Chapter 24
"Ye… what did ye say?", the old woman gaped at her in astonishment, "Ye… ye can fix this?"
Confidently, Raiju nodded.
"I just need to set up a few things, we need a sterile environment, so it doesn't get infected. Does the clinic have a surgery room?"
The old woman blinked rapidly, still floundering and uncertain if she could allow herself to feel hope.
"That… they only have one where they perform C-sections, as far as I know."
"That could work… if they could let me use it… but then… no, I can't allow any of them to try to meddle with the procedure. Instead, we'll set up something makeshift in the dojo. Is it alright if I ask you to prepare several things? The risk of infection later on will be slightly higher than it'd be if we use a true surgery room, but if that indeed happens, it's something the clinic can deal with since the poison will be gone. What do you think?"
As Raiju continued on, the old Martial Artist's expression grew more and more hopeful. From her expression and body language as well as her assured tone of voice, the young woman truly believed she could remove this cursed poison.
"Ye…", she had to scramble for words for a moment, "Thank ye. Jus' shoo those no-good pup'ls of mine 'round till ye're ready. I… do I need ta do anythin'?"
"Yes. Once the room is nearly ready, please take a thorough bath with a fresh towel. Afterward, do it again, but keep the wound covered. Don't get dressed once u r done, only wrap yourself in another fresh towel and come to the sterile room."
The old lady smiled and nodded. She could do that.
"Now then, le's ge' those kids o' mine movin'", she chirped.
"Which room can we use?", Raiju shook her head and asked, already mentally going through everything she'd need, "The walls and floor need to be as smooth and impervious as possible. We need to decide that first before I'll know what I need."
Later, she'd need to come up with some kind of mobile setup of an acceptable environment, if she was going to be useful on the move.
Even if they got a ship, she doubted she could always afford the luxury of hurrying back there for procedures.
"3 o' 'em could fi'", the old master said after contemplating for a minute, "A'll show ye and ye decide if 'ey're any good"
"That sounds perfect, let's go!"
The first room she was led to was a recently renovated Dojo room with smooth walls. The walls were actually suitable, but the floor…
Raiju shook her head, "Wooden floors aren't suitable, all kinds of contaminants could hide in it that we can't get out."
The next one had a suitable floor but there were slight cracks in the smooth walls. While those could be covered up provisionally, she'd prefer not do have to do that if the last room was any better.
It wasn't.
The second one it was.
When the door to the hall opened, the grumbles and clamor inside became silent at once and all eyes quickly fixed on them as they returned. Even the statue known as Itachi finally opened his eyes again to welcome them back, looking at Raiju in question.
"Tha swee'hear' can fix I'", the old lady announced, "will need a few things though. Ye all lis'n to her 'ill this is over, go' i'?"
""YES!"", the pupils immediately chorused in relief. She could fix it! That was great! They'd tried getting anything else out of the stoic Uchiha but had been ignored instead, leaving them feeling incredibly anxious. The good news was thus very welcome.
They stood at attention and kept staring fixedly the young woman.
"For now, I'll only need you to go buy a few things. You yourself would know best how many of you you'll need and where to get this. Make sure everything is packed sterilely.", she instructed as she quickly jotted down a few necessary items. Plastic sheets for the walls and ceiling, scrubs and surgery masks, hairnets, rubber gloves, disinfectant, several different cleaning solutions, new buckets and clean rags, new towels, and many more.
She hoped they'd find everything. Tweezers, scissors, a needle holder, needles, as well as several forceps and scalpels were the things she'd need to get herself through, since one needed to know too much about them to get the correct ones. Plus, these items she could take with her later, so she didn't mind spending her own money on them.
If there were good quality supplies, she could also get a few other things, as well as a maintenance kit for her tools.
"Itachi, will you assist me later?", Raiju quietly asked as the disciples were crowing around Zed, who was looking over her shopping list.
He stared at her for a moment before tilting his head in question.
"I'll need someone to hold the wound open and clean off blood and pus. Plus, if you could use your diagnostic technique to make sure I got it all that'd be great."
He then nodded. "I can kickstart the healing process if she's asleep."
"That'd be amazing. Thank you."
She graced him with a bright smile, before turning back to the bickering crowd of disciples behind them.
"Hey, Zed!", she called lightly, "Are there any places I could get scalpels and other supplies like that?"
"Ah, sorry. No idea. Your best bet is probably old Jason's over at the south market. He's got acupuncture needles and small weaponry so... I also know some of the nurses go to his place sometimes."
"We'll go there then, thanks!"
He nodded absentmindedly and just turned back to the list in his hands, quietly discussing with the others where to possibly get some of these.
