Context: During Kichiro's first mission, he made a circuit: healing along every front as Konoha fought in the Second Shinobi World War. This is a Jōnin's encounters with Kichiro, staring in Iwa.


Senju Nobuyuki

The kid found me kneeling in the blood of my brother, holding his body in my arms. The battle had just finished, Konoha had won and Iwa had fled.

I was injured—it was a gut wound and too deep for the medics to waste chakra on. I'd heard about the boy. The 'Spirit of the Triage,' they called him. When I saw him, I assumed most of his reputation was false. He was too young, his expression too open and caring for him to be capable of bringing ninja back from the brink of death. I wasn't even sure he was a ninja, despite the Konoha hitai-ate on his forehead.

He crouched in front of me and held a hand glowing with medical ninjutsu to my brother's head. The stupid child looked ready to cry as he gently closed my baby brother's eyes. "Senju-san, are you injured?" He asked me. The stupid child was actually crying.

"Go home to your family, little boy. You shouldn't be here."

"Senju-san, are you injured?" He repeated.

I reached out and pushed him away, knocking him on his rear. "Go back to Konoha, kid, before you end up like us."

"Senju-san, I'm a medic from Konoha, I have orders to heal whomever I can." It was like he didn't even hear me. He didn't know who I was, he was too young to know.

I looked up at him. "Go away!" I screamed in his face. "Go home, child! My otouto died for you, I'm dying for you. I'm orphaning my children for you, please go home where it's safe!" Tears started dripping from my eyes. He tried to reach towards me, but I slapped his hand away. "Please, son, just go home."

The boy stood up and turned around to shout in a choked voice. "Hatake! I need help!"

A white-haired man appeared beside the boy. "Senju-sama!" He exclaimed.

"Take the boy home," I begged him. "Please, take the boy home. He shouldn't be here. My father swore he would never let another child see the war. Please, Hatake-san. Take the child home. Tell my daughter, tell Tsunade-chan—"

"He's going into shock, I need to get close to him," the boy said. "He's too strong for my usual seal to work."

"Seal?" I asked, confused. "You're only a child. Only—kami, you're him. You're the boy my mother died for!"

He flinched and reflexively recoiled, but I grabbed the front of his shirt and jerked him towards me with one hand, while laying my brother on the ground with the other.

"We should have brought you in, kami, you were never supposed to leave the village." I didn't notice Hatake behind me until it was too late. He put his hand on the back of my neck, then nothing.

(o_o)

When I woke up, I was back at the base, lying on a cot in the infirmary. At least, what used to be the infirmary. All the cots and mats were empty.

"Makoto!" I wailed. I was dead. My brother should be here.

The door burst open and it was the boy. He hurried towards me.

"No, no, not you too! I told you to go home!" I screamed at him. "It was a simple order!"

He stopped and flinched away from me as I stood up and grabbed the child's shoulder—Kichiro, his name was Kichiro—and shook him roughly.

"You were supposed to live!"

He was terrified of me. He was just a child, a Genin at best. It didn't matter who his sensei was, he was so small, he was almost as small as Nawaki.

"Kami, I left you there—"

"I-I'm not dead!" He insisted. "You're not dead either. I'm a medic, I fixed you! We're back at the base and you're hurting me, please let go."

Slowly, I let go of him.

"You're alive, I'm alive, I promise. Are you okay, Senju-sama? I'm a medic, I can help."

I glanced down at my stomach. There was a scar across my abdomen, but there was no pain. "You shouldn't be here. You should be in Konoha."

"I'm a ninja, Senju-sama, I go where I'm needed. Please, sit down so I can make sure you're okay."

I grabbed the shoulder of the boy's clothes, shaking him again. "Where is your sensei?" I demanded.

"He's out on patrol right now."

"Who is your team leader?"

"My sensei."

"What is your mission?"

"To heal everyone I can and replenish Konoha's ranks as much as possible."

"You're going home, now."

"Senju-sama, stop! You're not completely healed yet!" Kichiro protested.

"Damn it, boy, you're going back to Konoha if I have to drag you back."

"More like you'll drag me out of the building and then collapse," he muttered, not resisting as I dragged him out of the room. I ignored him, but even though he wasn't struggling, I barely made it out of the room before my legs gave out. "Senju-sama!" The boy cried as he lowered me to the ground. "You're going to be okay, I promise, you just overdid it a little too soon. Give me a few minutes and I'll have you fixed up."

"I just want to be with my brother," I told him.

"I'm sorry, Senju-sama, you can't leave us just yet. You have to take care of your children, Tsunade and Nawaki, right? That's what Sensei said. Think about them, I'm going to make sure you'll see them again."

I closed my eyes.

"Sakumo!" The boy screamed desperately.

There was a clatter and someone else appeared beside me. "Uzumaki, remember protocol, what's wrong?"

"I messed up, I messed up and I think I killed him!"

"You didn't mess up, Uzumaki, I told you, he's too far gone to be saved."

"I have to save him, he's still alive and I have to save him!" The child's voice was painfully shrill.

I forced my eyes open and reached up to touch his face. "It's alright, kid, let me go." I turned to the boy's sensei. "Make it quick."

"No!" The boy screamed as Hatake grasped his weapon. "Please, Sakumo, I can fix it!"

A quick death for a comrade was something all ninja respected, but there were a small number of ninja who couldn't kill a comrade, no matter how far gone they were. The boy was one. If pushed, Hatake probably could, but there was no danger. He wanted to believe his student.

The boy took the man's hesitation as permission. His cool hands pressed against my abdomen. "It's poison," he announced a few seconds later. "Anyone who touched the wound has been contaminated."

"You're the only one, Uzumaki," Hatake murmured.

"That's why I messed up, it warped my perception. I'm breaking down the compound now, the poison in me has already been neutralized."

"Are you sure?"

"The Kyuubi took care of it."

To my surprise, the boy managed what he promised. He 'fixed' whatever mistake he made. I was exhausted afterwards, the boy was as well, but he had a triumphant smile on his face when he looked up at his sensei proudly. The boy said a quick goodbye, didn't even let me return the sentiment, and was gone, like a spirit. I was sent back to Konoha the next day. I the next time I saw the boy, he was negotiating the end of the war, then he was gone —a restless kami working to right the wrongs of the war.