Dr. Uchiha Sasuke huffed as he placed a chart on the desk at the Nurses Station. The exaggerated sound emitted from the normally completely silent man, drew the attention of at least half of the female population in the room; each wondering if, perhaps, this exhale might mean something other than he was frustrated.

Unfortunately for them, Sasuke was frustrated.

He was currently on clinic duty, which, to him, was probably the worst torture one could afflict upon a young doctor. Doctors just mere months into their career shouldn't have to deal with middle aged women suffering from a mid-life crisis, teens with their junk stuck in a soda can, or old men with a saggy skin rash. It was horrible and scarring and just plain bothersome.

Picking up the chart of his next patient (and his last of the morning, thank God) he quickly glanced over the main details.

Name: Akihiko Toya

Age: 57

Hn. That'll do.

"Hello Akihiko-san," Sasuke said as he walked into exam room 2, closing the door firmly behind him "I'm Dr. Uchiha, what seems to be the problem?" He very nearly spat the forced words out; a nurse on the 3rd floor scripted the whole introduction for him. Her name was Sakura and, being a lesbian, he found her the only tolerable nurse in the whole damn hospital.

"Good morning," Akihiko said pleasantly with a smile. Sasuke found himself not hating the man as much as he thought he might. The man was quite short, about 4 inches shorter than Sasuke himself (who stood at a proud 6ft). His clothes were quite casual, much to Sasuke's distaste, his worn and ragged trainers looked horrible next to Sasuke's own dress shoes. However, something about the twinkle in his gentle brown eyes, the thinning of his hair, flecked with grey; it was…endearing.

"Well, you see, lately I haven't been able to, err, perform well in the bedro-"

Did he say endearing?

"A prescription for Viagra, please don't hesitate to return should negative side effects occur. Thank you Akihiko-san, but I must be going," With that, Sasuke left the room, hiding his disgust rather well.

He wrote in the prescription before placing the chart back onto the nurse's desk. Without even having to ask, the chart disappeared within seconds, along with a waft of perfume and a shy giggle.

If they thought he was impressed by giggles and perfume, then they had another thing coming. Not only was Sasuke attracted only to men, but he hated everything about girls.

He despised girly smells, loathed long flowing hair, despised breasts, avoided vaginas (at all cost): he was practically a monk…

…Aside from the fact that he loved cock with a passion.

Sadly, since leaving medical school, Sasuke had not gotten much sex. He had focused his time trying to find a job, and then an apartment closer to work, and then he had to drive to other side of the freaking city at least twice a week to visit his family.

Now that he was settled in his job (barely), he really wanted to get laid. He was so sexually frustrated; it wasn't even funny. Disturbingly, he'd even found the little twinkle in Akihiko-san's eye a bit of a turn on.

He was desperate.

But Uchiha's never settled for less than perfect: it was just how they were.

Sighing, he looked at the large clock on the wall, noting that it was time for his 15-minute break, before his 4 hour-long shift on 3rd floor: paediatrics.

When he had first begun his medical training at Yale, Uchiha Sasuke had wanted to be a surgeon: and he was, only, not in the sense that he had thought. He found the way the human body worked absolutely fascinating, and, although he was never one to express his emotions, found himself feeling good when he helped people.

His career altering choice was made when he and a few of the other top students were able to shadow a doctor for a week. The doctor they had followed hadn't been the most competent doctor Sasuke had ever laid eyes on, but one day, when Sasuke and his fellow students were out to lunch, he managed to find himself temporarily unable to encounter the equitable location of dining (…he couldn't find the lunch room). Frustratingly, he ended up on the hospital floor and, there, was where he met her.

Hoshiyo was a beautiful little girl. Her hair was long and coloured a surprisingly nice shade of tawny brown, her hazelnut-brown eyes sparkled with life as she lay in her bed. Peach-coloured lips stretched into a smile when she saw him glance over to her. Her smile was dazzling.

"Hello," she spoke; her gentle voice was quiet but so kind sounding. Sasuke was strangely drawn to her.

