Chapter 20: Preliminaries
…
"Impressive," said Ameko, smiling. "A perfect execution of the Hiraishin jutsu."
Calling it 'perfect' was a bit generous. This was day four of my Hiraishin training, and Genma had just deemed me ready to perform the Hiraishin on myself under medical supervision. He'd even enlisted the help of Ameko to verify that I was able to complete the jump without sustaining any injuries. While it did work, if I wanted to guarantee a safe arrival the whole process took about 30 seconds. That was long enough to prevent it from being viable for use in combat. I would get better, eventually, but it could take years of practice to fully master. Years that I didn't have since the invasion was less than a month away.
"Thank you, Ameko-san," I said, bowing. "Sorry to bother you for something like this. I know you must be very busy."
She was the Medical Director for the Konoha Hospital, after all.
But Ameko merely chuckled.
"I'm always interested in anyone working on my Uncle's jutsu," she said, suddenly reminding me that, oh yeah, she was a Senju, and therefore related to Tobirama. "Besides, now I have a chance to present this to you personally."
She opened a folder to reveal a pristine medical license with my name printed on it in shiny gold ink.
"Congratulations," she said. "Normally there is a ceremony for the students who pass, but that's not until next week, and I have a mission for you tonight."
"A mission?" I asked, tearing my eyes away from the license.
Ameko nodded.
"Today is the final day for the second part of the Chunin Exams," she said. "We expect a large number of injuries among the participants, so a squad of medics is preparing to travel to the exam site. Normally the critically injured are transported to the hospital on foot to receive further treatment, but the Hiraishin would make medical transport safer for everyone. We'll rendezvous with the other medics at the hospital, and you can plant your Hiraishin formulas before we head out."
I glanced back at Kakashi.
Normally we didn't really reject missions, but with Orochimaru wandering around the Forest of Death, I thought that maybe there might be an exception.
"Sure," said Kakashi with an eye-smile. "I'll accompany you. I was just about to head to the tower to meet up with the rest of our team, anyway. The Hokage will be there too."
In other words, the tower was probably the safest place for me to be.
I turned back to Ameko.
"I'd be happy to help."
And that was how we all came to arrive at the tower in the Forest of Death three hours later. The journey to the tower was largely uneventful, mostly thanks to the four masked ANBU who were escorting us.
Before wandering off, Kakashi placed a hand on my shoulder and quietly warned me to stay within the medical ward. Meanwhile, Ameko took over right away, commanding the medics like a General in battle to prepare for the impending surge of patients. My part was simple enough. As the only person able to perform the Hiraishin, I was supposed to conserve my chakra until I was needed. Not being allowed to actually heal anyone was a bit of a let-down, but it was pragmatic.
"Is the forest really that dangerous?" I asked during a moment of quiet, the calm before the storm. Above us, a clock ticked closer to midnight, the end of the second exam.
"There are certainly many natural dangers, but most injuries are from the participants," said Ameko. "That's why we had ANBU escort us here."
I glanced around at the other medics. There were ten of them and the youngest was at least thirty. Surely they should be able to handle a few exhausted genin teams?
Ameko caught my questioning look and gave me a smile.
"Most medics don't specialize in combat," she said, seeming to read my mind. "A few, like my cousin Tsunade, are the rare exception to that rule. Most full-time medics don't even take the Chunin Exams. A few aim for a promotion first, but it's not common. Have you decided which path you'll take?"
I opened my mouth, confident that the answer was obvious. Of course I'd stay with Sasuke and Naruto. But then I paused and actually considered it.
Kakashi was a good teacher.
Or maybe he was an okay teacher.
Alright, fine, he wasn't exactly the best when it came to teaching.
Like Itachi, Kakashi was a self-taught genius who didn't seem to fully grasp the concept of teaching other people. Sometimes it felt like he expected us to learn through osmosis. He didn't teach us much of anything before the Land of Waves, and I'd had to beg him to teach me a genjutsu when faced with the prospect of fighting Zabuza and Haku. Even with the Hiraishin, he'd promptly handed the actual teaching off to someone else.
Kakashi was strong. There was no doubt about that. But he had his limits. That was why Sasuke would be tempted by Orochimaru, why Naruto would train with Jiraiya, and why I too would need to seek out someone at that level.
Someone like Tsunade.
It felt wrong to think that. Disloyal. But it was the truth nonetheless.
"I want to get stronger to protect the people I care about," I said at last. "Though I would still like to apprentice under a medic-nin someday."
I didn't have to leave Team 7 immediately. Tsunade wasn't even in the village yet.
