"Uh- Ino! Hi…"
Ino turned around and was very surprised to see Kiba standing behind her, at the hospital door. He was scratching the back of his neck, which Ino knew he did when he was uncomfortable.
"Um... I think- I am supposed to check in…"
Kiba, of all people. She knew that he especially would never come here to check in by himself. The fact that he was here meant that he either very profoundly hurt - a realization which should probably make her worry - or that some higher power forced him to come, one which Kiba feared sufficiently to actually obey such an order.
Well, she was a medic. She was going to find out.
"Kiba! Of course, what do you need?" she smiled innocently, slowly scanning him from his head down to his feet.
"I- I don't really need anything per se-" Kiba started replying, and turned around as if he was contemplating whether just running away might still be a plausible option. A small nudge from Akamaru with his nose to Kiba's side persuaded him otherwise and made him turn back to Ino.
"- a-actually… mum insisted that I come. I feel a bit off."
There is the higher power, Ino laughed internally. Hokage could be the most powerful ninja in the village on paper, Naruto the most powerful ninja in practice, but if you asked the ninja in the village who they found the most terrifying, many of them would answer Tsume Inuzuka. Ino felt a certain level of compassion towards her former classmate, realizing how it must have been being this woman's son.
"Of course! Come with me." she offered back, before the dog-nin could change his mind.
In any case, Tsume has probably made the right call. Ino recalled how poorly Kiba looked the couple of times she met him during the last few weeks when he came back from his mission for a day to restock, and now he looked even worse. Granted, they have all looked terrible since the war, but people were supposed to get better over time, at least a little. His cheeks were sunken, the color was gone from his face and he looked minutes away from passing out. And if someone like Tsume forced him to come, who she knew would oftentimes train him to the point of him bleeding all over without any regrets, it must have been somewhat justified.
She led him to one of the empty rooms and let him sit down on the bed.
"So tell me, are you injured? Anything bleeding or broken? Or poisoned again?" she tried to keep the mood light.
"No, nothing serious. I am just a bit... I-" and in his expression, Ino saw the exact moment when Kiba decided to let go of his ego. "I- I feel like shit. I might pass out at any moment, sorry." Whether it was wisdom or exhaustion that made him admit to that, she could not tell. Well, this was Kiba. So, probably the exhaustion.
"Just lie down, it will be okay." Ino offered instinctively and found herself surprised by her polite reaction. Kiba could sometimes (well, oftentimes) make her blood boil with how directly and sharply he would say things and she would not usually hold back when it came to taking revenge on him for that whenever possible, but seeing him this vulnerable made Ino's inner medic soften her up. She could tease him and be mean to him later, when he was okay enough to fully appreciate it.
One hand against his forehead was enough for her to know that indeed not everything was okay. She closed her eyes and outstretched her other hand making it hover over his chest, intending to focus on sensing his chakra to see what specifically was wrong.
Had his chakra flow been merely weakened, some sleep and rest would have been enough. That was not the case however. The flow of his chakra was not even that weak; it seemed really distorted. She had never seen anything like this before - at least not in an otherwise healthy ninja who has not just come back from a bloody fight with nearly-mortal injuries.
"When did you start feeling like this?"
"Like shit? Oh, already a few days into the mission. That was what… three weeks ago? Just until now it has never really made me feel like I was going to pass out."
She swallowed despite her throat being dry. She would need help figuring this out, she knew that much. And seeing that she would almost certainly need to admit Kiba for more than just a few hours, she could use the excuse of having to go retrieve his file to be able to consult the situation with someone else.
"Undress, I will be back in a bit" she said as she left Kiba to his privacy.
Ino stormed to the common medical room, opening the shelf with the patient files with a bit more strength than what was needed, attracting the attention of Sakura and a few other medics. She was full of adrenaline, but that was normal - it was a natural reaction for her anytime she dealt with some kind of a weird condition for the first time. Well, maybe it was not that normal - maybe she would not be in this state had she slept and rested properly like the other medics in the last few weeks - but this issue could wait for later, couldn't it? She felt a rush of relief when all of a sudden, Tsunade entered the room.
"Tsunade-sama! May I have a word with you?"
"Certainly. But Ino, isn't your shift long over?"
"Yes, but it doesn't matter now."
Ino saw Tsunade's expression harden but she figured they could discuss this later, given the circumstances. Tsunade was apparently also willing to let that slide for now.
"I just admitted Kiba. He came from the retrieval mission."
"Oh, I know, I just debriefed the captain regarding that - but he did not mention any irregularities or problems beyond exhaustion in his team. Is Kiba injured?"
"Well… injured? Nah, I guess not, but there is something very off about his chakra flow. And well, he does not look good. I am not quite sure…"
"Just show me, Ino" Tsunade said and smiled, which had an instant calming effect on Ino. Sometimes, Tsunade indeed forgot that they were all just teenagers; it was alright that they did not have answers to everything, and it was nice to know that they still had someone around them who could help out.
