Brontide by Finito-Arcobaleno

"Run, run…cling to life and survive in an unsightly way."

"…Yes, nii-san. I will cling to life, but also assist others to do the same."

Arc 1, Chapter 1: Hospital Stay

The first sight that Sasuke sees after constant images of bright red flowers blossoming from the backs and abdomens of his Uchiha relatives is the white ceiling. For a moment he blinks at the sudden change, wondering whether he was still in his brother's genjutsu or not, before realising that he was in the Konoha hospital. He felt tired and exhausted mentally. His brother had just killed everyone in the clan, but had left him. Why? There had to be a reason for Itachi to do so, apart from 'to test his capacity'. He wanted to think more on that, but his thoughts were interrupted by a nurse who came in. She started.

"Head Doctor Yakushi, please come! The Last Uchiha is awake!"

The man himself came striding in almost immediately. He wore the usual medic garb, with a pair of black, round spectacles perched on his forehead. Walking towards Sasuke, he pulled out a pen from one of his pockets and held out a clipboard.

"Uchiha Sasuke. Eight years old. The ANBU found you unconscious at the crime scene. We suspect that you have been subjected to a genjutsu. Could you please tell us what happened?"

His throat felt dry, what little of his saliva was thick, and his tongue seemed weighted to the floor of his mouth. It felt like he hadn't spoken for days. He probably hadn't. There was so much to think about, so much to explain. His thoughts had been muddled and the events seemed disjointed and out of place with each other. But he was able to say the one sentence that explained everything.

"Itachi killed everyone."

If Head Doctor Yakushi was startled by the fact that the loyal Itachi had slaughtered his entire family in cold blood and became a S-Rank missing-nin, he didn't show any of it on his face, keeping it blank. Scribbling the quote down, he then placed the pen back into his pocket and told Sasuke that he was going to stay the week here, just because they did not know what kind of genjutsu he had experienced and they needed him there just in case of any advert side effects. A psychology examination was also organized to be conducted later on.

After passing that exam, where he was asked annoying questions about how he felt and other trivial items like it, he was cleared to be mentally sound and only traumatized by the incident, which, according to the examiner, should clear up over time. But that was probably the only interesting thing for the whole week.

Sasuke was bored. They didn't let him outside too often, and although there was the occasional roommate that was wheeled in due to the fact that there wasn't enough space for only a single patient per room, they usually left in a few hours. A nurse, the same nurse that he first saw upon waking up, brought in the food every day, along with various piles of gifts from fan girls – which he promptly ordered to be burned. No use getting attached to anyone like before. He didn't want to be reminded of his strong bond with his brother which was severed so suddenly. Itachi was going to come back one day, and Sasuke did not wish to have any weakness to hinder him.

Upon the night before his release from the hospital, when he was about to fall asleep, he heard the Head Doctor and opened his eyes to see him. This time, the doctor's face was screwed up with panic, completely unlike what Sasuke saw when he was first admitted. It made the shadows on his face more defined, and made him look older than what he originally seemed. He was running alongside a hospital bed, wheeled by five others.

"Take him to an operating theatre immediately!"

"But sir! We don't have any theatres that are free!"

"Then take him to this room! There's only one patient here!"

The mysterious man was wheeled into Sasuke's room. He quickly closed his eyes, but the sight lingered, and he shuddered as the amount of splotchy red dredged up memories of the Massacre. He seemed to be about twenty, but it was hard to tell with all the medics that surrounded him, along with his mop of grey hair (was that supposed to be natural for his age?). Blood had stained the bandages that were wrapped haphazardly around his torso, and a trail of blood splattered the formerly pristine tiles of the hospital floor. But what really stood stark against Sasuke's image were his uniform, mask, and the tattoo on his left bicep.

He was a member of the ANBU. And from the amount of fussing Sasuke perceived by the doctors, he was most likely an ANBU Captain. Sasuke wondered what kind of mission had caused such grievous injury upon someone as skilled as an ANBU.

"We must put up the screens, sir! The Last Uchiha is here!"

"Never mind the screens! This man is only just clinging to life here. We can give him privacy later! Right now, surgery must be conducted!"

Foolish little brother, if you want to kill me, despise me, hate me. Run, run…cling to life and survive in an unsightly way.

'Could I truly hate you, from the deepest pits of my heart? You must've had some reason for killing everyone, because you always had preached to me about peace. But…hai, nii-san. I will cling to life, just like this man here, and I will grow to avenge the clan. You want me to do this. However, I will not stoop to your level to survive. I will also assist others to cling to life as well.' Sasuke thought.

Sasuke opened his eyes in defiance, ignoring the amount of red liquid that filled his vision, and watched the medics heal the man with hands laden with a jade green shade of chakra, potent with healing properties. They were so concentrated on their work, on helping to save lives, with beads of sweat over their brows and their lips pressed into a thin line to display just how much effort they had put into saving each and every one of their patients. They didn't even wince at the severity of the wound!

The surgery was over, and the man was left there for the night. The medics did not notice that Sasuke was awake, and that he had seen the whole operation. It was like a miracle to behold, seeing a wound seemingly close up on itself, the healing accelerated to seal the large abrasions that had once shredded the man's entire stomach.

He wanted to be like that, to save other people's lives.

Sasuke wanted to be a medic-nin.

-tbc-

And…done! I've finally succumbed to my plot-bunnies, after my vow to avoid investing time with writing fanfiction until the end of year holidays. And I was so close! But no, mid-term break had to come and I had literally nothing to do for four days except read fanfiction. Before I knew it, I had managed to plan out two arcs of this story in about an hour. I'd originally planned 6 chapters for this arc, but after realising just how much I had put into just this chapter, I believe that the entire arc should only take about 3-4 chapters. That would cover Sasuke's life up until the Genin graduation.

Reviews are welcome. Please do so, because I need all the help in writing skills that I can get due to the fact that I am only 13.

The Medic-nin/Doctor!Sasuke idea was inspired by Aoi24's 'The Medic', who sent my plot-bunny on a high and made it rampage around my head. Read that one first, because there are many parts of it where I've gotten an inspiration from.

The Naruto franchise belongs to TV Tokyo and Masashi Kishimoto. Medic-nin!Sasuke is inspired by Aoi24. I do not own the aforementioned things. However, the story belongs to me.

Word Count: 1,121 words