Hello everyone!
I am so sorry for my extended but completely unintended absence! I had just started Uni and was doing my best to get on top of everything and finish of this story! I think I've found a balance but I warn you that the updates will take longer this time! Thanks to all those who still followed and kept reviewing! I finished this chapter for you!
This has been beta'd by bleeding-roses-16 and she has done a wonderful job will all the chapters and stick with me this far!
Til the end, Enjoy!
Isamu is a terrifying woman, she really is. That woman reminds me of either a mother bear protecting her cubs or a wolf protecting her pup, either way she is not to be trifled with. Suffice to say, that even to this day, that woman commands respect out of anyone she meets. Within the first ten minutes of spending close quarters with the woman.
Another thing that really stuck with me was the birth of Maki's son, Kei. While I was a doctor and I have operated on people, nothing could have prepared me for that. It wasn't just the fact there was a a fair amount of blood or the fact a small person was emerging, it was the screaming. It was the sound of pained screaming from Maki and how it sounded to me. It was the screaming of someone being ripped open from the inside out that made it unbearable, for me anyway.
But Kei was born and then a different kind of screaming filled the air, though it should be called crying, and watching that unconditional love fill Maki's face when holding her child made my heart ache for the children I had left behind and the ones I yearned to have, at the time anyway. It was both a pleasant and unpleasant situation, but a memory to be cherished none the less.
I still make time to see Isamu, Maki and Kei and each time I go, it feels more fun than the last. Though it could be attributed to being Kei's honorary aunt, that child really is a ball of energy! Reminds me of my own children!
Excerpt from the memoirs of Akiko Hatake nee Reko
Page 136
x
Akiko's journey to Konoha started out with good weather however that quickly deteriorated to a very unexpected rain, and not only was it unexpected, it was also very unpleasant.
'I hate the rain.' Akiko thought as she trudged through the down pour, feeling the water slide down her back and the mud squelch noisily under her feet.
She is without an umbrella and only a very thin leather rain coat but even with it on Akiko is still wet, considering the fact that it had taken some time to even get the rain coat on and by the time she did, she was already soaked.
Shivering from her already cold skin, Akiko continues to make small head way in the heavy rain.
'That's it, I'm just going to have to find a place to sleep now. I can't see more than three feet in front of me!' Akiko looks to the trees, having decided to make camp early than be swept away by possible flood waters.
It had only been a week since she had left Tanzaku Gai and she could already see the trees shifting form once again. This time many of the trees were long and tall with barely any branches low enough for her to climb, there are the occasional low stooping trees or the new growing ones but unfortunately for her, none of them even reached another branch that Akiko could climb on.
She is having absolutely no luck in finding a climbable branch. Akiko doesn't want to stay in the rain any longer than she has to, with her dislike for the rain increasing, she chooses to take drastic measures. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures.
While there are no branches with in climbing distance but there are branches within jumping distance.
"This is not a good idea." Akiko mutters to herself. She is aware that it is not a good idea but it is one that she is going to do anyway.
Having already climbed a small tree, she balances precariously on both the highest and strongest branch with her arms spread wide in an instinctual way of keeping her balance as she walks closer the end and the other branch.
'Please let me get this on the first try.' Akiko pleads to any of the deities who could be listening and makes her jump.
She makes the jump and can feel the bark start to dig into the skin of her fingers. The rain doesn't help in the slightest, not when her fingers starts to slip. Gritting her teeth, Akiko heaves herself up slowly shuffles towards the trunk of the tree, where there are more branches she can climb.
The closer she gets to the trunk of the tree, the less rain she can feel splashing against her skin, making her sigh in relief when she grabs a hold of another branch to both steady and pull herself onto another branch were she has something more sturdy and solid beneath her feet.
While the tree shelters Akiko from the rain, it did very little to stop the strong winds that were starting to pick up.
"If it's not one thing then it's another." Akiko mutters to herself as she searched for another place to hide, this time from the wind.
The rain had reached the point where visibility is almost non-existent, and having the wind blow around debris, such as loose leaves and massive changes of direction of the rain, it is very hard to clearly see the tree only a few meters in-front of her. However, while the visibility is quite poor in seeing detail, seeing shadows is a different matter altogether.
What Akiko presumed to be two trees over, was a rather large bore hole in the side of said tree, one that just might fit her. And from what squinting she could do, there were also enough branches to make a series of jumps to said hole. Or at least she hoped it was a hole.
With chattering teeth and a growing sense of fear, Akiko slowly inched forward clutching to the branch as the wind and rain battered her face and fingers.
Reaching the end of the branch she was currently on, she could just see the outline of the next branch, silently thanking her hat and hair stick was keeping her long and sometimes a pain in the neck of a hair out of her face but the brim hat was also turning out to be a major problem considering it was catching the wind.
The first set wasn't as close as she had hoped, she forces her jaw closed and takes a breath to calm herself for the less than clever and undoubtedly stupid move.
