Stepping Up Into The Medical World! (P)

“No, no, no. Hikari, your chakra needs to have more healing properties to it.” A stern voice called out to the snowy haired girl, who was currently practicing her Mystical Palm Technique on a fish, “Try it again and concentrate on wanting to save this life.”

The Hyuuga silently nodded her head, showing her teacher she understood and would try it once more. Hikari looked down at the slowly dying fish under her palms, its eyes staring into her own, as if staring directly into her soul and pleading with her to not let it die. Her own stare relayed the message to the fish that she was trying her hardest to save him, but it was her first time practicing this jutsu so of course it would take more than a few attempts to successfully perform it. Thus, she closed her eyes as she took a deep breath, calming any nerves she had and clearing her mind of everything except her want to save the fish’s life. Hikari concentrated her chakra into her hands, feeling the warmth from so much of her chakra in one area, and knew her hands were glowing from being enveloped in chakra.

Keeping her eyes closed she continued to think only of her desire to heal and save, and this time she could feel a change in her chakra. It felt alive, flowing through the fish’s body and speeding up it’s own healing process slightly. It took about ten minutes for her to feel her chakra begin to die off as the fish’s wounds healed, and at that time she opened her lilac eyes, turning to glance at her teacher.

No visible signs were evident on her face nor in her eyes as Hikari looked at Dr. Satomi, a woman with dark chocolate brown hair that was tied into a perfectly straight, tight bun atop her head and deep brown, almost black as her pupil, eyes hidden behind square framed glasses. The doctor was the same one that Hikari had aided a few days ago at the Konoha Hospital, lending Dr. Satomi her chakra so she could mend theirs together and use the Mystical Palm technique. After they had finished healing all of the attacked shinobi and the child, Hikari never expected the doctor to take her under her wing and train her in the art of medical ninjutsu.

That was how Hikari was training with Dr. Satomi on a warm summer day such as today, because the doctor had told her to come into the hospital and have a meeting with her, although at the time the young kunoichi did not know she would be training. She thought she was being thanked for helping out the other day, or even possibly being reprimanded for claiming to be a medical-nin without having any capabilities a real one would possess.

She was brought out of her reminiscing as the doctor finally spoke up, gesturing down at the patient on the table, “You may want to place him in water soon or he’ll die anyways.” An audible gasp escaped the girl’s mouth as she clumsily picked up the slimy fish in her hurry to save him, again, as she dumped him back into the fish tank he had been taken out of. They were in the hospital’s training room, filled with books to either side of the long walls and the middle contained several tanks of scarred fish that were beside white tables. “You began to understand the basics of this jutsu, but you have to control your chakra more efficiently to heal faster. That small gash on the fish should have taken about a minute or two, not ten. In battle, you will surely get your teammates and yourself killed if you take that long to both prepare yourself and heal them.”

It was a harsh scolding, but Hikari knew everything she said was completely accurate. A good medical-nin can heal people in two minutes tops, while a skilled and expert medical-nin can heal even faster than that, possibly even taking half a minute to heal large wounds.

“Yes, Dr. Satomi. I will practice this jutsu continuously until I become as excellent as you when you perform this jutsu.” Her words were laced with determination, and a fire shone through her eyes. Hikari vividly remembered the other day when Dr. Satomi calmly healed all of those patients, never taking a break when a patient was in the room to concentrate, always being well prepared and focused. Even today when Dr. Satomi showed her the technique, by first doing the ox and tiger hand signs, it took her mere seconds to flow her chakra through the fish’s body and rapidly increase its own healing properties. What amazed the young girl the most was that the doctor never had to take much time to prepare herself or focus to concentrate, she did it naturally every time she saw an injury. Hikari hoped to be as amazing of a medical-nin as Dr. Satomi one day, and even wanting to pass her, becoming even better than she (and her late mother).

Her enthusiasm brought a small smile to the doctor’s face, “I’ll believe it when I see, Hikari. Now, I want you to practice this again, doing however you feel like doing it, but afterwards I want you to practice with your eyes open and no time to focus.” She uncrossed her arms from over her chest and walked over to another fish tank, picking up one of the larger fish by its tail and activating her chakra scalpel jutsu, deeply slicing the fish on its side. Then she walked back over to the table, dropping the dripping fish onto the tabletop, where it flopped around in agony. The table had become slick with water and dyed red from the fish’s fresh blood oozing out of his newly cut wound.

Hikari made the ox and tiger hand signs as she closed her eyes and breathed, focusing a medium sized amount of chakra into her palms, once again feeling the warmth it brought. Then she gently placed her palms on the fish, only thinking of how she wanted to mend its broken tissue back together and free it from its pain. Again she could feel a sudden change in her chakra, as its own make up shifted from damaging to healing. Immediately she could feel it invade the fish’s wound, sparking a match inside to ignite the fish’s body’s own healing process. It felt like seconds to the girl as her chakra helped heal the fish, but in actuality it had been ten minutes again. She had not gotten any faster, and this wound had not gotten any bigger than the one before it.

