A/N: I know it's been awhile........I had a lotta homework/projects to do. For those who waited though, I present you with a super-long chapter. Oh, and please tell me if you think the rating should go up, because I'm not sure with this chapter.....................
Warning: contains content that isn't very pleasant.
Chapter 3:
Adventures During an Autopsy
The small hospital on the west side of Konoha is the most run-down of all 5 hospitals in the city. It probably doesn't help that the hospital is located in the poorer area of the city, among abandoned buildings and houses. Homeless line the streets here, and as Sasori and Deidara made their way to the hospital, they couldn't help but notice these people who held signs asking for money and promising they would only use it to buy food. Deidara clung to Sasori- a little afraid one of them would come after him because he was easily mistaken as a girl.
When they finally made it to the hospital, they asked a nurse to show them to the morgue. She showed them the way, and bid them good luck with the autopsy. The pair entered the morgue and was greeted with the scent of the dead. Deidara covered his nose, not wanting to inhale putrid scent. They went into a small office first, to meet with the others who would be working on the autopsy.
The cramped office consisted of plain white walls and white tile floors. The light grey desk in the middle of the space had a computer monitor on top and papers strewn across the rest of the top. A green office chair sat behind the desk, standing out the most. Along the wall housing the door were a few filing cabinets. On the wall to the left, was a map of Konoha covered in pins and hanging below it was a legend for the pin colors.
Sasori and Deidara were studying the map when the three others that would be working on the autopsy entered the office. One had long black hair tied back in a ponytail and matching black eyes. The guy behind him had spiky blue hair and tiny white eyes whose skin happened to be blue with little gill-like tattoos- well, hopefully those were tattoos. The last guy had silver slicked back hair and pink eyes. He also wore a necklace with a strange talisman on it- a circle surrounding an upside down triangle.
The black-haired man was the first to speak. "Itachi Uchiha, Chief Medical Examiner of Konoha," He declared- his voice a bit deep and coming across as almost emotionless. "These are my colleagues."
"Kisame Hoshigaki, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner." The blue-haired man continued, smiling wide and showing off his filed teeth.
"Hidan," The albino-like man finished, then added, "I'll be the fucking attendant on this one, although every fucker here knows I'd prefer to be the damn prosector."
"And we really don't want you to damage the corpses any further." Itachi scolded. "Anyway, you must be the famous Dr. Sasori Akasuna."
"That would be correct." Sasori replied.
"And your friend is?"
"Deidara. He's a Special Agent in the F.B.I. from Iwa."
"Will he be watching the autopsy?"
"No, he doesn't particularly like watching them."
"Then he probably shouldn't be in here- you can smell the autopsies even in this little office."
"Of course. Would it be too much trouble if I just meet you in the Pit in a few minutes?"
"Not at all. But do hurry- we don't want the remains to go bad." With that, Itachi, Kisame, and Hidan left the small office and headed down to the Pit.
"Looks like I'll have to find a way to entertain myself after all un." Deidara commented.
"Well, it's not like you were gonna go down to the Pit anyway koi."
"I know. Good luck with the autopsy un." Deidara kissed Sasori briefly before both men departed the office, one heading back out to the main part of the hospital, the other down to the Pit.
Down in the Pit, Itachi, Kisame, and Hidan had already taken out the body, which was in a white bag, and were over in a small room suiting up. Sasori joined them and put on a fresh surgical scrub, followed by a surgical gown and a plastic waterproof apron. He then put on surgical covers over his shoes and covered his red hair with a surgical cap. Over his nose and mouth he put a disposable button mask, plastic safety glasses over his eyes, and rubber gloves on his hands.
"You wanna be prosector Dr. Akasuna?" Itachi asked, grabbing a chainmail glove.
"Uh, sure. I really just came to be a diener, but I suppose I could be the prosector." Sasori replied.
"Don't tell me you've never been a prosector before."
"It's not that, I just haven't been prosector in an autopsy in awhile."
"Well, now you can be." Itachi handed Sasori the chainmail glove, which Sasori fitted over his left hand, since most accidental cuts occur on the nondominant hand.
Over their rubber gloves, they put dishwashing gloves. Then the four of them proceeded into the Pit. At the moment, no one else was in the Pit except for them and the body. This would probably be a very lonely autopsy, unless others came down as they worked.
The four surrounded the autopsy table next to which the body lay, now apparent that it was still on a gurney. Hidan unzipped the white bag a little, revealing the face. He quickly unzipped it all the way and, with the help of Kisame, lifted it onto the table. Hidan then pushed the gurney out of the way.
