Mission - Doctor's Assistant - Private

It was a slightly cloudy day in Konohagakure, with a slightly chilly breeze blowing through the village, making the Hot Springs to be a popular spot today. Kazuto could be seen leaning against a railing on the roof of one of the many buildings located in the village. The wind was blowing lightly from his right, lifting his hair and billowing under his clothes. Kazuto eyes were staring absent-mindedly at the Hokage Mountain, his thoughts fixed, not on what he was looking at, but on nothing in particular. He was, in short, bored and thinking random thoughts that connected to each other in the most disturbing ways. Yawning a little, Kazuto turned away from the sight of the Hokage Faces crafted onto the mountain over-looking Konoha. It was sad, really, how much the villagers loved that mountain with its carvings of “the greatest heroes of the village”. As if people needed reminding of how many leaders they had had. Kazuto smirked as a thought crossed his mind. How awkward it would be for the villagers, when, that is to say if, they ever got a Hokage who ruled as a tyrant and whom everyone despised, would the villagers honor the tradition of crafting his face onto the mountain, to remind themselves of his “great reign”? Indeed, it made one think.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Kazuto turned to face the oncoming wind and nimbly jumped off the building. Fortunately, it was only a single-story building, and as such Kazuto would not be considered a fool for having jumped off a building as he had done. Landing on the ground in a sort of crouched manner, Kazuto straightened up, and as he did so, a piece of paper flew into his face, causing him to lose his footing in surprise and stagger a little. Reaching for the paper still stuck to his face thanks to the oncoming wind, Kazuto wrenched it off with a curse and made to glance down at it. Before he could so much as read the first word, however, he heard the sound of approaching footsteps and looked up from the paper clutched in his hand.

A man was running towards him, a small bag slung over his shoulder. Kazuto could easily recognize the man as part of the staff of the village’s local hospital due to the creamy white uniform he wore. The man stopped in front of Kazuto, panting a little. “Sorry there, kid, slipped from my hand,” he said, holding out his hand for the paper. Kazuto did not hand over the paper, but instead looked down at it, reading the words printed on it. It was, as he now saw, a notice of some sort, printed in formal yellow letters on a purple sheet so as to draw the eyes of anyone who caught a glimpse of it. A quick thorough read of the sheet told Kazuto that there had been some sort of explosion in the village’s hospital and that a few citizens had been injured in by the said explosion. The hospital was now looking for anyone willing to help with the treatment of the wounded.

Kazuto looked up once more from the sheet of paper in his hand at the Medic. “Let me guess. You were experimenting for the good of the village and achieved nothing more than hurting the village?” asked Kazuto sarcastically, handing the paper back to the Medic, who grinned sheepishly. “Something like that,” he muttered as he opened bag he was carrying. Kazuto could see that it contained numerous copies of the same notice he had just read. He supposed that this Medic had been left with the duty of placing these around the village to get help quickly. The Medic dropped the notice in his hand back into the bag and shut it, saying as he did so, “Well, kid, I hope you decide to do a good deed and help out at the hospital.” With a nod, he turned away and walked back the way he came.

Kazuto stood in his place for a second, thinking. Well, why not? He was bored, he had nothing to do at the moment, he might as well spend his time doing something productive. Who knew? He might even learn something at the hospital, he was after all a Medical Ninja, it would be natural for him to see how things were done in a hospital. After all, being a Medical Ninja meant that you had to save lives; it was not always about causing as much damage as one could. His mind made up, Kazuto turned on the spot and began walking towards the hospital at a brisk pace. As he walked, he saw copies of the notice he had read attached to telephone poles, outside busy shops, even on the windows of some houses. That’ll please the residents, thought Kazuto sarcastically as he noticed this. As he walked, he grabbed on of the flyers of a pole and pocketed it. He didn’t feel like explaining his reason for being at the hospital. Smirking, he continued in the direction of the hospital, and in a few minutes he was there, standing outside the doors. He was surprised to see that there wasn’t any group of people waiting outside the doors. He supposed the news hadn’t become public yet, or else people didn’t care. Putting his hands into his pockets, Kazuto walked forwards towards the door, which he pushed open gently as he stepped in.

The linoleum corridors were not filled with a few lingering Medics, but here and there a few average citizens could be seen helping the Medics. Apparently the villagers did care about helping the wounded. Kazuto walked forward slowly, looking around as he did so. Exactly where was he supposed to go to help out? Was he supposed to inform whoever was in charge of the situation of his purpose, or was he supposed to just begin helping the nearest person he could find? Deciding to go with the former choice, Kazuto walked over to the counter and looked down at the nurse sitting behind it. She looked up as he approached her. “Pardon me, miss, but I’d like to help out with the wounded,” he said, flashing the flyer at her to explain his statement. The nurse smiled with her lip-stick covered applied mouth. “Thank you for coming here, my dear," she said, either failing to notice or ignoring Kazuto cringing as she said “my dear”. “We appreciate all the help we can get. If you would just follow me, I will take you to the Head Doctor.”