"That can be arranged," said Ameko. "There's more to medical ninjutsu than healing people, and Konoha could always use more combat medics."
Just then, a masked ANBU arrived and muttered something in her ear.
"Preliminaries? Alright, then," she said before turning to the rest of the room and raising her voice. "The exam is over! The ANBU teams will gather the survivors and bring them here for screening. This year the winners will also engage in a set of preliminary matches that will take place in the arena next door."
She gestured to a set of double doors, and I sidled over to take a look. I spotted Sasuke, Naruto, and Haku right away and sagged with relief. Even if they were a bit dirty, there were no obvious injuries. Well, except for the knot of dark chakra on Sasuke's neck and the disruption seal on Naruto, but both of those were expected. According to Kakashi, they'd arrived at the tower on the third day of the exam. Two days early. Not that I was complaining. That was the advantage of having someone like Haku on their team.
Beside them were Team 10 and Team 8. Team Guy was also easy to spot thanks to Lee's green outfit, and the Sand Siblings were obvious thanks to Gaara's gourd. I made a note of their chakra signatures and almost shied away from the sickly bloodlust radiating from Gaara.
I frowned.
"Is this everyone that passed?" I asked.
Ameko gave me an amused look.
"Don't underestimate the exam," she said. "Five teams making it this far is rare."
True, but there should have been two more. Where were the Sound ninja? And Kabuto's team?
More importantly, if they weren't here, where was Orochimaru?
I scanned the line of adults behind the Hokage, but there were too many faces I didn't recognize. He could be any of them. Or none. Either way, standing out here in the open was a bad idea. I ducked back in the hospital ward, careful to keep my chakra sense focused on the room. That was how I knew when the matches began and that the first round was Sasuke vs. Choji. The fight was quick, less than a minute. Sasuke didn't use chakra and Choji used his multi-size technique. Then they stopped moving. Choji returned to his team while Kakashi led Sasuke away. I tried to follow them with my chakra sense, but they soon passed outside of my range. In the corridor beside the arena, another chakra signature moved to follow them.
Orochimaru.
It had to be.
Sasuke would be fine.
Orochimaru didn't want Sasuke dead.
I kept my chakra sense spread out and was distantly aware of the next fight between Shino and Kankuro. I couldn't tell much about their battle because Shino's bugs made it impossible to determine what was happening. They were like a cloud of white-noise obscuring the fight from my senses. And I was more interested in Sasuke when he passed back into my chakra sensing range anyway.
"Nii-chan!?" I asked, as four ANBU appeared, one carrying Sasuke on his back. I rushed over to him and ran my hands through the diagnostic jutsu, but one of the ANBU reached up to stop me.
"You will transport me and the patient to the hospital," said the ANBU holding Sasuke. "Nothing more."
I wanted to argue, but there was a rigid tension between all of them. Orochimaru was still hanging around, and they needed to get Sasuke out of here as quickly and quietly as possible. I nodded and swallowed my worry.
Sasuke would be fine.
He would be.
"This will take a few seconds, so please hold still," I said, laying my hand on the ANBU's chest and infusing him and Sasuke with my chakra. I carefully Hiraishined them away, sending them to the hospital in a quiet whoosh of air.
Sasuke would be fine.
I had to believe that.
Two of the remaining ANBU faded into the background while one took up a sentry position in the corner. His purpose was obvious. Because I was still here and Orochimaru wanted the Sharingan. It was tempting to say that I should have gone with Sasuke, but with Kakashi and the Hokage in the next room, this place was probably still safer. I took a long, slow breath and turned my attention back to the arena where Shino's swarm was slowly dispersing. A moment later, both participants were brought to the medical ward.
"Paralytic poison, Priority 1," said Himari in clipped tones as she examined Shino with a diagnostic jutsu. I wasn't too worried about his condition. Konoha had access to antidotes for almost all of Suna's poisons, and there were specialists in the Aburame clan who could be called to handle anything else.
"Chakra exhaustion, Priority 3," said Hina, who was examining Kankuro. Chakra exhaustion simply required bed rest.
I turned my attention back to the arena where Haku was facing off against Ino. Or at least, that's what I thought was happening. They stood in the center of the arena for a moment before Haku returned to Naruto and Ino was removed by Ameko. I saw why a minute later when she arrived on a stretcher.
"Acupuncture paralysis, Priority 3," said Himari.
Ino simply lay there quietly, staring at the ceiling. Her face was scrunched up like she was trying not to cry.
I winced.
