Professional Conduct [Naoki's Examination]

[Kazumi]

The hour was drawing late and a chill was beginning to settle over the village as the sun drew back into the horizon. The medic-in-training had been working for the past fifteen hours, and it was nearing time for her shifts for the day to come to end. Even with the end looming on the horizon, she still had a few tasks to wrap up for the day. Suzume stood by the water cooler on the third floor, taking a momentary break as she reviewed over the charts for the last few patients, weariness beginning to show in her eyes until a very familiar name caught her attention, nearly rending her grip from the clipboards in her small moment of recognition.

...

"Samejima Naoki Called a distracted nurse from behind the large main desk. The middle aged woman continued to read from a large document as she awaited the girl to approach. If she promptly approached the woman would continue, "your examination will begin shortly. Please proceed up to the third floor through the elevators on your right. Room 321, just follow the signs." Her eyes never left whatever it was that she was reading, Naoki's senses unable to determine its exact nature, but she could somehow get the feeling it had little to do with what the woman was speaking of.

She continued, "once you arrive, please remove all your clothing and place it in the plastic bag provided for you on the bed." The nurse paused a moment and took a moment to glance up, adding, "that includes your shoes." She looked back down to read and continued, "then put on the medical gown that you will find on the bed there and wait patiently in the room. A female medical staff will arrive shortly after to begin the examination." She took a long slow breath before continuing even further, "I remind you to answer all questions truthfully and to the best of your ability. All answers and test results will be entered into your shinobi records to measure your health, fitness, capabilities and over all well being. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action from village administration."

 

[Samejima]

Man, I'd forgotten how goddamn cold this place is... Naoki shuffled into the room, and after closing the door behind her, she began to undress. First came the monochromatic set of basic ninja garb, then the standard-issue ninja sandals, and finally the pair of socks she had on under the sandals. She'd had bandages tied around her chest to keep them from getting in her way, and was unsure of whether or not to remove them since it wasn't really clothing, but she took them off anyway along with the rest of her undergarments, then swiftly tying on the gown to keep from flashing any hapless medical staff that happened to come in. Her past in the ring was over now, and she was settled back into society. The butt-whooping I'd get if mom ever found out what I did back there... Her expression fell from neutral to ashamed and remorseful, wondering if she would ever be able to fully forgive herself for doing that to herself. She knew she would need to discuss it at some point, she couldn't bear lying to her parents, but she hadn't even told her aunt yet. The chuunin resolved to tell said aunt and ask her for advice on the matter once she got home.

Speaking of getting home, this was just a regular check-up so it wouldn't take too long. Maybe I'll get her a little gift before heading home! It's probably about time to get a new pack of paper for her anyway. Naoki took a deep breath in preparation, more for the conversation back home than what would amount to a quick pat-down and an interrogation before being sent on her way, if her memory of health check-ups served her.

 

[Kazumi]

It took her longer than it had any right too, and this left the patient sitting along in the examination room for nearly ten minutes before Suzume mustered up the nerve to knock on the door. Normally she would have burst right in, her desire to keep on schedule outweighing the worry of catching a patient off guard. A few seconds passed before she turned the handle and made her way inside, clutching the clipboard to her hand.

She was still recognizable to the kunoichi, certainly, but she looked like she had aged a decade or more. There were lines in her face and she seemed slightly shriveled, as if she had been a wet rank that was hastily rung out over a sink. She forced a smile as she closed the door behind her, trying to appear more healthy and chipper than she felt. It was not just whatever ailment that she had been afflicted with, it was also her own mixed emotions with seeing Naoki like this. It was the same reason that she barely saw her own family, there was a shame in how she looked and felt, but she still could not bring herself to ask for help.

"Good morning Naoki, we will get these out of the way rather quickly. I do not want to take up too much of your time." The medic-in-training kept her tone crisp and professional, which took more effort than it should have. She tried to hide it, but her breathing sounded as if she had just jogged around the village, and she knew that would be the first thing Naoki would notice. So, she plunged right ahead to try and keep any questions from being directed towards her, "it says here that this will be your full reinstatement examination. Unfortunately that means it will be more extensive than the regularly yearly checkup." She paused a moment, looked up to Naoki, "congratulations, by the way," she added before shifting back to the professional tone.

