Melting Clock: Med Bay's First Arrivals

[meat_mooks]

Things had been running as usual down in the med-bay, and to first appearances, this week wasn't going to be different.

But first appearances could be deceiving. This week was going to be different. And as the next few days passed by, the Medical Department was going to find that they now had quite a situation on their hands.

[[ooc: Okay, so this

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[haruno]

Sakura wondered at exactly how right Kaya had been, looking forward to predict the situation they were in now. Where one mysterious medical problem appeared, so others would follow -- if Sakura's own guess about some of those others being brought in due to uncharacteristic, even unprovoked attacks had also proven partially true.

Sometimes there was really no winning.

As she made her rounds, more quietly observing and making notes to herself about what they knew so far, she found her eyes coming back to the red-lit form of one of their patients. One who's awake, she noted, moving toward his bed after a moment's hesitation. Getting to the bottom of all of this meant talking. She might as well keep doing that in the face of what she couldn't do. (Figure this out, for one

[haruno]

Sounded like someone had skipped past the pleasures of childhood. Not that it sounded entirely odd to Sakura; a bit extreme, but kids didn't always get a chance to be kids. Other possibilities didn't even occur to her.

"It's not a game," she said, shaking her head. "It's an amateur version of a Bingo Book. Only instead of consisting of nothing but criminals, the cards are tailored to your opponents. The last time I remember anyone using those was during my fist chuunin exam."

Remembering who it was (Kabuto again, why he was coming to mind so often lately was beyond her), she frowned. "They're statistics on the people you'll be fighting. Unless the pokemon system is how kids learn to catalog and plan for their fights with other kids in the village, I don't think we're actually talking about the same kind of thing."

[haruno]

She wanted to refute that point. Hell, she opened her mouth to say so -- had a finger up in the air to point out how that couldn't possibly be it!

"More or less."

It was too bad that he'd hit the nail on the head.

[haruno]

Interesting to learn organizations (if that's what they were) on his world collected information on problematic people, much like the ninja world kept tabs on their own.

"A medical kunoichi, if we're going for exact terminology, but yes, I am."

She'd not heard about Dr. McNinja before. "I'd have liked to meet him while he was still awake. Who knows, I might get the chance sometime in the future."

Sakura crossed her arms. "Now that we've gone over my professional record, what about you? What did you do on your world?"

[haruno]

She felt her eyebrows hiking up as she listened to him speak. "So you've got these supervillains, and then you're one of the superheroes needed to stop them."

A little cut and dry, with ninjas apparently falling on the supervillain half of the equation. Definitely not what she'd expect -- some portion, sure, but even that depended on the village, not to mention the era. "It's not standard practice for Konoha to accept civilian endangering missions, let alone to endorse illegal activities."

Looking over at 'Rob,' she furrowed her brow. "You make it sound like all ninjas are bad people."

[haruno]

"That'd make us villages of mercenaries, by your logic." She uncrossed her arms. "Free agents are usually blacklisted by the villages. It's rare you have anyone operating on their own with a village sanction while they're living outside the village proper, and those who don't are the ones who get lumped in with mercenaries where I'm from."

Mercenaries weren't as discriminating as the villages, lacking the support and infrastructure that any given village had with it's patron country. The Fire Nation supported the Hidden Leaf Village, and the Hidden Leaf Village was on standby for the Lord if and when he needed them.

Didn't do much for the politics in either body, but it made for a more honest system than what it seemed Kon was used to. "Missing-nin are dangerous for that reason. If you're looking for people who're less discriminating in what missions they accept, it's those without villages. The standard mercenaries aren't much of a threat on their own, but when backed by someone with extensive training..."

[haruno]

"I can't help with half of those, but we'll see what I can do to for the two that apply." She smiled, a hint of determination that no one from home would ever be the kind of person he expected. For all Zouichi had mentioned media representations, on some worlds it appeared the ninja were still very much alive.

If not well, but who was she to know or understand people who operated under a similar title across worlds? Possibly even universes?

"Guess this makes you the first superhero I've ever officially met. What world are you from?"

[haruno]

Reality television? Looked like at least two Earths shared an affinity for television providing some source of entertainment. "Sounds appealing." She tilted her head to the side, blinking through the red afterimage that felt like it was slowly etching itself into her retinas. "Have a pillow that needs fluffing?"

A tangent, if at least back toward attending as a medic in what capacity she could, while being fairly unobtrusive.

[haruno]

"Any chance it's related to the superhero thing?" She set about pillow fluffing, being careful to support what she needed to, and not jostle things unnecessarily.