**Author's Note**
Check the notes at the end for some housekeeping stuff regarding things like ages, my knowledge (or lack thereof) of medicine, warnings about certain themes ahead, and such. So read it if you're confused about something. It'll serve as my guidelines for ALL future chapters in case someone has a question.
You would think that after two years of an accelerated university program, four years of med school, five years of a general surgery residency, two years of a trauma fellowship, and three years of being a completely self sufficient attending surgeon, that Naminé Nakano would have learned to be on time by now.
But no. Here she was, running through Hidden Leaf Hospital, trying to make it on time to a meeting—a meeting where she would be officially introduced to the staff.
And at this rate, if she made it at all she would have been shocked.
She ran through the hospital, dodging nurses and apologizing when they glowered at her, and eventually made it to the large conference room where the surgical staff and in house physicians were, along with the Chief of Surgery, Sasuke Sarutobi.
By complete accident, she swung the door wide open, almost hitting several people, and causing just about everyone in the room to give her a dirty look for causing such a disturbance.
"Sorry," she squeaked, closing the door and standing against the wall since the room was full. But Sasuke saw her nonetheless and laughed softly.
"Perfect timing. Naminé dear, would you come up here?"
Catching her breath, Naminé forced a smile onto her face and wiped her forehead in case she was sweating from her early morning sprint, and took quick steps to the front of the room where Sasuke Sarutobi was smiling at her.
"Moving on," he started when she got up to him, addressing the room. "As I'm sure many of you know, this is Dr. Naminé Nakano. She's been temporarily helping out around here while we look for a replacement Head of General and Trauma Surgery. I know several of you have even worked with her."
Naminé looked around the room. She knew a decent amount of the surgeons by now, some physicians, and a fair few nurses. But no one on the staff was really dying to get to know her. Not that she really blamed them since she was stepping into their territory uninvited after all.
"And today I am happy to announce that she will be staying on full time as our new Head of General and Trauma Surgery," Sasuke announced.
Naminé was prepared for the blank looks from doctors who weren't directly affected by this, envious ones from other surgeons who were hoping the position would go to them, and hopeful ones from the young interns who wanted the chance to scrub in on some of her surgeries. What she was not prepared for however, was an annoyed scoff that came from the middle of the room somewhere.
She narrowed her eyes and tried to identify who the sound came from, but there were too many people and she couldn't. So she looked at Sasuke to see that he was already frowning.
"And if anyone has a problem with it, they can talk to me," Sasuke stated, now effectively glaring at the room. "That'll be all."
With that, the room slowly began to clear out. Sasuke pulled Naminé aside immediately and looked at her with a steady gaze.
"You sure about this?"
Naminé flashed him a grin, "well I've already signed the contract so if not, I'm outta luck."
Sasuke's stern expression broke and he was already cracking a smirk, "I'm happy to have you here, and not just because you have an excellent reputation as a renowned trauma surgeon—though that certainly helps!" He chuckled to himself.
"It's also my great looks and charming sense of humor," she remarked.
Sasuke held in a soft laugh, probably not wanting the other surgeons to see him possibly being too soft, but he did grin at her, "you do have a great bedside manner. Hopefully you can demonstrate that to some of our interns because honestly—they're horrible."
"Is that what you said about me when I was an intern?" She teased.
Sasuke pretended to feign thoughtfulness, "well perhaps."
Naminé put a hand over her chest in dramatic fashion, pretending to be wounded, "and you call yourself my mentor."
Sasuke shrugged, "my dear, you left far too long ago for me to have ever become your mentor."
Naminé rolled her eyes, "nine years is not that long."
"Was it only nine? Here I thought it was thirty."
"Sasuke," Naminé chided. This wasn't the first time he guilt tripped her for leaving his hospital after her intern year, and she knew it wouldn't be the last.
"Oh all right," Sasuke relented.
Naminé gave him a knowing look and then crossed her arms to say, "I gotta go. I have a gallbladder removal in an hour."
"Oh Naminé," Sasuke called when she was halfway through the room. She craned her neck to look at him over her shoulder. "Have Kotetsu scrub in with you. I promised him he would see the inside of an OR this week after he ran my errands."
