Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Curative Career of Kaori the Ninja Nurse ❯ The Injured Genin ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The Injured Genin

“Ugh, another day,” Kaori moaned into her pillow. Yes she loved her job, but she loved sleep nearly as much. But then she thought about her sleeping prince and smiled. She stretched her limbs lazily and then rose from her bed. She forced herself to do her despised morning exercises. She was not a shinobi, but she had some training long ago and that reminder made her stick to her exercise schedule.

Kaori started bending and stretching for five minutes, then jumping jacks for two minutes, then pushups, just twenty, then sit-ups, fifty was the usual goal. She finished with some more stretches before she headed to the bathroom.

Breakfast was simple. A look in the refrigerator told her it was time for a trip to the market. She poured the last bit of orange juice into a cup and that was breakfast. Now time to practice her chakra channeling and molding.

“Bunshin no jutsu,” she announced and two and a half bunshin appeared. The “half” was an incomplete attempt, an almost unrecognizable amorphous figure that looked as if a large boulder had rolled over it. “Henge no jutsu,” she announced as she transformed into Haruno Sakura (for some reason the genin had popped into her head). Sakura, the thought of the girl annoyed her and she was annoyed that she was annoyed

`Stop being so judgmental,' she scolded herself again. `She's only 12, 13 years old, of course she's a selfish brat. What do you think you were like back then? Didn't you have a crush on some boy?'

`Did I? I can't remember anymore. I've lost touch with just about everyone. All the ones I admired are now either dead, gone, or busy with their own lives.'

She held the transformation for as long as she could, which was only a couple of minutes. Sadly, she had not improved since she was twelve years old. But if she didn't practice every day, she would lose what little power she had. At least she could heal minor cuts and bruises with chakra.

`That's all I am - a band-aid,' she thought ruefully as she changed into her uniform. `But I will be the best, most waterproof, nonstick, anti-bacterial band-aid possible,' she thought encouragingly to herself as she applied her makeup.

Kaori was not a vain women; vain women did not become nurses and emptied bedpans and bottles of urine. But she did care about her appearance. First, a light layer of powder carefully matched to her skin type and color, then a stroke of dark brown eyeliner under each eye, a touch of blush on each cheek, and finally carefully coloring her lips with a lip pencil which stayed on better than lipstick. Patients always felt better seeing a pretty young nurse rather than some old hag that reminded them of their mortality. So in effect the makeup was for her patients as well.

Being a senior nurse, she had the privilege of choosing her hours and she opted for the normal 9 to 5 schedule. But it never seemed to be 9 to 5. She always ended up doing overtime, usually leaving at 7, sometimes even midnight. But someone had to do it and the younger, less reliable nurses, cared more about their social life than their patients.

Kaori resolved that her patients came first, before any man, and that meant today it would be Hatake Kakashi, who just happened to be a very handsome man, though rather immobile at the moment.

When she arrived at the hospital, the first thing she did, as she did every morning, was to clock in with her time card and check her inbox. There was another pile of paperwork from yesterday that she was supposed to enter into the computer, including more notes on Kakashi's and Sasuke's cases. She decided to check in on her patients before tacking the tedious paperwork. Since Sasuke and Lee were in the same wing, she headed there first.

Lee was already awake and doing his physical therapy exercises in the courtyard. Actually he was already beyond doing his normal exercises and was over exerting himself as usual. Kaori sighed as she watched Lee in his green jumpsuit. His injuries had improved since he was admitted to the hospital but he still favored his left arm and leg which had been crushed. He still had to use a crutch and as he was doing pushups, she could see he was clearly leaning more on his right arm.

"...291...292...293..."

“Lee-san, 300 pushups is not reasonable at this stage in your recovery. All you're doing is straining your muscles and not giving them a chance to recover…” Kaori scolded for the umpteenth time to no avail. That was her professional advice, secretly she was impressed by the sheer number of pushups he could do while injured and with one hand.

But as usual Lee ignored her and continued. Men, even boys, were just too stubborn, and shinobi were even more stubborn. She watched as Lee collapsed at 298 pushups and as he swore to himself to do 400 the next time.

“Now will you let me check your vitals?” Kaori asked as she guided Lee back to his room.

“Kaori-san, thank you for your assistance but I am able to return to my room unaided,” Lee said politely as he shook off her helping hand.

Kaori followed Lee's hobbling figure, ready to assist him at a second's notice should he stumble.

Back in his room, she noted the barely touched breakfast. She eyed the bran muffin hungrily as she did not have a good breakfast. Hospital food was better than nothing. "Lee-san, you have to eat to regain your strength."

"I am sorry, but I am just not hungry in the morning," Lee replied indifferently.

Kaori noticed the boy still looked depressed and she tried to think of something to cheer him up. "Hey, I saw Haruno Sakura yesterday. She's a nice girl isn't she? I know she plans on visiting today." Of course Kaori neglected to tell Lee that it was because Sasuke had been admitted to the hospital again. "You can't face her with a rumbling stomach, can you? Wouldn't it be embarrassing if..."