Oh, that…was a bad match up. Ino was a talented kunoichi who was skilled at manipulation and her clan's signature mind-transfer jutsu, but if she wanted to use it in a fight she still required a team to pin down her target. Without that, she had to rely on taijutsu. Against someone like Haku, she never stood a chance. It was just bad luck that she'd had to face off against a jounin-level opponent. Although it could have been worse.
She could have been matched with Gaara.
"Hey," I said softly as I approached her bed.
Acupuncture paralysis would resolve on its own in about half an hour, so the other medics weren't going to spend chakra to fix it, at least not when they were expecting a large number of casualties to arrive soon. They couldn't afford to waste it on something that would fix itself.
"Kiyo-chan?" Ino asked, surprised. She gave me a strained smile, but her lower lip trembled. "So, it looks like you passed your medic exam…That's…that's great…"
"You did really well to survive the Forest of Death," I said. "You know, the medics and I had to come here with a full ANBU guard."
Ino chuckled.
"Trying to cheer me up, huh?" she asked, her smile becoming slightly more genuine. "Don't worry about me. Nothing keeps the beautiful Yamanaka Ino down for long. Just wait until the next exam!"
She was right, of course. Ino would become a jounin one day, and she'd be worthy of her title too.
"I know you'll do great," I said.
"Yeah, I'll need to train harder, though," she said. "We all will. Choji lost to Sasuke-kun, and that lazybones Shikamaru is probably going to forfeit. I'm just glad I didn't get paired with that Sand girl. I can feel her attacks from here. She's going all-out."
I blinked and then recalled that Ino was a sensor too. I reached out my senses in time to feel the maelstrom of wind chakra throwing around Tenten. Yeah, that fight wasn't going very well for her either.
"Me too," I said as there was a sudden flurry of activity. I peered around the curtain to see several battered looking genin teams arrive. "I need to return to my station. Get some rest, Ino."
"Ha, any good kunoichi knows when to get her beauty sleep, not that I need it," she said, winking.
I gave her a smile and squeezed her hand once before retreating to my place. Ino would be fine.
The sudden activity soon devolved into barely controlled chaos as dozens of genin wandered into the ward for their post-exam checkups. Triage sorted them from Priority 1 to 3, and the medics handled their care with practiced efficiency. Most were cleared and dismissed to a waiting room with only a few needing emergency care.
It wasn't bad at all, at least not until an ANBU arrived carrying a stack of black-ringed scrolls, body scrolls for the dead. Those were the ones who didn't survive, the children who came here wanting to prove their worth only to meet their end. Did they have families? Friends? Were there people who, even now, waited anxiously for their return? But instead of their loved ones, they would receive only a scroll.
All of this for a test.
It was just a test.
I looked away and kept my senses keyed to the arena, trying not to think about it. I focused on the end of Temari and Tenten's match as well as the match between Kiba and Naruto. I was unsurprised when Tenten and then Kiba were wheeled in, though they were both only in need of basic first aid.
The real problem came when Hinata was wheeled in some time later. She was unconscious, and even from the other side of the room, I could feel the flicker of a crippled chakra circulatory system. I was at her side in a moment. I didn't know Hinata very well. We were both shy at the Academy, but she was a kind and determined girl who didn't deserve what I knew Neji had done to her.
Himari made a sound of objection, but I ignored her as I sank my chakra into Hinata's body. I winced at the damage. The Gentle Fist technique did not wound its victims in the traditional way of broken bones and pierced flesh. It damaged internal organs by starving them of chakra. Neji had not held back, and Hinata's vital organs were receiving only a small trickle of what she required to live.
I flushed her body with chakra, bypassing the plugs to supply her organs with the energy they needed. But I couldn't maintain that forever. When I poked at one of the chakra plugs with healing chakra, it remained firm. I could try increasing the amount of power behind my healing, but that ran its own risks. Still, if I didn't reverse the process soon her vital organs would shut down and she'd be crippled for months.
Well, it was held together somehow, right? The Hyuuga trained for years to be able to produce chakra like that. Perhaps the key lay in Hinata's chakra instead?
I felt the shape of it, the almost crystalline structure. Huh. Perhaps it was similar to chakra elemental natures. If Hyuuga chakra was crystalline in nature, it would be most similar to earth-type chakra. Lightning was strong against earth.
That was a problem.
I was not lightning-type.
But I had felt Sasuke's chakra plenty of times.
