[Mission] Hospital Rounds 2

Hotoke got a mission scroll from one of the early morning birds, just as he was waking up. This was a strange thing, because he had just completed one, and hadn't asked for another in quite some time. He glanced at the scroll, saying that he was needed at the hospital to alleviate some of the stress the doctors work load. This was nearly identical to the mission he had just completed, so he thought it might be some sort of error in the city's office system. However, there was a different line of text in the mission, mentioning another genin. So, Hotoke put on his clothing quickly, as it seemed that he was a bit late, so he skipped his normal morning ritual, and simply grabbed a hand full of cereal and a small bottle of milk on his way out of the door.

As he headed towards the hospital, he would munch down the hand full of cereal while drinking his milk as well, until he came onto the hospital entrance. He had made pretty good time, but was out of breath, and seemed to be there a little bit earlier than expected. He then looked around for the person he was supposed to do the hospital rounds with.

Serila awoke before the sun crested the horizon of the city. She didn’t expect the falcon on her window sill but smile all the same. The young shinobi offer the bird to rest on her arm and walked to her kitchen, where she proceeded to make a small breakfast of eggs and bacon. The bird gained a small slice of bread to munch on as Karite slowly made her way into the kitchen to eat the breakfast of steak prepared for her. The big cat simply nodded at the falcon before lapping at her water.

The lioness growled at Serila signaling her interest in the scroll, so the girl took the scroll and opened it up on the table and read it aloud. They both found out that they were to work at the nearby hospital along with another genin. She smiled leaning down to scratch behind her companions ears, right as they both changed forms. Karite became an elegant white cheetah, the black spots even darker looking due to the rich snow white fur on the body. Serila smiled feeling her hands and feet grow tougher, due to the callus skin growing there, she smiled seeing the fur form on the tops of her feet and hands, looking so soft and fluffy. She knew it was a waste of chakra every morning but she felt like if she was in the same form as the day before it was like wearing the same clothes two days in a row.

After breakfast and the sending of the bird away, with a happy smile and full belly for them both, she donned her black sundress and left her whip at home. She wouldn’t need a weapon or anything deadly at a hospital. She left her house with a smile and a small amount of ryo for food, it was about 30 ryo. Karite was walking slowly beside her and they reached the hospital after only a small bit of walking, since it was early in the morning they both sat down on a bench in on the side of the street and waited.

A few hours later Karite saw a young man hurrying to the hospital with a scroll and gave a small growl to wake up Serila from the nap she had drifted off to. They both stood up and stretched legs and arms before slowly making way over to the odd gentleman and with a nervous smile Serila held out her hand to him from behind but pulled back being nervous. Karite shook her head before growling towards the young man.

Hotoke skid to a stop in front of the hospital, and it seemed that his partner was already there, because a sudden growl alerted him to the presence of a small animal. Hotoke turned rather fast, expecting some sort of wild animal to be there, and he wasn't quite ready to be attacked, especially early in the morning. He also wasn't very talented with combat, so he was a bit worried. It seemed that the threat was a lot more than what he had suspected, as it was a large cat, that looked well groomed, but he hadn't seen an animal like this before, but it was definitely a large cat that seemed fit for some sort of flat lands, due to the powerful looking back legs. The look of fear was still on Hotoke's face, however, and this probably didn't bode well for his first encounter with the young woman that was going to be working with him in the hospital. Seeing the beautiful cat and the attractive young woman that was obviously his partner today, Hotoke relaxed, untensing his muscles and let out a sigh.

"Heh, you startled me a bit. Hi, I'm Azai Hotoke. I assume you're going to be my partner today, so nice to meet you."

Hotoke would bow, before lightly grasping her hand(if she gave it to him), and giving it a firm but gentle hand shake. He was attempting to be as courteous as possible, as was in his nature. His violet eyes would look at the cat again, and this time he would lean a tiny bit forward.

"Nice to meet you to. The cat is beautiful; is it a boy or girl?"

Hotoke loved animals, and even learned quite a bit from studying them. He loved to study them alive if possible, but sometimes he would be given animals that had to be put down or were killed from an accident. He didn't like when they died, and he was slightly ashamed at himself from how much he liked to dissect them and learn from them, but then again, did they count as animals if they were already dead? Hotoke was pondering this for a moment, but then he realized that they needed to get into the hospital.

"Alright, let's do this!"

