Chapter 14: Freedom of Thought

Ino was in a particularly testy mood this morning. Sakura had called in sick at the last minute before shift change with no explanation and she had been called in to work her shift.

"I swear, when I get my hands on her…"

Ino rapped her fingers on the counter as she sat in the nurse's station. At least it was a reasonably quiet day… aside from hypochondriac in room 307, complaining of everything under the sun from exotic diseases to common headaches. The woman frequently 'visited' the hospital at least once a week with some new ailment that had not been discovered on this side of the world yet. There was a small 'ding' that came from the monitor at the desk and the light for room 307 lit up. It was Ino's turn to go deal with her this time, but she really just wasn't in the mood to placate the woman. She looked over at the other nurses who were busy talking about who-knows-what.

"Cindy, would you mind taking care of this one please? I really don't feel like dealing with her today."

The nurse grumbled but nodded her head.

'Lazy bitch thinks she can order us all around when Dr. Sakura is out for a day. I can't believe she is power trippin' on us already. Lazy ass needs to get up and do it herself.'

A vein popped on Ino's forehead.

"What… was THAT?" Ino growled.

The other nurse froze mid-stride.

"I sorry Dr. Ino, but what do you mean?" the nurse nervously looked at Ino.

"I asked you what that was that you said." Ino ground out.

"But… but Dr. Yamanaka, I SWEAR, I didn't say anything." The nurse was now wide-eyed and panicking. 'How on earth… there is no way she could know what I was thinking. Maybe I mumbled it and didn't realize it? No, I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything.'

Ino glared at the girl for a second, and then waved dismissively, giving up on the argument.

"Whatever."

The young nurse visibly relaxed and turned to go check on the patient.

'Thank God, for a second I thought she could hear my thoughts.'

Ino visibly stiffened.

'No way… There is no way I heard what I think I just heard.'

Almost as if on cue, Ino heard the other women chime in.

'Oh my gosh, what is her problem?'

'She certainly is grumpy today…'

'Looks like someone needs to get laid.'

Ino was looking at the other women, mortified that they would so openly say something like that about her, WHILE she was right THERE. Immediately after the shock she realized something very important. The women's mouths were not moving with what they were saying. In fact… the room was disturbingly devoid of noise, save the beeping from the console.

Like a panic stricken animal cornered by its stalker, Ino bolted from the room and headed for the nearest restroom. She felt sick.

Ino spent most of the shift walking the hallways of her ward. She had no desire to be around people right now.

'There is no way that something like this can happen. There is no such thing as being able to read people's minds… right?'

She laughed at her musing as she realized that she was actually waiting on an answer to her question. She fumbled around in her pocket and felt something unfamiliar in it. She pulled out a hard plastic card and flipped it over. It was the driver's license that she had taken from that fire fighter's file a while ago. She was surprised that she still had it. She had meant to get in contact with this Naruto guy ever since the night he came into her ER passed out and injured. She wanted an explanation as to how he was able to heal so fast, not to mention the heroic feats that were claimed to be accomplished by him that night he saved Sakura from the fire. Ino's look of surprise turned to a small, devious grin.

'Well, if I'm a mind reader, then perhaps it's time I got some answers from the evasive Mr. Uzumaki.'

With her goal in mind she decided that as soon as her shift was over, she would start her next quest.

Finding Naruto.

But before that… she wanted to try something first.

She turned down the hallway and stopped at room 307. She reached for the door and hesitated for a bit before finally walking in.

The patient was lying in the bed, TV remote in hand, flipping through channels when Ino walked in. She quickly turned off the TV and rolled her head to the side, eliciting a groan as she placed a hand over her stomach.

"Dr. Yamanaka, please tell me it's nothing serious."

Ino gave her a blank look as she contemplated how she was going to do this. She placed a finger to her lips in thought. The patient waited in silence with a look of apprehension on her face as she waited for some form of reply or acknowledgement from the blonde doctor. Finally, Ino's eyes brightened.

'If this works…'

She grabbed the clipboard at the end of the bed and briefly scanned the pages. After a few minutes of perusal, she placed the clipboard back in its place and walked to the head of the bed to confront the 'sick' patient.

"Ms. Claire, it seems we need to do a few tests to try and confirm a suspicion. We will have to put you under for this test."

The woman's eyes widened at the obvious seriousness of the situation.

"Is it that serious?" the woman asked, panic lacing her query.

Ino fought to stifle a giggle. This was too easy.

"We don't know yet. These tests should provide us with the answers we need."

The woman, still visibly pale, only nodded her head.

"Whatever you think is best doctor."

Ino grabbed a vial and a syringe and proceeded to inject a clear liquid into the woman's IV bag. The effect was noticeable within minutes and the woman started to nod off. Ino checked her vitals to ensure she was still ok and was pleased to see the woman was fully unconscious. She made a mental note of the time the sedative was administered. 3:45pm.

