Starring:
Date: January 6, 2015
Summary:
Akane is carried back to her temporary home in Kadomai after she gets badly injured in a mission. Her family sends a message to Kenta to request his help in treating her. Despite not trusting her completely, Kenta arrives to perform the surgery that would save Akane's life. He finds out a little more about her past and the cause of her split personality along the way.
"Surgical Procedures"
Kadomai
A messenger had been sent to Konoha seeking out Kenta if possible, then any doctor available that could work with medical ninjutsu. There had been a skirmish with Yuuma and his brother and Akane had just been brought back to Kadomai by her husband apparently in pretty bad shape. Bad enough she could not perform the proper surgery herself.
Assuming Kenta did come to Kadomai he would meet Kit out front of the house, the child's large golden eyes showing concern. She stood up and pointed at the house, trying to take Kenta's hand, still not speaking. She tugged lightly and pointed at the house to indicate he should go that way.
Whatever Kenta's misgivings are, Akane living in Kadomai with the Hokage's blessing. Being hired out to him as a mercenary means that she's one of his tools and that means Kenta should preserve that tool. The fact that she was apparently injured fighting the Silence and also a mother of three helps him commit to his decision. He arrives with a backpack full of medical equipment, which is stuffed heavier than usual due to his not knowing what he type of surgery he might need to perform. Thankfully, he's an organized enough packer that it's neither unbalanced nor bulging to the point that he can't move through a doorway. He squeezes back when Kit takes his hand and nods gently at her to indicate that he understands. Then, he sucks in a deep breath and heads into Akane's cottage to see what needs to be done.
Kit lead him into the house and to Akane who was laying in her bed, her hair done in a long braid. Her face was pale and she was covered with blankets. One of the gremlins hopped around and peered at Kenta, making a chittering sound like grinding metal before taking Kit's hand and leading the girl out of the room. The child went with no problem, even smiling as the gremlin distracted her.
Akane's eyes opened as Kit left and she spotted Kenta. a deep breath had her coughing and she pulled a cloth to her lips as she choked. It came away bloody. And when she spoke her voice showed exhaustion and pain.
"Kenta-san. I am sorry to bother you. Please, do as you must." She pushed the blankets down, exposing her torso, wrapped from above her breasts to the waist in thick, tight bandages. Blood showed through in places and some clear seepage as well. A hint of sweat on her forehead spoke of possible infection. he would of course know more after diagnosing her.
Kenta couldn't help staring at the gremlins. He's never seen anything like that before and he watches with eyes a little wider than normal until the one of them leads Kit out of the room. He glances at the others with a gaze swiftly turning wary, but the sight of Akane's deep injuries pulls his attention away quickly. At that point, his eyes train onto the other medic with laser focus. He quickly shucks off his backpack and starts unpacking the items that he brought with him. There's medicine, clean bandages, disinfectants, a collapsible microscope and just about every other of the basics else a medic might need in an emergency.
"Don't talk too much, Akane-san. You're hurt badly and I don't want you to use up energy that you don't have to," Kenta tells her somberly. "I'll take care of you. Don't you worry. If worst comes to worst, we have better medics at Konoha's hospital. I'll figure out a way to transport you there."
Akane almost chuckled, but it came out as a small smirk. she had walked quite a ways in this condition. When kenta sent the familiar chakra through her he would find that the clear seepage was from a cauterized puncture like an arrow had gone through her side and she had used her fire manipulation to seal the bleeding. She had several deep gashes all over her body. But it was the ribs that spoke of why the medic could not heal herself. AThey were almost completely shattered. Several fragments had pierced her lungs and caused bleeding, hense her cough. It was also clear that she had kept her injurues in place through sheer will and medical knowledge.
Green eyes watched him as he arranged his things, she reached over and tapped her hand on a scroll that was open on the stand. In a poof suddenly Kenta would find a variety of the most rare and valuable medical herbs laid out for him to utilize as he chose. It seemed to drain her and she closed her eyes forcing herself to breathe slowly, though shallowly.
What Kenta finds when he sends diagnostic chakra through Akane makes him grimace with worry. Medics can be very hard to kill, but so many rib fragments piercing the lung isn't good for anyone. It explains why Akane's mouth is flecked with blood and why she's having such hard trouble breathing. She might as well be drowning from her own fluid. "Oh… this isn't good at all," Kenta murmurs. He blinks and opens his mouth to protest when he feels the shift in the flow of chakra through Akane's chakra network, but she had already used her jutsu. Impressive though her collection of medical paraphernalia is, the way that she used up more of her strength is alarm. He browses the collection of herbs with his eyes and determine that he couldn't use any of them just yet, although several look very promising for after the surgery. First, the bone fragments.
