The Kingdom Hospital

I am an avid fan of Lars von Trier's work (think Dogville ect) and while watching Riget, known in English as The Kingdom Hospital I started entertaining the idea of populating the series with Naruto-characters. So here we are! I've chosen the characters that I personally think fitted the roles the most, but I'm going to stay true to characters of Riget, so you might find that the Naruto-characters are going to be slightly OOC.

This is a Danish tv-series, and it takes place in Copenhagen (capital of Denmark) and there are often jabs and jokes to/from the Swedes, and you might not find it funny because you don't understand, but trust me when I say that we find it hillarious. The series was produced in 1994, so the year is 1994 in the story.

The original series was 8 episodes, but since they are 1 hour long each, and I'm not aiming at having you guys giving up, or falling alseep while reading, I've decided to divide each episode into two chapters, and thus hopefully have less people giving up on the way.


Now, just to paint you a pretty picture of how things work in my house, and in the rest of the world;
I do NOT own Naruto or Riget, I never have, never will but I do take freedom to mix the two for my own enjoyment, and absolute no money, what-so-ever, just to make myself and others smile and hopefully have you guys enjoy.

Riget – The Kingdom Hospital

Lars von Trier presents –
The ground on which the Kingdom Hospital rests is ancient marshland, where the bleaching ponds once lay. Here the bleachers moistened their great spans of cloth in the shallow waters. The steam evaporating from the wet cloths shrouded the place in a permanent fog. Centuries later the Kingdom Hospital was built here, and the bleachers gave way to doctors and researchers – the brightest minds in the nation and the most perfect technology. To crown their work they called the hospital The Kingdom. Now life was to be charted, and ignorance and superstition never to shake the bastions of science again. Perhaps their arrogance and persistent denial of the spiritual became too great, for it is as if the cold and damp have returned. Tiny signs of fatigue are appearing in the solid, modern buildings. No living person knows it yet, but the gateway to the Kingdom is opening once again.


1. Part – Den hvide flok – The Unheavenly Host. 1/2

In the black of night, the bad quality of the surveillance-camera made the image of the receiving-entrance to the Emergency Ward look like it was built from a million tiny rough pieces. The empty road almost looked intimidating and strange places in the picture were bright and glowing. As an ambulance drove into the scene, the lights turning on the top of the vehicle disturbed the picture even more, making the windows look like they were foggy-white, and not see-through.

Inside Receiving a young man with brown spiky hair slumbered in his seat on the bad hospital-couch, his awkward position building up kinks and knots in his tense back-muscles. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he was mumbling to himself in his sleep, eyes furrowed together in concentration on his dream. He suddenly jerked awake, eyes immediately shot up, zooming in on the screen up in the right corner, checking the entrance for vehicles. The brown eyes squinted at the image before he yawned, the down-ward red tattooed triangles on his face contorting in a strange manner, as he put his comic-book to the side. He walked out of the room and into the receiving hall, looking out of the glass-sliding doors at the ambulance, still just parked in front of the door. The lights were still spinning, but the siren was off and the windows were tinted white, and it was shining with light from the inside. The automobile looked like a ghost-car. He walked out through the sliding-doors, and walked around the ambulance, trying to see into the car. He wiped the front-side window, almost pressing his nose to the glass to see what the car contained, but he could nothing but eerie bright white light.

He went back inside again, the sliding doors closing behind him with a click-sound. A doctor was coming in from a side door. The young brunette looked to the young senior registrar, who looked a little worse for wear though in his case it meant still looking unreasonably good despite the horrible hour. The black hair still fell perfectly, and his pale skin still looked like porcelain, but you could tell the hours of the night-shift in the slight darkening around his black eyes.

“Hey, Uchiha. Did anyone come in from that ambulance?”

The black eyes focused on his face, “I don’t know anything about that.” He said.

Kiba scratched his head, “it’s really strange,” he said, turning around. “Look for yourself.” He gesticulated to the ambulance.