'Ok, let's try something.'

Ino placed her hands on each side of the woman's head and closed her eyes. At first there was nothing. Then she suddenly found herself in a long hallway, doors lining each side and stretching as far as she could see. Each door, she noticed, had a small window with a small luminescence partially lighting it from the inside. Ino walked over to the first door on her right and peered into the window. Her eyes widened immediately.

'These are memories!'

She continued walking for what seemed like hours down the hall way, but no matter how far or fast she walked, it seemed like she could never reach the other end. It was nowhere in sight. She turned and looked back, but the hallway went on forever back in the direction from which she came.

'This is weird. God, I hope I don't get stuck in this place.'

A thought came to her mind and she decided to experiment with this strange ability she had. She closed her eyes again and thought about the woman's 'ailment'. She thought about how to make the woman forget about her silly fears of constantly being sick. When she opened her eyes she was at a single door. There were no other doors on the hallway anymore. This door however had no knob, and no window. She placed her hand on the door and immediately felt the fear, anxiety and hopelessness that this woman obviously felt from what she considered to be real ailments. Ino genuinely felt sorry for the woman. No one should have to live like this. She closed her eyes and focused on the feelings. She imagined feelings without fear and anxiety wrapping around and overlapping the current bad feelings. Once she was confident that she could no longer feel the negative feelings she opened her eyes. She was back in the hospital room, hands still on either side of the woman's head. Ino was covered with sweat. She looked at the clock. 3:46pm.

'What? I was in there for only a minute…. But it felt like hours to me.'

Ino dropped her hands to her side, still in shock of what happened and what she did. Suddenly, she felt panic stricken. What had she just done? She just invaded someone's mind. How was that even possible? It shouldn't be possible, but she had done it. Without another thought she turned and left the room as fast as she could without running.

Naruto lazily reclined in his chair at the station. It was late in the afternoon and he hadn't been on one single emergency call. He reached over to the arm of the adjacent couch and grabbed the TV remote, and then proceeded to change the stations one by one, not really settling on one or another. His mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Sakura and the long conversation they had. Never in his life had he trusted anyone other than he guys at the station. Hell, he was pretty sure he trusted her more than he trusted Kakashi… and he was like a father to him. He let his eyes slide closed, knowing it was close to dinner time, Naruto figured he would get a quick power-nap. He had just closed his eyes when the alarm went off in the station, signaling an emergency. The fire tone rang out and he didn't bother listening too much to the destination, instead just running to the pole. He slid down to the engine bay and quickly put on his gear and hopped on the truck as it started to pull out of the station. He turned around and leaned forward.

"Hey Cap', what do we have?"

Kakashi turned pulling his nomex hood over his head. "There is a fire down at the government building. Apparently there was an explosion." His eyes hardened. "Naruto, this is probably going to be a MCI1. Be prepared to pull casualties… remember… living wounded first. If they show no signs of life, move on till we are sure everyone is out."

It took them only minutes to arrive at the Government Plaza. As Naruto stepped off the truck, he looked up and saw that a large corner-portion of the building from floors 5 thru 8 was nothing more than a smoldering hole. Glass and debris were still falling away in large pieces. He and Kakashi cordoned off the area from the public and then headed up stairs to see who they could still help.

As the blonde disappeared into the main doorway, he was unaware that another set of eyes was watching him. From the crowd of onlookers, Sasuke Uchiha was watching as his handy work unfolded before him. This by far was the best one yet. He reveled in the screams and panic induced stupor of the people around him. All of this… because of him. He relished it. It brought him almost to a state of arousal. Nothing was more satisfying. He turned and walked away, pleased with his masterpiece.

Across town as set of beeps went off.

Sakura looked down at her smart phone.

The message read:

MASS INCIDENT.

GOVERNMENT PLAZA.

UNKNOWN CASUALTIES.

CALLING ALL AVAILABLE PERSONNEL TO RESPOND.

Sakura quickly pocketed her phone and grabbed her bag to head down to her car.

On another side of town Ino received the same message on her phone while driving home. She cursed her luck and turned her car around, heading back toward downtown.

Well, hopefully this chapter is a bit better than the last one I pushed out. I was kind of hasty to get CH 13 out since it had been a while since I updated. It was nowhere near the caliber of the original Ch 13 I had completed prior to my computer taking an epic dump on me. Anyhow… I know it seemed like Ino stepping into her power rather easily, but I assure you it's no coincidence. I will explain more in the next chapter why it was so easy for her and why it seemed like she just automatically knew what she was doing.

Also, here is the field definition of MCI for you non EMS peoples!

MCI1: Abbreviation for Mass Casualty Incident. In Emergency Medicine, this does not necessarily mean that there will be a lot of dead, only that there will be a large number of patients, wounded or otherwise.