Hotoke was very excited when it came to working at the hospital, as he learned so much there

Spoiler:

Serila looked in fear at the young man in front of her. She took a deep breath as she noticed he was cute, he wasn’t the cutest she had even seen but really cute all the while. She normally couldn’t even talk to others who are average but a cute boy, now that was trouble for her. She held out her paw and squeaked with a nod towards him. The girl had a full red face as she felt hi skin on her callused one. Karite was growling low and shaking her great head before nudging the girl on the thigh with her might head.

Serila looked down and nodded taking a deep breath. She opened her mouth to talk but could only squeak when words tired to come out, it was hard for she had nothing to hide behind. In her mind she kept smacking her forehead on the wall, trying to make herself say something. She utterly failed at every attempt to talk and finally just hung her head in defeat, slowly making her way to hide behind Karite. The cheetah simply gave the girl a flat look.

When Hotoke announced his name and mentioned to start working, Karite took the chance and started pushing Serila towards the door with a growl. Serila sighed and glared at the big cat, sticking out her tongue. She wasn’t concerned with Hotoke for the moment and finally talked.

“Karite, stop this silliness.”

Hotoke's smile faded, only very slightly, as this girl in front of him was trying to formulate words, but simply couldn't. Hotoke knew the feeling quite well, unless of course she couldn't talk , then Hotoke would feel a bit awful. She indeed took his hand in a light and friendly hand shake, which made Hotoke smile a bit more. He had this same feeling when he was trying to well up the courage to speak to Fiora, the matriarch of his adopted clan. It seemed that she was really nice, however, which helped, but the multitude of other members of the clan made Hotoke all the more nervous to go up to her and talk with her about what he wanted to do in the clan, and to show as much gratitude for her adopting him into the clan after his harsh past. Still, this girl and her large cat were quite cute, but Hotoke wouldn't let that stop him.

After a bit, the large cat would nudge the girl, in an attempt to push her into the hospital it seemed, and the girl ignored Hotoke for a bit, and then told the cat to stop the silliness. Apparently, this wasn't normal behavior, and it seemed the cat was more interested in going in and helping with the hospital than the actual ninja was. This made Hotoke chuckle, and then look down at the cat. "You're ready to get in there and help some people, aren't you?" He gave a nice smile towards the animal, as it looked rather intimidating, but it also looked like a very majestic animal in it's own right. Beautiful but deadly, as it were, and Hotoke admired it. It seemed that the two had a relationship similar to that of the inuzuka clan, and Hotoke assumed that this animal was capable of molding chakra.

It didn't seem that the girl was very confident in her social skills, meaning she would probably have some underlying strength in her work, so she might even be a better medical ninja than Hotoke. Then again, he simply knew information, which is why he was so excited about getting so much experience within the halls of the hospital. So, Hotoke decided to simply push the girl, metaphorically of course, and simply walked into the hospital and went up to the front desk. He assumed the girl would get a bit nervous of being alone when she should be in the hospital, and follow him. Hotoke would go up to the woman at the front desk, and she greeted him with a ruffling of the hair and a nice 'hello.' "Hello, my mission partner and I are here to help!" the fire in Hotoke's eyes lit up when he saw the doctors, and even some of the people in the hospital waved at him, as they needed to stay there for observation and such, and Hotoke loved interacting with them.

Karite watched the young man as he was looking at her and let out a low growl, from the back on her throat. It wasn't menacing or aggressive just a simple greeting and one of acknowledgement. The cheetah then turned and gently bit Serila's hand to both encourage the girl to talk and to translate for her. The girl gave a slight yelp of pain and glared at the animal before turning to Hotoke and bowed "I'm Serila and this is Karite, we are both very eager to help out." Her words seemed to blur as she said it all in one breath, and quickly took a giant one after finishing with her shy smile presenting itself.

Karite made a laughing growl as she pushed Serila inside after the other genin and got a few surprised looks form staff and patient both for their actions. The cat ignored the looks and sat beside the girl as she stood there nervously twiddling her paws. beside her partner. Her hair was covering one side of her face, the eyes looking straight at the floor, trying to find a way to shrink down in a corner of the room and hide from the eyes everywhere. She started looking around the halls seeing everyone, staff and patient alike and saw stress on all their faces. She knew a way she could help and stepped forward "Um, if I would be allowed can I see the blood stores of the hospital... I c-could help by m-making some."

