Naruto x Digimon

Alive - Team Minato's Digidestined

Chapter 021

Originally Written: Friday, January 27, 2023 449PM to 1133PM

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In the mornings, during the ninja academy and civilian academy hours, far into the afternoon, Rin studied practical work with Nonou. She pushed her to know even more about anatomy in detail further than the boot camp she was pushed through on her way to becoming Chuunin. She worked alongside Fara, and Naginata operating on patients. It was as though Nonou had somehow read her mind, even though Rin had given no indication of what she desired to learn.

In the evenings and the weekends, she studied with Kiisu. It was treated as lighter work, but studying the many scrolls and texts gathered around her stressed her mind just as much as the operations. She had to eat small, yet nourishing meals. Her schedule was too packed to allow for casual eating. In addition, Kiisu didn't allow food in what she dubbed his library. The texts and scrolls used large words and complex descriptions and diagrams that she first heard from Nonou. Many of them simply expanded on the basics of what was taught in the academy.

"Were these supposed to be taught in the academy, Kiisu-san?" It piqued her curiosity, so she asked while reading one evening.

Kiisu looked up from his own scroll he was reading. "That one you're reading, yes."

"But this isn't taught in the academy." She tucked some strands of brown hair behind her ear.

"Many of Lady Tsunade's contributions were added to the curriculum, within and outside the academy, however, there is still a large bias against it. There's no need to know how to heal from your wounds if you kill your opponent before they hurt you." Kiisu turned back to his scroll. "There's no need to spend all that time teaching someone how to heal if they die on the battlefield, or starve on a long term mission because they haven't mastered surviving in the wild. Teach ninjas to survive first."

"One would argue that it's balanced this way. Every Chuunin is taught basic medical skills. To reach Jounin, you need to be a chunin first. So there is technically a healer on every team. Two if there's a genin looking to specialize in the medical field on the team." He continued. "What really holds the medical field back on the shinobi side of things is the chakra control needed, not the information overload. I'm sure you noticed there's not many men in this field. Women just have it better in that regard."

Rin was glad she understood enough to learn medicine to this degree and had good enough chakra control to help her apply her knowledge to the medical field. Her skills were put to use, and for now, she was well protected within the walls of Konoha's hospital. Medics, civilian and shinobi, were used, but not well supported. The mindset of not needing to know how to heal if one was strong enough to not get hurt too badly was still strong, even after Tsunade's teachings. In addition, men just didn't want to be medics. They wanted to be strong, like the Hokage memorialized in stone and heralded in texts. Rin didn't understand it. The first Hokage was the best healer within Konoha and on the planet in his time.

She returned her focus to her studies. If she wasn't able to avoid being placed on the field, she hoped she was at least able to find some way to restore mobility to her teammate. She wasn't sure before, but Kirigakure opened her eyes. If she perished, Kakashi would need more than Gai, and Obito would need more than his grandmother. They would need each other. She needed to understand all the small things she missed from her time on the field.

Next to her, Kiisu rested his head in hands, sliding his fingers through his dark hair. He did that often, lately, but she wasn't sure why. When she asked, he responded by asking her not to ask, so she let it be. He raised his head, stood up and walked away. "Let me know if you've any questions. I'll be right back."

She watched him leave, but didn't think much of it. Until she realized he left all he was looking at opened on the table. He never did that. He hoarded and protected the things like Obito cherished his goggles. She glanced over to it. The handwriting on it didn't match the handwriting on the one she was reading. The one she was reading had small, but messy writing. The one Kiisu was reading had small, neat handwriting. Closer to the handwriting of the clan students she studied with in the academy. They always had pristine handwriting, even Nara. No surprise, since clan students had extra studies starting earlier than civilian students.

At the very bottom of the document was a stylistically drawn picture of a pig's face. Similar to the stylistic scarecrow pictures littered across the few things Kakashi had with Sakumo's handwriting on it.

"Why would you sign something with the drawing of a pig?" She murmured to herself. She read the complicated notes on the scroll. She didn't dare pull the scroll closer to her. Scrolls with sensitive information were frequently booby trapped in the most unpleasant of ways, and advanced medical treatments certainly counted as sensitive information.

"It's so…" Her mind swirled in confusion. She rubbed her eyes and looked away. 'Too above my level.' She returned to her own scroll and it's messy handwriting.

When Kiisu returned, Rin sat with the patience of a saint, a list of questions written in the notebook she was writing in. His eyes seemed locked on her, even as he cleaned up his workstation. She asked him questions and took notes when he answered. He sent her home to rest, clean up and to get dinner. Tomorrow started another grueling week with Fara, Naginata or Nonou throwing her into the metaphorical meat grinder.

. . . . .

A/N: If it looks like I'm having a hard time writing Rin, it's because I am. At this point in the series timeline, she's a metaphorical blank slate. Some people work well with that, and are able to flesh out characters in fanfiction with ease. I am not one of those skilled writers. I do manage to figure her out, just not this early on in the story. I'm adding in scenes outside of my original outline focusing on her so it doesn't seem like I'm solely focusing on either Kakashi or Obito.