Opening her eyes, Akiko forces herself not to think, and jumps using the branch as a mini spring board.
Akiko's eyes widen and she can feel her heart falter as she misses the first branch and starts to fall.
In a desperate bid, Akiko lashes out with curled hands and reaches for anything that would stop her sudden fall.
Gravity suddenly makes itself known again as her hands hook onto lucky branch. Akiko can feel her muscles stretching and pulling the bones of her arms, almost dislocating her shoulders.
Breathing heavily from her sudden downward trip, Akiko looks around to the other branches in hopes of seeing how far she had fallen and prays that it wasn't too far. She would still make the effort to get to a maybe sanctuary but Akiko would like to save some of her strength for anything else that may happen.
She can't see the hole from here and nor can she distinguish the branch that she had jumped on.
'I feel like I've gotten lost in the desert or at least some place similar.' Akiko thought to herself in tired exasperation, there was no way of knowing from which direction she had come from, the visibility isn't getting any better, making it worse.
'I'll just keep climbing up and hope that I can still see the hole from here.' Akiko thinks with resignation and determination.
The thought to return to the ground does come to mind but she pushes it away, she's already up here and it would probably hurt more to come down. More than that, Akiko is also very stubborn.
Akiko heaves herself up, her arms trembling from the effort and the now slippery bark is not making it any easier especially when she stands on the branch with her shoes.
With one hand holding onto a branch above her, the other removes her shoes in favour of getting a better grip.
'I really hope I don't get any splinters from this!' Akiko bites her lip as slips the shoes in her bag and starts to climb.
Her limbs aren't as strong as they used to be when she had done hard labour nor her legs after staying in Rain for so long and so she struggles to climb up, while swearing that she will never put off exercise again.
As she climbs up with the wind slamming into her with growing force, Akiko searches for the hole that she had seen.
It takes Akiko longer than she had expected to reach where she had seen the hole, only this time she is sure that she is on a different side of the tree from where she started. At least the branch is closer to the than the one she had just crossed.
From there crossing over the next two branches are relatively easy and as she had hoped, the dark shadow that she had seen in the wood was indeed a hole in the trunk.
Sliding through the hole was a tight squeeze, one that required a lot of wiggling and sucking in her stomach to the point she was sure it was unnatural, before she hit the uneven and rough floor.
The interior is illuminated by sudden flashes of lightening, making Akiko very glad that she had made it in time, the space was limited with the enough room for her lie on an angle.
The thunder comes much delayed and Akiko breathes an unconscious sigh of relief.
Akiko leans against the wall of the trunk, sighing in relief.
A screech pierced the silence.
Akiko let out a small scream of surprised fear before pressing herself as far away from the sound as she could with her heart jumping like a rabbit. She couldn't stop the frightened whine that escaped her lips.
Another screech sounded, this time a softer pitch.
Forcing her heart calm slightly, Akiko peered into the dark. She could see a faint white...figure in the darkness, she waited for the next lightning strike to hopefully see what had made that sound.
Another screech. A flash of light.
For a second, Akiko could see everything, and in a small curve of a corner of the hollow was four white faced owls. Two small ones with a bit of fluff and two large ones. A family.
"Oh god, you four scared me!" Akiko spoke softly with cheer and a ridiculous amount of relief to the owl family that had made their nest in the bore hole.
One of the owls just screeched in response.
"...You won't tell anyone what just happened...Right?" Akiko questions, embarrassed by her sudden fright.
Another screech.
"Thanks!"
Akiko's cheer dies slightly when she starts shivering from the cold wind. She is exhausted from shivering and all that climbing, soaked and very cold. Akiko did not want to deal with any of this.
Akiko stuffs her hat through the hole, pointy part first before removing her raincoat and stuffing around the hat and through the gap, blocking both the wind and the rain.
One of the owls screech and Akiko decides to interpret it as questioning.
"The hat and rain coat will block the wind and rain so no more wet!" Akiko answers accordingly, pointedly ignoring the fact that the owl probably won't understand a word of what she is saying.
Akiko guesses that it's close to dinner but she is too tired to feel it let alone even getting the nuts out of her bag.
With a yawn, Akiko curls into a loose ball already feeling the grip of sleep taking her away.
"See you lot tomorrow..." The last thing she hears is a soft screech and the sound of something sharp jumping on the wood.
X
That night is full of dreams of her past, of people she hadn't seen in years, some she had forgotten from long ago, others she had met in her trip so far and of both her homes.
Akiko woke many times during the night, sometimes crying, sometimes with fear clinging to her every thought and sometimes with crippling nostalgia and sadness.
When she wakes for the final time, her mind is blurred, still chasing the already half-forgotten dreams. Her eyelids are heavy while the rest of her body feels sluggish and cold. And she's still so tired.
Akiko doesn't move from her position, already falling back into the grips of sleep.