Hotoke giggled a bit as the cat lightly bit the young woman, and she was suddenly broken out of her shyness for a moment, simply to introduce themselves to him. Hotoke bowed once again, now formally knowing her name, and also the cat's name, and then started to speak to her once again. "Nice to formally meet you, miss." Hotoke then proceeded to go into the hospital and continue talking to the receptionist, who proceeded to get to the doctor so that they could apprentice under them. An elderly male doctor came out, and waved to Hotoke as the woman offered to increase the blood stores of the hospital, not very confidently as well. Hotoke smiled and then got shoulder to shoulder with the woman, almost speaking on her behalf. "Yeah, my partner here is really talented." Hotoke would give a smile, and another doctor, a woman this time, came in and nodded towards the young woman.

"That would be very helpful miss, thank you. This way please."

The female doctor said, before motioning towards the woman to follow her to the hospital storage. Hotoke would follow the male doctor to go an assist in a simple surgery, where a woman needed a few stitches. The woman would most likely have some other hospital duties for the young woman to do as well, once she had given blood to the hospital. It was going to be a little while from when they would speak to each other again, because different doctors needed different tasks to be done. Hotoke was a bit disappointed in this, because hanging out with another medical enthusiast was going to be fun, and Hotoke was looking forward to it quite a bit. Hotoke shrugged, and they went off to do their separate duties.

[time skip if you want]

Seirla looked nervous around the staff and kept her mouth as she was lead through the halls of the hospital. Karite was eagerly following her and nipping at the genin's ankles at almost every corner in the halls. She didn't mind ti but with the halls full with staff moving around she found it a bit childish to do for one that was as old as her. She took a deep breath when she was lead into the blood store room and a nurse with a needle smiled at her and patted the chair. Serila shook her head happily and smiled "Oh I meant I can actually make blood with some water."

She twirled a finger through her hair a little embarrassed as she moved to a nearby sink and got a small bowl there and filled it with water before placing it on a small table. Karite gave an approving growl before Serila placed a single finger inside the bowl and focused her power. She gave a small sigh as she felt a trickle of her own blood force it's way out of her finger and then felt the wound heal. She opened her eyes as the tiny bit of blood floated in the water, flowing in circles as she moved the water, making a circular flow.

Karite started to rub her head against the other hand as Serila watched the blood slowly start to expand till if filled all of the bowl and there was no water. she slowly withdrew her finger with a smile and turned tot eh nurse as she licked the finger that was in the bowl clean "There, blood that is simple O. It is neither positive or negative and can be used for anything."

The nurse took the bowl to be tested and returned as Serila was making some more and smiled happily announcing that the blood had been used in a surgery to help someone live. The girl was so excited so that for a few more hours she was making blood till she decided she had given the hospital enough. In total she had made 100 liters of blood for them and was quite exhausted form the chakra use and the effort of losing a small tiny amount of blood each time.

Serila was outside the hospital at lunch break and sitting there with Karite as they waited for the other genin to appear for lunch break as well.

Hotoke was simply following the doctor into the surgery room, before taking a quick glance back at his partner, who seemed to be more nervous than normal, and Hotoke figured someone like him who was around the same age allowed her to feel a bit more comfortable. She was hugging the genin medical ninja really closely, trying to stick to her so that she could probably not attract too much attention from those around. Hotoke giggled, as the girl was definitely interesting, taking up the medical field even though she had slightly strange social habits, as she was shy. She was probably more in her element when she was actually treating people or doing other medical tasks, and Hotoke hoped to see it today, but it seemed that they had different skill sets and different assets to use to help the hospital. The doctor called back to him, and this snapped Hotoke out of his daydreaming about the girl, and back into his work mode. He put on a determined face, before getting into his scrubs in the changing room. Placing his mask and hair cap on, he followed the doctor into the surgery room. The washing of hands and antiseptic were used, before the gloves came on. He was simply an assistant, but his eyes would glue to the surgery before hand, and he would memorize every bit of it, to make sure he could perform the surgery by himself or with a partner as the lead, instead of the assistant.

Learning was amazing, and as the surgery started, the doctor simply called for simple tasks to perform, and Hotoke would do them quickly, and carefully, so that he wouldn't mess anything up. Hotoke would never be nervous in the surgery room, even though once, he had to clamp a particular artery so that there would be minimal bleeding, and if he messed up, the doctor would have to do something drastic. Hotoke found himself at home being a doctor and scientist, as he was even approved to go to the swamp between a few villages and collect some special organisms that held a powerful neurotoxin, and he would get to study how the organisms produced them. This was going to be fun, but as of right now, his mind was completely focused.