Ino took Tsunade to Kiba's room, with Sakura following them behind, eager to learn about the case.
"It is just so odd to see someone otherwise healthy with such a completely disrupted- " Ino started to explain, but she never finished the sentence as they opened the door to Kiba's room and were left speechless.
Both Akamaru and his master were sleeping peacefully. But before falling asleep, Kiba did apparently have enough time to undress as Ino ordered him - and the results shocked them all.
"You called him 'otherwise healthy'"? Tsunade threw a questioning look at Ino.
"I- I had no idea…" and she indeed had none. Kiba's jacket did more than Ino originally realized.
"Is… is this a result of some kind of a jutsu?" Sakura offered. "Like what Choji does?"
"No, I don't think that's it." Tsunade replied and sighed. "I am actually not surprised that this is a problem, just that this was not discovered earlier." she said as she made her way to the patient to sit down next to him, looking him up and down. She obviously knew what happened; Ino wanted to know just as much.
"What do you mean?"
"Ninjas with such skills and senses do sometimes end up having these kinds of problems. For example the Hyuugas suffering from very detailed traumatic visions from their past missions, or the chakra sensors feeling crippled around other too many people after heavy missions because of a sensory overload. In the case of Inuzukas, I have already seen them in the past struggle with eating because of their smell."
Ino's eyes widened. She knew exactly what Tsunade was talking about, even though most likely, Tsunade did not know just how much it concerned Ino right now as well. At least now it felt a bit less alien to her, though she could never imagine that she could relate to Kiba in something like this.
"You mean that he did this … to himself?" Sakura asked.
Tsunade laughed though it felt forced and well, inappropriate. "Well, I know that it was probably not his preference. I might have put too much pressure on his clan. But it made sense - compared to the Hyuugas or Aburames, they need the least chakra for searching. I should have known that he would push himself too much."
"But… how? How would he still have the energy to carry out his job, in this state?"
"That's how I think the chakra disruption happened. He must have used some energy boost if he was avoiding food so much. And if we want to make sure that his metabolism recuperates, we should find out what that was."
Ino paled. She recalled it was her advising Kiba to ask Choji for the soldier pills since he complained to her that he was tired already before the mission started. That he would abuse them so much she would never expect. That idiot seemed to have no sense of self preservation and now she had to feel bad about it.
"I- I think these were the Akimichi pills…"
Two heads turned to her.
"You know about it, Ino?"
"Yeah, I just remembered now, I did tell Kiba about them actually, a few weeks ago. He was complaining at some point that he was tired with this mission still ahead of him. But had I known- "
"Don't blame yourself for it, Ino. But if that is the case, we are fairly lucky that it has not gotten nastier."
Ino just realized, despite being on a team with Choji, she knew surprisingly - and embarrassingly - little about these pills. She just kept staring at Tsunade, and her medical sensei correctly interpreted it as that she should continue with the explanation.
"These pills are designed for the Akimichi metabolism. They can utilize them efficiently and avoid side-effects because their body fat can absorb whatever remains from these pills in their system after the fight. This would obviously not apply to Kiba, especially not in this state."
"So, what do we do?"
"I think the first step would be to find out how much of it is still in his blood. We can ask the Akimichi if they have any advice on how to help the absorption, but otherwise we will just have to wait it out and support his body in the meantime."
"I can do the blood work?" Sakura offered. At first, Ino was surprised that Sakura was volunteering since her shift was also ending soon. Ino had, from her own perspective, very good reasons to stay in work after her shift and did her best to avoid moments of peace and rest beyond what was absolutely necessary - but that was not the case for Sakura. Sakura came out of this war with one person close to her more - which was the opposite to what happened to most of them, Ino included, and Ino couldn't help but feel a bit jealous about it.
At the same time, Sakura was a medic and this was a curious case affecting someone she knew well. The first days after the war, the hospital was filled with chaos and death. Most medics were actually still in the process of dealing with everything that happened during that period as many times, they could have not saved people simply because they were too busy or too tired. To a medic, having to decide who to save and who to let die feels like a punch in the stomach.
But then, things calmed down. Most people in the village knew how strained the medics were, so they were not coming unless absolutely necessary. There were not many combat missions happening during a time like this anyway, so most of her daily work was dealing with injuries from everyday life or the lasting injuries from the war.
So when Kiba came in with something that none of them had seen before, it almost felt exciting, even though she would not call it like that aloud.
"And I can go to talk to Choji." Ino figured.
Tsunade nodded, but before replying, she looked down at the pile of white fluff still sleeping under the bed. "But I have more debriefing to do now and one of us should stay here at least until Akamaru wakes up. We still don't know what these pills might do and I do not want to risk it that his heart stops, and no one will be here to call for help."
