Starring:
Date: April 26, 2017
Summary:
Tsiro visits the Medical Center and finds Akane studying and in posession of sensitive information. (Akane has gone from seeing Tsiro as a threat to allowing him trust to him earning her accepting him as her Kage. This conversation is the product of her accepting his request to not use honorifics with him.) This is age business and should go toward Tsiro's monthly logs.
"Conversation Sans Sake"
Akane's office in the Medical Center of Kirigakure
Akane had been in and out of the Land of Water recently as she had gone one a couple of out-of-town missions. But after returning to Kirigakure she had brought various rare herbs from those other lands and deposited them into the medical center's vaults and stores. If there was one thing she was very good at, it was getting her hands on herbs that by all rights the other lands should have prized and protected. But then, Doihara Akane had many secret allies in many places.
Today she was working on a false chart. That is, the chart of a fake patient, surrounded by various 'read only' books she had absconded from the library archives (with collateral probably). These were open all over her desk to maps of chakra networks and diagrams. Her notes, however, contained information that could only have been obtained from a Hyuuga.
There she sat and there she stayed for hours as the various mugs of coffee could attest to. Of course, Tsiro would not need to even ask to be admitted to the doctor's offices and Akane's door was mostly open.
Sometimes when you are Tsiro, you need to do things you do not want to do. Things like visit the hospital. It was one thing if he was getting a fluid bag between combat rounds of a tournament or if he was unconscious. Then he actively had no real choice. Showing up there when nothing was even bruised or bleeding made him feel… well it made him feel and that was bad enough for the Kaguya beast. As he walked, he turned down a hallway and then stopped at a mostly open door.
"Doihara Akane. How are you doing this evening?" he asks as he waits at the door. Yes, he had the right to probably invade the office but this was not really the right setting for that. It was a work call but not the type where someone was getting yelled at… hopefully.
Akane glanced up at the approach to her door, looked down again and then did a double take. She blinked a few times before standing up and moving a few of the mugs away. "Tsiro-sa— Tsiro." She corrected herself with a small smile. "I'm well. But are you? What are you doing here of all places? I don't see any limbs missing… Or regrowing for that matter…."
She was, of course, mostly teasing him. Mostly. But she waved him in and moved over to a pot of water… It took only a moment for her to heat the teapot with her hand and she returned with two cups and some tea. Sitting back down she poured first one for Tsiro and then one for her. "I collected this Sakura blend myself." And then she waited for Tsiro to sit (or not) and speak, all the while playing the perfect hostess.
Tsiro glanced over the chart of names and then the books. His eyes briefly scanned the maps of the chakra network. Surprisingly he had actually seen a few of those before. They were less detailed but still, it was enough for him to know exactly what they were. "I see you are currently working on something related to the chakra network," he states as he takes the tea from her. Had she been the perfect hostess, it would have been a relatively strong sake. Though most medical practitioners did not realize the Kaguya body metabolized normal liquor too fast to become drunk, someone of Akane's status should know and be able to compensate for that. But this was tea… so Tsiro took a sip and awaited her response.
Akane did not stock good sake in her office or she would have been drunk enough herself by that point. But the tea was sweet with a blended aroma and needed no honey. Glancing over the books she nodded slowly then looked back at Tsiro. "I want to be able to match a certain doctor I know and this is one thing I lack full knowledge of."
She sipped her own tea and took a breath before tilting her crimson head. "So what brings my Kage to the one place he absolutely loathes in Kirigakure? Something important I suspect." Her tone shifted to a more serious tone then, fewer frills and less sweetness. More Akane. "What's on your mind? Or do I really need to check you over for illness?"
Tsiro took another sip of the tea. "Now that's just not true. There are several places I absolutely loath. This just happens to be one of the more important places." It was a joke. He truly hated the place more than most. "All that aside, I am just checking on your progress. Because this is one of those fields I truly despise, I do not spend a lot of time around meaning that you are usually free to do as you wish. For the most part, you could all be drinking sake and throwing darts at pictures of me. I figured that it would be good for the village if I came down here and ensured that some actual work was getting done."