"I'm going to give you a mild sedative. It'll dull the pain and you won't be able to move, but you won't completely fall unconscious. Just in case you sense something go wrong while I work on you," Kenta tells Akane. He trusts that even when injured, she'll have a better sense of what's happening inside her own body than he can externally. He carefully removes snips away the bandage around Akane's chest to expose the flesh beneath. Then, young medic-nin selects a syringe full of anesthesia from a collection that he brought with him. He bends to sterile a patch of skin on Akane's shoulder and injects her with the substance.
Akane watched his face and saw the realization on his face and nodded. She agreed with his diagnosis. She nodded once more as he explained the sedative. She had had much worse happen in the past with such sedatives. But she wasn't the type to shy away from such things. When the sedative started to work and gave her some relief to the pain she sighed softy. If one spends enough time in pain one becomes almost acclimated to it. So when it lessens, they feel like a weight is lifted from them. Such was the case here.
She let her eyes drift shut as she allowed herself to breath easier. Then she opened her eyes and slowly tilted her head, making sure she could respond if something went wrong. When she was satisfied she nodded slowly. As odd as it might be there was a level of trust in her eyes, faith in Kenta's honor.
Kenta watches Akane's muscles slowly relax as the sedative takes hold. He gently uses his fingers to feel her chest area, pressing very gently and sending out more pulses of diagnostic chakra at the same time to determine the best location to start out. With the pain dulled, it's a very unpleasant pressure to Akane instead of agony. "The deepest and most dangerous puncture is here," he pronounces after a moment. His fingers gently touches a location right under the woman's right breast. "I'm going to have to remove the bone fragment and drain the blood from your lung. You might find it hard to breath while I'm working on that."
Kenta takes another deep breath to fortify himself. Then, he performs a few hand seals and points the fingers of his right hand at the spot that he had touched. Medical chakra extends outwards from his finger tips to shape themselves into two long, thin needles with a slightly curved and flattened ends. He carefully, very carefully, eases them forward to sink through skin and flesh. Kenta works them around until he can securely pinch the piece of broken off rib between them. Then, he slowly manipulates the chakra surgical tools to ease the bone out of Akane's lung.
Akane nodded her understanding and agreement to his assessment. She did not appear overly uncomfortable being exposed a she was, but her eyes were very alert considering the sedative. She stared a bit but she was doing her best to keep track of what was going on. This was why she had asked for Kenta. This was why a medic could not perform the surgery on herself. The pain would have been dealt with but the angles required would have been impossible to remove the bone fragment.
She made a reassuring expression and patted his arm lightly before laying with that arm up beside her head, giving him a better angle of access to her ribs.
The inscision was still painful, though not as much as it should have been. Still, the medic did not even wince at the pain. Scars covered her body and if she had to be honest, the arrow to her side had only gone halfway in. It caused less damage (ironicly enough) to shove it the rest of the way through and break off the tip which she did before cauterizing the puncture herself. It was the burns left behind that gave her troubel now.
As Kenta began working the bone fragment out of her lung, her breathing became more shallow, a bit more labored, but she remained calm and collected. The bone itself was relatively small, liek a sliver of wood but it did plenty of damage in it's trip from her rib to her lung. However, Kenta would find he ahdd another problem, especially in the lungs. Her immune system had been compromised by an infection at the site of the largest gash and in her lungs. She had gone too long without treatment and had taken on an infection, hense the sweat on her brow and the slightly elevated temperature of her body.
"It's out," Kenta says encouragingly. He gives Akane a faint smile and dabs at his forehead with a sleeve. After another deep breath, Kenta bends to realigns the fragment of rib back into its proper place, like a piece of puzzle fitted to the whole and binds it firmly with a bit of medical chakra made sticky. He spends some time removing other smaller fragments out of Akane's lungs and setting them too, so that there'll be no obstructions to what he needs to work on next.
Eventually, Kenta forms a needle of solidified chakra from the tip of each finger of his left hand. The pincers extended from his right hand morphs to elongated surgical scissors. He eases the needles towards the flooded area of Akane's lungs, where he uses them to make a few calculated punctures that allow blood and pus to drain out of the air sacs. The chakra scissors snip off bits of flesh that's too damaged to heal properly and need to be removed. Kenta runs healing chakra into Akane's body even as he work. He has to keep adjusting the flow in minute amounts to help Akane's body reabsorb the nutrients from dead cells, regulate blood flow, clear out infection and a multitude of other tasks. The effort causes more sweat to seep from his forehead.