With a fond shake of her head and after sharing a secretive smile with the man's mother, who had once more taken her customary place at the head of the hall on a comfortable cushion, Itachi and her then left.
"Do you know the place?", she asked.
He merely nodded.
"He has scalpels and scissors. Will need another place for the rest."
"Great!"
"Hn. We take the roofs."
"Eh?"
A lot of the Martial Artists here liked to take shortcuts over the roofs, there were even whole walkways up there. It was like… roof hopping on easy mode. Since nobody here used chakra, this was how they compensated, apparently.
"You know how in theory, now put it into practice."
"Ah… alright then", she said, kind of nervously, eying the wall he was gesturing to with only a little uneasiness. She trusted him. If she messed up, he'd catch her.
They had been training already today, so she merely stretched a little to get ready, before taking a running leap and easily clambering up the Dojo building.
Once on top, she stopped, her eyes scanning in the direction they needed to go, trying to find the best possible route to take.
There!
She kicked off once more, building up momentum before leaping across the street, moving in a zigzag pattern closer to the city center.
This was truly quicker than taking the normal roads. On one hand one had to run nearly constantly to be able to move properly up here, and on the other, the design of the roads was convoluted and not very well planned out, which lead to one having to backtrack or take detours a lot.
She could see why everyone liked it so much. There was a certain sense of freedom in moving and leaping above and over the people below, who were unaware of your presence.
Slowly, Raiju relaxed a little, becoming more confident and sure in her actions. She smiled. Yes, she could get used to this, she mused as she used an arm to support her hop over a chimney and continued on, not breaking her stride.
Itachi looked on proudly as he easily kept pace with her.
She was doing great, even more so for her first time. Then again, she didn't make the mistakes beginners sometimes did, like… looking down. She was by no means a pro yet and still made altogether too much noise, but he could fix that over time.
After only 10 minutes, as opposed to the 45 min they would've taken to walk casually, they lightly hopped down from a low hanging roof and entered the market area, not even getting as much as a second glance.
By now, the populace was used to people dropping from roofs at random, as well as the presence of the pair, though they did gather some glances after a while, when people who were interested in a challenge noticed them.
Itachi casually led her to the shop Zed had talked about, Jason's Pointy Objects. Well, someone had a bit of an eccentric naming sense, it seemed. Not that she minded, it gave the place character at least.
The door was left open, held by a door stop in the form of a dog to let in some fresh air.
Thus, they simply entered.
An old hunchbacked man was reading a newspaper behind the counter but looked up as soon as they crossed the threshold onto the floor. He was bald and quite pale, causing the battle scars over his scalp to show prominently, speaking of the hardships he'd once endured.
Itachi and Raiju bowed politely in greeting, signaling they weren't here for a challenge or anything.
The elderly man with his medium-long white beard and almost longer eyebrows, most likely Jason himself, placed the newspaper down on the counter and nodded at them, a neutral expression on his face.
"Welcome. What can old Jason's do for you today?"
Itachi merely nodded at the man, motioning that he wasn't looking for anything in particular and would just browse the shop.
Instead, Raiju stepped forward towards the counter.
"Old Jason, good morning. I'm a traveling doctor and need some new supplies, especially proper scalpels, and scissors. Could you set me up with something?", she smiled warmly at the searching look the request was met with.
"I don't sell to those incapable of wielding my instruments properly.", he finally said, before reaching below the counter, where apparently a refrigerator had been installed, and pulled out a raw chicken leg. Next, he took out a single pair of scissors and one scalpel.
"Using these and whatever else you need, separate all the meat from the tendons, cartridges, and bones. If you can do it properly, I'll sell what you need."
Raiju blinked at the simple request and nodded. She wasn't angry at the demand, after all, it was weird if he casually sold surgical tools to just anyone.
"Then, would you happen to have some soap, gloves, a basin with water and a tray I may use?"
"Hm", he nodded and left to get those things for her. It didn't take him long.
"I trust these are clean already?"
At his nod, Raiju thoroughly washed her hands, put on the gloves, and got to work without further ado. The challenge she was faced with could be quite tricky to a newbie to the field, but she had actually used exercises like these a lot to train her precision and the dexterity of her fingers. It didn't hurt that the end result made for ideal ingredients for a good meal either.
Since he hadn't said anything about the skin, she chose to carefully cut it off first and place it to the side. She'd use the scissors at the very end to remove any leftover quill pieces.
Carefully, she separated each muscle from the bone by hand and then used the scalpel to completely separate them, as well as cut out the tendons and placed those in the far corner of the tray. It didn't even take her 5 minutes to complete her task. The bones and cartridges were even still undisturbed, despite the fact there wasn't a shred of meat left on them.
The meat itself was properly separated into three pieces, she hadn't needed to cut them smaller at all and the skin was placed to the side properly.