Tsiro then turns his attention back to the chakra maps. "There are only a handful of doctors that truly excel in the medical field. You are chasing after Mushi or Shuuren?" he asks.
Akane grinned and made an 'oh really?' face when he claimed to loathe more than just this part of Kirigakure. But his description of what the doctors 'could' be doing made her laugh aloud. It was a hearty and honest laugh, and honestly, one she had been in need of for a while.
She took a sip of tea when she was able to get a breath and just settled back in her chair. "Mushi-san is indeed quite talented, but no. And Shuuren…." She shook her head, leaving off the honorific, something she only did for very close friends or lovers. "He's a great medic but the one I was thinking of was, actually, Inuzuka Taiki."
Tsiro's facial expression changed a little when he heard the name of Inuzuka Taiki. "There is a name I've not heard in a long time. I mean I had heard he took over the Inuzuka clan but…it has been even longer since when we met. Our villages had clashed over Hikan's laser in the second great war. I am not sure I had even awakened my Shikot. I could not have been more than eleven years of age. Another Genin and I went scouting. We were brave and went all the way to the gates of Konoha. There I fought Inuzuka Taiki while my genin partner tried to get a date from the genin that accompanied the Inuzuka. He was Okumo. She was Aburame." Tsiro's eyes seemed to light up as if he was reliving the memory instant for instant in his head. "I destroyed him and his dog. It was not even close…"
Akane leaned forward and rested her chin on one hand, a smile spreading across her face as she listened to the story. Tsiro's eyes lit up in a way that was rare lately and she thoroughly enjoyed watching it. She also enjoyed the stories. He was only a year older than Akane, after all, and Taiki only a year older than Tsiro himself.
She chuckled softly. "I would have paid admission to see that fight… And an Okumo flirting with an Aburame… Classic. Though I imagine that would end as a black widow type arrangement considering the Brood would eat the beetles." Another chuckle passed her lips though her own eyes seemed to fade into the past as well. By the darkened tone to her eyes, it was not nearly as bright and happy of a memory.
Indeed, not even Meruin and Ishino were aware of her far past and certainly, there was no record or report in Kirigakure about it. The woman closed her eyes for a second before looking back up, trying to act as though the flash had not happened.
"Fear not, Tsiro. If I ever find anyone throwing darts at your picture I'll be sure to teach them how to properly throw." It was nonsense of course. She would, in fact, berate the hell out of them and dock their pay if not knock them down in rank. She of all people who had willingly taken a public whipping due to rank, held rank sacred.
"On the outside, the fight itself was nothing more than something you could probably see at the school playground. We were both kids learning to be weapons. To use our own weapons. Sometimes I miss those days though. Life… death, there was a very slight line between the two and if you could ride the line, they would feed off of each other. Despite not being able to see him, you knew death was there behind you. He was waiting for his daily meal. The faster you moved to avoid his touch, the hungrier he became, so the faster you moved." Tsiro then shakes his head. "No, it was not that death was literally over our shoulders. It was that we knew we could die and to survive your next battle you had to be the best. It was the only way to guarantee life. We did not have many medics."
Tsiro remembered he had tea in his hand. So he would take another sip. "They can throw darts at my pictures all they want as long as they do their jobs. I know people will dislike me until my dying days. That is fine. I am here to make the system work, not win the popular vote."
Akane looked up, sipping her tea then setting the cup down. "Death was not all that chased some of us." She shook her head and ran a hand over her eyes. "I was ten at that time and while you were gaining honor facing a rival village down, I was the chosen assassin for a street gang in Fuuma Alley. Poison and blades were my world… And, ironically, dance, flowers, hair, makeup……and men."
Akane tilted her head, the falls of dragon scale tinkling quietly with the motion. "If you wished to share war stories, Tsiro, you should have either brought sake or asked me to the hot springs and I would have brought the sake."
She was not entirely joking on that matter, and she honestly wished someone had brought sake at that moment. But she instead focused on Tsiro. "Is this an official visit, or shall we move to somewhere more conducive to memories?"