Akane finally showed a bit of discomfort as he continued working, her eyes faded slightly as she let herself fall more under the sedative's influence. Things coalesced in her mind and she sank into a half dreamlike state. In her mind things came to her and left and she sighed softly before mumbling something about her father. It sounded like she was begging him to stop something.. It diisturbed her.. to the point that she began twitching in the dream, the sedative keeping her from fully moving. Her hand clenched and then… suddenly her struggles ceased and her eyes dakrened to emeralds, the same as when she had fought Kenta in the forest.
The second sign of the personality switch was the hard expression on her face and the fact she did not seem to feel anything at all. She closed her mouth and watched Kenta as he worked on her body, silent. Her chakra shifted to a higher level of frequency as well, nto growing or fading, just subtlely shifting.
The moment he would notice she spoke, her voice gravelly, almost purring. "Don't worry, Doc. This One is not your enemy today."
Kenta's in the middle of washing out a particular bad spot of infection when he notices the way that Akane's chakra shifts. Then, he hears the quality of her voice and he stiffens noticeably. The way that she's talking is all too familiar. Kenta's eyes slowly trail up the other medic's chest and neck until his gaze has landed on her face. He worries at his lower lip a few times with his teeth, but his eyes end up narrowing almost immediately afterwards. "I hope not, because you're going to have a hard time moving without undoing the healing that I've done. That'll be a waste…" Kenta murmurs softly at her before he resumes his work. Concentration suffuses his posture and expression again, yet there's also a tight core of unease in him that refuses to let go.
A little while later, Kenta has taken the infection down to a level that's manageable with medicine. He turns his attention to the cauterized arrow wound. The scorched flesh seals the ends of Akane's blood vessels and keeps her from bleeding to death. At the same time, the amount of scarring and damage that it creatures prevents the flesh to knit easily. Kenta shifts the chakra in his right hand into the form of a thin scraper. He carefully runs it along the deep puncture and manipulates the chakra to to "dissolve" the scar tissue upon contact. Fresh bleeding starts again, but Kenta quickly forces changes the scraper into clamps to hold the flesh together while he places his left hand directly over the wound and flow medical chakra into the area to make the edges grow together.
Kyoujin watched him and his expression, nodding in a way that seemed to show him respect. Then she looked away, more for his benefit than anything. The work on her lungs, the scraping of the scar tissue, nothing garnered a reaction from this one. She watched him curiously as he started the bleeding again then worked to seal it. She seemed to be quite interested in what he was doing. At one point when he had to stop for a moment's breather, She tilted her head and spoke. "The Medic was having a bad dream. Now she's not. This One can remain still no matter what you do to her." It wasn't a challenge and it wasn't rude, she was simply stating a fact and had that almost child-like implicity to believe it fully. She might have been dangerous but she could also be reasoned with it seemed. In explaination she stated. "This One protects the Medic. Even from herself."
Kenta's eyes flick towards the other medic's face again. "Umm… That's good to know… " he says tentatively. "So you come out to… protect her when things get stressful. I guess that stressful things happen a lot…" He lowers his eyes back to his work, but keeps watching Kyoujin's expression from the corner of his gaze. His hands continue to move in a dexterous manner. Now, that the arrow wound's sealed, the last major repairs that he need to make are to the gashes in the woman's torso. Most of it involves flushing out foreign material, clamping the edges together and causing them to knit up like what he made the arrow wound did.
Kenta steps back and blows out a breath. The hard parts are all complete. His patient's far from fully healed, but no longer in danger of dying. A lot of rest and more treatment is needed for full recovery. This is also were all those expensive herbs come in. He moves away to clean up the mess that the surgery made, with the intend of checking out the selection of herbs afterwards.
Kyoujin watched Kenta work. She nodded a bit when he commented that she came out to protect Akane. It wasn't a falsehood it just wasnt the whole truth. Emerald eyes peered up at him and she frowned. He was uncomfortable with her side of the personality. But she waited until he had finished the surgery and went to look at her herbs before she spoke one last time. "She can help you with those." And her eyes faded to a jade tone.
Akane blinked several times and winced, a sign that she felt the pain she was really in. Kyoujin gloried in the pain, Akane, not so much. She turned her head and peered at kenta as he looked over her herbs.
