatami across from Hyuga Kiyonari, set her cloth bag to the side, and took out several thick, homemade textbooks and notes.
"Thank you for your trouble, Nono-sensei." Kiyonari dipped his head slightly in respect.
Nonō laid the materials out neatly, then looked up at Kiyonari. "This is what we need to learn in the first stage. After class, I'll leave these here so you can review, consolidate, and preview. We'll have lessons once every three days."
"Since you said you have zero foundation, I plan to start with the most basic biological knowledge. The foundation of medical ninjutsu lies in understanding the essence of life. Only with a solid grasp of biology can you use medical ninjutsu better."
"I understand." Kiyonari nodded.
Nonō opened the first page and began teaching. "Then—we'll start with cells. Cells are the basic units that make up all living organisms. There are two kinds: plant cells and animal cells."
Next, she pulled out a diagram and, using humans as the example, briefly explained the relationships between cells, tissues, organs, and systems. She didn't mention other animals or plants at all.
That alone revealed how strongly utilitarian the ninja world's knowledge system was. Even with broad terms like "biology" and "the essence of life," once it became practical, everything revolved tightly around humans themselves.
After the lesson had gone on for a while, Nonō froze again in surprise.
Kiyonari's learning speed far exceeded her expectations. Not only could he accurately repeat what she taught, he could even apply it—drawing inferences and extending it further.
"Very good. It seems you understand thoroughly, so let's continue."
Over the next hour, Nonō explained the functions of the body's organs and systems, what kinds of injuries those organs might suffer in battle, and basic treatment methods. After each point, she paused to ask questions, and Kiyonari always grasped it quickly and gave precise answers.
"Completely correct!"
A flicker of astonishment crossed Nonō's eyes, and she couldn't help asking, "Kiyonari—are you really zero foundation? You're a genius among geniuses!"
Kiyonari's face showed helplessness. He shook his head. "Nono-sensei, you flatter me. I'm really not a genius—just an ordinary person."
He paused, then added, "Is it possible… that it's because Nono-sensei teaches so well that I understand so quickly?"
A genius? How would I count as a genius?
Kiyonari knew exactly what he was. In medicine he truly was a total beginner. The only reason he'd performed so well just now was because, in his previous life, biology was part of nine years of compulsory education.
The key was that what he'd learned was purely theoretical biology—whereas what Nonō taught was tightly tied to real cases and practical treatment.
It would be easy for him to pretend to be a genius, and doing so would even lighten his workload and let him slack off.
But if that misled Nonō's judgment and made her teaching incomplete—if in the future he made a mistake while treating someone—he would never forgive himself.
He was serious about learning medicine.
A medical ninja didn't need to charge into the front lines in war, and in daily life didn't need to go out on missions—this job was practically tailor-made for him. And if he could master Tsunade's Creation Rebirth, then once he had spare correction points, he could give himself a Senju Hashirama-style passive… his survival ability would be maxed out.
As long as he kept his head down, one day, in some script, Hyuga Kiyonari would evolve into Ōtsutsuki Kiyonari.
Yet the more humble Kiyonari was, the more Nonō felt he wasn't simple at all.
Truly talented people were often humble—and for a child his age to maintain that humility only convinced her further that his future was bright. Perhaps he would become Konoha's next "Tsunade."
"You're too modest." Nonō smiled gently. "But since you're grasping this so well, we can speed up the pace a bit."
She flipped to the next page and pointed at a diagram of blood vessel distribution. "The body's circulatory system mainly includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood. The heart is like a pump, constantly sending blood throughout the body—"
This time, Nonō's explanation went deeper and more detailed. She covered not only basic concepts but also the specific routes of blood circulation, the structure of heart valves, and other more complex content—especially the locations of arteries and veins.
On the battlefield, bleeding out was one of the most common causes of death for shinobi. So Nonō explained methods of stopping bleeding and bandaging for different vessels in exceptional detail.