Ouch. The boss man had just been brought back to reality. "I hate to say it, but it is an official visit. I think we will have to schedule that story time for another time. I'm not sure you can handle Kaguya Sake though." He then gave her a small grin and moved back to the topic at hand. "So I am going to need a few things. I would like to know the current status of our medical facility. How many people does it employ? What is it good at doing? What are its needs? Are there any improvements that you think need to be implemented or ideas that might help down the road? Just something that will give me a view into how things are here."
Akane lifted a brow at the percieved challenge about Kaguya sake. She had tasted Kaguya sake before thanks to Yuuka. She had managed to avoid a hangover only because of her medical knowledge the next day. She chuckled a bit and then listened to his next words.
"The current status is good, actually." She opened a drawer and withdrew a few sheets of paper and gave him the exact numbers of nurses, medics, students, what villagers were employed and what they did. The list actually included a couple of ANBU and Hunters that might have been thrown in there just to tell him that she was aware of what lay beneath the medical center.
"As for what we're good at… Well, we have Okumo connections for experimentations. Naoya-san can change a person's gender and face. I can do the same. As well as intricate surgeries to repair injuries, I also created a department to study illnesses. Especially those in regenerators. I know it's rare, but I see no reason to leave such a thing unattended. And as you saw, I am studying chakra networks and perhaps soon enough I will be able to perform surgeries on them as well as heal damage to them."
Tsiro looked over the paperwork. The details were sufficient for what he needed. "Akane, there are a few names on here that should not be here. Although they do work with your supplies and probably appear around here, the official purpose either needs to be changed or their names omitted from this type of documentation. We both know what is beneath the hospital. There is no need for anyone else to know or to be able to find out. The special procedures that are conducted might just save quite a few lives." Yes, he was making a reference to the torture.
He then moves on from the previous topic to the next topic. He nods his head as she explains what is currently going on in the hospital. "Where would you say we are medically compared to the other villages?" he asks.
Akane nodded slowly and then reached out to touch the papers in his hands. Immediately they ignited, burning completely away any evidence of the ANBU and Hunters names. "Of course.Though that was my personal list. The real one has no such things included." She offered him the proper papers with said names omitted entirely. The look in her jade eyes told him she had known possession what she was doing.
Steepling her fingers, Akane spoke in a quiet but strict tone. "I am aware of what goes on, yes. But I would like to enter into it as well. As an observer first and then as a student and perhaps a participant. But I would need your word to the ANBU downstairs for such a thing to occur. My reason? I want to be able to protect this village through any means necessary, though I am not ANBU or Hunter myself."
She kept his gaze steadily to show she meant that and then shifted in her seat, tapping her chin. "Hmm… We are superior to Suna and Iwa, certainly. From my recent visit to Kumo, I would say we are probably more advanced than they are… Especially as I tend to heal all villages in combined offensives anyway…. Obviously, Tea surpasses us for the moment and Konoha… Well… Probably about even. We have more stomach for the harsher realities but they have the likes of Taiki and the Hyuuga." She cracked a half smile. "Though you have an Uchiha so.. Perhaps it evens out."
Things seemed to get a bit more interesting. "That is not quite as simple as it sounds. Yes, my word does gain you access. Those who are working at it currently that are not on your list may object. I may, however, have a solution that will fit both sides. Allow me to think more on it. I will need to sort out all the details and then change some." His concerns were not that a high ranking med-nin wanted in on the torture. On the contrary, that would be a benefit to him. It was a matter of keeping the identities of everyone secret. Secret as things were supposed to be.
"Is there anything else you wanted to add on our previous subject?" Tsiro asks politely letting Akane know they had moved on from the hunter-nin topic.
Akane nodded and left it at that. Her request had been stated and received. That was all she could ask of such a sudden request. But she seemed to ponder his question a bit more. "No, I do not believe so. As I stated, in all of the former conflicts I have participated in, not only did I fight on the front lines, but I was more often than not, the medic directing the other villages. I have a reputation for such aid despite borders. I would assume you knew that already, however, considering it was my one real defiance against Meruin and I know it's in my files." She smiled a little then sipped her tea again. He would also be aware that it gave her quite a bit of leverage and leeway while traveling to most other countries. Even while Sunagakure was no longer an official ally, Akane could come and go as she pleased.