Lee needed no more words of encouragement as he grabbed the bran muffin and crammed the entire thing into his mouth, and seemingly swallowed it whole without any chewing. The chaser was a glass of milk, also downed without any apparent reflex of the esophagus.

'What the hell? Is that a special technique?' Kaori wondered. 'I thought only the Akimichi clan could do that...Maybe it's a snake technique...' She continued to watch in fascination as the green tinted rehydrated nutritionally fortified scrambled eggs were shoveled into his mouth at lightning speed, followed by a wedge of orange. In a total of 9.5 seconds, Lee was finished with breakfast, or he would have been if he had remembered to remove the orange peel before shoving into his mouth. Unlike the other soft foods, the orange wedge would not go down and Lee started to turn a funny shade of blue which clashed violently with his green jumpsuit.

Kaori quickly got behind him and wrapped her arms around his mid section. With her fists folded together she pushed hard, in and up. The action dislodged the orange peel from Lee's throat and harmlessly landed on the breakfast tray.

"You...you saved my life!" Lee started to shed tears of joy. "All that I have been through...I thought how pathetic... to be done in by a piece of citrus...You are a life-saving angel!"

Kaori smiled at the over emotional adolescent. "Not an angel, just a professionally trained board certified nurse with framed diplomas to prove it. Please eat more slowly next time, in case I'm not around. I'm sure Sakura-san would be very sad if something happened to you."

Lee nodded and looked at his caretaker in a new light as she shoved a thermometer in his mouth and wrapped a blood pressure monitor around his arm. 'This woman is beautiful both inside and out. She is caring and good and smart. An angel. A perfect angel. She would be perfect for my perfect sensei. Gai sensei I found the one for you!'

Lee's temperature read 99.2 and his blood pressure 140 over 80. That was normal for him as they were always a bit above average. The medics explained that it was because of his passionate (hot-blooded) spirit. "Looks good. Any new developments?" Kaori asked kindly.

Lee shook his head and replied sincerely, "Thank you for the excellent care and concern you have shown me all these weeks."

"No problem, it's all part of my job," she smiled.

"No, it is not. You are really a good caring person. Your...precious person is very lucky."

"Precious person? Do you mean like a boyfriend?" Kaori laughed. The poor boy was probably developing a crush on her, quite common. "No, I'm afraid I've been too busy to find that special someone."

'So she is available! Perfect!' Lee smiled back. "I am sure he will come along soon...very soon." He gave her a wink with a shiny smile and a thumbs up.

"Well, I guess you never know. I'll be back later. Please get some rest," Kaori advised as she left Lee's room.

Lee nodded. Rest. Yes, he would now spend some time thinking about how he could get nurse Kaori together with Gai-sensei.

-...-...-...-

Next up was Uchiha Sasuke. Kaori heard murmurs behind the closed door to his room and wondered if he were coming out of his coma. But it was just that girl Sakura sitting by his bed and reading from a book. 'She must have arrived as soon as visiting hours were open,' Kaori surmised.

“Oh, hello Kaori-san,” Sakura greeted her with a sad smile. “I've been reading to Sasuke-kun like you suggested. I tried to pick out something he'd like. `The Count of Monte Cristo.' It's an adventure story about a man who exacts revenge…” Her blue-green eyes started to tear as she thought about Sasuke's futile attempt to seek vengeance against his own brother. “He'll be better soon, won't he?”

“Yes of course. We just have to be patient. Any type of healing takes time,” Kaori said encouragingly even though it was unlikely to be any time soon. “And remember, Naruto-san and the great sannin Jiraiya-sama will be bringing back Konoha's legendary healer, Tsunade-sama.”

“I wish they'd hurry up,” Sakura frowned, “the two of them don't seem to be terribly reliable. Naruto's always fooling around and that Jiraiya-sama writes smut books.”

Kaori raised her eyebrows in surprise. That she didn't know. Why did this girl know and she didn't? Well then again, it's not like she read that kind of stuff, but then again Sakura was too young…how did she know? But Kaori let it pass. It was probably from shinobi gossip and she didn't need to know stuff like that to do her job. “I'm sure the two know how important it is to bring her back to the village. I'm sure they're spending all their energy and resources looking for her. I bet within the week they'll be back.”

Sakura nodded and smiled at her encouraging words. Neither one of them knew about Jiraiya's female proclivities and did not realize just how long it would actually take for Jiraiya to complete his investigation.

“So are you visiting Kakashi-sensei after this?” Kaori inquired.

“I'm going to stop by to see Lee-kun and then I'll look in on Kakashi-sensei. I need to run some errands for my parents and do some training and then I'll come back to visit Sasuke again.”

“Do you think you'll have time to talk or read to your sensei?” asked Kaori, trying hard not to lose her patience with this love obsessed girl.

“Well, quite honestly, I don't have much to say to him. He's only close to Sasuke, I think. Besides, Kakashi-sensei prefers…adult romance novels and I don't like those,” Sakura explained. She figured everyone knew about Kakashi's taste in reading material so Kaori would understand what she meant. “I'm sure his friends will drop by and talk to him. Like Gai sensei, he'll be visiting Lee soon.”

