I thought I'd better warn the purists out there first: it's important to note that some events from this story are not included in the Naruto plot anime or manga. Details have been changed to open up the opportunity for the other character's point of view. I hope this doesn't detract from enjoyment. ;0) Allybalybee x
Lady Leaf
It was after the great battle to save the village from the Sound, and right on the heels of the funeral for the Third Hokage. The whole population were both miserable and traumatized after the events of that day. True, the losses could have been worse, and yes, Konohagakure was still standing, albeit shrouded in a haze of smoke. I, too, felt that the luxury of being objective was no longer an option.
The medical profession had standards to be maintained. As a nurse, my responsibility was to heal, to help those in need and do no harm; feelings and beliefs needed to be put aside for the good of the patient. It is said that the identity and background of the injured is not to be taken into consideration regarding treatment, but it was well known that not all the hidden villages shared this philosophy. Their own soldiers would be healed first and POW would be left to die in hospitals. . Despite this fact, the Village Hidden in the Leaves still gave aid to all inflicted with serious injuries.
Today had been a long morning. I felt sick and very tired, having watched the pale and frozen faces of the dead taken from beds and wheeled away.. What struck me more, however, was that I couldn't help in a meaningful way. All the other nurses were taking temperatures and making notes, assisting the doctors in their work, and what was I doing? I was permanently tied to the sluice: cleaning filthy sheets, emptying bed pans and taking charge of dirty laundry. Of course, everyone had to take their turn to keep the hospital clean—I'm well aware of hygiene regulations—but the truth is, no one else seems to take their fair share of laundry duty.
Matron, barking orders inches away from my eyebrows, snapped me back to reality. She stabbed a pointed finger toward a ninja who has just come in, blood gushing from his arms. Foreign knives, butcher tools embedded in the fragile pink flesh were difficult to remove, but I lead him to a spare bed and watched as the doctor slowly drew out the blade. I noticed each part of the blade had upward grooves in the metal, creating more damage. Weapons designed to cause as much pain going in as they do coming out – what sort of creature would create such a thing?
The doctor took the bloody clothes and dumped them into a plastic bag. He pointed to the bed sheets and asked for them to cleared, along with the plastic bag. As I did as he requested, I offered to help stitch up the wounds, but he snarled at me to stop wasting time and do my job.
Konohagakure hospital is a large building with whitewashed walls and long, green-tiled corridors that stretch for miles. There are twelve wards altogether, including a ward for the medical core, a children's ward, A & E and rehab. There's always a funny smell that follows wherever you go - a mixture of disinfectant, hand gel and bleach. Whenever I return home after a long day, I can never get the smell out of my hair, despite having worn a nursing cap. I could spend hours in the shower rubbing and scrubbing with various flower-scented shampoos and oils, but alas, to no avail.
My break arrived quickly and a disgruntled male nurse mentioned something about having twenty minutes to eat (our lunch break should be thirty), before taking over. Outside, away from the chaos, the sun was shining, but there was a distinct smoky odour that floated on the faint breeze. The light wind tickled my long and rather stout nose, which was passed down from my mother's side. There were times when the thought of using Ninjutsu to change it were tempting, but as a nurse, I possessed no such jutsu.
The lighting changed from brightness to shadow as the clouds hid the sun and then revealed it again. It was quite warm. Settling under the Sakura tree, I retrieved my lunch from the barely functional rucksack that I always carried. A nurse always needed to keep her strength up. After all, who knew when those double doors would bash open with some emergency? There was a small feast of rice, boiled eggs and pork that Mother had made this morning, and with the snap of my chopsticks, I began to tuck in while the Lecture of the Morning repeated over and over in my head. Why was it that her smile always looked helpful, but underneath, she's smouldering with ambitious thoughts; thoughts about what to do next to fix me.
I had become the youngest qualified nurse in the village only one year ago. Training had been tough and highly competitive; for every vacancy in the village there were guaranteed to be at least seven other applicants. Some nurses were forced to relocate to other villages for employment, and this was okay, as the Village in the Leaves had the largest medical training facility for miles around. Smaller villages often made requests for medical assistants to augment their own doctors at the drop-in centres. This meant that, despite being a long way from home, you could still achieve a career, although it would be a lonely existence.
I had no intention of leaving Konohagakure. My mother would kill me, as nurses from the Katashi family had never left the village--they were firm and grounded people. Only a complete black sheep would want to dishonour our good name with such wicked and selfish thoughts of travelling… Imagine setting such a bad example for my brother, Naoki, giving him absurd thoughts of expanding his horizons. Wouldn't that be terrible.
It didn't sound so terrible to me; my brother was very anxious, especially after father died. It wouldn't hurt to let the outside world influence him once in a while. On second thought, the attempted destruction of our village had come from the outside world… Perhaps mother was right. I didn't agree with her smothering, but what else could she do?
"Hey, if you don't get back inside soon, Matron Shun is gonna eat you for lunch!"
Lost in my thoughts, I hadn't even noticed Takumi sneaking up behind me. The remnants of my lunch box spilled out onto the grass; my resulting glare made him burst into laughter. Takumi was a nice guy, with short spiky black hair and glasses thick as milk bottles. He'd really looked after me when I first came to the hospital; you could say he had a knack for keeping me out of trouble.
"I thought I had twenty minutes! What's Shun trying to pull, anyway?"
"There's a situation," Takumi replied seriously. "A new patient came in and he's causing a few problems. Apparently, you're the ideal person to deal with it."
"It better not be an explosive case of diarrhoea. I'm really not in the mood for that, especially just after eating."
"Maybe you should call in sick and go home," he suggested, smiling weakly.
"Are you kidding? Shun would have me pulling night shifts for the next two weeks if I went home now. That woman hates my guts for some daft reason, now she wants me to sort out some grumpy patient," I complained, crossing my arms.
Takumi looked nervous, shifting from one foot to the other. He was normally laid back and teasing, but something had spooked him. He took off his glasses and wiped them clean.
"You know I'd cover for you, don't you? I can take your shift and you can pay me back some time." His eyes were very blue in the sunlight. Without his glasses, Takumi actually looked okay. "We could go see the new Princess Gale film… Even that's bound to be better than what Matron's got planned for you."
I stood up straight. Takumi was nineteen, at least four years my senior. I knew for a fact that he hated Yukie Fujikaze and all the Princess Gale films ever created.
"I can handle whatever comes my way," I tried to reassure him, "Besides, if I ran away from every challenge, I wouldn't be a very good nurse, would I? I don't want to give anyone ammunition to put me down. Being the youngest on the staff is hard enough as it is."
He nodded sagely, he more than anyone knew how hard I'd worked to fit in and get along on the job. I never expected to be accepted, but the derision from my colleagues and even the patients was a little trying. Being judged on my age was unfair; I couldn't count how many times had a patient demanded a proper nurse, or how many times had I been washing soiled nightgowns in the sluice when I should be taking temperatures. Yep, Matron Shun really loved giving me 'little jobs' to do.
"So, who is this awkward patient giving everyone grief, anyway?" I yawned.
Takumi cleared his throat. "His name is Gaara of the Sand."