"That won't be a problem." Ino jumped at the deep sudden voice that emerged from behind. Must the bug user always be so frightening?
"What the… Shino!" Sakura turned around, seeming to have been equally freaked out based on her reaction.
"I intended to stay here for a few hours anyway. Why? Because Kiba is my comrade. You may proceed with your tasks uninterrupted then."
"Shino, how did you even know…" Ino started, only to see some small flies in the room making their way back into Shino's sleeve. She shivered. "... nevermind, I actually don't want to know."
"Good, then!" Tsunade clasped her hands and her expression told Ino that she found it all way too amusing. "Let me know once you have anything so that we can formulate the treatment. I will be in my office. Shino, if anything starts to seem off, call me immediately." she said and left.
Sakura quickly drew some blood from Kiba's arm and both kunoichi swiftly departed the room, feeling just a bit uneasy about the Aburame staring them down the entire time. At one point, Ino contemplated telling the bug ninja to just go wait outside for a bit, but after noticing the insects flying around, she realized that even from outside, he would still be able to watch them just as much, so she dropped it. In the corridor, they bumped into Hinata.
"Sakura-chan! Ino-chan! I saw that Kiba-kun, Akamaru-kun and Shino-kun are inside?" she smiled, her Byakugan still activated.
Ino just rolled her eyes mentally because good lord, this freaking team. Walls, doors and windows are in place for a reason, you know.
"Yes, Hinata, you may go in, but we have not yet started with much treatment, we need more information. But we need someone to watch over Kiba anyway." Sakura explained.
"Though Shino seems to already be doing that job very thoroughly." Ino felt like adding.
Hinata scanned the two girls up and down, trying to make sense of Ino's slightly salty remark and giggled after the realization.
"I apologize, I know that Shino-kun can get a bit like that when he is worried. It's nothing personal."
That made Ino relax a bit. Despite Naruto's strength, Shikamaru's brain or the Hyuuga's mind-blowing chakra-stopping techniques, Shino was the one person she would never in her life want to fight from her ex-classmates.
Ino saw the young Hyuuga going to the room to join her slightly frightening teammate, after which Sakura and Ino parted ways as the latter decided to go to the Akimichi compound directly to get some answers.
"Well, I gave him three packs, so that's around sixty pills." Choji reflected, obviously slightly unsure about where this conversation was leading.
"Sixty pills?! Are you serious?!" Ino tried the pill once and she remembered how she felt afterwards. So, yeah, sixty?!
"Well, he was almost out of the first pack after the first week. So I just assumed that he had a big team."
Ino's expression remained frozen. This now really was a problem and for once, she thought that it was perhaps good how thorough Shino was at watching over his teammate right now.
"... I don't think he was providing them to his team, Choji."
"You- you mean to say…? You think…?" Choji only now seemed to have come to the realization and suddenly understood why Ino looked so panicked.
"From what we could tell, yes, it is likely that those things were all he was putting in himself for the majority of the mission."
"But they are meant for fighting, like one-in-a-time help when one is really exhausted! I did tell him that, I am sure I did-" no, no way Choji was going to feel guilty for any of this, it was enough that even she had a little bit of guilt in her for what this idiot did to himself.
"It's not your fault Choji. It's… no one's fault really." Ino really wanted to be angry at the dog-nin for all this mess, but she could not really make herself to be, now thinking about the situation more.
She remembered how she and her colleagues treated themselves during the midst of the crisis at the hospital right after the war ended - by basically not treating themselves at all - because they wanted to help as many people as much as possible. And well, to be honest with herself, she still was avoiding rest and sleep even though it was for different reasons. The crisis in the hospital only lasted a few days, so most of them got over it after a good meal and some good night's sleep.
In the case of Kiba's team, the situation was similar - they were retrieving people who were stuck, injured and dying, and any delay could mean yet another unnecessary death. But their mission was not just a few days long - it lasted several weeks, almost a month actually. Especially towards the end of it, they must have been mostly stuck with finding people way too late.
"It was a terrible mission but it had to be done, he was exhausted and desperate, people around were not observant enough and now we have to deal with the consequences." she let out in one breath.
Choji sighted and nodded, hopefully dropping some of the blame he felt.
"So, do you know what your clan does if you overdose on these pills? Do you have some home remedies?"
"I personally do not know that much, but my mother does. Come in!"
Disclaimer:
I do not own Naruto. Actually, I kinda started disliking Naruto since Shippuden started and especially after the end of the Pain arc because of how it turned into DBZ, but I fell in love with the side-characters. So I try to write the characters in a way how they could have looked had Kishimoto not neglected them completely, and I try to stay true to the original ninja world without basically nukes, Gods or aliens or whatever.