| First Impressions Are So Important. [Closed to Kakashi & Haruichi] | [Feb. 28th, 2008|11:50 pm] |
Set five years previously. Three weeks after the Kyuubi attack.
The hospital was busy. The hospital was always busy--that was the hallmark of any good hospital--but the last month had seen a marked increase in patients. The lucky ones just had Kyuubi-sized claw marks, the unlucky had missing limbs, missing families, missing minds... Three floors of wrecked human beings and not enough medics to stick them back together. The war with Rock was over. Long over. But the fox had smashed the borders right open, and Konoha was doing its best just to stay afloat in the wake of its aftermath. To survive the constant attacks of other villages taking advantage of the carnage.
ANBU was the worst hit. But that was what happened when you existed to serve as a front line. At least it meant they weren't willing to turn away a single volunteer. Not even a fifteen-year-old one whose jounin jacket still didn't fit properly.
Kakashi stood in the emergency room of Konoha's lone hospital long enough to know they were pushed to the limit and beyond. His arm wasn't badly broken--the bone was still inside the skin, he could flex his elbow--and the chidori burn across his palm was painful, but he could treat that himself. He could treat both himself, really. He could still stand. He could walk, which was more then most shinobi here could claim.
He didn't need to be here.
Kakashi slipped out before one of the harried medics could notice him and made his rooftop-way back to ANBU's HQ. He was careful not to slip, channelling chakra to stick his bloody sandals to roof tiles. It took him a little longer then he would've liked, especially because he was still burning energy from his last soldier pill. Surely it was too soon to be crashing yet?
His room was still new and barely furnished, but his old room had been barely furnished, so at least that was familiar. And it would smell like him. He just had to climb three flights of stairs--the elevator was still broken--and work out how to splint a broken arm with a burned hand. Then he would have to get a new arm-guard from the quartermaster to replace the damaged one--provided there were any spare that were small enough--and he would probably be mission ready in a day or two. He could run missions one-handed.
Really he was doing the sensible thing. |
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