However, she was feeling more confident every time she tried this jutsu. Sure she could use healing chakra in her Basic Medical Ninjutsu technique, but that did not require as much chakra nor hardly as much concentration as the far more advanced Mystical Palm technique did. Hikari knew she just needed to shape her chakra into healing chakra faster and she would be set, it was her only dilemma holding her back.

As Dr. Satomi spoke up once more, Hikari gently picked up the fish and placed it back into its tank before it died from lack of water like the first almost had, “Alright, you’ve tried it your way a few times now with no real success. Now we are trying it my way.” For a brief moment Hikari thought she saw a smirk play across Dr. Satomi’s lips, but just as quickly as it had appeared it was gone, replaced by her usual hard to read scowl.

The doctor motioned for Hikari to follow her as she began to make her way towards the exit, intending to leave the room behind and practice elsewhere. Any calmed nerves the girl had before were frantically running haywire again inside her, the tension of the unknown getting the best of her. She had no clue what Dr. Satomi had in mind, but her gut was telling her she would be thrown into a situation she wouldn’t like.

Oh how gut’s tend to be right, curse them and their feelings.

Dr. Satomi stopped inside a preparatory room used for emergency surgeries and began sanitizing her hands, nodding for Hikari to do the same. Uneasily the young girl did as instructed and made sure her hands were sanitary before following the doctor through the double doors into the emergency room, monitors beeping to show signs of life.

What was strange, however, was that no one was beside the patient, who laid rather limply on the stretcher. No one was healing her despite the rather large scrap metal that pierced her stomach.

“This, Hikari, is your first patient. She was your teammate, hit by debris when a foe blew up a building near her.” Dr. Satomi began, her voice ominous and grave, as if retelling a tale she knew far too well, “You are the only medic on the team of four, with your other two teammates fighting as hard as they can to protect the two of you. If you take too long to save her, all of you will DIE.”

Chills ran down the young girl’s spine but before she could say anything the doctor pushed her forwards, towards the bleeding girl. Her mind was fuzzy as she saw the bright red substance dripping down her body and pooling on the floor. Her skin was red and torn from the metal, and her face, which was contorted in pain even while she was unconscious, was also covered in blood. Obviously after being hit by the metal she coughed up blood, a normal human reaction to getting impaled. Hikari’s breath hitched in her throat as she raised shaky hands to the girls wound.

She knew she would need to remove the metal quickly, and then begin healing as fast as possible to stop her from bleeding out. But being thrown into this so suddenly was more terrifying than she thought, and Dr. Satomi was making sounds like a clock, counting down every second she was wasting and reminding her it was do or die if this situation were real.

Hikari concentrated her chakra to her hands, remembering what Dr. Satomi had said about not having any time to prepare and, thus, getting rid of her ritual to calm herself down. She stared at the girl writhing in pain and desperately wanted to save her, as if she were her own teammate. Placing her two small hands on the piece of debris, she swiftly pulled it out in one swift movement. The end that was embedded inside the girl dripped new blood onto the floor and as the metal had been ripped out, blood gushed out as well and some had hit the young kunoichi, spotting her ivory skin crimson.

However, she paid no heed to the blood, her eyes focusing on the wound that was bleeding heavier now, and her palms glowed the green hue of medical ninjutsu. She placed her hands on the girl’s stomach, on top of the open wound, and mended her chakra to speed up the girl’s natural healing process to begin closing off the broken blood vessels, nerves, and, eventually, the flesh.

But her chakra had other plans, and was not helping stop the girl’s blood vessels as quickly as she needed it to be done. Hikari didn’t know what was going wrong, her thoughts were only on saving the girl’s life and she could feel her healing chakra flow through the wound, so why was it not doing anything? Then it hit her, with eyes opening wide. She wasn’t using enough chakra to heal a person, but enough to heal a fish!

She focused more of her chakra to her hands, the green tint of aura around her hands increasing slowly as she manipulated her chakra amount to almost double what it was beforehand. She could feel the surge of power run through her fingertips and palms, flooding into the wounds of her ‘teammate’ like a wave crashing onto the shore. Then the woman’s skin came to life, springing into action to mend her broken body at a quicker rate than it would be able to on its own. Within five minutes the wounds had healed themselves, only scars remained to tell the tale on her porcelain skin.

Hikari wiped the sweat from her brow, the panic and stress finally fleeing her body as she admired her handy work, in awe at how she had just saved someone’s life.