Naminé shook her head and opened the door, "stop torturing the interns, Sasuke!"
"I'm not, it's called building character!"
"I heard you made quite the entrance this morning," Kurenai Yuhi said as she came over to the nurses' station. Naminé looked up from her charts and smiled at the dark haired nurse that she had spent the past three weeks working with. The two of them were on pretty similar schedules for the most part, although Naminé tended to work more brutal hours.
"I'm going to be late to my own funeral," Naminé said, putting a crappy cup of coffee to her lips.
"How does a trauma surgeon get away with being late all the time? Isn't punctuality supposed to be ingrained into your DNA?"
Naminé feigned thoughtfulness, looking to the side and shrugging, but then she looked back at Kurenai, "you'd think so, but no."
"How do you get away with it then?"
"I've got great hands," Naminé said, winking at Kurenai and one of the other nurses who giggled into her charts.
Kurenai wasn't impressed and planted a hand on her hip, "that's a load of bullshit and you know it."
Naminé chugged the rest of her coffee and tossed the cup into the trash under the desk and stood up so Kurenai could sit down.
"Yes it is, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it."
Kurenai gave Naminé a look, but she sat down and pulled up information on her computer screen. Naminé looked back at her own charts and jotted notes in them, still hanging out at the station. She had an office now, officially, but she didn't feel like going in there just yet. It was out of the way and Naminé wanted to get to know as many employees as soon as possible since her position was finalized—and she couldn't very well do that from inside an office, now could she?
"You're still here?" Kurenai asked.
Naminé looked up, about to give a retort back to the nurse, but she saw that the comment wasn't directed at her, but rather another doctor, one with dark hair and equally dark eyes, who had come up to the nurses' station to steal some of the candy they had out.
"When do I ever leave?" The doctor said back.
What the hell was his name? Naminé saw him around enough the past couple weeks, but she never worked directly with him. She knew he had to be a fifth year resident or so, as he could perform surgeries on his own, but for some reason their paths never crossed before.
"Excuse me," Naminé cut in, walking to the other side of the nurses' station where the doctor stood.
His dark eyes widened and he took half a step back when she walked right up to him and held her hand out.
"I know I've seen you around here but we've never actually met. I'm—"
He took her hand before she could finish and offered her a timid smile, "Dr. Naminé Nakano. I know who you are. I think the entire surgical floor does."
Naminé blinked and pursed her lips, acutely aware of the snickering that was coming from Kurenai.
"Well at least I can make an impression. Wouldn't you say so, Doctor…" Naminé trailed off, hoping he would fill in the missing piece.
"Uchiha," he said. "I'm Kagami, one of the residents."
Naminé nodded, "oh so you mean indentured servant."
Kagami actually laughed at that for a brief second, "feels like that sometimes."
"That's because that's what residency is," Naminé said back with a smirk on her face.
"Kagami, don't let her bully you. She's bored because she doesn't have some poor guy being rolled in here after being impaled on a tree," Kurenai said. She stood up and walked away from her computer, rolling her eyes when a particularly annoying patient was buzzing her to come to their room.
"It doesn't have to be a tree, you know! A light pole would do too!" Naminé called out to Kurenai, despite her being halfway down the hall. Kurenai waved her hand dismissively and Naminé turned her attention back to Kagami, gesturing at where Kurenai just was, "she's the bully here. I'm just an innocent bystander."
Kagami only crossed his arms and looked at her, trying to hide his amusement.
"Dr. Matsuo wasn't kidding when she said you were…" He paused and Naminé raised her eyebrows at him. "Very excitable."
Naminé narrowed her eyes for a fraction of a second, "Dr. Matsuo?"
Kagami nodded, "she's the attending neonatal surgeon."
Naminé couldn't help it, her eyes narrowed again, "Asami Matsuo works here?"
"So you know her?" Kagami asked. "She made it sound like you two only met once or twice."
Naminé let out a sound that was a cross between a snort and scoff and looked around. So that's how it was going to be, huh?
"Oh yeah… Yeah, just briefly met once or twice," Naminé muttered.
"Right," Kagami said. He cleared his throat and gave Naminé a polite smile. "I gotta get back to work. It was nice meeting you, Dr. Nakano. Hopefully we get to work together in the future."