Screech.
Akiko jolts awake at the shrill sound. Looking around in the dark, she can't see anyone or anything that might be in the same place as her.
Screech.
Softer this time, then she remembers the four owls.
Akiko forces herself up on trembling arms as she blindly reaches for her hat. She finds the edge and pulls it out letting it fall on the floor with herself too. The light glares though the opening causing Akiko to burrow into her arm, and away from the light and as she moves, her face brush against something soft and warm.
She looks up and see two of the small owls staring back at her in the small crook of her arms.
Akiko gives them a tired smile and opens her mouth to speak. Except no words come out and all she can feel is the constant ache in the back of her throat, her thirst for water and lethargy all mix together in a cacophony of sensation and demands of her body.
'Something's...wrong.' Akiko thought tiredly as she struggled to stay awake.
A startling and sudden pain cut right through any tiredness that Akiko had as she jolted awake.
Though she didn't sit up suddenly, her eyes did widen and she released a muffled shout of pain.
It seemed that one the owls was impatient at the lack of attention and bit Akiko in the arm.
That jolt of pain was what she needed to get herself aware enough to act on the knowledge that something was wrong with her.
Slowly she forced herself up into a sitting position, her shoulder muscles twinging in protest, and wary of the owl that had not moved after biting her.
With herself more alert, Akiko could acutely feel the cold that assaulted her sensors but when placing her hand on her forehead, all she could feel was intense warmth. Though it wasn't much to go on, Akiko felt safe enough to assume that she did have a fever.
'Looks...like the rain...and the climbing...didn't work together.' She thought wryly.
This wasn't the first time she had gotten sick, but it was the first time she had felt so weak.
With trembling hands, Akiko drags her pack closer to her before sticking her hand inside. It was hard to tell if anything had gotten wet from the rain since her hands are slick with sweat. Her fingers brush with the leather feel of her medicinal herbs.
Akiko pulls them out and almost swears when she sees the state they are in.
The leather is soaked and Akiko is almost sure that all of them are wet and probably have lost most, if not all of their properties. Even so, some if better than none.
Instead of opening them all and throwing them in frustration, Akiko gently opens a small section or just peaks through and it's just her luck that the white willow bark is in the last pouch.
With as steady hands as she can manage, Akiko gently drags a few strips and places then in her mouth and she starts to chew. The taste isn't as bad as it was with the turmeric, especially considering it only tasted like bark.
Akiko could feel her thought process speed up as the thick fog in her mind faded over time. Once the fog had faded, she became acutely aware of the various aches and pains from different points of her body.
Her shoulders and arms were stiff, every movement bringing more pain. Her leg muscles had cramped from being in that curled position.
The more she chewed on the bark, the less of her pains Akiko started to feel.
She had no idea how close she was to Konoha but staying here would do her no good. Hopefully the village wasn't too far away.
Maybe she could get a peek at their hospital, from what Akiko had heard around, their medicine was quiet advanced.
A quiet screech dragged Akiko out of her pondering and her attention back to her current situation.
"Thanks for getting me up." Akiko cracked a tired smile at the small owl.
Her eyes drifted back outside and noted that it was no-longer raining.
Akiko knew she isn't in the best condition but she wasn't going to leave it any later otherwise she would be to weak, much weaker then how she felt now, to travel let alone getting down from here.
With a goal in mind, Akiko places the White willow pouch back in her bag, once again promising to label the darn things, and removed her small pouch of now wet nuts.
Akiko takes out a hand full, making sure to give some to the owl family in two piles. One for the small one that still refuses to move from her vicinity and to the other three who are simply watching her with intelligent eyes.
"I know it's wet, but it's better than nothing. Right?" Akiko speaks to them as the three...inspect the nuts before only eating a few while the small one in front of her, who she will now call Atsu.
"Especially to you, Atsu." The bird doesn't react to the name, then again Akiko didn't really expect it to.
Akiko finishes her nuts and as she packs away her belongings and leaving them by the entrance. She turns back to the small family of owls; each are staring at her with wide eyes that almost creeped her out.
"Thanks again!" Akiko says with cheer before wiggling head first out of the small burrow and on to the tree branch right outside.
Akiko can feel the humid air on her cheeks, it's already warm and there really isn't much doubt that it's going to be very hot.
She reaches is for her bag and hat, placing them on her back and hanging on her neck respectively and begins her trek back down the tree.
The last branch is only a couple meters above the ground but it's also a couple of meters above hurts.
'This really wasn't the best idea' Akiko thinks in dread as she hangs on the branch, that same two meters above the ground.
Akiko looks straight at the ground at her bag lying haphazardly where she might land.
'I don't even know how to roll for this!' Akiko can feel her doubt of her ability increase to the point where all she wanted to do was climb back on the branch and not come down.
Not to mention the fact that her hands were slipping.
