"Do you even know what you are asking?"
The blast of the winter air chilled her to the bone as it drifted from the open car window. However the young doctor hardly noticed that she was freezing. The fierce glare from her revered instructor was already enough to melt the ice that she knew formed on her sweaty brow. She got her constricted throat spoke after the intense stare turned away from her.
"Yes."
She did not even need to glance at her mentor, the greatest physician she ever has known, to know that the woman was deeply agitated. "You are one of the most talented trainees I have ever handled." The older woman pressed a well-manicured finger to the button, automatically closing the open window. "Surely you have already thought of the consequences of your actions."
"Tsunade-shishou."
The driver of the car pursed her lips and remained silent.
She averted her gaze to the dark night sky flecked with white flakes behind the tinted glass panes, the city lights a blur as they sped up on the road. "I have to do this."
The other woman turned the steering wheel forcefully as the vehicle rounded around the corner. "This is not in your jurisdiction."
"I'm a doctor." The younger one was never one to back down from her superior in their match of wills. "His doctor." Those clean fingers now gripped the clean lapels of her coat tightly. She would not admit that she was afraid doing this alone. But it did not escape from the scrutinizing gaze of her superior that she sat up more rigidly than the usual.
"Then don't cross the line." The woman tightened her hold on the clutch beside her. She did not need to emphasize what she meant. "He will not hesitate to kill you."
Her eyes became steely jades that Tsunade could not help but be proud of, alight with a unrecognizable fervor.
"Let's see."
The frantic waves of whispers around her were ignored as she walked briskly in the well-lighted hallways. She hardly gave any notice to the white-washed walls marked with blood. As soon as her closed leather shoes passed through the swinging doors, the chaos was suddenly silenced, as everyone turned their heads to her.
Her heels clacked on the tiles tenaciously as she saw him for the very first time.
The orderlies tried to constrain him as he struggled against the bound leather straps. The patient had been transported some time earlier in a mattress that had many coarse leather straps that bound every limb to the bed frame, trying to take away all the chances of escape.
(She spared a glance towards the dark crimson patterns on the tiles and the white gown that was stained with crusty, hardened layers of blood. It was like a painting, with the discarded scalpel resembling like a morbid brush leaving grave swirls on a blank paper.)
He considered her with a skeptical glare as she slowly reached out to brush his arm with her fingers.
With a pliant touch on his shoulder, she nodded to a nearby assistant, stretching her other hand for the syringe. Then without warning, she swiftly added pressure on that tender spot on his upper limb.
He screamed. The sound pierced through the thick hospital walls and evoked horrific reactions from her fellow residents. Different profanities flew to her ears, colorful words that were never really said in her profession for a long time. She managed to hold the arm in place with a grasp that exerted all of her strength as he tried once more to free himself.
She pricked him with the needle and pressed down the barrel carefully. His captivating ebony eyes widened in surprise as he felt the heavenly, floating effect of the drug ensnaring him.
He hissed in protest and stared at her murderously. Her keen senses caught breath of words from his moving, silent lips. She leaned forward to hear it, despite protests from her present accomplices.
"I will kill you," he murmured endlessly, his eyelids slowly drooping to a close.
His muscles gradually stop twitching as the medicine takes its full effect.
She was strangely fascinated with the grotesque expression on his beautiful, feminine-like features that graced his face.
How perfect he is. She mused to herself.
Her whole senses were only attuned to his peaceful breathing and his clammy skin under her touch. She could neither see those interested stares nor hear their fascinated whispers about this odd behavior.
The next morning, she found him sitting on the windowsill. His admirable face was stoic and unreadable, as if it was carved from ivory. The sunlight filtered through the window, falling on the residing occupant in the room, highlighting his profile as he sat on his bed. Those silhouette-colored eyes were directed towards some unknown point in the cerulean-tinted sky.
"Good morning, Uchiha-san."
There was a bundle of daffodils in a delicately crafted vase. He glanced at them suspiciously.
"I hope I'm not disturbing you." She spoke cheerfully, for she was not really accustomed in only hearing flutter of curtains in a room with people. She turned her back to him, grabbing the chart beside the beautifully arranged flora on his bedside table. "I'm going to ask you a few questions today."
He merely stared at the flowers that lay innocently inside the vase.
"Who sent them?" His voice is like dark, silky velvet on her skin.
She managed to smile at him, even though he was glaring at her furiously. "Well, probably someone thought you could use a little bit of cheering up." With one roving gaze, her skilled eyes quickly assessed him.
He was a handsome young man, with his body sculpted to explain why many nurses visit this ward quite often. A fine chiseled face, a perfectly pointed aristocratic nose and his pale prominent cheeks accentuated by his silky, black mane that she secretly envies. "After all, this place is a little bit maddening, isn't it?"
His reaction to her statement was quite astonishing. His eyes suddenly bulged and he bared his teeth at her in anger. A pained gasp came out of her lips when his hand shot out and held her wrist in a vise grip.
"Let me out." he stated low and clearly, the threat of death ringing loudly in her ears.
She wrestled against him, trying to pull away from those terrifying fingers. Her heart started to sped up suddenly in horror and she wished so hard that she could scream for help. The fact that her vocal strings got so tangled when he held her terrified gaze with his breathtaking eyes made the effort to scream useless.
"I-I.." She stuttered, recalling the words of her instructor to never, ever give false reassurances to patients.
"Let me out." He hissed, stressing his demand by digging his blunt nails into her skin even more.
"I-I can't!" she half-yelped, her fingers uselessly trying to pry his tight ones from her fragile wrist.
There might have been too much adrenaline flowing in his veins as he roughly maneuvered her to be thrown against the nearby table, she thought desperately. In a state of panic, she nearly shrieked. "But I can help you!"
Suddenly, his excruciating clutch was gone. His intense stare burned stinging holes on her, as if to replace the recent threat of those hands. Labored breaths filled the tense silence but she could only perceive the loud pounding that drummed in her ears.
She slowly gained back her composure as she rubbed her reddened forearms.
He sat rigidly on his place, now staring at the innocent flowers that danced against the morning breeze that flitted from the open window.
He breathed normally, acting as if nothing happened.
Hurried footsteps now reverberated on the hallways. It was no mystery to everyone what occurs if anyone dared to start a conversation with him.
"Your blood pressure." She took the cuff on his bedside, grateful that her hands did not shake. "May I?"
Revising Panacea.
(Dedicated to Lala-chan. Also known here in as PaperWings28 in try to make the updates faster.
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