"I will need to check your basics vitals and physicals. Height, weight, blood pressure, breathing, vision and," she paused a moment after registering what she just said. Hesitating a moment long she plowed full steam ahead, speaking even more quickly now, "now if you could just step over to the scales we can go ahead and get started, shall we?"

 

[Samejima]

"Suzu...me?"

It was unmistakably her voice, but she seemed... different. "Oh, uh... thanks. But--" The barreling forth of examinations made sure the now-chuunin is unable to ask anything about Suzume herself, but she complied with everything the good doctor would have lined up for her.

"S-sure, just gimme a second." Naoki proceeded to remove the training weights she had on whenever she went out on patrols. She'd finally gotten back into the habit of doing so, if only to try and regain her sense of normalcy. They were a little tight now that she'd grown so much, but tying them together with some bandages seemed to work alright outside of the occasional loss of circulation. There was a total of 20 lbs on her, easing into her old regimen of 50. Of course, while the weights made it harder to move, they also hit much harder when she slipped them over her knuckles. They make for some great pickpocket-stoppers.

She stepped on the scale, and it would return a weight of about 158 lbs. At a height of 5'10", she was a little heavier than most women her height, but it was all muscle and definitely not the sweets she'd been gorging herself on since her return. Most of the other tests would return normal, except vision and hearing of course, and the reflex test would see her leg kicking out a little more forcefully as it was adjusting to the lack of ankle weights. If Suzume showed any surprise during that section, Naoki would chuckle and apologize about it, joking, "Ahaha, I guess my leg's really getting used to the whole chuunin thing!"

 

[Kazumi]

As they progressed along, Suzume proceeded to record all of the results. From the impartial eye she was doing an admirable job of being impartial to the patient, but that impartiality easily bled over into cold indifference. She did not use the standard vision test, when it came time for it. Shinobi were a strange lot and there were always caveats that needed to be made depending on the specifics of any given individual. So she had her point out details of items around the room that would have otherwise been outside of her field of view. It still astonished Suzume to this day how accurate she was able to be without even being able to see. Was it possible for other people to learn how to be this adept?

"That covers the basics. Now we will just need a few more specific things from you and a draw of blood to run a few tests." Suzume set the clipboard down on the edge of the bed as she made her way to the cabinet to pull out the supplies, consisting of a drawing syringe and a few other tidbits. She spoke as she worked, presuming that Naoki was the cooperative sort and didn't have an irrational fear of needles. One would hope being stabbed by dozens of senbon over the course of her academy training would have driven that from her, but there are few stranger folk than shinobi.

"According to your files, you are able to..." she paused a moment as she tied off the upper part of Naoki's arm, looking over at the clipboard for some information. "Open chakra gates." The term was vaguely familiar, but nothing she knew much about. She figured it was just a fancy way to say using more chakra. "Once we finish here, I will need you to demonstrate that for our records." She casually stuck the needle into the woman's arm, blood filling the receptacle with ease. "It says here that you have opened four of them." She said as she tried to read the board from over her shoulder, exchanging vials to collect more of the blood. "If you can still do so, I will need you to do that as well... or if you can do more, I guess." If this was a legitimate thing, she figured she should have known this by now, but regardless of her medical training she really was not the scholarly sort.

 

[Samejima]

While the woman was not averse to being given shots, blood draws made her somewhat squeamish. The feeling of blood rushing away from her body was not a good one, and it took a lot of her willpower to remain still while Suzume drew it, but she would manage rather well. On the topic of the gates, she would become visibly uneasy. "Well, I can open the first and second ones no problem, but past that it gets a little... finicky." Naoki would go on to explain that she had only ever opened the third and fourth gates once before, and it was by accident in the ring while she fought for her life. "I've tried to open them on my own after that, but it doesn't get anywhere. I never really asked anyone here about it before since I don't know if I'll need that any more than I do my regular training, and that takes enough of each day already..."

Naoki wondered a little about how little of herself she knew. She didn't know the origins of the thing with the hearing and why opening a gate really carefully was able to restore her sight for some time; she didn't know why she was able to open the gates, though she did remember vaguely her time with the Main Branch Sennin training to open the first two. It might be time to seek out some more training to master the rest of the gates, especially since she'll likely start getting assigned more dangerous missions. "Um... did you still want me to try and open the two I can get?"