Naminé smiled at him and let him go.
So Asami still worked there then. Naminé wondered how she hadn't seen her at all the last few weeks, but it was probably for the better.
Who knows. Asami might have poisoned her somehow by now if she did.
"You're quiet today, Brother," Tobirama Senju said.
"Am I?" Hashirama asked.
Tobirama's eyes flickered away from the report he was reading to see Hashirama deep in thought, sitting across from him at the table. His brother's brow was set and he was staring off into the distance, and Tobirama's jaw clenched.
"If you tell me you're thinking about issuing shares to Madara again…"
Hashirama huffed and he came back to reality, "well why not!"
Tobirama's face settled into a glower. It didn't matter how many times they went over this. Hashirama would never learn.
"Perhaps because he tried to take part in a hostile takeover of the organization that we worked so hard to build," Tobirama snapped.
Hashirama frowned, "Madara also helped build it."
"Tch," Tobirama crossed his arms.
"It's not like he would be a majority shareholder. I say we persuade the board to issue him just a standard amount, that way he's part of Konoha Enterprises again."
"Absolutely not," Tobirama put his foot down.
"Tobirama!" Hashirama was about to argue with him, but was cut off before he could even start by his phone ringing.
He paused and fished it out of his pocket, a smile spreading across his face when he saw the name on his screen, "Mito!"
Tobirama went back to reading over the quarterly report that was just issued by Konoha Enterprises as his brother spoke with his wife. He was accustomed to tuning Hashirama out when he spoke to his wife on the phone. Ever since he found out that she was pregnant he had been doting on her nonstop, and the sappiness made him sick to his stomach.
But when he noticed a sudden shift in his brother's voice, he looked up from the report again and narrowed his eyes.
"Well you have to go to the hospital then and that's it… Well I'm sure you are fine but… No. I'll be there and we're going to the hospital just to be sure."
Hashirama hung up his phone and immediately stood up, slipping his jacket on as he did.
"What is it?" Tobirama asked.
"Mito fell," Hashirama said, a deep frown appearing on his face. "She says she's fine, but I'm worried and I want to have her looked at, so I'm going to take her to the ER."
Tobirama paused, but he nodded anyway, getting up to walk his brother to the door.
"Let me know how it goes."
Hashirama promised he would and then he stepped out.
"Dr. Nakano, can you lend a hand or are you going to sit there eating candy and doing nothing for the rest of your shift?" One of the nurses, a younger woman named Anko who had more attitude and spirit than anyone else Naminé had ever come across before in her life, demanded.
Naminé stared and her eyes darted around the nurses' station. She already performed several procedures during the day and now that she had a second to herself, she was doing some charting by the nurses' station and avoiding her office. Sure, she had taken some candy and kept getting distracted, but she didn't think she was doing nothing.
"I'm doing something!" Naminé tried.
"Yeah, a whole lot of nothing!" Anko shouted. Naminé frowned and felt her lips begin to form a pout. "The ED is incredibly short staffed and they need all the help they can get. Why don't you go down there?"
Naminé scoffed, "that's what interns and residents are for."
Anko planted her hand on her hip and glowered at Naminé and stared her down like a snake waiting to attack its prey. Naminé shifted under her stare and awkwardly began to pick at the corner of her fingernails.
"I don't care if you're some big hot shot trauma surgeon or not. We're short and there are patients down there who need help and you're just taking up space over there. If you wanted to sit around all day doing nothing you should have gone into corporate."
Naminé let out a quick laugh and stood up, grabbing her stuff.
"I can't believe I'm getting pushed around by a nurse," but Naminé was still heading for the emergency department, actually a little impressed at the woman's boldness. Nurses like that were the ones that made hospitals run and she could respect that.
When Naminé got to the ED she saw that 'short' was a gross understatement for the state of the emergency room. She whistled and headed over to the nurses' station to see what assignments she could pick up.
"I have been sent down here to help by a very scary and very bossy nurse upstairs, so give me something to do before I have to go up for surgery," Naminé said.
The nurse that she spoke to was young, probably just out of college with brown hair and glasses. Her eyes flashed up to Naminé's face first and then rested on her navy blue scrubs and then on her badge around her neck and actually squeaked.
