Chapter 3 - The Hospital
Shockingly, this morning Ino woke up right on time. Though unluckily for her it wasn't because of an alarm she'd set the night before -naturally she'd slept though all five of those- but rather this morning Ino awoke to the sound of wind scraping against and past the wall above her head. It didn't really need to be said that the sound wasn't very pleasant, especially since it awoke the blonde.
While she was awake, that definitely did not mean that Ino wanted any part in getting out of bed. She could feel that the air above her blanket was chilly, and the last thing she wanted was to leave the cozy confines she'd created for herself. Though, knowing that today would be the day she first met Suna's hospital staff, Ino knew she had to get up. Biting the bullet, she threw her covers off and swung her feet off of the bed. Once they made contact with the freezing wooden floor though, Ino's want to get up completely vanished. Oh what she would do to be back in warm Konoha right now...
Thankfully though, Ino knew a surefire way to warm herself up. She grit her teeth to prepare for the cold of the floor once again and quickly tip-toed her way to the bathroom, deciding to start the morning with a nice hot shower. This of course, meant inspecting the bathroom as well, which Ino hadn't gotten the chance to do the night before. Ino had spent enough missions in bad accommodations to worry about what was on the other side of the door, but felt overcome with a wave of relief upon entering. While the room was small, it seemed to contain all of the necessities, which Ino was more than happy about. Though that happiness definitely didn't compare to that of the happiness she felt once she stepped from the cold bathroom floor tiles into the stream of hot water coming from the shower head. In that moment Ino was more than thankful for the heat, polar opposite of how she'd been for the past three days of travelling.
And so, after her first morning experience in the desert, Ino decided that Suna's weather was bipolar.
Weirdly enough, Ino found herself growing nervous on her walk to Suna's Hospital. While she worked in the hospital back in Konoha for practically all of her waking hours, something about going to another hospital seemed oddly foreign to her. Suna just seemed to hold an energy of that, putting Ino out of her comfort zone.
On her way through the streets, Ino found herself having to push past other people, the streets of Suna seeming oddly crowded for so early in the morning. But she figured that it probably was better to be outside in the cold than in the scalding heat. Her walk to the hospital was pleasant enough, and once again she found herself admiring the architecture of Suna's buildings. Many store fronts lined the sides of the streets, and Ino even passed through a street market and spotted some exotic foods she'd never seen before. For a city built literally on and around the harsh sand, Suna was actually beginning to seem very nice. This, of course, only prompted Ino to be stopped dead in her tracks when she caught sight of the Hospital.
As far as first impressions go, the building was more than off-putting. Not only did it seem oddly neglected compared to the other buildings Ino had seen in Suna, but also cold, which Ino knew was something a place of care should definitely not feel like. Even the landscape only contained a few neglected plants and a few dead cacti. Part of her felt unwanted, but she forced herself to press on and entered the building with a smile on her face, hoping for the best.
The waiting room she entered was shaped as a dome, the walls lined with wood and floor tiled white. Around her a few patient beds were scattered around haphazardly, but all in all Ino was surprised to see how clean everything looked so far, considering all the sand that must find its way in. While the inside of the hospital seemed a bit better when it came to hospitality, it still seemed like Ino didn't quite belong. For a place to start Ino decided to talk to the lady at the desk, who seemed more than happy to see her. She raised a friendly hand in a wave and stood from her seat behind the desk to greet her.
"Good morning!" They lady greeted, a wide smile spreading across her face. She seemed oddly chipper to Ino considering the situation the hospital was in, but Ino wasn't about to judge. "You must be the Medical-nin from Konoha, right? You can call me Nori." Nori announced, holding a welcoming hand out for a handshake, which Ino returned gladly, happy that there was something in this hospital that didn't seem too toxic.
"Hi Nori! I'm Ino, it's nice to meet you!" Ino smiled, putting her hands back at her sides. She took this quick pause to try to get a peek into the doors leading further into the hospital, but before she could Nori called for her attention once more.
"Here's a folder I've made up for you, it's got a map of the hospital and a few patient files in it. I recommend checking out the classroom first," Nori pointed to a room on the map, which sure enough it was labelled 'classroom', "From what I know, they have classes around this time and, I don't know, maybe you could go from there?" Ino smiled in response and thanked Nori for the folder and suggestion before heading on her way to said classroom. It wasn't very far on the map, but Ino found herself getting lost in the halls of the hospital quite easily. Oddly, in her whole trip to the classroom, Ino passed no other medical-nin. She noted that in back of her brain to bring up later.
Once she reached the classroom, Ino let out a sigh of relief and knocked on the door, happy she was temporarily out of the seemingly winding halls. The classroom door took a second to open, but when it did Ino was greeted by an older woman. Upon closer examination Ino noticed many wrinkles lining the ladies face, something Nori didn't sport despite looking to be around the same age.
