It was all an accident. She always did her best to stay away from shinobi, but she came across a group of injured shinobi near the foot of the mountains. There were three men and a woman.
Their headbands showed that they were from Kumo, and their dark skin and light hair also suggested so. Two of the men and the woman were mildly injured, but they were trying to help the other man, who was losing blood at a dangerous rate.
Shiori slowly approached them. She didn't walk, so they wouldn't assume she was trying to sneak on them. She also made sure to make enough noise while walking so they would hear her.
She technically didn't have a permit to treat Kumo shinobi. Still, her conscience wouldn't let her just pass by without offering her help. She got close enough that she was aware they could feel her presence. She saw it in the minuscule changes in their behavior. They were on guard.
"Excuse me?" Shiori said. The two men didn't even lift their heads, but the woman turned to glare at her.
"What do you want, brat? Can't you see that we are busy?" the woman yelled. From this close, she could see that the situation was worse than she initially thought.
"I'm a traveling medic. I can show you my documents. I don't have a permit to treat Kumo shinobi, but I can help, so I wanted to offer you my services." Shiori said as she deliberately reached for her bag and took out her permit scroll. She opened it, and after the woman checked it visually for a few seconds, she took it from her.
"What are you doing here, brat? There are no villages here," one of the guys asked her as the woman examined the documents.
"I'm going to the temple of ravens. My sensei told me she has a friend there, and he is going to assist me with a personal problem." Shiori said. There was no use in trying to hide the truth when it could trigger the shinobi if she was discovered.
After a few more seconds, the woman turned toward her companions. "The documents are legit. I say we give her a chance. If she tries something funny, we can take her," she said. Her companions nodded and moved a bit to the sides so she could get closer. Shiori put her bag down before moving closer.
She kneeled beside the man and activated her diagnostic jutsu. The man seemed to be bleeding from a kunai wound to his lung. He also had a few broken ribs and some minor wounds. Shiori said all of these out loud so they would know exactly what she was going to do.
She started with the damage to the lungs. She stopped the bleeding and removed the bone fragments, then she moved the broken ribs into the correct position. She then slowed the bleeding in other parts.
Once all the wounds were shallow enough, she returned to the lungs for more healing. "I'm almost done. In a few seconds, We need to move him to his side. I'm going to force the blood in his lungs out, so he needs to throw it up." Shiori said, and they moved the man to his side on her signal.
The unconscious man started coughing violently, and the blood and small fragments of bone came out of his mouth. He calmed down after a minute. "I'm almost done. his body can't take more healing, so I have to stitch and bandage his other wounds after disinfecting them." Shiori said as she pointed to her bag.
"No. Use our kit. We can't trust you," the woman said, and one of the men went to grab his medical kit. It wasn't out of the ordinary and made no difference to Shiori. Very well. I still need to wash and sanitize my hands before cleaning his wounds. Do you have your own water as well?" Shiori said. The woman nodded, and Shiori got up to go to the side of the clearing. She took a water canteen and opened the top.
Shiori held her hands and started pouring the water. She methodically washed her hands. The man finally came back and poured some alcohol on her hand to sanitize it.
They then went back to the injured man, who was now moved on top of a bedroll. Shiori took the small medical kit and took a second to see what she was working with.
She found a small bottle of disinfectant and some gauze to clean the wound. It wasn't the best supply, but it wasn't awful by any means. Ten minutes later, she was all done.
"He should be stable. I still suggest not moving him much for the next 24 hours. You can carefully get him somewhere safer, but be mindful of movements. After that, he should be safe for longer travels, but still check the state of his wounds and don't pressure him. His most immediate needs are some blood pills and medicine to combat inflammation. I have both, but I know you won't accept it. Do any of you also need me to look at their wounds before leaving?" Shiori said. They looked at each other for a few seconds. Shiori could see that they were using their secret sign language to communicate, so she busied herself cleaning up and checking on bandages. Her patient was on the younger side this time, probably between 16 and 20.
"No, that would be all. Thank you for all your help. Still, since you are aware of the situation, there is something we need to do. We hope that you forgive us," one of the men said. It was the first time one of the guys had spoken, and Shiori was instantly on guard.