Akane had been in and out of the Land of Water recently as she had gone one a couple of out-of-town missions. But after returning to Kirigakure she had brought various rare herbs from those other lands and deposited them into the medical center's vaults and stores. If there was one thing she was very good at, it was getting her hands on herbs that by all rights the other lands should have prized and protected. But then, Doihara Akane had many secret allies in many places.
Today she was working on a false chart. That is, the chart of a fake patient, surrounded by various 'read only' books she had absconded from the library archives (with collateral probably). These were open all over her desk to maps of chakra networks and diagrams. Her notes, however, contained information that could only have been obtained from a Hyuuga.
There she sat and there she stayed for hours as the various mugs of coffee could attest to. Of course, Tsiro would not need to even ask to be admitted to the doctor's offices and Akane's door was mostly open.
Sometimes when you are Tsiro, you need to do things you do not want to do. Things like visit the hospital. It was one thing if he was getting a fluid bag between combat rounds of a tournament or if he was unconscious. Then he actively had no real choice. Showing up there when nothing was even bruised or bleeding made him feel… well it made him feel and that was bad enough for the Kaguya beast. As he walked, he turned down a hallway and then stopped at a mostly open door.
"Doihara Akane. How are you doing this evening?" he asks as he waits at the door. Yes, he had the right to probably invade the office but this was not really the right setting for that. It was a work call but not the type where someone was getting yelled at… hopefully.
Akane glanced up at the approach to her door, looked down again and then did a double take. She blinked a few times before standing up and moving a few of the mugs away. "Tsiro-sa— Tsiro." She corrected herself with a small smile. "I'm well. But are you? What are you doing here of all places? I don't see any limbs missing… Or regrowing for that matter…."
She was, of course, mostly teasing him. Mostly. But she waved him in and moved over to a pot of water… It took only a moment for her to heat the teapot with her hand and she returned with two cups and some tea. Sitting back down she poured first one for Tsiro and then one for her. "I collected this Sakura blend myself." And then she waited for Tsiro to sit (or not) and speak, all the while playing the perfect hostess.
Tsiro glanced over the chart of names and then the books. His eyes briefly scanned the maps of the chakra network. Surprisingly he had actually seen a few of those before. They were less detailed but still, it was enough for him to know exactly what they were. "I see you are currently working on something related to the chakra network," he states as he takes the tea from her. Had she been the perfect hostess, it would have been a relatively strong sake. Though most medical practitioners did not realize the Kaguya body metabolized normal liquor too fast to become drunk, someone of Akane's status should know and be able to compensate for that. But this was tea… so Tsiro took a sip and awaited her response.
Akane did not stock good sake in her office or she would have been drunk enough herself by that point. But the tea was sweet with a blended aroma and needed no honey. Glancing over the books she nodded slowly then looked back at Tsiro. "I want to be able to match a certain doctor I know and this is one thing I lack full knowledge of."
She sipped her own tea and took a breath before tilting her crimson head. "So what brings my Kage to the one place he absolutely loathes in Kirigakure? Something important I suspect." Her tone shifted to a more serious tone then, fewer frills and less sweetness. More Akane. "What's on your mind? Or do I really need to check you over for illness?"
Tsiro took another sip of the tea. "Now that's just not true. There are several places I absolutely loath. This just happens to be one of the more important places." It was a joke. He truly hated the place more than most. "All that aside, I am just checking on your progress. Because this is one of those fields I truly despise, I do not spend a lot of time around meaning that you are usually free to do as you wish. For the most part, you could all be drinking sake and throwing darts at pictures of me. I figured that it would be good for the village if I came down here and ensured that some actual work was getting done."
Tsiro then turns his attention back to the chakra maps. "There are only a handful of doctors that truly excel in the medical field. You are chasing after Mushi or Shuuren?" he asks.
