"Um… Aiko-san? Why are we here?" I asked, looking dumbly up at the hospital.
When I got home, Aiko grabbed my hand and literally hauled me along behind her as we left the Clan Compound. When she didn't answer any of my questions, I expected she was taking me to the genjutsu specialist she'd told me about. Instead, she'd brought me to the hospital.
"You told me before you wanted to learn the Mystic Palm Technique." Aiko said, pulling me towards the doors.
My eyes lit up. "Am I here to learn it?"
"No." Aiko firmly denied, making my shoulders droop. "I'm not going to take the time to teach it to you unless I'm sure that you're really interested in healing. Your time could be better spent on other pursuits if you aren't serious."
"So I'm here to show you I'm serious?"
Aiko smirked, looking down at me out of the corner of her eye. "Something like that. You've got some free time during your break. So you and I are gonna stop by here once a day and you're going to help the med nin with whatever they tell you to do. If they tell you to carry boxes, you carry boxes. If they tell you to clean up shit, you clean up shit. Healing is messy, disgusting work. If you show me that you're mature enough to do it, I'll train you to be a med nin."
I frowned thoughtfully. "Will I have to devote all of my time to learning to treat people?" I wanted to fight on the front lines, so being forced into the hospital was a deal breaker for me.
Aiko snorted. "I did, but I didn't have a fourth of the control you do at your age."
I scowled up at her. "But you said my control still needs work."
"It does. I didn't learn the Mystic Palm Technique until I was nineteen. I dedicated my life to healing my comrades, but I don't think you'll have to. You're quick to pick things up, brat. If you apply yourself, I see no reason why you can't learn to heal and to fight."
I pursed my lips, then nodded, determined. "I'll learn to do both." If I could fight and heal, I would be a greater asset. Additionally, the added knowledge of how the human body works would likely help me further down the line.
'The plan' I'd made when I first started at the Academy hit some major hiccups when I realized I wasn't great with Nature Transformations. Having a medical notch in my belt would help me adapt and open more options in the future.
Besides, My true aim from it was to not only to learn iryõ ninjutsu to heal myself or my comrades in the midst of battle but also to further refine my chakra control.
The better my chakra control, the more chakra that I would save using my clan techniques, genjutsus or ninjutsu.
It would mean that I would be able to fight for much longer during battles and it could be the difference between life and death.
And if I somehow managed to learn chakra control to the level of Tsunade, I might be able to punch mountains. Who does not want that level of strength?
"Glad to hear it, brat." Aiko said, walking up to the front desk. "Soko? This is him." Aiko said to the nin doing paperwork at the desk.
The dark-haired girl looked up and frowned at me, turning to look at Aiko. "Is this a joke?"
Aiko smirked. "Nope." She turned around, waving over her shoulder. "Good luck, brat!"
"You're not staying?" I called after her.
"You'll do great!" she said instead of answering, walking through the door.
The iryõ nin, Soko, was scowling at me. She stood up and motioned for me to follow her. "Come on."
We walked up a flight of stairs, weaving in between frantic med nin scurrying around the halls. We reached a door at the end of a hall and she opened it.
"You'll be in here. Do whatever they tell you to do." Soko said, leaving me behind as she walked back to the desk.
I walked into the room and nearly threw up in my mouth. There was a man on a gurney. His guts were opened up and three separate people were holding them inside him. I had no idea how the guy was still alive.
"You!" an official looking woman with short cut hair and her hands wrist-deep in the patient's stomach called out to me. "Grab that tube and bring it here!" she said, motioning with her head towards a clear plastic tube on the wall.
Well, I'd wanted to learn how to heal. Trial by fire it is.
I took my jacket off and retrieved the tube, settling in to do whatever I was told.
For the next four hours, I was shuffled from room to room. Some patients only had a fractured rib cage or were being treated for poison. The vast majority had clearly been hit with either a nasty jutsu or a weapon of some kind, with blackened flesh and severed arteries. I did end up losing my lunch halfway through. There was a woman who had just been brought in with half of her body melted. The smell was horrid.
When I didn't run away after throwing up, the med nin stopped referring to me as 'you' and actually asked my name. Apparently there were a lot of nin who talked a big game about healing until they saw how grotesque it was. By throwing up and coming back for more, I'd strangely earned some respect in the hospital.
What I did not expect was that they were okay with a less than ten year old child in the room where life saving surgeries were being performed.
When I asked, It was told to me that Lady Tsunade was working on patients since she was six.
"How'd it go?" Aiko asked as she picked me up. She'd come to walk home with me.
"I think I'm gonna have a little trouble sleeping tonight." I said honestly. I'd seen horror films and carnage in movies in my first life, but that was different from experiencing the aftermath of shinobi conflict with all five of my senses. Some of those scents were so thick in the air I swore I could taste them.
Aiko laid a hand on my shoulder comfortingly. "That will pass. Soko said you did good, and she's hard to impress. They're willing to have you back if you want to go."
"You're not going to tell me I should?" I said, looking up at her in surprise.
Aiko shook her head. "You have to be motivated to do this yourself. All me pushing you will accomplish is you growing to resent both healing and me. If that was too much for you, then don't go back. No one will think less of you for it."
"I want to go back." I said. Yes, it was sobering and haunting seeing the aftermath of shinobi combat, but I was going into shinobi combat. Learning how to put myself and my team back together was something I needed to do if I had the aptitude for it, and Aiko seemed to think I did.
Aiko smiled proudly. "Alright. I'll schedule some more time for you to work at the hospital with Soko. I'll make sure not to cut into your time with Misa."
I sighed at the grin she was shooting me. I still needed to deal with Misa's crush.
It could wait for later I supposed.
---------Author Notes--------
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