"Hello," he replied as he turned to face the girl fully. He noticed the bags around her eyes, her pale, sickly skin and when she then coughed, her small, fragile body shook as if it would just fall apart. After a small coughing fit that drew no attention from any passing doctors or nurses, the girl giggled cutely.

"Sorry about that," she said before gesturing to a chair at her side "please, sit down," Without really thinking, Sasuke took a seat at her side. The girl giggled again.

"You're very quiet, sir," she said with a bright smile.

"Hn," she giggled again.

"Surely you can do better than that," she grinned and, after receiving no reply, spoke herself "My name's Hoshiyo. What's yours?"

"Sasuke," Sasuke replied "Uchiha Sasuke,"

"Can I call you Sasuke-san?" she asked politely. Sasuke nodded. "Why are you here by my bed, Sasuke-san?"

"You told me to," he said, an eyebrow arched inquisitively. Hoshiyo laughed.

"Do you do everything little girls tell you to, Sasuke-san?"

Sasuke hated to admit it, but he blushed at the accusation before he shook his head 'no'. Hoshiyo's soft tinkling laugh filled the room once more. There was a short silence in which the only sound was the beeping of support machines.

"How old are you?" he found himself asking the girl.

"I'm 9," she smiled, sitting up on her bed and clasping her hands together in her lap.

"Why…" are you here? Sasuke looked around the room, trying to think of the right way to phrase it.

"Cancer,"

Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction and he was suddenly unable to speak.

"Leukaemia," she said, flashing her bright smile to a very confused Sasuke.

"I…I'm so…"

"Sorry?" she asked, blinking as she looked up at him with her big brown eyes. "Don't be. It's my problem, and you've only known me for 10 minutes," she giggled again, followed by another coughing fit. Sasuke frowned, placing a hand on her back as an attempt at comfort.

Hoshiyo stopped coughing and laughed at his lousy attempt of comforting.

The next few months, Sasuke would go to the hospital after class to see Hoshiyo. He learnt so much about her: she was so grown up for someone so young. Her mother had died during birth, and her father had disappeared before she was born: she had been in an orphanage for the first 7 years of her life previous to her being diagnosed with cancer. Every now and then, a few friends from the orphanage would visit; but it wasn't often as the orphanage had very limited funds and was unable to afford the cost for a visit. She was very alone; but Sasuke was there to help her out.

The two became, dare he say it, friends. An odd relationship, indeed…

He had one or two angry nurses accuse him of being a paedophile, on multiple occasions…but he honestly couldn't just leave the poor girl. Hoshiyo was a special girl; he'd never met anyone like her. She was so inspiring and innocent and pure…

When he arrived at the hospital on Hoshiyo's birthday only to find that she had passed the night before, just hours after he had left – to say Sasuke was upset was an understatement.

He'd spent the next week holed up in his dorm room, refusing to go to class or speak to anyone.

It was then that he decided to become a paediatrician. Sasuke knew he couldn't let anything like that happen again, and he'd do it all for Hoshiyo.

Walking through the halls of Konoha Hospital, Sasuke made his way to the elevator, his 15-minute break long over. He made his way to paediatrics and was greeted by a pink-haired nurse with bright emerald-green eyes and a smile.

"Good morning, Sasuke," she said, handing him a chart "how was clinic duty?" she winked and stuck out her tongue while Sasuke let out something akin to a growl in response.

"That bad, huh?" she giggled and began walking away. Sasuke started flipping through the chart, growing anxious when he recognised the name of the patient. "Oh!" before he could get to the latest test results, Sakura came right back to his side, flicking his forehead to get his attention.

"Stop flicking me, you bitch," he grumbled, narrowing his eyes. She laughed, dismissing his anger with a wave of her hand.

"Since Nagi's away on maternity leave, we've got a new murse helping us out," she explained.

"Who the hell is Nagi?" Sasuke asked with a frown. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You know! Nagi! Tall, blonde hair, blue eyes…" Sasuke raised an eyebrow and Sakura let out a frustrated sigh, "up the duff?" she accented his lovely phrase by putting her hands in front of her stomach to mime a pregnant woman.

