Kokichi had been spending his time in mostly agonising pain drifting in and out of consciousness with even thoughts being interrupted, suffice to say he was not having an easy time. The doctor who had spent the last week caring for him was notably surprised every time he walked into the room and saw a still living person. However Kokichi surmounted that to his most likely less than peaceful past that was still mostly a mystery.

Weeks went by quickly and the cycle of pain had slowly started to break as kokichi managed to stay conscious for longer and longer periods of time. Perhaps the pain had lessened, perhaps he had begun to become resistant to it, Kokichi could not care as either way he was benefiting. It was after he managed to stay conscious for a few hours that the doctor had finally started to put some time into training.

“Well my boy, you’ve done well not to die. I suppose our first interaction your adrenaline was running high but how are you feeling? Any major pain outside of the obvious?” The doctor asked whilst doing a routine checkup

“No” Kokichi replied hoarsely

“Alright don’t try to speak unless you have to, we don't want unnecessary harm to your vocal cords. Today I'm going to go over some basics when it comes to shinobi and or anyone affiliated with them. First is simple, never ever reveal your name. Pretty obvious reason, you don’t know who’s crazy enough to go looking for you and a name is a lead on where to find you. It also helps so that if you ever want to leave the shinobi game you can just back out.” He spoke with a half serious-half laxed voice however kokichi could see a small amount of hurt in his eyes when he spoke the rule. Perhaps, he himself had broken it and regretted it.

“Secondly, always improve. It doesn’t matter what you choose to improve but provided there’s an opportunity you should be training. Remember some geniuses are born but far more are forged through determination to improve.” He spoke with an upbeat undertone, clearly he seemed to pride himself on this rule.

“Finally as a shinobi the most important rule of them all is don’t leave traces. If your face is seen, kill the one who saw it. If a friend died next to you, burn their corpse till it’s unrecognisable. You do anything you physically can to stop your face from seeing a bounty board.” He spoke looking Kokichi dead in the eye with no sign of a joke or the upbeat doctor he was used too appearing on his face.

“Got.. it.” Kokichi managed to say returning the glare the doctor was giving him. Suddenly the doctor’s mouth lifted and his brow softened.

“Alright now that the serious stuff is out of the way I've got a task for you. If you haven’t realised this is a guest bedroom meant for long term patients. Seeing that most people die shortly after arriving or leave before getting to this point it’s been quite empty for a long time. So I want you to clean it with only chakra strings.” Kokichi’s brow raised inquisitively. “It’s quite clear that you’re a genius at puppet control so rather than train something that I myself can’t really do much better, you would need to experience battle which is impossible considering your condition alternatively you can train something i can instruct you on. Chakra control” The doctor said as he put a dustpan and brush on the counter.

Kokichi in response brought out two of his chakra strings and grabbed the brush only to find it’s much heavier than it should’ve been, the dustpan too except he couldn’t even budge it. He focused and brought out all five of his chakra strings and the dustpan slightly moved but no more than an inch.

“You’ve noticed the weight by now haven’t you.” The old man chuckled. “Weight seals, simple storage seals with the weight lightener taken out of the equation and filled with the appropriate amount of sand. The brush weighs triple that of the puppet and the pan weights ten times more. So if you can’t brute force it, how will you pick it up?”

Kokichi once again tried to force it by using more chakra but even with the strings brimming with power it would only barely lift the dustpan and inch or so. Trying to create more chakra strings just made all others weaker and he was already maxing out the power so he couldn't make just two powerful strings or could he? Recalling the straps he used on trucks to tie heavy objects down, he had an epiphany.

Braiding three of the strings together like a rope and wrapping it around the dustpan allowed for the dustpan to move albeit slowly and if Kokichi lost concentration or weakened the power of the strings it would drop.

“I'm surprised, truly. I would’ve thought that it would take all day to even realise the solution let alone apply it.” The old man grinned. “Now clean the room fully, here’s a mirror for the spots you can’t see. I’ll be back in an hour to check up on you.”

Kokichi would’ve groaned however even that hurt to do so he silently started to go to work determined to clean the entire thing in an hour. He started on the counter tops slowly manoeuvring the dust off of the surface onto the pan however more than once he was too focused on the brush and forgot about the pan causing the strings to weaken and snap. After a small time he began to get into a rhythm, finishing the countertops he moved onto the floor which presented a new challenge. He could not see them unless he looked at it through the mirror which quickly became an annoyance. He found himself slowly becoming more and more frustrated. He knew where to brush however the chakra would react more volatile since his control had wavered which only got worse when he got angry.

He eventually calmed himself and managed to finish the floor. At that point the doctor had walked in. “Good progress but you still have the wardrobe top, the window and the bed, no dinner until you finish.” He smiled evilly as he left once again.