That wasn’t there anymore. The entire entrance was empty, no strange light flickering from the top of the roof of the ambulance.

Sasuke Uchiha gave him a look before turning and walking away. The brunette tried to say something, but he had lost his ability to form words, just standing with an open mouth.

He went back inside the room with the inhumanly awful couch and crappy TV-monitor. He sat down, resting his elbows on his knees, rubbing his face tiredly with his hands. Maybe he had been taking too many night-shifts in a row?

His attention was drawn as he heard the sound of paws tapping the floor as a giant dog trotted into the room, heading straight for the bowls of water and food situated next to the couch.

“There you are, Akamaru!” he smiled, momentarily pushing the ghost-ambulance out of his mind. He watched his dog happily eat away at his food. “It’s good, huh?” he chatted to his dog in the way that animal-owners do with their pets, carrying a whole conversation themselves, but still feeling that they communicated with their animal.

Akamaru suddenly stopped eating and walked in front of the monitor, looking up into the screen. The dog started barking and growling at the TV, snarling at the image of the empty entrance.

“You think it is weird too, huh, Akamaru?” Kiba said into the emptiness of the room, looking at the monitor with suspicious eyes.

-----

Sasuke Uchiha was walking down the corridor, listlessly checking on things and patients that he deep down was too tired to think and care about, but still did out of duty. When he passed a bed in the hall, the nurse attending to the patient turned to him and said, “There’s one in there” and pointed to the first examination room on the left. The nurse continued, “I think it’s one of yours”.

The doctor nodded and received a smile in return from the male nurse before turning into the room, his white coat swinging slightly after him. Inside laid an old woman on the examination table.

“Good evening” he greeted blandly.

“Good evening” she smiled back, her hands loosely holding the handle of her handbag, which was lying on her stomach.

A nurse handed him the file, and he opened it and checked its content without much enthusiasm.

“My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and I’m a neurosurgeon at this hospital” he said, still looking at the file.

“My name is Sigrid Chiyo.” She said, still smiling at him. “Are you a good doctor?”

“No problem there.” He said, quickly skipping pleasantries and went to the point. “I can see that you are having problems with your hand?”

“Yes,” she said, furrowing her eyebrows, “it feels like pins and needles. I can’t close my hand and I need it for my pendulum.”

Sasuke turned away, dictating intro the recorder, “the patient complains about a prickling sensation in her hand.”

-----

Chiyo lay comfortably on the bed as the porter wheeled the bed along the corridor.

“So, Mrs. Chiyo, you are back again.” Kiba said, smiling at the old lady as they passed through some doors.

“Yes. It is something to do with my arm. I am heading up to the neurosurgical ward.” She smiled, as he placed the bed inside the elevator. “It is very difficult to get in there.”

“Aha.” He said, an automatic response, pressing the button for the 7th floor, the button for neurosurgical, and backing out of the elevator.

“Say hello to my son when he gets to work.” She called after him as the doors closed, and he waved a two-fingered salute confirming.

“Sure thing.”

Inside the lift Chiyo rested; closed eyes and relaxed body enjoying the bed. She opened her eyes, looking around the inside of the elevator. She frowned, feeling something. It was like a fly, dancing at the outer circle of her mind. Abruptly she heard it; there was a child crying.

As she tried to focus on the sound of the crying child, the doors opened with a ding, and a blond nurse with her hair up in a pony-tail came forward and pulled her bed out of the elevator.

“Hello,” she greeted.

“Hello,” Chiyo answered, slightly absent, looking up into the ceiling. “Somebody was crying.”

“You have probably heard it from the children’s ward, the lift passes it.”

“No, it was closer, as if someone was sitting on top of the lift.”

“I see.” The nurse answered, not feeling like debating the strange subject with an old woman at this time of the night.

Looking around Chiyo realized where she was; “Is this neurosurgery?”

“Yes.”

“It is very difficult to get a place in here” Chiyo said with a smile.

