Author's Note:
Finally an update? Yes and this feels like a standalone piece to boot!
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Chapter Thirteen
Patient
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
― Socrates
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It had been a fairly normal day for the dark haired medical-nin.
Between tending to his patients' ailments and well-being – both civilians and ninjas – , Kumori Takasu prided himself on the positive feedback he recently received during his evaluation earlier in the day. At only nineteen years of age, he was sure he would be able to become a captain of the Medic Corps in a short time – hopefully, setting him into the path of becoming the Director of the hospital itself. Naturally, that had set his mood off to a good start and planned on a little celebration after his shift ended – especially so when he was not scheduled to work the next day.
That was until he was paged to the emergency room.
Thinking nothing more than another patient that needed his care, he quickly made his way to the first floor of the hospital. Mentally and physically readying himself for whatever case it could be, but ready to take it on.
As there were only three beds, two whose privacy curtains were pushed to the head of their respective beds, Kumori turned to the one whose curtains were semi-closed. Picking a pair of gloves off from one of the stands nearest the entrance into the room, he noticed one of the nurses standing before the privacy curtain.
"Ah, Hitomi, do you min –" he started only to abruptly stop when Ibiki Morino, a member of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Force stepped from behind the curtain. Considering who he was and what he did, the hospital would once in a while receive one of his prisoners. So it wasn't all that unexpected to see one of his men in the hospital, though it wasn't common to see the Commanding Officer in the room himself.
Adjusting his glasses, he stepped towards him, "we normally receive word ahead of time to prepare with the proper procedure for the pris–" He stopped mid-sentence for the second time when he finally took notice of the prisoner behind the curtain.
The prisoners the T&I had a certain look about them, usually as a result from the life they led, oftentimes rough in appearance and certainly worn. Instead of seeing the familiar, he was taken by surprise to see a young dark haired teen on the bed, perhaps no older than sixteen or seventeen with delicate features and definitely not a shinobi despite the bruises her body held. With a perplexed look taking hold of his own features, he turned to Ibiki. "Why bring a dead prisoner here? Autopsies are done in the back and – "
"She's not dead, Takasu," a familiar authoritative voice interrupted him.
Turning around, he caught sight of Lady Tsunade entering the emergency room followed by the hospital Director himself. In a normal situation, it would have been pleasant having the Hokage around but her presence was overshadowed by the statement she had made.
'She's not dead, Takasu.'
"That's not remotely possible," he said calmly despite feeling the need to scoff at what he had heard. "There's no kind of life force emitting from her, had she been conscious we would entertain the idea that she wa – "
"Feel free to check her pulse, Dr. Takasu," the Director spoke as he stepped up to the patient's bed.
"She had fainted prior to being interrogated and being in the room when it happened, I could only do the minimum. Any form of chakra infusion should be avoided at this time until we find a way that wouldn't be a hazard to the donor. Which is why, "Lady Tsunade turned to Kumori, "Doctor, you'll take over the case and find out whatever we can about this person."
"A room has been assigned that will keep her away from the other patients as a precaution," the Director added as he turned to the nurse in the room, "begin the process of moving the patient to Ward A."
"For the time being and until we get a full report, the interrogation should wait," Tsunade informed Ibiki and with a slight nod, the Commander left the room.
While Kumori very much appreciated the confidence Lady Tsunade had of him in solving what should be an impossible case, he could not help but feel left out with the others taking charge of the situation. Clearing his throat, he stepped opposite from where the nurse was adjusting the side rails of the bed the patient laid on. "I believe it'll be best to diagnose what's physically ailing her before moving her to the room as we are here."
"A case of severe dehydration with physical exhaustion is what I had diagnosed prior to having her moved here," Tsunade stated as she stood at the foot of the patient's bed. "An IV fluid therapy should do the trick for that part," she then held out to him a piece of paper. "This is all what we have and know about the girl."
Kumori took the paper before he turned to the nurse and nodded, which she took as a go-ahead and started prepping for the IV insertion. "So it should be a matter of hours before she awakens," he observed.
"Until then, use the hospital at your disposal and gather whatever finding you have of the girl. I expect a report soon after." Tsunade ordered. "Director, please follow me."
Readjusting his glasses once again, Kumori turned to the patient at hand.
"How is it," he muttered under his breath, "that a human is alive without the life force that is needed to live?"
It had never been a normal case to begin with, Kumori thought to himself as he looked over the wall clock that hangs above the entrance to the room. Lady Tsunade would soon be arriving, perhaps along with a member of T&I though that would not be much help.