Brow furrowed, I attempted to scatter my chakra mimicking the chaotic flow of energy around the plug blocking her heart. It bounced off of the edge, chipping away at it slowly. Not fast enough. I excited my chakra on both ends of the plug, and that did it. The chakra plug cracked, dissolving like salt in water until nothing remained. The plug gone, I shifted my chakra to flow once more, flushing Neji's invasive chakra from her system as I repeated the process for the plugs around her lungs.
"We'll take it from here," said a familiar voice.
"Ameko-san," I said, cutting out my technique and leaning back.
Ameko gave me a sympathetic smile.
"Is she a friend?" she asked.
"A classmate," I said, mortified. My mission was to hang back and conserve chakra until I was needed to transport the wounded. I wasn't supposed to be healing anyone. "…Sorry…."
Ameko put a hand on my head.
"It's alright," she said. "But save you chakra. We've just stabilized five patients that require emergency evacuation."
She gestured to five beds, each one bearing a genin. Two held unconscious boys with obvious head wounds. One held a girl who was clutching at the stub of her missing arm. Another held an emaciated boy sobbing quietly, likely a victim of the forest's giant leeches. The last bed held a small figure cocooned in bandages that were covered in medical life-support seals. I could barely feel the tiniest hint of chakra from the genin inside.
"Right," I said. "I'll just—"
But I stopped.
Because I recognized that chakra.
I turned slowly back to the bandaged figure and approached.
"K-Karin?" I muttered.
"Ah, another friend?" Ameko asked softly. "I'm sorry. There's not much we can do for her here. It's amazing she lasted this long."
But she was supposed to be fine.
Rescued by Sasuke.
What went wrong?
Wait. If Sasuke arrived at the tower on the third day, he couldn't have been in the forest to rescue her.
This was...my fault. Because I'd taken Sakura's place. Because I'd saved Haku. Because I'd changed things.
"Please allow me to heal her," I said.
Ameko was silent for a long moment.
"As a medic, you cannot allow personal feelings to cloud your judgment," she said. "This girl needs a team of medics if she wants to survive the night. If you want to help her and everyone else in her situation, the best thing you can do is to get her to where she needs to be."
I wanted to object, but Ameko was right. The hospital had access to seals, machines, and medicines that I just didn't have. Chakra couldn't heal everything, not even 100% pure medical chakra like mine. I Hiraishined Karin first, taking extra care so that her arrival would be smooth. I then turned my attention to the other four, sending them each in turn. By the time I finished, Ameko approached me with a furrowed brow.
"I'd like you to show me the technique you used on Hyuuga-san," said Ameko.
"Did something go wrong?" I asked, suddenly worried that I'd hurt Hinata in my eagerness to help. Oh no, the plugs had been around her vital organs. What if…
"No, Hyuuga-san is recovering as well as can be expected," said Ameko. "I was simply curious. I haven't read about a technique that could remove Gentle Fist chakra so quickly without damaging the chakra nodes. I'd like to see it firsthand. Where did you read about it?"
I flushed, mortified.
"I, uh, didn't read about it," I mumbled, starkly aware that I was admitting to using Hyuuga Hinata, the heir to one of the most prominent clans in Konoha, as a guinea pig for untested medical techniques.
"Then you've worked with Hyuuga chakra before?" Ameko asked, her tone sharpening.
Oh no…
"Not exactly, no," I said. I cleared my throat. "I examined Neji-san's chakra and noticed the rigid structure of the plug. I theorized that the crystal-like nature could be disrupted by introducing erratic chakra similar to how lightning techniques dissolve earth techniques."
"I wasn't aware that you knew lightning techniques," said Ameko with a frown.
From bad to worse. Not only was I using untested medical techniques. I didn't even know how to use the chakra nature I was trying to mimic.
I was going to be stripped of my medic license for this.
"I don't," I admitted. "It wasn't a lightning technique. It was simply exciting the chakra in a localized area to dissolve the structure."
Yeah, like that made it any better. Ameko's frown deepened, apparently thinking along the same lines.
"And how did you plan to handle a 'jagged' piece of chakra in her circulatory system?" Ameko asked.
I…hadn't thought of that, though now that she said it, it sounded like an obvious concern.
"I excited the chakra on both ends of the plug," I said. I'd done it for speed, but by chance it had worked as a safety mechanism. "With my chakra holding it in place, it was not able to move from the area until I was prepared to flush it from her system." Ameko raised an eyebrow, and I elaborated. "After the plug was dissolved, I shifted my chakra back to its natural flow and drew out the remains of his chakra."
Ameko gave me an unreadable look.
"Show me."
What?
"…On Hinata?" I asked, hardly believing that she wanted me to demonstrate an untested medical technique on an unconscious patient. There had to be some kind of ethics violations involved in that.