"Oh, her…" of course, Sasuke didn't have a clue who this girl was; but he'd only been working there for 8 months! How was he supposed to know their names?

"Still, I think all of the antiseptic fumes must be getting to your head, because you just mis-pronounced 'nurse'," he told her with a smirk. She simply grinned.

"I didn't mis-pronounce anything," she giggled "I think you're going to like him!"

With that, his pink-haired friend skipped away joyfully, causing him to roll his eyes. He almost went to the charts to pick up his patient's, when he remembered Sakura had already handed it to him.

Takeo was 10 years old and had been in a car accident the previous year. He had lost the use of his leg in the collision and, with recent developments in ketamine treatment, he could be eligible for an experimental treatment that could really help him.

Looking through the chart, Sasuke couldn't help but smile when he realised that Takeo fit the criteria and would be able to join the experiment. With a genuine smile, he walked into Takeo's room, chart in hand, only to find his parents there. Normally, his Mother arrived, alone, at 12:30 and his Father turned up a little later at around 6:00pm; but today they were both there at 11:30…something was up.

"Ah, Dr. Uchiha, we were wondering when you would get here," Takeo's Mother spoke in a soft voice "You see…we've been thinking…"

"We don't want Takeo to have the treatment," Takeo's Father cut her off in a stern voice.

"…I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly," Sasuke folded his arms, smile long gone.

"Sorry Dr. Uchiha," Takeo said from his bed, looking quite upset "Mummy and Daddy said they don't want me anywhere near the kettle-mins," he said.

"Ketamine, Takeo," His Mother corrected him, stroking his sandy brown hair.

"May I please speak with you outside?" Sasuke asked the boy's parents, leaving the room before they could say no. He waited outside of the room for Takeo's parents, trying to understand their line of thinking.

"Yes, Dr. Uchiha?"

"Why?" Sasuke asked simply.

"Well, we don't want to get his hopes up," his Mother began "if the treatment doesn't work, he could become severely depressed,"

"And what if it did work?" Sasuke asked "Your son would be able to walk again. He wouldn't be in pain anymore: he wouldn't need the morphine!"

Takeo had been taking morphine on a regular basis to help him cope with the pain.

"It just sounds far too dangerous," his Father concluded, folding his arms. Sasuke exploded.

"Dangerous how? The worst thing that could happen would be that it doesn't work; which only means things will be the same as they are now, and the only other side effects are so minor, they are things that could happen to absolutely anyone! He could be cured and, if not, he would be helping research to help more people in the future! There is no down side to this treatment!"

Having realised he'd lost his cool, Sasuke couldn't bring himself to apologise to these people and, instead, stormed off to the nurses station to find Sakura.


When Sakura found Sasuke, he was in a closet with his head against the wall, fists clenched on either side of him.

"Sasuke…" she said, walking into the closet and taking one of his clenched hands "I heard about what happened…" she pried open his fist and placed something cold and metallic in his palm "I know you don't want to talk right now, and I also know how much you hate the phone, so, if you want to talk, this is a key to my apartment. I'll see you later," she said softly, walking to the door "Oh, and Dr. Tsunade is coming to paediatrics soon to talk to Takeo's parents herself. She's also going to be looking for you, about your outburst, so lay low for a while okay?" she smiled and left the closet.

Sasuke didn't say a word, but tightened his grip on the spare key.


Author's Note:
Okay guys! This is the prologue to 'Murse'! If you want me to continue with it, please leave me a review!...it certainly looked longer in Word...5 pages longer...but oh well!

So, no Naruto yet, but he's on his way! Next chapter for sure!

Also, I know that I've made Sasuke a little too nice and too emotional, but I think that that's okay…considering his line of work. If it really bothers you though, please let me know and I'll be sure to make him more of a hard-ass!

I'll be sure to work on the next chapter soon! Expect it within the next few weeks!