Kokichi sighed internally, he looked to the wardrobe and realised he couldn’t see the top and the mirror wasn’t facing it. He attempted to move the mirror only to find that it would not budge. Even with a five string braid it wouldn’t move. Resigned to his fate, Kokichi slowly began to clean the top but after it passed the edge his control faded immensely. The lack of sight made the task difficult, simply pushing the strings forward didn’t work as he wouldn’t be able to clean the entire surface, only a part of it. So using his imagination Kokichi built a model of the wardrobe and used it as a guide, in an attempt to ignore the sight factor completely. Surprisingly the strings began to act as they once did albeit with a bit more difficulty. Having to construct a 3d model in his mind as well as work two tools without being able to accurately feel them did have its downsides. But after a few more minutes of struggle it was cleaned hopefully well.

Now the window sill. That was difficult but for a much more annoying reason. It sat directly above him and even with the shades drawn, the few light particles that did get through hurt him immensely already so in order to clean it he’d be exposing himself to more pain than he was already in. Letting go of the tools he raised the shades slightly to test the waters, which shone sunlight directly onto his face both disturbing his sight and putting him in unbelievable agony. Worse than the crash and worse than when he first awoke. He barely could register it before his strings snapped, returning the blinds to their previous position.

Kokichi breathed a sigh of relief when he was once again away from direct sunlight. Searching the room for anything to block the window he came up short. Unless, he looked down. The bedsheet might work, he moved his strings and tried lifting it up only for it to be stuck, and an onslaught of pain hit. His blood and puss had soaked through the bandages and stuck to the bedsheet, moving it indirectly moved his body. With nothing else in the room to block the light with he had to make a choice.

Considering that he’d have to clean it anyways, he yanked the bedsheet off. For a second he thought he was home free, then he experienced so much pain it made him regret being a truck driver which led him down this path. The pain was so much that it even caused him to scream out which only led to more pain. He then felt as though he was falling and he woke up to the sun setting and the pain from the bedsheet mostly gone.

Now in a better state of mind he refocused, a jar of water had appeared on the table and the bedsheet was removed from the room with a neatly folded clean one placed on the counter. He used his strings to bring the water close. He took a long swig of it which caused some pain but his strings only faltered ever so slightly, not enough to fail. Putting the water down he looked towards the window, with the sun’s current position he’d only have to deal with indirect sunlight which made him regret not being more patient. He opened the blinds and waited for the agonising light but he found it much more bearable than before. It wasn’t that it didn’t hurt but with it being indirect and his pain expectations being so high he was far more than prepared for it.

Grabbing the dustpan and brush he finished the rest of the process pretty quickly. Finally done with the dustpan and brush he put it on the counter and grabbed the bedsheet. Unfurling it was easy, draping it over himself felt no different than burning hot sandpaper being used for a bedsheet. But he withstood it through gritted teeth and finished just as the sun fully disappeared over the horizon.

“Done finally!” The old man spoke, causing Kokichi to flinch which he instantly regretted. “Oh sorry, anyways I made some cactus fruit and lizard juice. It sounds disgusting but overall tastes okay, besides it contains everything you need to get better.” Unable to argue, Kokichi opened his mouth and drank it. Immediately his face paled as the taste was far worse than what he imagined. “It also contains a lot of bugs for protein and the fruit was a little off.”

Kokichi finished drinking the horrible concoction and directed his hateful gaze towards the chef. “See it was lovely, anyways the training exercise should’ve been quite insightful. The control required to do what you did is already rare combined with only a day of proper training, withstanding that much pain and being unable to see where the strings are, you shouldn’t have succeeded but you managed. That would make you a once in a century genius at least or me a once in a millennium teacher. However at the level you currently are, you’d still be dead if a child with shinobi training tried to off you. Especially like those monsters from the east.”

“Who?” Kokichi inquired, curiosity overwhelming pain for a second.

“The Uchihas and the Senjus. The two clans have been at war since time immemorial, recently a famine spread causing shinobis to be sent out at younger and younger ages. I wouldn’t be surprised if Butsuma Senju sent out his eldest child soon. It’s a travesty to see in person, young blood should never be spilt in such a worthless war. The benefit however is the clans blood has been forged through the era’s each and every generation eventually surpasses the last so long as battles are continued to be fought. In a way both clans profit immensely if a child survives until adulthood since he will be at a veteran level.” He spoke with his gaze focused on the floor sadly, he truly looked like he disliked child soldiers.

“Anyways we’ll train your chakra string strength tomorrow and distance the day after. Once you get it to an acceptable range and strength we’ll see about you making your own puppet and once that's all done with we’ll talk about some applications of chakra. With that done you should get some rest. You’ve done well for today.”

(Author here, not gonna lie I felt like not continuing because it's quite difficult to make a character who's this badly f*cked up seem interesting. However I've planned it for 6 thousand words per arc, each arc having an increase in power. I wont spoil it but I have a decent idea of where I want this to go and I'm going to say it now but he will never be able to freely move. So if you expect a recovery don't.)