"Dr. Nakano!"
Naminé gave her a smile, "the one and only."
"I don't…" She stopped and looked over her shoulder, surveying the waiting area and then craning her neck to look at certain rooms, "I don't think we have any big traumas here for you."
Naminé clicked her tongue, "I can examine noncritical patients too. C'mon, you're short and I'm free. Let me help."
The nurse nodded and grabbed a chart and handed it to Naminé, already pointing to one of the rooms that had the door shut.
"Patient in 28C was just admitted. One of the interns was going to get to her but we're really swamped. She seems to be fine, but it's good that you're here because she had a bad fall and she's pregnant—"
"Got it," Naminé said, walking to the room before she could even finish what she was saying.
The chart didn't have much information in it, just the typical demographic information, some medications the patient was on, brief history, and a name.
Naminé knocked on the door, waited a brief second, and then entered the room, closing the door behind her so the ruckus from outside wouldn't prove to be too stressful for the woman. If she was pregnant and had just taken a fall, then she was probably already pretty badly shaken up. The extra noise of the busy ED was the last thing she needed to worry about.
Sitting on the examination table was a slender woman with deep red hair that was pinned into two buns on her head, and dark eyes. She didn't appear to have any serious injuries, aside from a bit of a bruise on her head. Her skin looked very pale too, but Naminé couldn't be sure if that was just her complexion or if because of the fall she supposedly suffered.
"Good afternoon, Miss Uzumaki," Naminé said, putting on a professional smile as she quick washed her hands in the sink that was against the wall behind her. "I'm Dr. Nakano."
The woman met her eyes head on and gave her a tight smile, "call me Mito."
Naminé, careful to keep her expression pleasant since Mito did not seem to want to be there, nodded as her eyes flickered down to the chart.
"I understand that you're pregnant and had a fall today. Can you tell me about that?" Naminé looked at her again and Mito huffed and rolled her eyes.
"I tripped down the last few stairs at home earlier and hit my head. I'm perfectly fine and I wouldn't even be here if my husband wasn't such a worrier," Mito stated.
Naminé kept that polite smile plastered on her face as she took out her penlight, checking the woman's eyes to make sure her pupils weren't blown and that they dilated okay, which they did.
"Well he wants to make sure that wife and baby are okay," Naminé said, putting her penlight away. "Sounds like a keeper to me."
Mito snorted, "he is, but he worries enough for the three of us, baby included."
Naminé chuckled, "I'm gonna have you lie back for me."
Mito obliged and Naminé examined her abdomen, gently pressing down along different parts of her stomach. She noticed Mito's eyes shifting around the ceiling along with the way her folded hands clenched tightly.
She was more nervous than she let on.
"And where's your husband now? Waiting room?" Naminé asked casually, frowning when she noticed Mito tensing a bit when she pressed down in one area.
"Parking the car. I'm sure he'll burst in here any minute," Mito said. She clenched her hands again when Naminé pressed down a second time.
"A little sore here?"
"A bit," Mito admitted.
"Okay, I'm gonna have you sit up," Naminé said, helping Mito up, even though she doubted she needed it.
Naminé quick grabbed her chart and made a note in there, and then she was gluing that professional smile on again and taking her stethoscope off from around her neck.
"Well he'll have to barrel past some pretty stubborn nurses if he wants to do that," Naminé said, careful to keep her tone light.
Mito chuckled again and Naminé smiled to herself, glad that her patient was starting to relax, even if it was just a bit.
"Then you very clearly haven't met my husband if you think that'll stop him."
"Take a couple breaths for me," Naminé instructed. Mito did as told, and Naminé listened to her heart, lungs, and abdomen. Everything seemed to be okay.
"Good," Naminé made another note in the chart and then leaned against the sink and folded her hands and rested them in front of her.
"So how far along are y—"
The door swung open and a man with long brown hair bounded into the room, followed by a nurse shouting at him to get out and to wait in the waiting area with everyone else, but it was too late, because he was already at his wife's side in an instant.
"It's okay," Mito assured, and Naminé could hear an angry nurse huffing and stomping off as the door clicked shut.