It was almost as if luck was on Sasori's side- the patient was a young girl, aged at about 17. She wore a pale blue hospital gown, which, upon closer inspection was actually checked pale blue and white. Her eyes had been closed and the eyelids were puffy. Blood streamed from her nose all the way down to the hollow of her throat where it looked as if someone had tried to wash her. Her teeth were stained with dried blood and still biting down on her lower lip. Her hair was a golden blonde color, not very different from the color of Deidara's hair. Both ears were pierced and bore two little blue hoop earrings.
"Her name is Ino Yamanaka." Itachi stated.
Kisame grabbed a manila folder containing the investigator's report. "Apparently she collapsed in class. She attended West Konoha High like that Aki girl. She had grand mal seizures, eating her lips, had a heavy nosebleed, and went into a hard tonic seizure in the end. It's a lot like what's been happening to these other people." Kisame explained as he read from the report. "When she came in here, she was D.O.A."
"So we've heard of what, five cases of this disease since last week? Each person is unique- the cases range from homeless people to well-to-do. There isn't an obvious connection."
"Well, other than they seem to be dying in the same essential way." Sasori commented.
"True. Anyway, they didn't do any tests over in the E.R., just pronounced her dead."
"Great. No blood and spinal workup. Just what we need to hear."
Hidan took off the hospital gown on Ino's body. She was young, as could be told by her fairly small breasts. Sasori guessed they were about a 42 C in bra size, but what did he know? Just based on looks, he likened her to be Deidara's younger sister, if he were to have one. Sasori took out a steel knife from the provided prosection pack, having left his own in the apartment he and Deidara were renting while this outbreak went on.
Hidan rinsed off the girl's body with running water. Kisame went and got the photographer's camera, the photographer obviously being on break. He took a few shots of Ino, then put the camera on an empty autopsy table nearby. Then he proceeded to do an external examination.
He began by examining her skin in the fluorescent light. Then he parted her legs to examine her genitalia. He saw a string and pulled on it, bringing a tampon into the light. He grimaced upon realizing the girl had been on her menstrual period and put it aside quickly.
"Oi, look at the bitch's nose Kisame. There's fucking shitloads mucus." Hidan called out suddenly.
Sure enough, along with the blood was a fair amount of mucus. "Ugh, must be a cadaver cold or something." Kisame replied.
While Hidan and Kisame discussed cadaver colds, Sasori took it upon himself to investigate the girl's mouth. He pulled the tongue out part way with the help of forceps and looked. There was plenty of blood in the mouth. Her lips and tongue had bite marks on them. The inside of the mouth was, with close inspection, covered in blood blisters.
Sasori then proceeded on to examine her eyes. He gently pulled back her eyelids with smaller forceps. The inside of the eyelid had small red dots, an obvious sign of inflammation of the conjunctiva. Looking at the eye, he saw what seemed to be a yellow-colored pupillary ring with flame-like offshoots that extended into the blue-gray irises. That definitely wasn't normal, and he had seen similar papillary rings in other cases' eyes.
Hidan and Kisame had finally stopped arguing. "Hey, there's blood blisters in her nose." Kisame commented as he examined her nose with an exam light.
"There're more of those in her mouth." Sasori replied. "I'm seeing a lot of things I saw in other cases."
"So we got a similar disease going on here."
"Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's a genetically engineered disease. From what I've seen, I'm pretty sure it's a combination of human rhino virus, Variola major, and a strain of nuclear polyhedrosis virus."
"Damn. That's one helluva monster."
"Hell yeah. Whatever heathen's releasing this shit sure must hate fucking humanity." Hidan added.
"Definitely."
"Are we just gonna talk all day, or are we gonna cut this corpse up?" Sasori asked, impatient to get the autopsy over with.
"Right, right." Kisame replied, as Hidan prepared a fresh scapel.
Sasori took the scapel and made a Y shaped cut from each shoulder of the girl to her sternum, at the top of her abdomen, then down to the pubic bones of the pelvis. A strong scent of feces filled the Pit, and yellow body fat was visible from the gaping skin. He cut away fat and tissue, to clear out the chest. He laid back the skin of the chest onto the girl's face. Hidan handed him a pair of lopping shears and he cut the ribs in order to remove the chest plate.