Satisfied with her work, she placed the instruments on the tray as well and removed her gloves.
"I've finished. Would you like me to clean them while you decide?", she asked, motioning to the tools she'd used."
"No, I'll do it myself", the old shopkeeper grumbled and once more put his newspaper down to inspect her work.
He hummed in satisfaction as he saw the clean cuts and had turned the bones this way and that.
"How many cuts did you use?"
"3. 4 if you count the one to cut off the skin."
"Hoo? Pretty good."
He nodded.
"Very well. I'm satisfied. Why don't you come around to the back? Not many people are interested in my medical stock, so I don't display them out front."
"Sure! Thank you. Can Itachi stay here or…? Oh, also, do you also happen to have some throwing knives? And a kit to properly take care of everything?", she asked excitedly.
"The boy can stay. My daughter will replace me at the front. I can show you how to care for them and sell you a kit, yes. As for knives, I have them, but you'll need to show me how accurate you are with them…"
The two soon vanished in the back, with Raiju chattering excitedly. She apparently felt a kind of chemistry with the slightly gruff old Jason.
"That's everything I've got.", he concluded the explanations of his wares.
"That's amazing already! Too bad though… I had hoped to get a full set of tweezers as well."
"Hm. Nobody on the Island sells the whole set, you'll only find the basics. You're a traveler, right? In that case, I can recommend dropping by Torino Kingdom. They'll have nearly everything you need. I get my supplies from there. The rest can be custom-made. I'll throw in a recommendation for the manufacturer since you're purchasing so much."
"Oh, that would be amazing. Thank you so much! I wanted to drop by there soon anyhow", she said, subconsciously rubbing her stomach.
The old warrior caught the gesture, correctly interpreting it for what it was. His gaze visibly softened.
"Then, let me wrap everything up for you. I'll give you this transport case, wouldn't want anything to get damaged before being used once."
"Thank you, Jason. Here, let me help…"
A few moments later, they emerged from the back, Raiju having insisted on carrying the case herself. She dutifully placed it beside the counter and took out her purse.
"I'm really grateful. Thanks again, Jason. How much will everything be in total?"
"Hmm. We'll make it an even Million, missy."
"Isn't that too little?", she asked, honestly confused even as she took out the appropriate amount of Belly. They'd recently sold some of the precious gems Itachi had brought with him and he'd given her the funds out of them for expenses related to her profession. Since it was less than what she'd anticipated, she, of course, wouldn't complain.
"I got them a little cheaper than that, so it's fine."
"Then I'm relieved."
She smiled as he quickly counted the notes and nodded in satisfaction.
"Then that's that, I believe. It was great meeting you, Jason. I'll be sure to relay your regards to the Master."
"Thank you for your patronage. Take care, little doctor."
"I will! Please stay safe yourself, too."
With one last bow and a polite nod, Raiju carried the case once again and turned around towards the shop's interior.
"Itachi?"
Wordlessly, the ninja walked out behind a nearby shelf, bowing courteously to the old proprietor. He hadn't found anything to purchase himself. Thus, they made their way outside, him tilting his head ever so slightly.
"Yes, I got nearly everything. We won't need to visit the other place after all. Apparently, the closest place to get the rest would be Torino…"
Raiju's voice soon cut off as they gained more distance from the little store and the hustle of the city overwhelmed the sound of her voice.
A gentle smile spread over the old man's face as he watched the siblings disappear.
"For you to show that kind of expression, she must be a good seedling, huh.", the voice of his daughter caused him to look away from the place they had disappeared from and turn towards her. She herself was already considered middle-aged, her face riddled with signs of age that slowly started to cause her beauty to fade. Only the pink color of her hair, clipped back with simple black clasps, still remained completely unchanged. Her skin was still as pale as ever if showing some age spots here and there. Her lips were naturally dark and her nose was stubby. the crease connecting the two spotted a similarly dark color. Those were all things she'd inherited from his late wife.
She did have his egg-shaped face and black eyes though, as well as his eyebrows, even though hers didn't grow as long as his own, thank Kami.
"Yamanbako", he acknowledged, smile still in place, "I really believe so. In fact, so is the other one. That kid is scary", he admitted before laughing out loud. She nodded in agreement. She'd kept an eye on the guy while he had been busy in the back. Despite the fact she was among the best freelance assassins, she couldn't read him at all, only able to tell what he was projecting was, in fact, an act.
"I'll have to warn that guy about them. After all, I did send those two his way."
"You sent them over to Coco's?"
"Yea, even though your husband is quite strong, he can be… overconfident. I should let him know."
"No no, I'll do it. I was going to call him today anyhow."
"Then, please do."