"Dr. Nakano, this is my husband, Hashirama."
Naminé's eyes widened and she could feel the color drain from her face instantaneously.
He looked just as surprised as she did, as the grin fell off his face and he blinked at her as if she wasn't really there.
The only thing she could hear was her heart thumping away in her ears, louder than any stethoscope could have possibly made it. And her mouth was suddenly so dry that she swore the inside of her throat would crack, along with the rest of her resolve. She could feel a sweat break out on her palms and forehead, and dear God, did the hospital not have the air condition on or something?
"Is everything okay?" Mito asked.
"Naminé, is that really you?" Hashirama asked.
Naminé didn't say anything, she just tried to swallow but couldn't because her throat was so dry.
"You cut your hair!" Hashirama continued when her silence stretched on. When he seemed to realize that she was in fact standing there and that she was in fact real, his whole face lit up, and before Naminé could utter out any words at all, or run away for that matter, Hashirama was pulling her into a backbreaking hug, his joyful laughter filling her ears as he did.
Snapping out of her trance like state, she reluctantly brought one arm up and patted him on the back like an overgrown puppy dog.
"Wow, it's been… Some time," were the only words Naminé could articulate.
"Am I missing something?" Mito asked, sounding confused.
Hashirama pulled back and grinned ear to ear at her, "Mito, this is Naminé! She's one of my oldest friends. She grew up with me and my brothers…"
Naminé tuned him out when he mentioned his brothers and leaned against the sink to look up at the ceiling when a dizziness washed over her.
"Are you okay, Dr. Nakano?" Mito asked, cutting off her husband's senseless babbling about childhood stories.
Naminé inhaled sharply and looked back at Mito. She was a trauma surgeon and a damn good one at that. She had seen people brought in with missing limbs, impaled by all types of objects, mangled from different tragic accidents, and none of them shook her as much as Hashirama Senju did right now. Not even seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi a few weeks ago hit her as hard as this did.
"Fine. Just a little surprised is all," Naminé answered. She reached deep within herself for that professionalism, and wrapped it around herself like a cloak to shield herself. She looked back at Mito's chart, more to compose herself than to actually read it, and then looked back at the couple, focusing on Mito and Mito only.
"Mito, I'd like to do an ultrasound just to make sure the baby is okay."
"Oh… Okay," Mito said.
"Would the baby not be okay?" Hashirama inquired.
Naminé swallowed back the lump in her throat when she looked at him, "it's just standard procedure. If you'll excuse me for just a moment."
Naminé ducked out of the room, ready to move across the goddamn country and change her name if it meant she'd never have to see another Senju so long as she was alive. She sucked in a breath and braced herself against the wall. Maybe signing that contract wasn't such a good idea after all…
"Naminé wait," it was Hashirama's voice and Naminé closed her eyes and counted to five before she faced him.
"Yes?"
"I had no idea you were back in the area," Hashirama said.
"Yep, that was the point. I didn't tell anyone," Naminé said quickly, her eyes darting around for another doctor. With how busy the ED was you'd think that more doctors would be walking around, or at least some of the interns, but no. She was on her own here.
"Well we simply have to get together and catch up then!" Hashirama grinned at her, and he was doing that thing he did where he was so excited that he left no room for any arguments or for anyone to turn him down.
"Mm," Naminé said. "You know; I am super busy. I'm the head trauma surgeon around here so I work around the clock, but it's really nice you would offer."
Hashirama let out a booming laugh and swung an arm around her shoulder, "oh you're not getting out of this that easily."
Naminé squeezed her eyes shut so tight that they watered, hoping that by some miracle she would open them and Hashirama would be gone.
It didn't work.
He was still there, grinning like an idiot at her.
That was when she saw Kagami Uchiha at the nurses' station and wiggled out of Hashirama's hold.
"Dr. Uchiha!" She called out.
She watched as Kagami looked up and saw her waving him over. She caught the way he and a nurse exchanged a nervous glance, but he came over regardless of how much he might not have wanted to.
Being an attending had its perks.
"What can I do for you, Dr. Nakano?"
'You can get this big lug far, far away from me' is what she wanted to say.