Even though Akiko was thinking this, she still let got and attempted to roll to not hurt her leg muscles further.
It only half worked with her ending in a very awkward roll with her legs surviving but it had caused unwanted strain on her back and its muscles.
With a pained grunt, she retrieves her bag and searches for the road to Konoha. It isn't far, considering she hadn't deviated too far away. Akiko continues her journey accompanied by a recurring cough but thankfully no sniffles...yet.
X
Unknown to the travelling woman, she is being watched by four small figures perched on the same branch where the burrow had been located.
"What an interesting human." One of the larger figures states with a satisfied and curious tone in a gruff voice.
"Wonder if she suspected we were summons?" A smaller one asked with more of a childish glee.
"Highly doubt-full. Considering she is a civilian." The third flatly states, its voice calm and melodic, and definitely female.
"She named me Kind..." The youngest voice sighs dreamily as the small female owl watches with her family as the human woman slowly walks out of sight.
And as if having heard a call, all four tilt their heads to listen and promptly disappear in a puff of smoke as the four owl summons return back to their home dimension.
X
The warmth of the sun through the clouds and the constant motion of walking with arms swaying had alleviated some of the strain Akiko felt on her muscles which was very nice, however...
"Achoo!" Akiko sneezed, her nose had started running sometime after she had started walking.
'I really wish I had some tissues with me' Akiko thought strongly, missing the luxuries of both civilization and another time, as she once again deviated from the path to Konoha to retrieve a leaf to substitute.
'Not only is this unhygienic, but it also isn't very comfortable.' Her thoughts became irritated as the course surface of the leaf scrubs against her nose as she catches the snot.
With no bin insight, Akiko throws the leaf aside and continues to walk along the path to the Hidden Village of the Leaves.
X
It doesn't take Akiko long to arrive at the gates and she is honestly surprised at how close she was already to the place.
She stops at the wooden gates and looks up in awe, they are the biggest set of doors that she has seen so far. Open wide as they were made her feel small in comparison and not to mention that two massive hiragana that had been painted on the doors in what looked to be semi - faded red paint.
"...why does it have Hermitage written on its doors?" Akiko mumbles the question to herself before the answer came to her.
"Well I guess the village is supposed to be hidden but...a hermit's home?" She wonders with a tilted head.
"Well I suppose, each to their own." Akiko mutters while shaking her head and continues walking.
Her attention is taken away from the numerous buildings to the person who is walking towards her while occasionally waving at her.
Akiko stops abruptly and starts walking towards to the waving person.
The closer she gets, the more definite the person's features become prominent.
It's a man wearing a bandanna with a shine of silver in the middle of his forehead, with dark brown hair covering his right eye and what appears to be a quarter mask at his chin. Akiko's scan of the man moves further down, to the green flak jacket and deep blue shirt and pants.
'It's a pity that his cloths aren't tighter.' The thought passes through her head absently as she recognizes the man as a ninja.
Akiko froze for half as second as the thought suddenly registered consciously.
'What was that?!' Akiko thought in surprise and mortification.
The ninja arrived before her thoughts could go any further.
"Hi there!" The man called out once he was in talking range.
"Hi." Akiko calls back, her voice muffled by her blocked nose as she stops in-front of the familiar looking man.
"Are you here for business or just a holiday?" He asks causally but there is something off about his causality.
"Just h-re for a holiday." Akiko replies with an easy smile as she tries to put the metaphorical finger on what is bothering her.
"Nice! Mind coming with me? I'm going to needed you to fill out some papers." The man says apologetically.
"Paperk work?" Akiko asked bewildered, her throat felt uncomfortable as she spoke. There was paper work required to enter this place?
"Yeah, sorry about that. By the way what is your name? I'm Izumo." The ninja introduces himself.
"No worrhies and I'm Akiko, kice to meeht you." She holds her hand out for a hand shake and watches as a half confused and suspicious look is cast at her hand.
Akiko lets out a nervous laugh and explains the meaning behind the gesture.
"It's a handshake, a way of greeting someone and showing goood faith." There's a dawning of understanding before a hesitant reaching out of Izumo's opposite's hand to complete the handshake.
The handshake is firm on her end but not on Izumo's, who was loose and uncertain with the custom that Akiko had carried with her for over 100 years.
With the handshake over, the air between them turned awkward as he led her to the small booth just inside the gate, something that she had completely missed.
Sitting at the desk of the small booth is another ninja, this one with a large mane of wild spiky hair, hitai-ate resting on his forehead, a strip of bandage resting on the bridge of his nose and a matching uniform.
And it also appeared that he had the paper work ready on a clip board.
Once Izumo was closer to the man behind the desk, his apprehension and... Tension, Akiko realizes as she sees the Izumo's neck muscles relax slightly.
"I just need you to fill out this paper work and then you can be on your way!" He says cheerfully as the wild mane hair man hands her the clipboard with the paper work and a... pen.