"There is a vial of Quicksilver… in my pouch." She said, indicating an extract of an herb from the Land of Iron, used by the Samurai. It had an antibiotic use as well as a disinfectant. It also had a tendancy to wake people up. The main reason someone would create the eliixir though was that it was the base ingredient in some very useful medicines. It was /far/ above Expensive. Considering hte situation they could not really use it now… "Take.. it.. It's yours." The other herbs were very similar in their natures, expensive for many reasons and hand picked by the looks of it.
Kenta shakes his head. "I don't need any payment for my work. I'm a medic. I heal people. This is what I do," he tells Akane firmly while he browses through the herbs. He glances at her and blinks in surprise to see that her whole demeanor has changed again. At least he can be a little more relaxed with this version of her. "Umm… you're really a very confusing person, Akane-san. Or maybe a very confusion -two- people. I don't know what to make of you at all." He shakes his head a second time, but for an entirely different reason.
Kenta eventually picks up the vial of Quicksilver despite not having accepted it as payment. The reason soon becomes clear when he brings out a small mortar and tips a little of the elixir into it. He adds a few other herbs and two plant extracts that he recognizes in Akane's stash. To this goes the powdered remains of a particular tree lizard that he had brought with him. He begins to mash it all together using a pestle, making a rhythmic thump-thump sound that's probably as familiar to another medic-nin as a childhood lullaby.
Akane saw him relax visibly when he recognised her for who she waqs. His comment made her react with a light sweatdrop. "Forgive me. If you have something you would like to ask please feel free." She might or might not answer, but it could be worth his try. She watched him curiously as he began mixing his potion, following his movements and herbal selections. The combination he came up with made her smile lightly, impressed. She waited to see if he would ask her any questions….
Her eyes flickered to the dooorway and Kit's form zipped out of view again. Akane shook her head slowly. That silly child. She would have to take her out for a treat when she was up again.
Kenta silently considers Akane's offer. He's curious about her past and what caused her to have multiple personalities, but asking seems to be prying too much. He goes with an option that's much safer in his mind. "Ummm… so how long do you and your family plan on staying here in Kadomai? You kind of gave the impression that this isn't something that the Mizukage would necessarily approve of - assuming that he didn't secretly send you here himself. So, you're basically going to work with Konoha on matters regarding the Silence and then you're going to return to Kirigakure to try to take up your old life afterwards?"
Meanwhile, Kenta's still mashing all the medical ingredients together. The particular mixture that he's making takes the powerful antibiotic abilities of the Quicksilver and enhances it further by introducing complex compounds from some of the other herbs. It'll also greatly improve blood production and clear out toxins that's still linger in the body due to the serious infection that he had just cleaned up. Other substances promote proper tissue growth while downplaying the possibility of scar tissue build up. The one quality that Kenta doesn't really want is the Quicksilver's tendency of making people widely alert. He actually wants Akane to get some sleep, so he hunts around the selection of herbs and picks out a mushroom that would counteract it to some degree. When that gets added in, the mixture becomes more gummy instead of liquidy, making it easier for Kenta to start rolling the mixture into small balls.
Akane watched kenta's hesitation and knew he was curious about something but did not ask. His question was a bit touchy honestly, but she did not wish to lie to him. When she spoke it was with a hint of pain, emotional pain, and she did not use an honorific when referring to the Mizukage, suggesting either a very close relationship or a very disrespectful one. If the expression on her face was anything to go by, it was the former. "Meruin…. Wants something I can't give him. He did not send us here. I do not think he would be too happy for me to be put on the front lines of the war with the Silence. I'm worth too much to him alive."
She saw the addition of the mushroom and nodded slowly. "Impressive choice. You know your herbs." And his technique was very well trained. As he rolled the 'pills' out for her she watched him closely, seeming to try and decide on something. Then she spoke with a soft tone in her voice. "Why don't you ask me what you really wanted to, Akiyama-san? I know there is something and since you do not wish to take payment consider this it. What do you really want to know?"
"I see…" Kenta's brow furrows. There are several reasons why Akane would be too valuable to the Mizukage to risk. The foremost two that pops to mind is that of an intimate relationship or one of material possession. Neither seem to please him much, but neither do they surprise him. It's Kirigakure after all…
Kenta's motions falter as he tries to think of a way to deflect Akane's assessment of his curiosity. "Ummm…" In a way, it's as uncomfortable to him as his question had been for Akane. The medic-nin purses his lips and resumes rolling the pills until he ends up with about a dozen the size of his thumbnail. He starts wrapping them up in clean wax paper, all except for one. "Ummm… I kind of want to know if you've always been like this. I mean, two people in one body. That kind of stuff usually happens due to mental trauma. I don't need to know your history. Mostly, I'm wondering how you can handle something like that."
