[attr="class","addy2body"]Color her surprised! In less than a blink he'd sliced open her arm, yet the kunoichi made no noise to indicate that it hurt. Perhaps if Higa were an observant person - he didn't strike her as one - he would see the varied scars that already ran up her arm. It was pretty rude of him to do that, but instead of yelling she supervised while he attempted to heal it.
Sorry, puppet man! Iryou ninjutsu is not as straightforward as taijutsu, and it was even more delicate than the control required to use his chakra strings. Her fingers twitched in discomfort as the cells started to replicate and stitch, both too slow and messy. The skin at the edges of the closing wound started to decay because he did not maintain the chakra upon them at the right level. After giving it a moment to see if he would adjust, she tugged her arm away and hurried to use her own mystic palm to properly seal the wound. His attempt was sloppy, but when she removed her hand from it at least it had not scarred like the others.
"It was a good try, but I am going to be honest with you, Higa. For one, I don't think you have the patience or the time to devote to medicine. It took me years of study under a Jounin to reach the level I am at now, which is honestly rudimentary healing compared to them. Two, I believe your skills are better put to use in other avenues, like your puppet. Why do you want to even learn medical jutsu? Is it something I can help you with? We are partners now, you know."
[attr="class","arubody"] Higa gave her a half shrug. Apparently, he was missing some key concepts to this, and she was pretty on the spot. He didn't have the time nor patience to dedicate years on end to learn medical ninjutsu. His mind wandered to other things.
Puppets.
He let out a somewhat dejected sigh as he shuffled over towards Kishi, wrapping it lightly and pulling it onto his back.
"Yeah, it's nothing important now. You can probably help me down the line." He stood there, in deep reflection for a moment, as though evaluating his options. "I'll get back to you on that. There are still other working parts to my ideas that I haven't figured out yet."
He hesitated. Honestly not sure where to go from here. She acknowledged him as her partner now, which was a good feeling, but beyond that, he was stumped and now carrying a heavy puppet. He leaned in for a half hug, an arm wrapping around her and giving her back a good pat.
"It was a good fight, sorry again about your... face. I'll uh... see you around then, lots the think about." He took a step back, fixing up the straps a little bit. Before walking away.
[attr="class","addy2body"]"Sorry about my FACE?!" She squeaked at him, having forgotten that her cheek was actually rather swollen and bruised at this point. See, that was a downside to having muted pain receptors - it could sometimes trick the body into thinking it was not injured at all, thus preventing proper care. "Oh. Nevermind."
Truth be told, Higa's response made her very curious. There were some obvious paths that they could walk together, but he had not specified.. was it something unconventional? She hummed to herself while watching him walk away, puppet on his back looking like something from a horror movie. Cringe. Fingers gently caressed the cheek as it began to throb, and then she stooped to pick up her umbrella. It had been a funny way to start their little fight, a good prop even if it was ultimately useless.
The biggest takeaway for her, his ambitions aside, was a clear reminder that being hand-to-hand with an opponent simply wouldn't work with her fighting style. Ambush and surprise only could take her so far, until they began to retaliate, then.. l-o-s-e-r. If it wasn't her partner on the other end, that puppet could have killed her. Sobering thoughts. These remained on her mind as she walked away in the opposite direction, heading back home.