'I never expected to see a pen all the way out here. Even in Iwate, they had still used brushes to record documents and write notes.' Akiko muses in befuddlement as she stares at the object in her in hand.
X
Above where, the two ninja share an exasperated look.
'Why is it that every time a traveller comes they're always surprised to see a pen?'
X
The form she fills has that standard feel to it, like all the other forms she had filled out so long ago, asking for her name, age, gender, address, purpose, occupation and duration of stay. All of which she filled to the best of her ability.
Name: Akiko Reko
Age:
Akiko stared blankly at the age box. She had lost track of time on the road and never really bothered looking at a calendar.
'I... don't know how old I am...' Came the dumbfounded realization. Izumo, seeing her shock and confused look tried to help.
"Is there something wrong?" He asks cautiously.
"I... Could you please kell me the date and year?" Akiko finishes firmly after her uncertainty smoothed out from her voice.
Akiko doesn't miss the obvious look of surprise the two ninja share before the Wild man, as she had dubbed, speaks.
"It's the 19th of October, Year XXXX."
With some calculation and dredged up memories of the day she had left home, Akiko comes to the ultimate conclusion that she is twenty years old. She diligently writes the number down and stares stunned at the implication it brings.
It's been four years since she had seen her parents, it's been four years since she last saw her friends, it been four years since she had last set foot in her home country.
'How had the time flown so fast?' The nostalgia strikes hard and fast, leaving her feeling lost and alone.
Akiko takes a breath to calm herself before moving on to the rest of the document.
Place of Origin: Forest Country
Address (If applicable): NA
At the moment, Akiko does not have a home, neither did she remember the exact address of her parent's home in Forest...and Akiko is fairly sure her house or street didn't have a number or name. The way it was done was: "The house closest to the forest" Or the area of the lumber mill and so on.
'But then again, it has been four years since she had last been there and a lot can change in four years.' Akiko concedes to her own self acting as the devil's advocate.
Purpose - Please select from the following:
- Holiday
- Business
- Family
She circled 'Holiday', which is more or less right.
Duration of Stay: Four weeks
Well, there about.
Occupation: Medic/Doctor/Traveller/Rice picker/Admin of hospital/ waitress
Akiko wasn't sure if it fit but it is what she had been doing for a living and neither did they specify what she did currently...It only said her 'Occupation'.
Akiko knows this is a legal document but the lack of grammatical specification is too much like an invitation to have fun with this.
There were various of other boxes and one she had to sign, which she did, but Akiko didn't have the right information for the rest of said spaces.
Once she handed the clip board back to the ninja, who then promptly read it.
Akiko watched as their reactions to her answers, she can see the surprise and incredulity to the answer of her occupation because their eyes widen in a clear give away, whether deliberate or not, it was still pretty funny.
"Uh...Right." Wild man articulated intelligently while Izumo filled out some small piece of paper, which when finished, was handed to her.
"Here is your permit to stay in Konoha. Please note that certain areas are off limits to visitors, which is listed on the back. This permit will last for four weeks to the day, so on the 19th of November is when the permit will expire and you will be considered a security threat and remember to keep it on you at all times." The shinobi explained with a calm attitude as he handed a small slip of paper with her name and age and in bottom left hand corner is a black stamp of, what Akiko thinks is official registration seal.
Akiko nodded her understanding before asking a question.
"Kould you tell me where to find the medikal klinic or the hosbital for non-ninjas?" Akiko asked curiously, sniffling to keep her nose from leaking. She did not want to deal with the twinge in her arms or the headache she has or the fever that might come back if she stops chewing on the willow bark.
"No worries about that, I'll escort you there." Wild man says with a cheerful grin.
Akiko accepts the help with a grin of her own.
"Thandks! I really appreciate that!" Akiko really does because when she first entered the village, all she could see is rows of houses and shops, all in close proximity to each other not to mention the occasional blurs and flashes of black or green streaks on the roofs. Even though she can navigate through the forests and countries with just a map, at this very moment, Akiko doubts she can even find a toilet.
As Wild Man walked beside her, Akiko took in the architecture of the place and was reminded of the small, squished town houses, suburbia and a tree park all at once.
"So... Why are you visiting the hospital?" Wild-man questions as he leads the way to the hospital while casting Akiko a side glance.
Akiko is fairly sure that this is an attempt of a subtle interrogation and she can't help the smile that sneaks on her lips.
"I am hoping they have something more kimmediate for the fever that I've got and to see if they can do something about strained or pulled muscles." Akiko explains plainly, still vaguely distracted by her surroundings.
There is a small whistle of appreciation.
'This man clearly understands the plight of the civilian!' Akiko contemplates with a grin.
"Where did you get injuries like those? And a fever? How have you been dealing with it?" He asks, interest genuine in his voice as he turns to face to as she opens her mouth to speak.