Akane grinned and made an 'oh really?' face when he claimed to loathe more than just this part of Kirigakure. But his description of what the doctors 'could' be doing made her laugh aloud. It was a hearty and honest laugh, and honestly, one she had been in need of for a while.
She took a sip of tea when she was able to get a breath and just settled back in her chair. "Mushi-san is indeed quite talented, but no. And Shuuren…." She shook her head, leaving off the honorific, something she only did for very close friends or lovers. "He's a great medic but the one I was thinking of was, actually, Inuzuka Taiki."
Tsiro's facial expression changed a little when he heard the name of Inuzuka Taiki. "There is a name I've not heard in a long time. I mean I had heard he took over the Inuzuka clan but…it has been even longer since when we met. Our villages had clashed over Hikan's laser in the second great war. I am not sure I had even awakened my Shikot. I could not have been more than eleven years of age. Another Genin and I went scouting. We were brave and went all the way to the gates of Konoha. There I fought Inuzuka Taiki while my genin partner tried to get a date from the genin that accompanied the Inuzuka. He was Okumo. She was Aburame." Tsiro's eyes seemed to light up as if he was reliving the memory instant for instant in his head. "I destroyed him and his dog. It was not even close…"
Akane leaned forward and rested her chin on one hand, a smile spreading across her face as she listened to the story. Tsiro's eyes lit up in a way that was rare lately and she thoroughly enjoyed watching it. She also enjoyed the stories. He was only a year older than Akane, after all, and Taiki only a year older than Tsiro himself.
She chuckled softly. "I would have paid admission to see that fight… And an Okumo flirting with an Aburame… Classic. Though I imagine that would end as a black widow type arrangement considering the Brood would eat the beetles." Another chuckle passed her lips though her own eyes seemed to fade into the past as well. By the darkened tone to her eyes, it was not nearly as bright and happy of a memory.
Indeed, not even Meruin and Ishino were aware of her far past and certainly, there was no record or report in Kirigakure about it. The woman closed her eyes for a second before looking back up, trying to act as though the flash had not happened.
"Fear not, Tsiro. If I ever find anyone throwing darts at your picture I'll be sure to teach them how to properly throw." It was nonsense of course. She would, in fact, berate the **** out of them and dock their pay if not knock them down in rank. She of all people who had willingly taken a public whipping due to rank, held rank sacred.
"On the outside, the fight itself was nothing more than something you could probably see at the school playground. We were both kids learning to be weapons. To use our own weapons. Sometimes I miss those days though. Life… death, there was a very slight line between the two and if you could ride the line, they would feed off of each other. Despite not being able to see him, you knew death was there behind you. He was waiting for his daily meal. The faster you moved to avoid his touch, the hungrier he became, so the faster you moved." Tsiro then shakes his head. "No, it was not that death was literally over our shoulders. It was that we knew we could die and to survive your next battle you had to be the best. It was the only way to guarantee life. We did not have many medics."
Tsiro remembered he had tea in his hand. So he would take another sip. "They can throw darts at my pictures all they want as long as they do their jobs. I know people will dislike me until my dying days. That is fine. I am here to make the system work, not win the popular vote."
Akane looked up, sipping her tea then setting the cup down. "Death was not all that chased some of us." She shook her head and ran a hand over her eyes. "I was ten at that time and while you were gaining honor facing a rival village down, I was the chosen assassin for a street gang in Fuuma Alley. Poison and blades were my world… And, ironically, dance, flowers, hair, makeup……and men."
Akane tilted her head, the falls of dragon scale tinkling quietly with the motion. "If you wished to share war stories, Tsiro, you should have either brought sake or asked me to the hot springs and I would have brought the sake."
She was not entirely joking on that matter, and she honestly wished someone had brought sake at that moment. But she instead focused on Tsiro. "Is this an official visit, or shall we move to somewhere more conducive to memories?"
Ouch. The boss man had just been brought back to reality. "I hate to say it, but it is an official visit. I think we will have to schedule that story time for another time. I'm not sure you can handle Kaguya Sake though." He then gave her a small grin and moved back to the topic at hand. "So I am going to need a few things. I would like to know the current status of our medical facility. How many people does it employ? What is it good at doing? What are its needs? Are there any improvements that you think need to be implemented or ideas that might help down the road? Just something that will give me a view into how things are here."