"There's no need to get defensive. Keiichi here is going to tie you up and keep you here for the next 24 hours while we move away. He will then let you go. We can't move fast, as you said."
"We can't risk the chance of you working with the enemy and sending them after us, so nothing bad needs to happen. You just stay here, and it will all be fine. We don't like this any more than you, but you know how the shinobi business is," the woman said.
Shiori could fight, but with three of them and all the chakra she had used, it would be tricky, and if she got injured, it would mean the rest of her journey would become a lot more dangerous.
After a few more seconds of staring at each other, she complied. She held her hands up and to the side, a gesture that clearly showed she meant no harm.
"Ok. Now, take all your weapons out and put them in that bag. You can take them back tomorrow," she said as she threw a small sack at her. Shiori carefully removed her weapon pouch and hidden weapons and put them in the sack.
It wasn't much, but it was enough to show her shinobi training. Once she was done, she tied the sack and stepped back. The woman stepped forward and patted her down to make sure she had everything.
Of course, Shiori knew she could always use one of her hidden aces to fight, so she wasn't naïve enough to try to hide weapons from Edgy Jonin. Once she was done with the pat down, she took some rope and tied it securely. After checking all knots to make sure they were secure, she was lifted by her as if she weighed nothing.
She put Shiori next to a tree she could lean on since her range of motion was very limited. She then put a chakra suppression seal on her. Shiori didn't pay much attention to the hushed conversations they were having. She hated chakra suppression seals.
They always made her feel like she was about to burst from the inside. It was a feeling of being confined to your own body while also not being in control of that body. As medics, chakra control was detrimental to them. All medics needed perfect control of their chakra, but to grow beyond average, it was even more important to be in control of every drop of chakra you had and to also control how your own body used it.
This was achieved by controlling the chakra inside the body, moving it at will, and minimizing any waste. With chakra suppressions, she lost all control, both internal and external. She couldn't move the chakra to any part of her body and felt utterly cut out from the world around her.
There was a reason that Tobirama Senju banned the use of normal chakra suppressions on sensors. Being completely cut out from the world around felt like death to a sensor.
Shiori took deep breaths, calming herself down. She didn't have much training with such seals being applied to her since they could be harmful due to her age. She was shaking slightly, squeezing her eyes. She felt so chilly without her chakra moving inside her body and warming her.
Suddenly, she felt the weight of something being draped over her—a blanket. The woman was kneeling in front of her. "Look, kid. We are not happy about this either. You saved our teammate, after all. So listen. We won't drag this more than needed. Hell, we all owe you a favor if you ever take the exams for Kumo. Just bear with it for a little. Ok?" she said, securing the blanket around her.
Shiori really did understand. It was how things were in their world. So she nodded as she snuggled more into the blanket. It smelled like dust and a bit of sweat, but it gave her something to ground it on.
She barely noticed when the three left, and now she was alone with Keiichi. Luckily, he didn't bother her for the next few hours, opting to rest on the other side of the clearing but close enough to reach her if something happened.
He then told her that they needed to relocate to somewhere more secure for the night and hid their bags in the bushes before throwing her over his shoulder. It didn't take long for him to find a more suitable place. A little ditch hidden behind a fallen tree. He put her down in a comfortable position and, after setting some traps, went back to grab their stuff.
It didn't take long for him to come back and fully set them up for the night. He didn't have much food, only a few ration bars, so Shiori told him to grab some of the dried food from her bag.
Keiichi undid the ropes so she could eat and use the bathroom but made sure to tie her up again.
Shiori had a hard time falling asleep. Her body wouldn't warm up no matter what. The weather was not cold, so despite the blanket, she still felt awful. She passed out from exhaustion early in the morning.
It was similar to the previous meal. They just had to wait a bit longer.
When it was finally time to let her go, Keiichi did as promised. He undid the seal and ropes and left as fast as he could. He knew she would be disoriented for a few minutes, so she wouldn't be able to follow him.
Shiori was just glad it was over. It was time to continue her journey. But first, she needed to clean up and find an excellent place to rest since the most challenging part was coming up soon.
She never regretted helping people save lives. But if she ever saw those four, she was going to punch them. Of course, if they needed medical help, she would help them and then punch them for payback.