The heart, as one of the most vital organs, was also a primary target in combat. If the heart was damaged, the Mystical Palm Technique could be used for emergency treatment—but without understanding valve structure, the technique might mistakenly "stitch shut" normal valve openings as if they were wounds.
Nonō kept explaining… then suddenly realized something was off.
Kiyonari's performance seemed beyond even the realm of genius. Even Kabuto—praised by Orochimaru—didn't learn new knowledge like this. Yet yesterday she had personally confirmed that Kiyonari didn't even know basic bandaging and hemostasis; he truly was a child who knew nothing about medicine.
So what was going on?
Nonō thought it over carefully. Since it involved the commission, she decided to address it directly.
"Kiyonari, I have a question."
"Please ask." Kiyonari set down his pen and looked at her seriously.
"You said you were zero foundation, but I feel…" Nonō chose her words carefully, "you don't seem unfamiliar with this knowledge. Even if you haven't studied deeply, I suspect you've been exposed to some of it before. Am I right?"
Kiyonari paused. He hadn't expected her to be so sharp, to catch it so quickly. As expected—there was no way to hide completely in front of the "walking shrine maiden."
He was silent for a few seconds, then nodded honestly. "You're right, Nono-sensei. I have looked into some things beforehand. But—what I learned is biology, not medicine."
Nonō looked puzzled. "You mean—"
"Knowledge about life itself. I'm interested in life itself, so I looked up some materials and bought a few books… but what I learned is completely different from actual medical treatment."
In his previous life, Kiyonari had studied science, and he'd even chosen biology as his university major. But—medicine, he truly didn't know at all.
Like his physics teacher once said: a mathematician doesn't have to be a physicist, but a physicist must be a mathematician. The relationship between biology and medicine was similar.
Medicine was based on biology, but having biology knowledge alone didn't make you a doctor. Between theory and practice lay a massive gap.
Hearing that, Nonō finally understood.
So that's why he could grasp biological concepts quickly but was clueless in practical medical work.
But what followed was a deeper surprise.
A child this young was interested in something as dry and theoretical as biology?
Even more shocking—he had proactively searched for information and purchased specialized books. That kind of self-learning ability and hunger for knowledge was extraordinarily rare.
Even if orphanage children were often more mature than their peers because of harsh lives, in hobbies they were still children.
Most kids liked playing ninja games, dreaming of becoming powerful ninja, chasing cool poses. Even quieter children preferred listening to stories, drawing, or doing crafts—not studying "life."
But Kiyonari was different. No wonder Tsunade-sama accepted him as a student.
Nonō sighed inwardly.
Kiyonari saw the "three parts praise, three parts respect, four parts admiration" fan-chart look in her eyes and knew—she still misunderstood.
He really wasn't a genius, and he didn't want to be a genius anymore!
He'd gotten none of the benefits of being called a genius and all of the suffering. He didn't even dare imagine what his life would become if Nonō started telling everyone, "Hyuga Kiyonari truly is Tsunade-sama's student—he's a born medical ninja!" and the like.
Sigh… that would be "interesting," alright.
"Since you already have a foundation in biology, the rest of your learning will go much more smoothly. But—I want to confirm something." Nonō paused, then added, "Kiyonari, how deep is your grasp of biology?"
As if that still wasn't safe enough, she added again, "You must tell me truthfully, so I can redesign the course plan."
Kiyonari thought briefly. Then his lips curved upward slightly—yellow-bean smile.jpg.
"Nono-sensei—do you know the language of sweet pea blossoms?"
"Sweet pea flower language?" Nonō blinked. "I… don't really know. Sweet peas have flower language?"
Kiyonari nodded, but a gray shadow gradually fell over his eyes, as if his entire soul had burned out and turned to white ash.
"They do. The flower language of sweet peas is—9:3:3:1."
If it weren't hard to explain, what would come next would be: yellow-round-green-wrinkled, linkage inheritance, non-sister chromatid exchange, recombination, zygote lethality, gene mutation—
Truly, among all heroes under heaven, only Mendel and exam-setters deserve the title.