But Ameko merely nodded and pointed to Hinata's arm. There was a seal beneath her wrist meant to isolate chakra. It was used sometimes in complicated surgeries involving chakra nodes.
"The Hyuuga rarely provide samples for us to work with," said Ameko with detached practicality.
Ah, so that was it. If they had no reliable method of replicating the Gentle Fist, whatever techniques they had created to heal its effects were likely born from dealing directly with its victims. There were no guinea pigs to work with.
I stepped up to Hinata and sank my chakra into her skin, carefully isolating the chakra plug. Ameko placed her hands over mine, our chakra blending seamlessly. Her chakra was clean, sterile, and simply there to observe. I slowly excited my chakra, chipping away at the chakra plug. I took more care with this one, acutely aware of being observed, but it was still only about fifteen seconds of work to clear it.
I withdrew my chakra and Ameko leaned back, her expression still unreadable.
"Interesting," she said. "This technique has no basis in Konoha standard literature. It is entirely novel and therefore unapproved. Konoha does not condone the use of unsanctioned procedures on shinobi barring exceptional circumstances. As a medic, you should be permanently stripped of your license for gross negligence."
I hung my head. Ameko allowed the threat to hang in the air for a long moment before continuing.
"However, the grievous wounds inflicted on Hyuuga-san could be interpreted as life-threatening, and therefore requiring immediate action, unsanctioned though it might have been," she went on. I looked up, surprised as Ameko continued. "Because of this, I am placing you on disciplinary probation for the next thirty days. In that time, you are prohibited from performing medical procedures on anyone without my personal authorization. Failure to comply will result in a permanent removal of all medical certifications."
I let out a slow breath.
That was…not bad. In terms of punishments, that was a slap on the wrist. Especially because we both knew that Hinata's condition was not life-threatening. She would be crippled for a few months, but her life was not in danger. Certainly not with Ameko standing right there with fully trained staff ready to deal with any potential complications.
"I understand, Ameko-san," I said, bowing deeply. I didn't miss the fact that the probationary period ended right on the day of the third exam. Did she know about the invasion? Or did she suspect that I would want to heal my teammates who would be fighting in the tournament?
Either way, it was convenient timing.
"There is one more patient I would like you to examine before I release you," she said, gesturing for me to follow her.
Brow furrowed, I fell into step behind her as she led me around the curtain to another bed. This one containing Lee.
Oh, so his fight was over too. And from the bandages, I could guess at who he'd fought.
"I would like your assessment," she said. "In this case I am authorizing the use of a diagnostic jutsu only."
His arm and leg were already bandaged so I called forth my chakra again, laying it over Lee's chest. It took a minute to sort through the signals my chakra was sensing. The arm and leg themselves weren't actually all that bad. Relatively speaking.
"The radius and humerus are broken in two places each," I said. "The ulna is broken in three places. The femur is broken in four places. The tibia is broken in one. The fibula is broken in nine. The muscles are severely torn, both from crushing force as well as from the splintered bone."
But all of that was still within the realm of recovery, albeit with an exceptionally long rehabilitation timeline. No, the worst of it went far beyond that.
"There are several thousand bone fragments lodged in vital parts of his neural network, mostly located around the spine," I said.
Huh, so it was the Lotus that had caused the worst injury. Not Gaara.
I removed my hands and clasped them behind my back though my fingers itched to mend the bones. Someone had already done the preliminary patch-job to keep everything in place, but I knew I could do more. It would be so easy, and it wouldn't even cost much chakra.
"And what is your assessment for a treatment plan?" Ameko asked.
"The arm and leg can be healed by the standard application of a bone-mending medical ninjutsu," I said. "The preliminary stages have already been performed. The muscles will require stimulation via medical chakra to mend at an accelerated rate once the bones have been permanently set. As for the bone fragments, the foreign object extraction jutsu developed by Tsunade-sama is the most viable approved treatment, though even under ideal conditions this procedure has a high probability of paralysis or death."
"And what would you say to this shinobi if you were acting as his medic?" Ameko asked.
'Wait for Tsunade.'
"…That there is only one person who can perform this procedure, and she is currently unavailable," I said cautiously.
When Tsunade returned, things would be different, but as far as I was aware, there was no one in the village who could pull it off.
"…I see," said Ameko. "Lee-san and Hyuuga-san are ready for transport to the hospital."
And with that, she dismissed me.
…
AN: The next chapter will be delayed for a bit. In related news, RIP my laptop.