That is, until Dr. Satomi spoke up, the Hyuuga having completely forgotten the woman was still standing against the wall, “You failed. That took two minutes too slow. Everyone died, even the girl you just healed. Dr. Yumi, you may get up now.” She glanced around, bewildered at who this doctor could be, when her wide eyes fell upon the previously comatose body on the stretcher that was now sitting up. Her clothes were no long torn nor ninja attire, but a blue halter top and black pants, and her hair was no longer black but blonde.

“Hello Hikari-chan! You did a great job healing my illusion!” The woman began, standing up from the metal surface and walking over to where the two were standing in the now dim room. As if she saw the confusion on in Hikari’s eyes, she continued as she stood beside Dr. Satomi, “When you two walked in here you set off my Genjutsu that Dr. Satomi specifically requested just for you to practice in!”
It did not take but a second for her to process what she heard, realizing it made perfect sense for the injured girl to be an illusion. It would be rather difficult to find a willing participant for being stabbed and then healed by a novice medical-nin who could potentially causing their condition to worse or, in an unfortunate event, die.

“Hikari,” Dr. Satomi interrupted, knowing the Hyuuga was about to say something, “I believe that is enough training for today. Rest up and come back tomorrow at the same time as today. You’ll surely get it down tomorrow.”

Knowing it would be futile to change her mind, the young kunoichi accepted that there training was over for the day, nodding her head in agreement as she politely said, “Yes ma’am, I understand. Thank you for training me, Dr. Satomi, and thank you for your genjutsu, Dr. Yumi. I will see myself out now. Both of you please have a great rest of your day!” With that she left the rather quiet room, hearing Dr. Yumi shout her farewell back at her, mentioning she would see her tomorrow bright and early. That gave Hikari a clue that Dr. Satomi had planned for another genjutsu, possibly an even more gruesome one than just a girl being impaled. It could be someone from the village, or multiple children and animals hurt. It could be anything and that scared her more than she would like to admit.

Hikari’s mind became fuzzy as she aimlessly walked through the village streets, dread welling within her as her stomach twisted into endless knots. A million what-if questions ran through her head, and all the possibilities the scenario could be played in her mind as vivid as a movie. Kuro walked beside her, having been waiting patiently by the front desk of the library for her to finisher her training due to Dr. Satomi not wanting him to distract Hikari. Thus he had been greeting people as they walked through the large glass doors , children running up to him and playing with his black fur as if he were their dog, and wiser shinobi kept their distance from the predator, his piercing maroon eyes gazing into their souls.

Kuro kept Hikari from running into people as she became too wrapped up in her own mind to realize she had not even picked a destination, her feet just moving forward in whatever direction they were pointed, her face a blank stare to all who looked upon her.

“Somebody please help me! I need a doctor!” A woman’s voice rang out through the unknown area, breaking her free from her mind as she looked around. The area the two were in was bordering the forest, on the outskirts of the village. The wailing voice, she soon discovered, belong to a mother carrying a boy, his appearance that of a ten year old. His sandy blonde hair was matted with sticks and leaves, his face covered in dirt, and, the most alarming thing about him, his torso had been shredded by some kind of ferocious beast, dried blood being covered over by new blood as his wounds pelted the boy’s pale skin and the green grass below with the gooey red substance. The woman held the boy in her arms, crying out for help again as the unconscious boy began thrashing about, his body convulsing from the trauma. It took all of the woman’s strength to hold him steady, despite herself getting hit all over from his flailing limbs.

Hikari rushed over to them, her heart beating so fast she thought it might break out of her chest at the severity of this situation. This was, as far as she could tell, not another genjutsu illusion, but an actual animal attack, most likely from a bear or other large, vicious creature. As she kneeled down on the other side of the woman, she began speaking in as much of a professional tone as she could muster up, looking the woman in the eyes to show her she was serious, “I am a medical-nin who can heal your son, if you’ll allow me too?”

The woman, tears cascading down her tanned skin like a waterfall, stopped wailing to look Hikari in her eyes, nodding her head vigorously, “Please! I’ll do anything to pay you if you please just save my son’s life!”

She remained quiet to her offer, performing the ox and tiger hand seals before focusing her palms on the boys sticky wounds, keeping the best grip she could on his wiggling form. They began to glow the calming green hue she had seen so many times before, her chakra focused entirely on her hands and causing them to be encircled by the large chakra aura full of healing properties. Her hands would do no damage at this time, only mending what was broken to make it whole again. Her desire to save his life pushed any anxiety or fear away, her previous worries about the next day vanished as she thought only of his life, wanting to make sure the boy did not breathe his last breath.

“I require no payment, madam.” Her voice was stern, unwavering as she took charge of the situation, reaffirming to herself why she had chosen to become a medical-nin in the first place, “I am doing this solely because I want to help save your son’s life. Do you know what happened?”