Akane nodded slowly as kenta confirmed what she had figured. As a medic or doctor, her condition was unique and thus interesting. She Took a breath and let it out slowly, and while she was somber, she did not pull away from the truth. "When i was six my father killed my mother and brother in front of me. I was next. I killed him with a kitchen knife.. but not before he hit me with the axe." Her fingers trailed over the scar on her left eye that ranged from forehead to cheek. "Seeing that and then killing my own father… Kyoujin took over and I lived as her for a while in Fuuma Alley. As a medic I know now it was a mental fracture. Not easy to fix." She looked at him, honesty on her face. "You just roll with what life sends at you, endure the pain and hope the good times are worth all the bad."
"Not easy to fix at all," Kenta agrees softly. The idea of such a thing happening to a young girl appalls him. In fact, he couldn't even really wrap his mind around it. It's completely different than his own upbringing. It sounds like the events of a super angsty novel. He'll need to talk with some of his more worldly friends to find out how common such a thing really is. "Ummm… I would have suggested trying to find a Yamanaka medic that specializes in psychology, like I suggested for Kit, but I guess there aren't really any available in Kirigakure. Now that you've lived with it for so many years, it's no longer possible to fix it either. Even if it is possible, the side effects would be many and who knows how it'll change your personality. You could end up someone that's neither you or… ummm… Kyoujin. Maybe someone that even your family can't stand. That would be very tragic after everything else that's occurred."
Akane nodded and gave Kenta a reassuring expression. "Indeed." His assessment was correct. "Ishino knows and has dealt with her. If she is ever a problem, she will obey him or he will take her down. Remember that." She leaned her head back a bit more into the pillows. "We are working on a balance between she and I, I let her help me fight and she doesn't harm those around me. Unfortunately, the day we frst met, you came upon that young Uchiha boy challenging her. She was defending Kit-chan in her mind. She had just fought to save her and to keep your two shinobi from Yuuma. If she had not stopped them, Yuuma would have killed them. So she was defensive." A shift, and a flinch and she breathed a bit deeper.
Kenta frowns at that. "Your relationship with your other half is complicated. It's sounds like trying to walk across a slender rope while carrying an unevenly loaded pack full of foraged medicinal plants on your back…" His voice trails off when he finishes wrapping up the second to last ball of medicine. He looks around until he spots a container of water and a cup. After filling the cup halfway, he brings it back to Akane and offers her the last ball of medicine at the same time. "You're a medic too, so you know what to do. Eat two of these twice a day along with lukewarm water. It helps if you can eat a little bit right before, but not to the point that you're feeling heaviness in the stomach. Ummm… eating won't be so good for you now, so we'll skip that. You can take a long nap and have your husband make you some easily digest gruel as an evening meal to go with a second pill."
Akane nodded in agreement once more but she was starting to feel the drain from the surgery so when he brought over the pills she accepted the water and took them silently. Swallowing the entire glas of water, she set the glass down again. "Yes. Thank you, Akiyama-san." She could feel the Quicksilver working and knew she would probably be very awake for at least 10 minutes before the other kicked in. It was called Quicksilver for a reason. His suggestion of gruel made her nod. "Yes. And once I get more rest, now that the worst is dealt with I can continue healing myself as well." She reached up and tried to take Kenta's hand in both of hers, a gentle squeeze showing her gratitude. "Come to me if ever you need aid."
Kenta nods slightly and offers a faint after a moment's hesitation. "I'll keep you in mind if I ever need another medic by my side, Akane-san," he says. Then, the young man reaches out to tug Akane's blanket back up to her protect her bare front from the cold. He'd prefer getting cleaning bedding for her and a sponge down to remove dried blood from her torso, but that's a job for a husband. He doesn't know where everything's kept either.
As Kenta moves to pack away the items that he took out of his own pack, he tells Akane, "Please tell your husband that he can go look for me at the hospital if anything happens. It's going to be easy for you to injure yourself again until you recover more fully." Kenta straightens to strap on the backpack. Afterwards, he dips a shallow bow towards the other medic. "Rest and heal well, Akane-san." He heads out the cabin door to inform Kit that she can go inside to keep her mother company now.