"I trying to get to shelter from last night's rain. So there was tree climbing, tree jumping and a bit of tree falling. That same rain is also the cause of the fever, which I have been keeping at bay by chewing strips of white willow bark." Akiko explains, her nose clearing up enough for her to speak properly ,her attention happily turned to the man next to her, who seems to be more carefree than Izumo at the gate.
"You were out in that storm?!" He exclaims in surprise as he hears the news.
"Yeah-eh" Akiko returns equally exclaimed.
"It was an absolute nightmare! Less than a minute in and I was already soaked!" Akiko exclaims pointedly as she recounts the events that had led to her current injuries and illness.
"You are one reckless civvie!" Wild-man says in disbelief once Akiko has finished and is proudly puffing her chest.
'I feel like I should be insulted...' Akiko feels slightly ruffled but it quickly passes.
"Probably, but I was tired and wet!" Akiko pouts, defending her actions.
Wild-man only laughs in return slowing to a stop.
"Well, here is the hospital." He gestures to the fairly colourful building with a blue roof, orange windows, a large red circle with the kanji for healing, bright white walls and a lot of green grass and shrubs in front of the hospital.
Akiko and Wild-man stand in front of the blue gates, and she watches as other villagers drift and flow in and out of the establishment, some are mothers with small kids and others are the elderly.
"What's wrong?" Wild-man asks, his brow pulled in a small furrow as he notices that Akiko hasn't moved from her position.
"It's so colourful." Akiko states in confusion. She had always thought that since this is a ninja village, who are so very secretive, and added to the fact that this place is ruled with a military dictator ship, the hospital would have been a more neutral colour or at least blended in somewhat. Maybe not obviously but subtlety at least!
Wild-man looks back to the hospital and nods.
"Yeah, it is colourful. Pretty right?" Wild-man brushes off with a grin. With the man in agreement with her, Akiko continues to the hospital with awed eyes because this is a ninja hospital.
Akiko is very much looking forward to see how well run the place is run.
X
The reception room isn't white with like Akiko thought it was, rather green instead with the occasional splash of colour from the nurses who wore yellow and the shades of brown from the timber panelling.
Akiko ignores how Wild-man casually went up the nurses' station on the left and focused on the feel of the place, casting her eyes on the other patients in the waiting room.
Spread across the red cushion benches were women, parents with children and the elderly. Some coughing and others nervous, relaxed and in-between.
Akiko was so engrossed in her observations and slight delirium from her fever, she didn't notice the ninja come up to her and start speaking. So when there was suddenly a hand on her shoulder, she flinched before whirling around to face the stranger.
"Hey, you alright?" He asks, slightly concerned with her reaction while holding his hands in a non-threatening gesture of 'I surrender'.
"Sorry, I just zoned out a bit." Akiko says regretfully as she sheepishly scratches the back of her neck. It seemed that her block nose had returned with a vengeance, her words becoming chopped.
"That I understand, so you got a place to stay?" Wild-man asks, an easy chuckle falling from his lips.
The banter comes easy and her rely completely bypasses her brain.
"No, are you offering?" Akiko could help but let a coy smirk just tug at her lips.
"Hahah! No quite! You're a good one!" Wildman says through the laughs and Akiko laughs with him because it's easy to.
"But I do know of a good hotel where you can stay for about a month with good rates." He finishes with the occasional chuckle.
"Why the help? I'm not being ungrakeful or anything, just kurious." Akiko asks because she is. Akiko knows that ninja are paranoid but it's completely unexpected to run into one who's so relaxed and free-spirited. Not only that but, she also wanted to know when she is going to see a doctor or nurse.
"Well I like you! You're pretty gutsy for a civilian." He says as if it explains everything.
'That doesn't...' Akiko blinks owlishly before slipping into a smile.
"Thandks! So where is this place?" Akiko asks, keeping the conversation on track, thoughts of asking him about the doctor slipping her mind to the more interesting topic.
"It's this nice place just down this street called..."
X
"Ms Reko?" A woman's voice cut through the flow of conversation between Kotetsu, as Akiko had found out later, and herself.
Akiko looked at the woman wearing what she thought was a nurse' uniform, if that hat was any indication, in surprise before answering the call.
"That's me." Akiko answers with a small smile.
"If you would please follow me." The nurse smiles politely, gesturing for her to follow.
"Sure!" Akiko smiles back at her, not put off by the woman's professionalism.
"See you around?" Akiko asks the ninja as she gets up, a grin on her face.
"Definitely!" He returns and waves her goodbye as Akiko waves in return. She doubts she will see him about again, maybe when she leaves but not before.
Akiko follows the woman out, happy to get a friend out of the ninja. Even though she is fully aware that was some sneaky info digging, it was still pretty fun.
X
The halls of the hospital followed the same colour scheme of green and timber yellow, Akiko noted as she followed the silent nurse through the halls towards the doctor that Kotetsu had wrangled for her.