She could feel her chakra surge through the young child’s body, coursing deep within his tissue and nerves, awakening the cells to begin the healing process faster than his body could even attempt. Within a minute his shaking stopped as his body began to realize it was healing itself from the damage it had sustained. Likewise, his body’s blood vessels and arteries stopped leaking blood as they were sealed off by his body’s natural healing factor, clogging up the broken parts.

The woman shook her head, silently stating she knew not what had caused her son’s injuries. “If it’ll comfort you to know, my companion is running around this forest area, looking for the beast that did this to your son.” She kept the fact that Kuro was tracking the animal through the woman’s son’s scent of blood, as it would have potentially upset the panicked woman. Hikari knew not what Kuro would do to the creature, she left that decision up to his discretion.

The boys ripped skin was beginning to reform itself together, connecting the skin pieces like a puzzle, as the woman haughtily replied, “Serves that monster right for attacking my boy! I oughta kill it myself, if I weren’t taking care of my son!” Hikari nodded her head, affirming to the lady she had understood and was in agreement to her statement. Her lilac eyes activated her Byakugan as she scanned the young boy’s chakra network, watching as her chakra melted with his as she kept her palms on his open gashes. She deactivated her Byakugan just as quickly, only needing to take a glance at his chakra to make sure everything was fine.

It took another five minutes for her to fully heal his flesh wounds, the only trace of his attack were the scars on his torso in the shape of bite marks. This young boy had been lucky she aimlessly wandered near their home.

“Thank you so much miss!” The woman bowed deeply, showing her gratitude to Hikari as she held her son in her arms, a joyous smile breaking out across her face. She could not hold her excitement in any longer and it came spilling out of her. “How can I ever repay you?”

“There is no need for repayment. I heal because I want to save people, honestly.” Came Hikari’s short and sweet response. She did not save people for wealth, fame, or power. She saved people because she cared about their lives and them as human beings.

“I cannot take that answer! You just saved my son’s life, you deserve something!” The woman persisted, not taking the Hyuuga’s rejection.

Before the woman could offer some other form of repayment, Hikari softly spoke up, “If you must repay me, then please visit the konoha hospital every so often to come visit me. I’d like to get to know you both better.” This left the woman speechless, her eyes staring at Hikari in disbelief. Most people would have demanded large sums of ryo or the finest jewelry in the land, but she only wanted to spend time with them and get to know them. It was a rather simple request, and with that being said she rose to a standing position, bowing her farewell to the woman before heading off back to the village.

“We will stop by every week to see you, Hikari!” She shouted out after her retreating form, the woman carrying her sleeping son into their house so to not attract any other creatures in the area.

Hikari met up with Kuro over a hill in the path, his black fur wet from him cleaning it off in a nearby river. It was obvious he had taken care of the creature for the woman. No one else would be attacked by that wild beast, although if there was one of them around their was most likely more in the area.

“Time to go wash off and head back home. I think I’m more prepared now for tomorrow.” She solemnly said as they took the long way to get to the Hyuuga District, as Hikari did not particularly want to attract a lot of attention from the blood on her hands. Once they made it to the district and their room, she washed off and cleaned her bloodied hands, the red staining them slightly for a few minutes as she roughly scrubbed them. Afterwards the two went to sleep, exhausted from the long day they had gone through, Hikari’s body worn from mental and emotional stress.


The next day Hikari showed up at the hospital ready to tackle anything Dr. Satomi and Dr. Yumi threw her way. And indeed they did not disappoint as they put hre in a genjutsu surrounded by falling shinobi, each one Hikari had to quickly heal. She rushed through the genjutsu like a champ, saving all of the illusion’s lives within six minutes, which was not a terrible time for five shinobi with varying severity levels of wounds. She was able to impress both doctor’s with how quickly she had increased her healing time, and got the approval from Dr. Satomi for her training as a medical-nin.

Hikari was also visited by her new friends, Asuka and Ryu. She learned that Ryu was out in the forest to practice his ninja tool throwing, wanting to see if he could hit a tree while moving. But he had accidentally stabbed a cougar instead and wasn’t able to outrun it due to him tripping on an above ground tree root. Thankfully he had not gone too far into the forest, and his mother had heard his pleas for help when he was being mauled. Her yelling and screaming had scared off the big cat from its prey, as it had dashed deep into the forest.

On one of the days that Asuka and Ryu visited Hikari at the hospital, they met Dr. Satomi and retold the story of how Hikari saved Ryu’s life. The doctor was greatly impressed at what she had done, praising her for her quick thinking, and even praising Kuro for scoping out the area.

(Exit)
(TWC: 4207)
(Claiming Mystical Palm technique learned, and 42 AP ^_^)

Approved