Getting to her feet, she led Kazuto through the hallway past Medics on duty and citizens helping out. After reaching the end of the hallway, she knocked on the door to the right and pushed it open gently, saying as he she did so, “Dr. Hone, there’s another person here to help with the exploding lab situation, his says his name is-“ she glanced back at Kazuto, who supplied his name, then turned back to face the doctor, “- Kazuto Nara, sir.” Dr. Hone nodded and gestured for Kazuto to come in. Kazuto did so as the nurse closed the door behind him. Dr. Hone peered up at Kazuto. He wore glasses in front of green eyes, and had a wild mane of brown hair that looked as if it were a dead animal attached to his scalp. He got up and shook hands with Kazuto. “Thank you for your kindness, young man. I must say that not many people have volunteered for this from your age group,” he said, sitting back down on his chair and pressing a button at his elbow. Kazuto allowed a false smile of modesty to appear on his face. “I’m just trying to do my good for the village,” he said in a way that would’ve fooled even himself if he heard it in the same fashion. Indeed, Kazuto was skilled when it came to deception.

The door behind them opened as a man wearing the standard Konoha Medic uniform walked in. He glanced at Kazuto as Dr. Hone spoke, “Ah, Fuura, right on time. Kindly help this young man here on his job of helping the injured from the exploding lab incident, he has kindly agreed to lend a hand.” Fuura nodded before turning to face Kazuto. He himself wasn’t much taller than Kazuto, and couldn’t be more than 3 or 4 years older. “If you would kindly follow me,” he said, holding the door open and waiting for Kazuto to step out of the room before him. The Nara obliged and walked out, followed by Fuura who closed the door of Dr. Hone’s office behind him.

“So, this is how real doctors work,” remarked Kazuto, glancing around the room he entered after Fuura. The walls were lined, as expected, by several beds facing each other like some sort of assembly line for the injured waiting to be treated. Kazuto grinned at the thought. Looking over at Fuura, he spoke with a polite tone to the man: “So, what do I have to do?” Fuura looked at him for a moment before scanning the clipboard in his hand. “Well, young Kazuto, you can start by helping me clean up the trays for the food our patients should have finished by now. If you can kindly begin there…” He gestured to his right, where a particularly fat man lay on a bed that seemed to be on the verge of collapsing under his weight. Beside him lay an empty tray, though the utensils that had been lying upon it could be seen spread over the man’s enormous belly. Kazuto frowned at the sight. He had a natural distaste for slobs and filthy people; it didn’t fit at all with his personality. With a sigh, he walked over to the man, who burped by way of greeting the Nara. Kazuto faked a smile as he said, “Hello, I’m Kazuto Nara, and I’m here to help out the injured from the exploding lab incident.” The man glanced up at Kazuto with beetle-black eyes. “Sure, whatever,” he answered. “Any idea when dinner is?” Kazuto’s grin remained polite as he said, “No, I don’t believe I’m required to know that.” Without another word, he swiped the tray and the utensils on the man’s belly and walked over to a small trolley which contained a pile of dirty trays and utensils. “Disgusting,” said Kazuto under his breath as he deposited the items in his hands onto the trolley. Turning around, he headed for the next bed.

A half hour later and Kazuto had finally managed to clean up the remains of the patients’ meals. Dusting his hands off, he grabbed the trolley and pushed away into a corner. Best not have it in everyone’s way. He glanced around for Fuura to tell him what to do next, but couldn’t see any sign of his guide. “Ah well, guess I’ll just help people my own way,” decided Kazuto with a shrug. He began walking around the bedside tables of the patients’, straightening the items placed on the tables, at the same time talking to the patients themselves. He asked them about themselves, and he found out that not all of them were here because of the exploding lab. Half of them were here because of their own severe diseases, and Kazuto could not help put show sincere kindness to them when he heard their stories. He was surprised as to how the stories actually made him think, he realized that life was not so simple as one thought, but that there were so many people who suffered from so many things and yet still had the courage to believe that they were normal. It made him think a lot about it.

After a while, the patients seemed more at ease, probably because they had had a chance to share their life stories with someone who had never heard their stories, and had received kind words in doing so. Perhaps it was because he was a Nara, but Kazuto knew how to manipulate people with his words. That did not mean that he could not make people happier, he often ended up doing that. A noise behind him made him look up from his work. Fuura had returned and was watching Kazuto carefully. Kazuto turned to face Fuura and gave him one of the idiotic, wide smiles he had seen many people give. “Yo, Fuura-san, wassup?” said Kazuto as he pushed his glasses up his nose with his middle finger. Fuura smiled. “You seem to be enjoying your time here, Kazuto-san,” he said. “At first I thought you would be another one of those obnoxious teenagers eager to do everything and only doing useless things like running around and stressing the patients. It’s nice to know that there are some teenagers in this village with common sense.” He held out his hand for Kazuto to shake, which the latter did so. “Why thank you, Fuura-san,” replied Kazuto as he shook hands with the Medic. “To tell you the truth, I’m training to become a Medical Ninja in the future, so I know how these people should be treated. They’re still humans, no matter what, er, problems they have.” Fuura laughed as he replied approvingly. With a gesture of his hand, he led Kazuto to another ward of patients, and this time he remained with Kazuto as the latter spoke to the patients as he worked.

Three hours later, and Kazuto could be found sitting atop a building not too far from the hospital. Like they had been a few hours ago, Kazuto’s eyes were fixed upon the Hokage Faces as he thought about his day. It was a habit of his to replay the events of the day through his mind, almost as if he was seeing what he had learnt that day. He grinned. Well, he had managed to do a great deal of good deeds, and all he had gained was the knowledge that he was “a kind person”. It was laughable indeed.