Hatsue doesn't know how long she's been here in the operating room; all she knew was that the head medical-nin assigned her to put her skills to the test, this was her first surgery, her first patient, his right arm couldn't be saved, it was in an almost torn off state with only the skin still attached, the bone protruding, the smell foul, the arm couldn't be kept although the shinobi begs her to, the choice between respecting the patient's wishes and keeping his life, naturally she chose the latter. The hard part was the chest, it was surely from an explosion, tiny shards of blade inside, Konoha's clever, she frowned at herself, when had she become so desensitize to war? Concentrate, Hatsue. Take the shards out, slowly, carefully, don't let it graze or else you're gonna fix an even bigger mess. Dang it, it's bleeding. Stupid. Stupid Hatsue. You can fix this. Mystical Palm. Good. He's stable. Suture. Careful. By the time it was over, her body refused to relax, it was tense, expecting something to go wrong, her hands heavy, did she save him? Did she do alright? She took off her gloves and wiped her sweat with the towel offered to her.
Sasori,
How are you? Are you doing fine? Knowing you, you'd excel.
I have things I wanted to talk to you about. I don't know
where to start. Just don't come back as my patient, okay?
Your Friend,
Hatsue
Hatsue,
I am well. There is talk of my promotion. Are the things
troubling you too personal for letters? If not, you can write
them to me. Also, I have no confidence in your medical
skills to be your patient.
Sasori
Run. That was all the anbu, Sparrow thought to herself. It was supposed to be a simple order, kill the scout lurking around camp, it was only one scout. She shivered, how did they manage to hide? It was impossible to for that number of shinobis to move around without detection. That much chakra, how can it be concealed? Thunk. The sound of her step on the branches, as she desperately tried to reach the camp, Sparrow had scratches on her legs from the senbon that was thrown at her, she didn't manage to evade it on time but she didn't mind, she can get it treated later, right now she needed to report back.
She stopped. Something was wrong. She stealthily hid in the shadows, there was no one at the lookout, there was no one patrolling, she should've met someone from camp by now. 20 figures, no, maybe 30 or more, they were moving oddly, stiff as if mechanical dragging bodies after bodies of her comrades, she trembled in fear, then she heard the unnerving sound of wood rattling as one figure turned around and her heart dropped. A puppet. She covered her mouth to stifle her gasp. Her ears started to ring loudly, her legs felt like a thousand needles started poking it, she dropped tasting the dirt, she must have bruised her jaw and she had bitten her tongue, the sensation of the needles poking travelled to her upper body, she hastily took off her mask, it was getting hard to breathe, and her mind froze at the realization. Poison. Sparrow forced herself to grab an antidote and drank it. The moment she swallowed, her body shook badly and warm liquid trickled down from her ears. It seems like Suna developed a new poison, one that makes it worse if you drink the antidote recently developed by Lady Tsunade to counter the one before this. She breathed deeply to calm herself down and looked up. The night sky was lovely, filled with stars and the air was cold, there were a few fireflies peeking out from the leaves of the trees if you stared at it hard enough. It was a night like any other and this was her last.
She started laughing but the pain in her body spiked and she curled herself into a ball and let out a wretched sob.
The report wasn't wrong. One scout. Sparrow willed herself, against the odds, to sit up and get an empty scroll from her pouch and write down her report in code because even if she dies, she would be useful to her village. She whistled to her crow, which swooped down immediately and grabbed the scroll with its feet, flying into the night. She lied down on the ground.
How cruel.
Of the enemy.
Of Suna.
Of Konoha.
Of her ancestors.
Of the war.
Of the world.
Of fate.
Of Kami.
And there lay Sparrow, an anbu of Konoha like any other, dying.
Hatsue steeled herself and went inside the ward, the other injured looked at her oddly, it was probably how young she was. She walked towards her patient and looked at him straight in the eyes. She was holding a file on how her patient was faring of the nutrients he needed to intake daily. "I couldn't save your arm, it was already rotting."
"..see.. my ring.." The patient whispered feebly and coughed. She leaned down to hear him more clearly. "You see, I lost my wedding ring during battle. But now I even lost my arm."
She stared at the patient thoughtfully and said, "You still have the rest of you to get back to your wife."
"When I get discharged, what then? How do I get by?" The man asked, still a whisper with a voice crack at the end.
Hatsue looked away from him, she doesn't know, her imaginings of his life afterwards would still be a pale comparison to what he will go through so she replied, "I don't know. I'm a kid."
With that admission, the man wheezed, coughing and laughed. It was so childlike, so unlike of the child soldiers that their village groomed, he was never like this little medic.
Hatsue,
How are you? How's Grandma Chiyo and Grandpa Ebizo?
Sasori
Hatsue,
It has been awhile since your last letter.
Sasori
Hatsue,
Something happened to you. You don't wanna talk about it.
But please reply.
Sasori
Hatsue,
Grandma Chiyo says you're making a name for yourself in Suna.
'Little Kango-hei' (army nurse). Tell me how you became a kangosotsu.
Sasori
Hatsue,
Just you wait when I get back
Sasori
A's note:
This has been sitting in my files for awhile, altho i don't write anymore I do still think about scenarios between Hatsue and Sasori from time to time. So thank you for the reviews. Especially to killyourmind , it has been awhile since I last updated but you still left a review, and i know exactly how that feels so i was like, dang i should just finish the story despite it being mediocre.