The sun shone brilliantly as it dipped into the horizon, its amber luminance dancing off of clouds that seemed as if they had been painted in the sky. A gentle breeze caused the verdant foliage around the Konoha hospital to rustle soothingly. The onyx-haired man atop the complex sighed with content as he peered down at the village – his village – and all of its citizens, whom at that moment seemed like insects scurrying off to their respective destinations. He smiled, eager to officially begin his internship at the hospital he currently stood upon. It was easy to take a life, the man mused; just one cut in a specific location and any human could find their life draining away. To save a life, however, required much more intimate knowledge and skill. Keiji had always excelled in the destructive art of ninjutsu, but had rarely focused on improving his familiarity with medical ninjutsu. That is, until today.

The man took one last breath of fresh air, enjoying the scent of flora on the wind before he had to return to the sterile-environment within the hospital. Turning, he quickly headed down the few flights of stairs that separated him from his sensei – a renowned doctor and surgeon by the name of Urawa Hideyo. While not a shinobi, Urawa had expert level familiarity with medical ninjutsu, and had spent nearly the last fifteen years inside the hospital, literally thousands of lives saved due to his ingenuity and diligence in the field. To say that Keiji was thrilled to study under the man would have been a colossal understatement. The Konoha-nin opened a large metal door, exiting the stairwell and entering the hospital proper, immediately being greeted by the moderate bustle therein. Keiji smiled as his eyes located his new sensei after a few moments of searching. Heading towards the man, Keiji smiled even further as he caught a brief reflection of himself on a mirror hanging on the wall. His normal attire had been replaced by dark blue scrubs and a sleeveless doctor’s coat – his normally present shades discarded, his azure eyes now visible to the world. The Uchiha had made a point to have his clan’s logo stitched into the back of the coat – it wasn’t often one of his kin engaged in the field.

“You’re right on time, Keiji-san.” Urawa said, turning away from another colleague and facing the sannin. “I’ve read your report. Thorough knowledge of human anatomy and psychology, yet little to no experience in actual practice or techniques.”

Keiji could feel the blood draining from his face with embarrassment. “I’m afraid so, Urawa-sensei. Though I believe my capacity and eagerness to learn will more than make up for my current shortcomings.” The man resisted the urge to scratch the back of his head as he continued. “Might I also add that it is an honor to work under a distinguished man such as yourself?”

The seasoned doctor smiled, genuine happiness exuding from his grin. “Such exuberance is commendable, Keiji-san! And having the opportunity to teach one of Konoha’s sannin means the honor is all mine.” Urawa broke eye contact and retrieved a chart from the counter beside him, flipping the cover and swiftly scanning the text. “Normally I would have first-day interns in triage, but seeing as you’re quite the special case we might as well go directly to diagnosis and treatment. If you would follow me.”

The middle-aged man hastened down the hall, knocking on the second door from the end of the hallway on the left hand side before entering. “16 year old male, indicates severe pain of the arm after a sparring match with his squad earlier today. Admitted just several minutes ago.” Urawa turned on his heel and faced Keiji. “The first step towards treatment is examination, Keiji-san. If you would be so kind.”

The Uchiha nodded, taking several steps forward and closing the distance between himself and the teenager, who he thought was handling the “severe pain” rather well considering his calm disposition. Keiji gingerly started to touch the younger man’s arm, starting from the wrist and slowly making his way upwards. “What exactly happened in the spar?” the sannin asked.

The younger ninja cleared his throat before speaking. “My squad and I were in the middle of an all-day sparring exercise – each of us against a kage bunshin of Izuna-sensei. He said it would help us with our endurance and agility.” Keiji smirked – he had undertaken the same training at the hands of his old sensei Mitarashi, albeit the odds were stacked quite unfairly in his sensei’s favor. “After six hours, I was exhausted and didn’t have the speed to dodge an axe kick from sensei, so I thought I could block it with my forearm, and well…” the teenager’s gaze trailed to the window, the sunset still producing glorious hues against the sky. “Yeow!” Keiji’s eyes narrowed as he located the source of pain. “Can you squeeze my hands as hard as you can?” The genin did so, and Keiji immediately noticed that the strength in the arm that pained him was far diminished than the unaffected arm. The Uchiha stood and folded his arms.

“Pain and weakness in the right forearm indicates a fracture of the ulna and possibly the radius. Would recommend an x-ray to be sure.” Keiji paused before continuing, choosing his next words carefully. “Would recommended administering of a light analgesic to help with the pain and immediate mending of the broken bones through ninjutsu.”

The doctor’s smile returned again as Keiji gave his assessment. “Very good, Keiji-san! Your report was spot on! The axe kick he blocked certainly fractured his ulna and most likely bruised the right lateral of the radius.” Urawa scribbled on the chart before continuing. “As for treatment, you are half correct. For a minor broken bone such as this where the patient can endure the pain and mending is relatively quick and simple, we need the patient to be as lucid as possible in order to fully gauge the reception of treatment. Tell me Keiji-san, are you familiar with Shosen no jutsu?”