Akiko passed by various rooms, some with patients and other without and from all those rooms, she just sees a nice view of the court yard and the surrounding village.
The nurse stops, in-front of a door and once again gestures for her to enter, her brown eyes tired but still polite.
"Dr. Ohori will see you now." Akiko returns the polite smile before entering the room.
X
The room is set out like a normal examination room, with a examination bed off to the left, a few chairs along the right, various healthy posters along the walls and where the table is, there is also whom Akiko assumes is Dr. Ohori sitting at said table still filling out paper work. Something Akiko does not miss at all.
"Please have a seat Ms Reko." The woman waves her to the adjacent chairs, her attention still focused on the sheet of paper in front of her.
Without saying a word, Akiko does as directed and once settled, takes some time to observe the woman in front of her.
Unlike the nurses, Dr Ohori does not wear the faded pink outfit but the customary white lab coat instead. However, unlike the majority of people that Akiko has seen so far in the streets, Dr Ohori has faded blond hair rather than the dark or light brown.
And when the Doctor turns to face her, Akiko is once again given another surprise. The woman turns to face her with pale blue eyes that have no pupils.
'This woman is from a clan...but which one?' Akiko thinks in incredulously, 'Not only that, but the lack of pupils is eerie.' Her thought continues.
Dr. Ohori reads her expression like a book.
"Are you alright? I've been told by other civilians that the eyes can throw people off." She begins in a cheerful demeanour, giving the needed outage that Akiko needed.
"No it's fine, just something I wasn't expecting." Akiko smiles at the woman, her surprise wearing off in favour for the coming conversation at hand.
"So, can you tell me why you're here today?" Dr Ohori asks, as she turns back to her desk and retrieves a new piece of paper.
"I was wondering if you had something more immediate to deal with my fever as well as strained muscles." Akiko informs the woman, who looks back at her when Akiko mentions the strained muscles.
"I have some antibiotics for the fever. Can you please tell me how you strained your muscles and how recent it was?" The doctor asks as she writes on that paper, which Akiko is starting to suspect will become her medical file.
"I kclimbed a tree and attempted to jump from one branch to another and fell. I managed to grab a branch but the sudden stop put strain on my arms. I also 'urt by back in the aktion of jumping out of a tree by attempting a roll. All of this happened yesterday during the storm as I made my way here." Akiko recounts succinctly, aware of the look of surprise she got from the doctor from her own reckless actions.
"...Well. That's different to the other ways that I've heard of someone getting muscle strain and continuing on that, are you sure it's muscle strain and not a broken bone? Maybe a fracture?" Dr Ohori questions as she follows her own train of thought.
Akiko pauses, because the woman is right. She had written her pains off as muscle strain when they might be something much worse. Even so, Akiko does hold on to her sliver of doubt. There wasn't as much pain to signal that her bones were broken anyway.
"Let's get that initial examination done so I can determine if your bones are broken or not." Dr Ohori decides as she puts her pen down with finality.
"If you could please turn around?" The doctor asks as she waits in front of Akiko.
With a nod, Akiko twists in the chair until her back is facing the direction of where the doctor had been stand the last she had seen.
Suddenly something both cold, unpleasant and so inextricably wrong comes in-contact with her skin then it goes deeper and Akiko flinches.
The feeling is completely foreign to her and not only that but it causes a deep pit of discomfort and wrongness to gape wide open in her.
"The feeling of chakra can be very disconcerting the first time, after it generally fades." The doctor takes Akiko's flinch as a surprise.
Akiko has never felt like this before and never wants to again and with the feeling of wrong pressing so far into her mind, she'll never want to even come close to another med ninja again.
Akiko is completely unaware of anything but the invasion of Dr Ohori's Chakra, she can't feel the muscles healing nor her headache fading, only that her own Chakra should never come in-contact with someone else.
The rest of the healing continued in silence with Akiko pushing down the urge to run away from the sensation and by extension, Dr Ohori and with said Dr healing her own ails.
"There! All finished!" The pale haired woman exclaimed happily as she withdraws her chakra causing Akiko to release a silent sigh of relief as she turns to face the doctor again.
"Now, I haven't completely healed your muscles as it would be healthier for them to finish the healing process by itself but I have gotten rid of your cold so you won't be plagued by all that coughing or sneezing!" Dr Ohori explained merrily, happiness and other positive emotions radiating from her person, enough so that Akiko began to think it was contagious, especially since she was smiling and feeling just as happy in response despite what just happened.
"Even so, I'd still like you to come and check in after a week just make sure that everything is going well. Take this to the receptionist outside and she'll set up another date for a check in." Dr. Ohori smiled as she quickly handed a slip of paper to Akiko, while gently herding her out.
'When did she...?' Akiko thought in confusion as she, a little dumbly with the sudden speed up of the blond woman in front of her.
"See you soon!" The woman exclaimed cheerily and then the door shut in her face.