It had been close to a week since he was given the case, and since then the girl remained in what he and his colleague agreed to be in a state of deep unconsciousness, also known as a coma. Which they also had come to agree was a result of what was taking place in her system and not from the physical ailment itself. So while it had been fairly easy – with the help of Lady Tsunade, of course – to treat her physical ailment, finding the source of her lack of chakra was something else. Noting the report he was given by the Hokage, they did not want a repeat of Sakura Haruno's experience. So he turned to the one person he knew would be able to break the code, or at least see what was going with the girl's lack of a chakra system. Both a good friend and colleague, Daisuke Hyūga also wielded the Byakugan. With it, Kumori and Daisuke had made some startling discoveries worthy enough for Lady Tsunade's attention.
As the room was the only one in the floor that was occupied, he was – at the moment – the only authorized personnel in the room, he had not bothered closing the door. So once he heard more than just footsteps that were walking down the lit hall, he knew they were on their way. He readjusted his glasses as he scanned down the report he prepared for this meeting.
"Afternoon, Dr. Takasu," Tsunade greeted as she entered the room, followed by the Director himself and Daisuke. "Hopefully your report will shine a light into this strange case, which I gather you have."
Kumori nodded before greeting the three people who stood before him. "With the help of my colleague, Daisuke Hyūga, we have made some startling discoveries about the patient's situation. This also had shed a light on the event Sakura had experienced when she attempted a chakra transfusion." Other than Daisuke who already knew of the report, Tsunade and the Director were attentive.
"As is common knowledge that a chakra system takes form during the gestational period; like the blood circulatory system it mimics, the chakra pathways and core are present with little to nothing at all running through the system. Of course, this all changes once the child is born as a weak amount of chakra running through can be sensed at the moment of their birth. This had led us to believe, prior to Sakura's transfusion attempt, the patient had absolutely – as impossible as it sounds – an empty system, core and all."
"That is highly impossible!" The Director exclaimed, shooting a sharp glance at the unconscious girl behind Kumori. "You're telling us she's been living for, what – sixteen, seventeen years on this earth without any chakra?! At best, we expected some kind of seal that prevented her chakra signature to be detected if she wasn't doing it on her own." He looked utterly confused, "no one can survive without chakra."
"We believe her to be eighteen of age according to our research," Kumori added, knowing full-well the emotion the Director had gone through, especially with what he was about to say next. "We believe, Daisuke and I, that she somehow had been living with an empty core for the last eighteen years of her life."
"What do you mean by 'last'?" Tsunade finally uttered, her expression as stoic as ever.
"Once chakra was introduced into her system via Sakura's brief chakra transfusion," Daisuke answered, everyone's eyes now turned onto the Hyūga, "that it somehow unlocked – even awakened – her chakra core."
"So you're telling me – despite her biological age – she has the system of a newborn at the moment?"
"Not quite, Hokage-sama," Daisuke answered. "She has the core of a fully grown adult. The first day when Doctor Takasu requested my help, there was nothing within her core that I could see. The following afternoon, there was a flicker of chakra within. Since then, for the last six days, we had routinely been checking her core and found that it's slowly filling up yet the core itself is growing as if she were a newborn."
Clearing his throat, Kumori added, "it is known that chakra cores grow rapidly for the first year to two years of a child's life. In her case, even though her chakra core is as large and fully developed as that of a grown adult, her core will be growing at the rate of a child's."
"So within a year, her chakra levels could very likely go beyond that of a normal human," Tsunade concluded out loud.
The room went quiet with the exception of the soft beeping sound that emitted from the machine that monitored the patient's vitals.
"If she's the result of a human experiment, would she not be a threat then?" The Director spoke, breaking the dead silence that laid over them. "A human time bomb, of sorts?"
"Her chakra levels are way low to be any sort of threat at the moment," Kumori stated. "While her core is large, she barely has any chakra. In a normal situation, it could very well fill up were she to be trained or even on it's own – "
"That's impossible," Tsunade said sharply, "other than the tailed beasts, it's unheard of a human naturally wielding such chakra reserves without any training."
Kumori nodded his head in acknowledgment, "I agree but we are not too sure of what we're dealing with as all this should be impossible to begin with."
"What would you like us to do with her, Hokage-sama?" The Director asked, turning to the pensive person beside him.
"She's been in this unconscious state for nearly a week, likely caused by her own chakra system," Tsunade started as she stared at the girl pensively. "We still have no idea of her origin or who she really is. So any form of interrogation should have to wait until she awakens. For now we should continue with the monitor seals and only authorized personnel should have contact. The case should be under your care, Doctor Takasu and Hyūga."
"Yes, Hokage-sama,"
Thank you for reading!