"Hashirama, I'm so sorry but I have to go. Dr. Uchiha asked me if I would help him with a consultation and I promised I would, and it's actually pretty urgent."
"Did I?" Kagami asked. Naminé shot him a look with what her friends called her 'crazy eyes' and stared him down until he corrected himself. "Oh… Oh right. Right, I did."
Hashirama's eyebrows furrowed, "what about Mito?"
"Don't you worry. Dr. Uchiha will conduct the ultrasound and finish examining her. He is an excellent doctor," she said, resting her hand on Kagami's back and nodding reassuringly.
"Uh," Kagami muttered.
"I'm sure he's a great doctor, but I would feel so much more comfortable if you were her doctor, Nami."
Great. Wonderful. Now he was using old childhood nicknames. Fantastic. What could go wrong with this?
"Well—"
Naminé's attention was pulled away from the stubborn Senju in front of her to see a bloodied man on a gurney being wheeled straight to the elevator, being handled by two interns and a third year resident who was performing chest compressions on him.
And right on cue, her pager went off and Naminé fished it out of her pocket and took one look at it and let out a sigh of relief.
"I'm sorry, Hashirama. I just got paged and I've got to be in surgery. Dr. Uchiha will take care of you. Right, Kagami?"
Kagami gaped at her with wide dark eyes, but he saw both the man on the gurney who she was being paged to go operate on, and a pregnant woman's worried husband in front of him, and he let out a sigh and took Mito's chart from her.
"Right," he grumbled.
"Naminé," Hashirama tried to get her attention as she took impossibly quick steps to the elevator to follow the interns up to the OR. She refused to turn around and already began scraping her short blonde hair back into a ponytail when she heard him call her name again.
It was really simple avoiding him after that.
She just pretended not to hear him.
Weekly updates with this one. Chapter 2 will be out around next Wednesday!
I know. The notes here are hella long winded, buuuuuut it's necessary if you're confused about something.
Housekeeping below:
Ages/Relationships: since this story is set in the same AU as my last story, and since I wrote myself into a bit of a wall regarding certain characters' ages, they're not following the cannon. So for example, Hiruzen Sarutobi makes an appearance, but he's written older (the way he appears in the anime/manga), while at the same time Hashirama and Tobirama are younger, so for the purpose of this AU, Hiruzen is older than them. I'm GENERALLY showing characters as the ages they appeared in the anime/manga. And also, due to the same reasoning above, relationships among characters might be different (example being Sasuke Sarutobi will be Hiruzen's cousin instead of father because of the whole age thing). I know it's screwy, all I ask is you bear with me. I'll try to weave in clarifiers for this throughout the story if two characters show up and their ages/relationships conflict with what they should be in the canon.
Medical knowledge: I spent my undergrad in accounting and taxation and I'm continuing on for a masters in taxation right now. I think it's safe to say my medical knowledge is lacking. While I do have friends in med school, two critical care nurses in my family, and a cousin doing a residency in internal medicine right now, I am NOT a doctor. I'll try to be as accurate as possible in my portrayal of medical events, but they're going to purposely be kept vague. HOWEVER. If you know something is wrong and it is just GLARING you in the face and pulling you out of the story, mention it in a review and I will be HAPPY to fix it!
Themes: There will be darker themes in this story as opposed to my last one. While I do plan on a happy ending, themes of depression, mental health issues, substance abuse, and anxiety will absolutely be appearing. So let this serve as your trigger warning. Those things are not the focal point of the story, but they're definitely there, sometimes stronger in certain chapters than others.
General: While this story is NOT a sequel to my last one, it IS a little bit of a continuation, as I'm using the same AU and there are things that happened in that last story that might appear (it'll be super brief) in this one. Definitely did NOT have to read that one to read this, but I'm just throwing that out there... This story might be a little ambitious for me because of the themes, but I've had it in my head for the better part of a year and a half now. So be kind in the comments when dropping constructive criticism. I also write as a hobby, so while I'm putting myself on a schedule for this story (so it doesn't drag on forever like my last, for the love of God I hope not), sometimes I'll miss updates. I'm human. All I ask is that you understand(:
That's enough of that.
I hope you enjoyed the introduction of this new story! Hopefully you'll stick around for the rest to see how it all plays out!