Something Precious

Chapter Sixty

Tsunade groaned as she sat up. Her everything hurt. She was surprised by bright, white, florescent hospital lights when she opened her eyes. She blinked in confusion having expected the damp, cold, dark of the oppressing cave.

She tried to remember what had happened. How had she gotten there on that bed that seemed too comfortable in contrast to the uneven, stone ground she would have thought to be on.

She remembered a battle. She had been terrifyingly low on chakra while the enemy number still grew around them.
She remembered the awful white-hot pain of being stabbed.
She remembered coming to the sickening realization that she had an infection a few days later. A blood infection to be precise.

In a panic she threw the thin hospital blanket off of her and pulled her uncomfortable paper dress up to expose her freshly bandaged torso.
She hesitantly prodded at the spot where she knew the wound was supposed to be only. . . it wasn't. No more than a dull throb greeted her touch.

She furrowed her brows and started removing the bandages noting how easy it was to move opposed to before where she could barely manage to sit upright without support. As the last length of the white material fell off of her smooth, pale skin she saw a healthy, stitched wound with no inflammation and no pus, and no infection? She didn't have any fever anymore either. She wasn't drowsy in the least and she definitely had her appetite back, she felt near insatiable hunger clawing at her insides which she knew was a good sign.

Confusion laced her every thought. Tsunade knew she should be dead. Curing a blood infection as bad as her's was is next to impossible. Maybe if she was at a hospital in one of the Kage's hidden villages. But they were at war a she doubted she would be welcomed at any of the other four and this certainly wasn't the Leaf's hospital that she knew inside and out, every crack and crevice.

The door opened and a young, handsome nurse came into the room. "Oh good, you're awake." he said in an overly friendly friendly and professional voice. "The doctor will be with you shortly." he told her with a smile.

Tsunade took a deep breath, trying to sort her thoughts into a straight line, suddenly becoming aware of a throbbing head and just how bright the light was, but she dismissed that as unimportant for the moment. What was important was her location. "Where am I?" she asked the nurse. He told her.

The village name was unfamiliar but the nurse kindly explained it was a small village in the Land of Grass that was between the borders of the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth. Tsunade asked about her infection - because there is no way an ordinary small village doctor would have been able to cure it - the nurse was only politely confused causing Tsunade to grow slightly frustrated.

She took another deep breath, this time to keep her temper. "Look, can I see the doctor?" she asked.

The nurse quickly agreed and stepped out to go find him, promising to be no more than ten minutes. The nurse came back five minutes later followed by a tall, middle aged man with a pot belly.

"You're the doctor?" Tsunade asked.

The doctor nodded. "Doctor Yang. Now your charts look go-"

"I don't care. How long have I been unconscious?" Tsunade inpterupted, not caring to be polite to this kind man who probably had saved her life.

The doctor smiled at her calmly as he said, "Well I'm not sure, but you came in to our ER yesterday afternoon."

Tsunade glanced out the window to see that noon, maybe early afternoon, light shone brightly through the open window and caused her head to throb painfully. "And my infection?" usually she wouldn't be so concerned about this, but she really should be dead and she was very much interested in why she wasn't.