Sorry I was distracted by Elden Ring

"And you're good to go, now remember don't use that hand for about a week, and no physical training. Now remember if I see you in here again Ebisu, I'll end your Shinobi career myself, understand," I say smiling.

"Yes sir!" Ebisu replied quickly.

"Excellent, now get out of here, oh and say hi to Guy for me!" I say as he leaves the room.

I've only been here consistently for three days and Ebisu has been in training related injuries four times. What the hell is he doing to even end up injured so often?

Leaving the room a few minutes after Ebisu I made my way to the room next door where another patient should be waiting. 

I've been left to my own devices despite the fact I'm supposed to be supervised by a senior Medical-Nin. The Hospital doesn't have the manpower to spare someone so I was left alone to treat the more minor injuries. Which does kinda suck as I would have liked to get some experience treating more serious injuries but this still counts toward my hours so I'm fine waiting until things calm down a bit. Rather unfortunate that the day I decided to work at the hospital a new batch of injured showed up from the frontlines.

Entering the room I begin to introduce myself like I've done over and over the past three days.

"Hello I'm Sozo Akinori I'll-."

"Hatchling-sama!" 

Oh no, it's one of Orochimaru's fanatical subordinates. What is she doing out of her lab, they never leave their labs. 

"Hey um… Rika, Correct?" 

"Yes!" She said almost bouncing in place.

Where does Orochimaru find these people?

"What brings you in today."

"Oh! This," she said pulling the sleeves of her lab coat up revealing quite a few burns up and down her arms.

Readying the jutsu I began my work.

"Aren't your lab coats supposed to prevent something like this? Yours doesn't even have a single burn mark on it." 

"Wasn't wearing it," she said like it wasn't a big deal.

"Why?"

"Too hot in my lab."

"That's not an acceptable reason Rika, you need to wear your safety equipment." 

A thoughtful look washed over her face for a moment before dispersing, "No."

Well shit not much more I can do.

"Alright, just please be more careful next time."

"Will do." 

Finishing up she pulled her sleeve back into its proper place, validated my personal space with a hug and left out the window. 

That wasn't as bad as i was expecting, maybe she feels more secure in her lab and acts more freely there. 

Leaving the room I go to log what my patients were here for and the treatment I provided before leaving the hospital. 

…

Sitting on the lake I was trying to meditate, something Sakumo recommended I do to help get a better grasp over my chakra. I tried it a few times but it was something I didn't do all that often. If I did, it was probably because of Sakumo himself. But these past couple days control has been quite important and will continue to be important so I guess I'll listen to Sakumo.

Better late than never.

I'll admit though it can be quite relaxing but I still don't understand how this is supposed to help. Wouldn't a more proactive approach yield better results? Like the leaf exercise.

There's a lot of things I don't understand, like seriously what is spiritual energy, and why does it dictate how much chakra potential i have. I have so many qualities but have yet to find any concrete answers. All I can usually find is some spiritual bullshit about souls or something along those lines. Now I know this place works a bit differently from my former place of residence but if I accept those answers all it dose is open an even bigger can of worms I'm not willing to touch. 

But you know what, hypothetical if I did accept that answer it dosen't answer my question all it does is add another variable. If chakra and the soul are tired together what does that mean for my other life? Has my very being irreversible changed because I am now connected to chakra or did I never have a soul and just kinda took over Akinori? That also leaves the question of how I even got here in the first place. Kakashi is not an adult reborn, neither is Obito, Guy, so am I a unique case or does everyone from my original world pretty much reincarnate into a different world. 

No… 

I didn't reincarnate, just kinda took over a lease. 

This would be a lot less complicated if I was reborn from the start because now it implies a whole lot more. Like an afterlife whatever that may be. 

Hmm? 

Could my current existence be considered the afterlife? I lived, I died, and now here I am. 

I should stop, I'm asking questions that are never going to be answered. I'll keep it simple for now. 

Just survive until I can thrive. 

…

"Minato? What are you doing here?"

I was at my usual place of training, in the forest keeping vigilant for a snake who refuses to adhere to a schedule. When Minato showed up on my personal radar.

It's generally looked down upon to sneak up on Shinobi without a purpose. But of course when I do it and get caught I can use the guise of training, this of course is a double edge sword. As a sensor Kakashi likes to use me as a form of training, and once Guy caught wind of this he turned it into a competition.

"I'm leading a mission, wanna come?"

"Sure," I say nonchalantly.

"Meet me at the main gate tomorrow morning," Minato said before disappearing. 

With that out of the way I continued to train.

The next day I arrived at the gate and I was met with quite a lot of Shinobi and supplies.

Oh God did I agree to be deployed in the frontlines? 

…

Ok so I am not being stationed at one of the frontlines but I am part of a squad lead by Minato, whose job is to run a screening operation, which consists of us seeking out and destroying anything that could slow down the supplies and reinforcements from reaching the frontlines in a timely manner. Then we do the same thing for the returning injured Shinobi.

All things considered I was quite satisfied with this mission, but one thing was missing.

"Minato."

"Yeah?"

"Where's Kakashi?"

"Oh… you don't know?"

"Know what?" 

"Kakashi has been restricted to D-ranks only," Minato said with a conflicted look on his face.

"Oh."

That's… for the best I guess, does that mean I was cleared for active duty?

Hmm? 

That's comforting I guess.