-----

The kitchen-basement of the hospital was eerily quiet, except the sound of the giant industrial dishwasher, and the huge trays of glasses and plates that were being washed inside. Two small people with Downs Syndrome stood in front of the conveyor, the girl sliding another cart of plates forward as the male gripped the showerhead-like thing dangling over the large sink. He gripped the head and pressed the handles together, making pressurized water come out, and sprayed the plates. He looked at her and she smiled to him in a way that only people with Downs Syndrome can smile.

“The little girl will show herself to the old lady” he said, laughing a little afterwards.

The other smiled at him, “Where did it happen?”

“In the lift.”

“In the lift?” she repreated, her light, high voice almost floating in the air in front of her.

He nodded his head with a smile, making a confirming “mmnn”-sound. He caressed her cheek with his wet pink-gloved hand, and she laughed as she squirmed to wipe the lingering water away with her own wet gloved hand.

They turned back to the conveyor and sprayed the plates before sending them rattling into the dishwasher.

-----

In the morning-light a red Volvo parked on the corner of the road the ambulances uses to reach the Emergency Ward, right at the last turn, stopping within the space between four traffic cones. A tall, long haired, pale man stepped out of the automobile, carrying with him his bag. He shot suspicious looks at the youngster standing at the other side of the parking-lot before walking around his car and taking all of the wheel rims off. He walked across the walking area to reach the hospital when he stumbled and almost fell. He looked back and saw that one of the tiles had come off and was now laying crooked on the others. He snorted and grumbled while looking angrily at the flagstone, at the same time as he heard the young troublemakers a couple of meters away laugh at his incident.

When he reached the hospital entrance he walked into the maintenance-area heading straight for the disk, still keeping his wheel rims firmly under his arm. He put down his back and drew himself up, making the most of his height.

“My name is Orochimaru, I’m a consultant neurosurgeon.” He said with importance.

On the other side of the desk a grey-haired man looked up from his orange book, shooting him a bored gaze before returning to his book. His porn-book, Orochimaru could see.

“The flagstone outside must be put right immediately.” He gestured to the outside with a pointed finger.

The man still kept his attention on the pages, not even looking up again.

“Or there will be an accident.” He pounded each word out harshly with his voice, yet still there was still no response. “Can I speak to your boss?”

The man stretched himself, twisting back to look through the opened back-door into an obviously empty room.

“He’s not here right now,” he answered as he turned back into his seat, looking at his book without a care.

-----

The meeting-room on 7th floor was lit primarily from the outside, the morning-sun shining in through the windows. People in various stages of awareness and wakefulness trotted about, finding their seats around the oval table, reaching for the coffee-pots, chit-chatting with each other. At one end of the table, on the left side, a young black-haired man was sitting, but his upper-body was resting on the tabletop, almost fully covering his papers and reports. His arms were cushioning his head. Next to him a smiling blond man sat, peacefully flipping through a report. At the opposite end of the table a spectacular looking middle-aged blonde woman with impressive breasts was applying a red lipstick with the help of a hand-held mirror. On the side of the room two young interns were sitting, the brown-haired guy with ridiculous goggles on his forehead insistently showing pictures of bloody surgery to the pale-orange-ish haired girl, who just as stubbornly kept pushing it away and not wanting to look at it. The blond man gave the slumbering senior registrar a nudge with his elbow. The black-haired man sat up and coughed slightly to gain the attention of the people around the table.

“I think we have to recognize that consultant Orochimaru isn’t going to come, and just start the meeting,” he said with a tired yet authoritative voice.

“Consultant Orochimaru is under a heavy work and case-load right now. I don’t think we can demand that he be right on the dot every single day.” The blonde, Tsunade, defended the not present doctor.

“Well, since the consultant has no neurological problems, his case load is without any kind of relevance to our morning meeting.” Sasuke answered coldly before continuing, ignoring the ‘humpf’-sound coming from the older woman at the other end of the table. “I have admitted a Mrs. Chiyo with paresis and paraesthesia in her right arm, and am proposing a CT-scan.”

The blond scratched her upper-lip with a knowing look.

“OK, -” he continued before being interrupted.