Kaori nodded and wrote down the latest info from the monitors onto Sasuke's chart. As expected, there had been no change in his condition. On her way to her next patient, she thought about what a sweet polite boy Lee was, nothing like that arrogant Uchiha brat who never thanked her for anything during his last stay. He just looked at her with those cold, but beautiful, black eyes as if the service she provided were nothing less than expected from a subservient catering to her lord and master.

Too bad Haruno Sakura was obsessed with someone like that. Too bad she couldn't see that Lee was a much better, much more deserving person. Of course it was obvious why...Lee just did not rate on the looks scale.

First there was the hair. Only little children had bowl cut hair like that. But that could be easily remedied with a good pair of scissors for a nice layered look. Then there was the abnormally thick eyebrows that looked as if they could fall off his face at any moment and start crawling toward you like in some B horror flick. A little waxing should do it. It would be painful but that kind of pain was nothing compared to what Lee went through in his fight with that Sand genin. And then the clothes - all women know that clothing makes the man. Unless he were training he really should not be wearing a monochrome mold green jumpsuit all the time. That should be for field camouflage, not daily wear. The boy needed something more fashionable and... less green.

-…-…-…-

Kaori finished her morning rounds in the children's wing and was on her way to the adult wing when she passed by Lee's room and heard Lee's sensei noisily encouraging his genin to do more exercises.

"That's it Lee, no pain no gain. Real men don't feel pain. It's all in the mind..."

"...323...324...325..."

Kaori quickly cut in, “Stop! What do you think you're doing? Lee-san needs rest, not more training!”

Lee was in the middle of doing a sit-up in bed as Gai held down his ankles. The two peas of a pod stopped and looked at the young woman whose face was red with frustration. Gai immediately stood up and bowed to the lovely lady before him. “Good morning nurse Kaori! Thank you again for taking such excellent care of my young protégé!”

"Kaori-san, Gai-sensei was just helping me strengthen my abdominal muscles which were not affected during my fight," said Lee.

"By strengthening Lee's abdominal muscles, that will relieve the pressure on his back and back muscles which were injured," Gai explained.

Kaori thought about it and it did make sense, but still... "Just don't over do it. 300 is plenty."

"300? Why I was able to do that many when I was a toddler. Before I could walk..." Gai boasted.

"300 is plenty," Kaori insisted. "By the way, Gai sensei, I thought you'd want to know that both Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-san are both in stable condition but still unconsious. Their brainwave activity indicates they're in a coma state and will remain so indefinitely. Talking or reading to the patient is supposed to help stimulate the brain so Sakura-san has been reading to Sasuke-san but I would like someone to read to Kakashi-sensei. If you could..."

"Read? Like in books? Such a static activity does not suit someone with as much vitality as I have. Can't remember the last time I read a book, probably back in the Academy. Well, I have read training guides and books on taijutsu by past masters (they had pictures), but Kakashi isn't interested in books like that. I'm sorry, but I have to spend my limited free time with Lee here to ensure he recovers to reach his full youthful potential. I'm sure you'll be able to find someone else for such a mundane task."

"Well, Kurenai-sensei listed herself as Kakashi's contact. Is she his..."

"Kurenai and her team are on a mission but they'll be back tonight."

"What about Asuma-sensei?"

"Mission."

Kaori sighed. After the war, it seemed everyone was busier than ever, especially with Konoha out to prove its strength and rebuilding at the same time. "Why are you here instead of on a mission?" Kaori asked curiously.

"Hah, I'm glad you asked. As industrious as I am, I finished my mission in record time. They would have taken a normal team all day, but I made my team get up before dawn, early bird gets the worm you know. Following my example, my team used our super speed and efficient teamwork to accomplish everything within hours, so now I have free time to spend with my precious Lee before our next mission." Actually, Tenten and Neji just watched as Gai did everything himself in order to expedite the mission (C mission to capture wild raccoons, boars, and a wolf, all possibly rabid).

"That's quite...admirable," Kaori admitted. Such devotion to a student was rare... and rather peculiar actually. "Well, you two take it easy okay? I have to get back to work," Kaori said as she continued toward the adult wing.

After the pretty nurse was out of view, the injured genin turned to his sensei and said, “I think nurse Kaori-san is wonderful! She would be perfect for you!”

“Hmm? Well, she is a lovely flower, but not as close to perfection as I am.” Gai ran his fingers through his perfectly neat head of hair and struck a model's pose with his hands on his hips and his broad chest stuck out. 'She's kind of lacking in the chest area,' he added to himself.

“But she saved my life today!”

“What! What happened? My precious Lee's life was in danger? Who dared…let me at him!” Gai cracked his knuckles dangerously.

“A piece of dangerously cut fruit got stuck in my throat. I could have died, but nurse Kaori saved me!” Lee started to tear up at the thought of his near death encounter and the angel who had saved him.

“I see…" Konoha's noble green beast evaluated. "Then it's been pre-destined! Nurse Kaori and I are meant to be together!” announced Gai with an obsessive gleam in his eye.

Just about everyone, and no one better than his eternal rival, knew how obsessive Gai could be once he latched onto an idea.

-...-...-...-