"Yes?" The lady spoke dully, obviously not amused by Ino's presence. "Are you here for the class, because we were just about to start-," Ino's eyes widened, noticing the misunderstanding and interrupted the lady.
"No, no, no! I'm Ino, I'm here on a mission from the Kazekage." Ino corrected, chuckling to herself. The ladies eyes lit up with recognition immediately and she opened the door up fully to let Ino in, apologizing for forgetting about her arrival. Inside the classroom was an almost alarming amount of students. Especially since Naruto had told her that the hospital was understaffed. Which could only mean one thing. Ino pulled the medical-nin teacher aside for a second to confirm her suspicions. "I'm sorry, but how many actual medical-nin do you have working here?" The lady gave Ino a curious glance before responding.
"Well, we have eight medical-nin on shift for today, as far as I know. Why?" At the news, Ino was less than happy. They were understaffed, and severely so. Sure, Suna was smaller than Konoha, but only eight? No wonder she didn't see anyone else on the way here. Nevertheless Ino tried to shake it off and deal with it later, knowing that only meant that she'd have her work cut out for her. With no further way to continue the conversation, Ino made her way to an open seat next to one of the students and decided to just sit and help when needed. Which, sadly, was easier said than done.
The medical-nin teaching the students today was on the topic of healing basic cuts, scrapes, and bruises. To any medical-nin, that seems like the easiest topic, but apparently not for this one. While she had the general concept down, there was one thing she was neglecting. Thinking it may have just slipped her mind, Ino raised her hand in order to ask about it.
"Yes? Med-nin?" The lady addressed Ino with an annoyed tone that seemed to come from no where. She suddenly seemed to be unhappy that Ino was there in the first place.
"What about scarring? The way you're describing doesn't address that. I know that-," Impatiently, the med-nin interrupted Ino mid-sentence.
"Scarring? Who cares about scarring? I'm just talking about small wounds here they aren't going to scar, Med-nin." The lady addressed Ino in rude tone. Which Ino was not about to take kindly. Sure, she might be having a bad day or something but in the end Ino was there to help, not to get sassed by someone.
"If you treat any small cut haphazardly like you're describing, you're going to get scar tissue, lady. And my name's Ino." The med-nin sent a sharp glare in Ino's direction, obviously angry with her. But in the end she did deserve to be called out, she was doing it wrong and teaching the wrong way to her students.
"Fine, Ino, how would you do it then?" The lady asked impatiently, which only made Ino more frustrated with her. Even so, Ino wasn't going to let it bother her. She was here for a mission after all, it was her job to deal with these kinds of people.
"Well, first off, like I said you can't just treat a wound so haphazardly, it doesn't matter if it's a basic cut or a gash. If you don't focus on what you're doing there's a chance that you won't heal the whole wound, of course leading to scar tissue. You need to spend equal amounts of time and chakra on every part of the wound." Ino stated matter of factly, but even though she was sure she was right, the med-nin wasn't having it.
"Listen, first off, I didn't invite you here, and I'm pretty sure that the Kazekage didn't aim to invite some little med-nin with a snotty attitude in to try to take over my class." The lady spoke through gritted teeth, but Ino could tell that it came from place of embarrassment. And for the record, Ino was not the one with the snotty attitude.
"Look, lady, I understand that you're probably embarrassed and all, but doesn't give you the right to-," Again, the lady cut Ino off.
"Y'know, since we're probably going to have to spend more time together, maybe I will start calling you Ino. It suits you a lot better." The med-nin hid her insult, but, sadly for her, Ino had enough experience with Sakura to know the insult behind her words. In seconds, the blonde was up from her chair and stomping towards the lady in front of the classroom in pure rage mode.
"Excuse me! How dare you! I'm here to help you you stupid old prune!" Ino barked at the lady in front of her, but got no response. "Y'know what! Screw this!" Ino yelled, storming from the room and leaving the student's in the class baffled. Ino could deal with a lot of things, but she was not about to to try to help some rude old know-it-all. Be it her mission or not. One of the main reasons she left for the mission in the first place was to get a break from a certain rosette who had a tendency of sporting an attitude, so she wasn't going to let that old lady fill the spot.
It would be a lie to say that Ino wasn't quickly becoming more stressed about the success of her mission as the minutes ticked on. After all, she wasn't going to be able to even complete it if the stupid Suna med-nin's wouldn't listen to her in the first place. What made it even worse was the fact that if she did fail the mission it wouldn't just be herself she was letting down. If she failed at training the stubborn medical-nin then she'd also be letting Suna and her friend down, and Ino Yamanaka wasn't one to choose to let others down.
All in all, it was easy to say that she had caught herself in quite an annoying predicament.