After the surgery was complete, Hotoke smiled and shook the doctor's hand, who was very happy with Hotoke's performance in the operating room, and then Hotoke simply took off his scrubs, gloves, and cap, getting back into his regular clothing. He sighed, being slightly exhausted, as the operating room was fairly stressful, even though Hotoke didn't get nervous, it was still something that took all of his concentration and skills, so it was still rather taxing. He walked out into the front desk area, and looked around for the receptionist. He asked her where his partner Serila was, and she said that the young woman went outside for a moment, as it was about rime for lunch. Hotoke thanked her, and then walked outside to find the other genin, the young woman, simply sitting there with her big cat. Hotoke then waved, making his oresence known by saying a "Hey."

"I know a good tempura shop around the corner if you're hungry. My treat." Hotoke would give a light smile, and hoped that Serila enjoyed fried fish and shrimp. Still, perhaps she knew something else around here that was a bit healthier, although nothing seemed tastier to Hotoke than a nicely prepared tempura shrimp bowl. It was easily one of his favorite foods, if not the favorite, but as he was treating the woman, he would want her to have the final decision.

Serila was sitting upon the bench, already feeling light headed form the lose of some blood and chakra. She didn't use to much but it still drained her when she did so. Karite was using her knee as a head rest and insisted that her ears be scratched even though the genin was tired. Karite was the first to look up to see Hotoke exit the hospital. She found the human to be average of them all, but to her every human looked the same except for the Kaijuu members. The great cat yawned as she curled her tail around herself, starting to lick at her fur to clean herself mindlessly.

Serila hid behind her hair again as she saw her partner for today. She kept her hands moving without thought to make her seem not as jumpy. Karite gave a growl of laughter as she felt how tense her partner was and shook her head. Both human and shinobe had different feelings towards this young man. Serila gave the cat a swat as she looked at her the spots on Karite's body as she was spoken to. She gave a simple "Hi..." in response to him and felt a shiver down her spine at the word. Karite looked up at them both and gave a flat look and growl, as if saying "Really, the best you can do is hi?" Serila gave an angry look at Karite and almost didn't hear his offer to treat them to lunch.

They both looked up the instant he said tempura, both human and companion looked at him with hunger in their eyes. Serila brushed the hair out of her face as she jumped to her feet and looked around with the energy of a little girl and gave a little squee of happiness "I simply LOVE tempura." Karite looked like a kitten running around them both, it drew strange looks from the passerby, since there was a full grown cheetah circling a young man and woman. Serila calmed down a little after she blushed seeing an elderly woman give a laugh at the three. She turned and gave a short bow as her face was too red to show, even Karite had a flush of red across her checks. "We would love to attend lunch with you."

[OOC: Sorry Serila, I completely forgot! D: ]

Hotoke was a bit shocked and surprised to see the two slightly giddy when he mentioned Tempura, although he thought it was a brilliant strategy, considering a person aligned with cats would enjoy fish and shrimp, right? He especially enjoyed it, as it was simply his favorite food, and he felt he could eat it all the time, even though that wouldn't be a very good diet on his part. Still, he enjoyed her little nuances, as she told the cat to hush or calm down, he wasn't quite sure. She stated that she loved tempura and that she would love to go to lunch with him. Hotoke thought about saying something about it being a date, but he wasn't quite sure he was old enough for that type of thing yet, so he simply nodded, and then chuckled a bit to himself, before offering his hand to the young woman. If she took it, he would gently grasp it and then walk with her over towards the tempura shop, which was fairly close, and even though it was close, there was still some time in between, and he would chat with her a bit.

"So Serila, may I ask you about yourself and your cat? I assume it's some sort of clan trait, but whatever it is, it's wonderful that you have a friend with you all the time."

Hotoke gave her and the cat a smile, and then looked forward and slightly hung his head. He didn't have any family in particular, and instead looked towards his new clan so that he didn't feel so lonely. However, when he was inside of his own room in the clan compound, with everyone doing their own thing, and no one he could truly call family, he never felt more alone. He shook his head and rid himself of that thought, and instead concentrated on his new friends here with him. It seemed very fun to hang out with another person near his age, and he felt himself not wanting to scrutinize her by studying her like he did with everyone else. He hoped that she would be his friend for a long while, maybe even set up some sort of team, the whole thing, with a jounin and everything.