Akane lifted a brow at the percieved challenge about Kaguya sake. She had tasted Kaguya sake before thanks to Yuuka. She had managed to avoid a hangover only because of her medical knowledge the next day. She chuckled a bit and then listened to his next words.
"The current status is good, actually." She opened a drawer and withdrew a few sheets of paper and gave him the exact numbers of nurses, medics, students, what villagers were employed and what they did. The list actually included a couple of ANBU and Hunters that might have been thrown in there just to tell him that she was aware of what lay beneath the medical center.
"As for what we're good at… Well, we have Okumo connections for experimentations. Naoya-san can change a person's gender and face. I can do the same. As well as intricate surgeries to repair injuries, I also created a department to study illnesses. Especially those in regenerators. I know it's rare, but I see no reason to leave such a thing unattended. And as you saw, I am studying chakra networks and perhaps soon enough I will be able to perform surgeries on them as well as heal damage to them."
Tsiro looked over the paperwork. The details were sufficient for what he needed. "Akane, there are a few names on here that should not be here. Although they do work with your supplies and probably appear around here, the official purpose either needs to be changed or their names omitted from this type of documentation. We both know what is beneath the hospital. There is no need for anyone else to know or to be able to find out. The special procedures that are conducted might just save quite a few lives." Yes, he was making a reference to the torture.
He then moves on from the previous topic to the next topic. He nods his head as she explains what is currently going on in the hospital. "Where would you say we are medically compared to the other villages?" he asks.
Akane nodded slowly and then reached out to touch the papers in his hands. Immediately they ignited, burning completely away any evidence of the ANBU and Hunters names. "Of course.Though that was my personal list. The real one has no such things included." She offered him the proper papers with said names omitted entirely. The look in her jade eyes told him she had known possession what she was doing.
Steepling her fingers, Akane spoke in a quiet but strict tone. "I am aware of what goes on, yes. But I would like to enter into it as well. As an observer first and then as a student and perhaps a participant. But I would need your word to the ANBU downstairs for such a thing to occur. My reason? I want to be able to protect this village through any means necessary, though I am not ANBU or Hunter myself."
She kept his gaze steadily to show she meant that and then shifted in her seat, tapping her chin. "Hmm… We are superior to Suna and Iwa, certainly. From my recent visit to Kumo, I would say we are probably more advanced than they are… Especially as I tend to heal all villages in combined offensives anyway…. Obviously, Tea surpasses us for the moment and Konoha… Well… Probably about even. We have more stomach for the harsher realities but they have the likes of Taiki and the Hyuuga." She cracked a half smile. "Though you have an Uchiha so.. Perhaps it evens out."
Things seemed to get a bit more interesting. "That is not quite as simple as it sounds. Yes, my word does gain you access. Those who are working at it currently that are not on your list may object. I may, however, have a solution that will fit both sides. Allow me to think more on it. I will need to sort out all the details and then change some." His concerns were not that a high ranking med-nin wanted in on the torture. On the contrary, that would be a benefit to him. It was a matter of keeping the identities of everyone secret. Secret as things were supposed to be.
"Is there anything else you wanted to add on our previous subject?" Tsiro asks politely letting Akane know they had moved on from the hunter-nin topic.
Akane nodded and left it at that. Her request had been stated and received. That was all she could ask of such a sudden request. But she seemed to ponder his question a bit more. "No, I do not believe so. As I stated, in all of the former conflicts I have participated in, not only did I fight on the front lines, but I was more often than not, the medic directing the other villages. I have a reputation for such aid despite borders. I would assume you knew that already, however, considering it was my one real defiance against Meruin and I know it's in my files." She smiled a little then sipped her tea again. He would also be aware that it gave her quite a bit of leverage and leeway while traveling to most other countries. Even while Sunagakure was no longer an official ally, Akane could come and go as she pleased.