From there, he gently removed the lungs, which he handed to Kisame to get samples of them. He then delicately removed the heart, which he also handed to Kisame for sampling. Hidan gave him a syringe for a blood-culture, which was used with blood drawn from the femoral vein near the groin area. Sasori moved down to the abdomen, where he withdrew the small intestine, which he put in the wash tank at the end of the autopsy table. He then removed the liver, which looked perfectly normal.
While Sasori was busy removing organs, Kisame was busy cutting small samples for stock jars, which would be sent to the histology lab, and toxicology containers, which would be sent to the toxicology lab. Hidan had the task of washing out the bowels and small intestine, which was never a fun job. Sasori had it worst off, however, as currently he was pulling out the pelvic organs and making a face at the squelching sounds they were making. Once the pelvic organs- the bladder, the rectum, the uterus, the ovaries, and the vagina, along with the kidneys- were out, he handed them to Kisame for sampling. The red-head's least favorite part of an autopsy was removing the pelvic organs, especially in a man.
Hidan put an H-shaped rubber head block under the girl's head and moved her chest skin out of the way. Sasori walked over to where her head was and made an ear-to-ear coronal incision. He then pulled both parts of the scalp away, revealing the girl's skull. Hidan grabbed a Stryker saw, plugged it in, and went to work cutting the skull. He then chiseled the skull so that he could remove the calvarnium. That exposed the gray dura mater, the membrane surrounding the brain.
Using blunt scissors, Sasori cut the dura mater and pulled it away. The brain was a swollen pearlescent lump with flattened folds, all of which was abnormal. The brain looked as if it had exploded and busted against the inside of the skull. Upon touching it, he found it to be unusually soft, as if it was partially liquefied. He knew then that removing the brain would have to be done carefully, because it felt as if it could fall apart.
He gently pushed his fingers past the frontal lobes of the brain, and pulled it back slightly. He then carefully reached in with the scapel and cut the optic nerves, working entirely by sense of touch. He pulled the brain backward until he had gained access to the spinal cord. He used an angled slice to cut the spinal cord, causing the brain to fall into his hands. The brain was oddly heavy, as if it was filled with fluid.
He placed the brain on the cutting board and it spread out under its own weight like a blob. He noticed tiny red spots, much like the spots a person gets on their skin when they have the measles. He saw deep grooves in the underside of the brain- a sign of rupture of the brain, which could have caused a blood pressure spike, which in turn could explain the nose bleed. He decided to section the brain- however, as he cut it, it became a sloppy mess. He saw small weeping hemorrhages in the brain, which were caused by the tearing and crushing of brain structures. Kisame and Hidan carefully moved globs of brain into a stock jar, and some other globs into a toxicology container.
Just then, Deidara returned from his exploration of the hospital, already sick of waiting for the autopsy to be done. Sasori looked up from the work as Deidara stopped at the entrance to the Pit, his hand covering his nose and mouth. In the same moment, something seemed to snap inside of Kisame and his nose started running. He removed the button mask he wore and tossed it aside and his sharpened teeth began chewing away at his lips. Sasori realized what was happening to the shark-like man and moved away from him.
A jacksonian twitch rippled across Kisame's face and he grabbed the prosector's knife from the autopsy table, pointing it at Deidara. The blonde backed away slowly, scared for his own life, and for that of his lover. Both Itachi and Sasori backed away now, each holding something to protect themselves. Hidan tapped Kisame on the shoulder, causing the man to turn and face the albino.
"Chill out Kisame, just fucking chill out." Hidan said calmly.
Something about Hidan's words angered Kisame. "Why don't you?" He asked in response.
Hidan took a deep breath. "There, I fucking chilled out. Now you fucking chill out."
Kisame's face contorted into a grimace. The hand holding the knife rose up. Hidan's face didn't show a sign of fear as the knife went through his neck, nearly beheading him. He fell to the ground and an arterial jet hit the ceiling. Deidara held back a scream- however, the albino wasn't dead.
Kisame looked at Hidan, then around the room, his neck and back moving in the rhythm of basal writhing. He went over to the supply table and put together a scapel- a sterile blade and handle. He pushed the scapel into a point just above his left ear and drew it across his scalp to his right ear in a coronal incision. He then jabbed the blade into his thigh muscle. He reached up and firmly gripped the front flap of scalp and pulled down sharply, a ripping sound resonating throughout the room.
He pulled his scalp off his skull, turning it inside out. He continued down so that his face began to come off and his eyes sagged. His scalp was inside out, and the visible part was like a slippery red blanket. He screamed as he began to eat his scalp. There was no seizure at the end.