The Uchiha nodded curtly – he had first heard about the heavenly palm technique from his sensei whilst on a C-rank mission. The technique itself was widely renowned throughout the shinobi world for its ability to speed up the body’s natural healing processes, healing wounds that would take weeks or months in literally minutes or hours – it was mindboggling. Keiji had also heard rumors regarding the efficacy of the technique when used offensively as well. Apparently if one overloaded the chakra circulation of another with their own medical chakra, it would disrupt the ability of the target to perform techniques which required chakra for some time. What Keiji would do to learn that technique…

“If you could activate those eyes for me, Keiji-san.” Urawa said, referring to the much revered sharingan which Keiji possessed. The Uchiha didn’t like to use the eyes, he found them to be quite the burden ever since he activated them – not to mention the events in particular that evolved his eyes to their three-tomoe state. Nevertheless, since this was a rather special occasion, Keiji obliged, his normal azure eyes quickly morphing into the notorious ruby of the sharingan, three tomoe manifesting into life and quickly rotating around the pupil. “Good, now watch closely.” The more experience medic said.

The man’s brow furrowed as he placed both hands over the genin’s broken arm, and Keiji watched with astonishment as he saw the chakra being manifested and channeled over the fracture by Urawa. The green aura quickly delved into the genin’s arm, calmly rocking back and forth in the flesh and mending the broken tissue and bone. Keiji smiled – this technique would prove to be invaluable on the battlefield; he made a note to learn it as soon as he could.

“As you can see,” the doctor spoke, “You need to precisely channel your chakra depending on what injury you want to treat. If this were a more severe wound, I would have used more chakra, and vice-versa. Understand?” Keiji nodded. “Good! Seeing as you don’t know any medical ninjutsu at the moment, we’ll have you working in trauma; you’ll get a feel for what you might be doing on the field.”

Keiji almost deadpanned – how did the man know that he didn’t possess and medical ninjutsu techniques in his arsenal? The man was broken from his musings as Urawa began walking out of the room, heading down the hall through a pair of double doors and down several flights of stairs until he was, at last, on the first floor. “Triage is already being taken care of by others, and since you don’t know any healing techniques, you’ll be restricted to tending to the lower-priority patients unless I say otherwise.” The front doors were thrown open, a man on a gurney being wheeled through the lobby by two medical personnel. “Speak of the devil. I’ll leave you to it, if you have any questions ask a resident, they’re all trained by me and will be able to help.”

Keiji nodded and immediately began his work, eyes darting around to see who would end up being his first patient. Triage was a rather simple process – those that were in dire need of medical attention ended up being treated first while those with minorly urgent conditions were treated later. The ones who were in the least amount of danger would be noted by either a green light above the door to their room, which meant minor urgency, or a blue light, which would mean without urgency. It did not take long for Keiji’s still-activated sharingan to find a green light illuminated above a door. He quickly paced to the door and knocked several times, alerting his presence to the patient within before entering.
“Hello there, my name is Uchiha Keiji.” The shinobi said, giving a quick smile to the woman occupying the room before picking up the chart that was placed rather sloppily on the examination table. “Let’s see here, Yonosuke Keiko, age 25,” Keiji looked at the woman again before continuing to read, “You look much younger than that. It says here you are complaining about chest pains?”

The woman blushed at the compliment before replying, “Yes sensei, it started a couple of hours ago. Me and nii-san were walking home after lunch and I felt short of breath – my chest was so tight I could barely breathe.” Keiji’s brow furrowed upon hearing that she had trouble breathing. “I also have these weird bumps all over and I don’t know where they came from.” The young woman rolled up her sleeve, revealing raised blotches of flushed skin. Keiji smirked immediately – he knew what was wrong.

“Yonosuke-san, would you mind telling me what you and your brother ate at lunch today?” Keiji asked, eyes locking with the woman who sat across from him. She nodded, “I had a nice miso soup and my brother had steamed clams.” Keiji nodded, “Did you happen to eat any of the clams or did any of them come in contact with your soup?” Keiko’s face lit up, “Yes! As a matter of fact my nii-san was playing around with his clams and a large piece of meat fell into my soup. I ate it as retribution.” she giggled, reliving the course of actions leading up to her condition. Keiji smiled, “Have you ever eaten clams before?” The woman shook her head in response.

"Based on your difficulty breathing, chest tightness, and the hives on your arm, I’m almost certain you’re experiencing a mild allergic reaction.” The woman’s face seemed puzzled. “Basically, your body reacts aggressively to ingesting shellfish.” Keiji opened a nearby cabinet and rummaged around for a few seconds before finding exactly what he was looking for – an epi-pen. “This is epinephrine, it’s essentially pure adrenaline. There’re no negative effects to taking it and if I’m right you’ll begin to breathe normally within a minute or so.”

The woman nodded, allowing Keiji to inject her with the clear liquid. Almost immediately, she took a deep breath of fresh air. Keiji smiled once more – he had just successfully treated his first patient in his medical career.

[2043/2000]