Sasuke's pen glides over his paper as he fills in the homework that Iruka sensei brought him from the academy. The questions are easy, and the ones he doesn't know, he can just ask Rengi, or the other doctors that come into check up on him.
After four months in a coma, and another two in therapy, Sasuke is feeling better. He still has a lot of muscle mass to regain, but he can walk and do most of his previous exercises.
Sasuke had been, and still was extremely upset of the four whole months of his life gone, but he worked hard. He would never get those months back, but he still had the rest of his life. Unlike his family.
He flinched at the thought, leaving a streak across his paper. He never got to say goodbye. They were all dead by the time he got there, and then in a coma when they collected the bodies. He hastily finished all his homework, before running out of his room to find Rengi so she could check it over. She was good with words and information. You needed to be in order to be a med-nin.
Sasuke hurried through the halls, whiteboard and marker under one arm, hands ruffling his hair and medics laughing and giggling as he went by.
He was going to go straight, but a noise had him pausing and turning to the left. This hall was close to his, but different. It was more kid-friendly, with colorful decorations on the halls. He paused in front of a sign that read 'children's wing'.
He pushed open the doors.
Inside it he found children. Younger than him, older than him, but all of them were dressed in the hospital owns, sometimes wearing something underneath or over them. A bald girl sat in the corner, playing with her teddy. She looked to be about his age. A boy in a wheelchair was drinking his milk like a kitten. A pair of twin girls sat on front of the boxy television, squealing when their favorite characters showed up.
He went up to the bald girl first.
"Hello!" She spoke as soon as she saw him. Her words were slightly slurred, probably from whatever was in the drip in her arm. Sasuke wrote hi back. She smiled in delight at the bright pink color.
"Could you draw me a flower?"
Sasuke's throat tightened as a memory overcame him at her words. He remembered his mother liked doodling flowers in the corner of papers. He drew her on on his board, wavy petals that were saying high, and a strong stem with heart shaped leaves.
"That is so beautiful!"
'Like you!' Sasuke wrote. Rengi told him to always be nice to people, especially ones who didn't feel well. And besides, it was true. Her crooked smile made him feel like he had a piece of sunlight in his chest.
She gasped, holding a bony hand over her chest before smiling.
"Could you draw one on the table? So when you leave I can look at it?" The flower girl asked.
Sasuke drew three on the table, one with fat petals that curved into points at the top, another with thin oval leaves and long winding vines that looked like ribbons, and another almost identical to the one on his board.
She was so happy she couldn't speak, just smiled and nodded.
Sasuke nodded back, and made a promise to himself to visit later.
He was turning to leave when the screaming started. Sasuke looked around frantically, heart racing and mind being thrown back to a bloodied street, but before that can happen fully, Rengi is running through the door.
She picks the boy who had fallen out of his wheelchair up, mindful of his now bleeding leg. She maneuvers the wheelchair towards them with her foot, and carefully set him down.
Sasuke cautiously padded over, clutching his whiteboard to his chest. She glanced up at him, and noticed his worried expression and immediately moved to comfort him.
"He'll be okay Sasuke. See?"
Sasuke watched as a familiar green glow emitted from her hands, and Sasuke watched as she knit his skin back together in seconds.
It was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. She dried the boys tears with her sleeve, and wiped the blood off with kleenex. She comforted him, and called in another nurse to wheel him back to his room.
All Sasuke could do was stare in awe. She didn't freeze up, she didn't flinch, didn't panic. Instead, she jumped right into action. Her normal unsureness evaporated. All she knew was she needed to help someone, and she did. She seemed stronger when she helped others.
They walked back to his room, her one hand holding his, and her other holding his paper.
"Perfect score, Sasuke! Good memory!"
Sasuke thought about how she effortlessly made the hurt go away with the blood.
He wanted to do that too.
He had wanted to be a police officer-and he still would be one, to uncover the truth. But Sasuke was tired of seeing people hurting while he stood by helpless. This time, he would learn how to heal, instead of hurt like Itac-that man, wanted him to.
He pulled his hand from hers and wrote on his whiteboard.
'I want to be a medic-nin.'
Rengi blinked, startled. For a moment Sasuke was afraid she'd tell him no. That as an Uchiha he should be a front line fighter instead, that being a medic was a sissy, civilian, thing to do. But she smiled warmly, patted his head, and said:
"Of course."
Sasuke would be strong. Like Rengi.