They were going to reach the tempura stand fairly quickly, as it was basically just around the corner, and to their luck, it wasn't very busy. A few people probably also visiting during their lunch break, but there were plenty of tables, and Hotoke had probably just enough money to buy whatever they both wanted from the menu. He wasn't quite sure about the cat, but he could probably spend some more, considering he was getting paid by doing this mission. He also thought that paying for them was the chivalrous thing to do, and it was definitely the right thing to do if you wanted to keep your public appearance up, which he was sort of forced to do at this point. It was fairly nice that the Azai clan adopted him, as a lot of the shopkeepers that he visited knew his name and bowed to him. Much like this one, the tempura shop owner bowed to him.

"Greeting Azai-san... miss. What can I get you today?"

The man greeted them both, and Hotoke didn't really like the treatment, he just sort of wanted to be like everyone else, and it just occured to him that Hotoke hadn't told the young woman his surname, which was now just blurted out in front of her. He hoped that his last name didn't change any of the opinions she had about him. Hotoke simply turned to the young woman, trying to act as if his name didn't really matter.

"So, what would you like to eat?"

Both Serila and Karite were embarrassed by their own actions. They would of never acted like that at their family's compound in the Land of Snow. She looked at her cat and smiled taking the young man's hand as they started to walk along. Karite walked on the other side of him and demanded that the nice man scratched behind her ears. Serila got a little jealous of it, because she was usually the only one allowed to do that. Well she also liked being scratched behind the ears but would never admit it out loud. the cheetah evens tuck her pink tongue out at the girl as they walked. It got Serila a bit flustered, almost so flustered as to not hear the question She stumbled with her mouth for a second before answering.

"Yeah Karite and I were born at the exact moment, on the same exact day. As with the rest of my family. There are a few members, and we are all soul linked to our companions. Though we are restricted to what cat we can have. Though we can change them and out own appearance."

She gave his hand a small squeeze to show off the fur and tickled the back of it with her claws, the nails were formed into them. She giggled looking at the shop, she sniffed the air as Karite did too, both of them liked their lips and started to grow impatient. Serila heard the man call him a name she had not yet recognized and shrugged it off as she looked at the menu, slightly drooling before Karite nudged her. She blushed wiping the spittle off quickly and looked at Hotoke "Umm I would love any of it."

Hotoke would be walking, and suddenly he would feel the large cat go on the opposite side of him as they were walking towards the shop that they would eat their lunch at. The cat would nudge him a little bit, so he would scratch her head and a little bit behind her ears. He would continue petting the cat and listening to the story about how the two here were basically twins, as they were born at the same time and all. Hotoke found it a bit fascinating that he had met someone that had this enthusiasm for the medical field and was so interesting to talk to, even though it seemed like she was a bit shy in the beginning. 

"That's really cool, that both of you were born at the same time, and you probably grew up together to become ninja partners. I'm an orphan, so I don't have any siblings or anything, but the Azai clan has sort of adopted me into their family, so I'm really happy about that." Being an orphan wasn't really anything special, or rather it wasn't anything to  keep a secret, as it was a major part of his life that he got over a few years ago, for the most part. There were still some demons to get rid of, but for the most part, being experimented on and then rescued wasn't all bad, as now he had this very unique ability that he could use fairly well. Still, he sort of just wanted to be normal, but in a world of ninjas, that wasn't quite possible. 

They walked into the shop, and he smiled as she giggled, and the he could easily tell that she was hungry from the licking of their lips and other body language, so he didn't dilly dally about getting into the shop and talking to the owner. Serila then said that she would love any of the food, so Hotoke quickly asked the chef. "Could we get a large platter of shrimp, crab, and blue fin tuna tempura please?" The large platter was for entire families, but he could tell that it might not even be enough for the cat woman and her friend, but he was willing to not get super full to treat her to a nice lunch. 

The owner was a bit puzzled at such a large order, but he then saw that the large cat was going to eat with them, and he nodded, taking Hotoke's money. It was all that he had, and the owner saw that he was sort of on a date, or that was what he thought for a second, and then provided them with some water, and then asked if they wanted some tea or another drink, on the house. Hotoke smiled, and then sat at a table he thought was large enough for four people, as the cat would no doubt be sitting with them.

Hotoke would finish eating and then go home after a fairly fun encounter with the girl. It seemed that the hospital didn't need their help too much after lunch either, so that was good.

[exit, mission end]