"...What?..." Akiko stared blankly at the picturesque scene of the village and the small hospital garden from the window in front of her before shaking her head and muttering the following word:
"Ninjas."
Signing in both annoyance and exasperation, Akiko looked up and down the hall that she had found herself in. She is fairly sure that it's a straight shot to the reception desk from here when she turns left but there is the fact that she really hadn't been paying much attention to how she got here and only followed the nurse.
With an aimless shrug, Akiko turned left and made her way to the reception.
'Once that's done, some lunch would be nice.' Akiko mused thoughtfully as she walked down the empty hall.
Akiko stopped again in the middle of the hall what she had said to Kotetsu catches up to her. She can feel her face slowly flush in embarrassment.
"Dear God, I said that!" Akiko mutters in utter mortification.
"Ohhhh I hope he doesn't remember that..." She moaned as she continued to the reception a lot more slowly as she fought down her blush.
X
Dr Hanan Ohori dropped her smile as soon as the door closed.
"Damn it Anko! What the hell was that about?!" The woman called out to the room, referring to the fluctuations of chakra and the occasional 'floating' object when Ms Reko wasn't looking.
"Hehe, only a bit of fun!" came the reply, filled with mirth.
"Just, just come out." Hanan sighed as she held her face in her hand.
"Alright, alright..." Anko complained as she slowly faded into sight.
"kill joy." The purple haired woman muttered under her breath.
Hanan just snorted in reply.
"So who was the red head?" Anko, a special jounin, snake mistress, T&I agent and dango lover extraordinaire questioned with a more serious voice. It seems that she had picked on Hanan's interest in the orange headed woman.
"Just a Traveller who needed some healing." Hanan answered with a casual tone but a puzzled frown.
Her job as a healer, specifically for those who visit the Leaf, is to be their doctor lest they be spies not only that but she keeps them away from the other doctors who may have loose lips. Added to that is the fact that Hanan is a damn good sensor and with what she had picked up from the recently departed adult, had her in a state of slight confusion.
"What?" Anko asked quickly, her attention quickly tuned to her friend's confusion.
"Nothing but, I've never felt such strong spiritual energy from a civilian before. Ninja or spy granted but never a civilian." Hanan informed Anko as she continued to ponder over the details of her observations.
"Are you sure that woman is a civilian?" Anko probes with cold eyes as she looks in the direction of the entrance of the hospital, pondering the validity of grabbing the woman and hauling her down to T&I for a little bit of questioning...
"No, you are not taking her down to T&I." Hanan spoke flatly as she turned back to the eccentric woman.
"But!" Anko protested and was cut off
"No buts, she's not a ninja. Her chakra coils are completely untrained; she just has an abnormal amount of spiritual energy. That's all. Besides, I've noted it in her files so there is no needed to worry." Hanan waves off with a careless hand, after all during the healing she had checked the civilian's chakra coils herself.
'Though it was strange how Ms Reko's chakra seemed to run away, turn frantic and almost attack when it came into contact with my own.' She pondered.
"Hmm..." Hanan's companion hums her reply with a thoughtful look before it changes into one of glee.
"Sooooooo..." Anko begins with a manic grin.
"Come on, let's go get some dango" Hanan says with a grin as she slides the file for one Akiko Reko in her filing cabinet under the 'R's and locking it with a seal.
And with that the pair of kunoichi leapt out the window with the finesse and grace of years of training and experience, off to have some dango.
Konoha!
No Izumo is not a wimp, he is just extra wary because of the handshake. I mean think about it, a ninja uses all their jutsu for hand signs and the very act of shaking a strangers hand would send alarm bells ringing through their mind but at the same time, when a traveler or a diplomat or someone of import comes through, they meet or see Izumo and Kotetsu first so they sort of have an obligation to make a good impression on the 'foreigners' when their arrive.
That black stamp is a way of tracking Akiko or all other visitors when they tour around the village since they can't have one ninja per person or group as their forces are already spread thin as it is.
It is a similar concept when it comes to Dr Ohori, who is specifically on call for the visitors. It's like extra protection measure and because she is a healer, Anko is there to act as a kind of guard as usually when an enemy strikes, they always go for the healers first.
Yes, Akiko does have a frighteningly large amount of Spiritual energy, for a civilian, especially since she is approximately: 110 experience wise it is from my understanding that spiritual energy comes from "studying, meditation and experience" (this is directly from the Naruto wiki about chakra.)
Just so you know, I wanted Akiko to remain human and her getting sick after exerting all her energy in the rain would cause a person to get sick. And I'm sorry for my terrible attempt of writing her dialogue when she has a block nose, because when ever I have one, my words just come out blockish and clumped.
And yes Hanan Ohori is a Yamanaka by blood but she married out of the clan.
And to that guest that let me know that I had misspelled Genma' s name, thanks! I'm changing it now!
If you have any questions then please ask!
Til the next chapter!