“Ah-ah,” she said with a slightly taunting tone, “you know very well that only the consultant neurosurgeon has the authority to book a CT-scan.”

The Uchiha signed his paper before handing it to a nurse further down the table.

“Here, see too that it happens,” he said, and as the nurse left the room he looked into the face of the blond anesthetist. “You can’t mean that the hospital has to come to a screeching halt just because consultant Orochimaru has chosen to sleep in?”

Tsunade leaned back in her chair, folding her arms under her impressive chest, regarding the Uchiha.

-----

Orochimaru was still standing in front of the desk, pointedly looking at his wrist-watch every few minutes.

“Soo. And when do you think that your boss might deign himself to show up?”

Kakashi blinked a few times at his book before lifting his head to look at the irritated doctor, oh no, consultant neurosurgeon.

“I did hear something about a water pipe that burst this morning ...” he said slowly.

“Yes?” Orochimaru questioned impatiently.

“Well, the water is leaking out under the parking lot” he answered with a smile.

Orochimaru looked at the guy for a few seconds before picking up his bag with a huff and leaving the office, slamming the door closed behind him.

-----

People were breaking up from the morning meeting. The two interns made their way to the front of the room, the male intern stopping by the black-haired senior registrar.

“Excuse me, can I ask you a question?” he said in a rush, before continuing without waiting for an answer. “Aren’t you in charge of the sleep laboratory?”

Sasuke regarded him. “Yes, I am. Interested?”

“Sure I am -”

The female intern stopped in the door with a slight gasp, having almost run into the consultant neurosurgeon, Orochimaru. He looked at her.

“Where is the morning conference?”

“It’s finished.” She smiled at him.

Sasuke recognized his responsibility, “We didn’t think you were coming, so I figured ..”

The creepy yellow eyes narrowed in on the young man. “You figured, did you?” he placed his hands at his sides. “In the event when executive consultant professor Sarutobi has his private clinic, the morning conference begins when I get here -” he said, waving back all the people leaving the room, “and it ends when I leave.”

He sat down in his chair besides the blond woman and waited a few seconds.

“Sit down, everyone.” He waited a brief moment. “Last night. Any new admissions?”

Sasuke handed his report to Orochimaru, who held the report motionless in his grip, until waving with it as he spoke. “The door.” A young man got up and closed it. “Thank you.”

“Any new admissions, I said!” his commanding voice sounded.

Sasuke coughed a bit again, “Yes, I have admitted a Mrs. Chiyo with paresis and parasthesia of the right arm. She is--”

“She is what?”

“She has been sent down for a CT-scan.” Sasuke finished, trying to make it sound as trivial as possible.

Orochimaru pursed his lips before putting the report down and shifting his chair back a bit and then leaning forward on his lower arms, linking his fingers. “Excuse me?”

Sasuke repeated, “Mrs. Chiyo has been sent down to have a CT-scan.”

The meeting-room was absolutely quiet.

“CT-scan” Orochimaru repeated slowly. “There is one person on this hospital, who has the right to order a CT-scan. And that is, most humbly, the consultant neurosurgeon.” He finished, looking pointedly at Sasuke.

“I merely thought --” Sasuke tried.

“Thought. Doesn’t the word budget exist in your language?” He waited a bit. “Must I spell it out for you? B-U-D ..” his voice rising with each word before he stopped, looking at the people around the table. Orochimaru got up from his chair and walked to the window, looking out before turning around again to look at the table.

“Tsunade, how far must this humiliation go on in this accursed place? Can you tell me?” he asked with a heavy voice.

“No, Orochimaru.” Tsunade answered quietly.

Orochimaru sat down again, picking up the report. “Cancel this scan instantly.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Sasuke said. Orochimaru looked up at him sharply. “She’s already in the scanner.”

-----

Kankuro entered the scan-room, closing the door behind him. He looked hard and long at the old lady sitting in front of the CT-scanner.

“Mum” he said, “You can’t do this to me.”

“Hello, Kankuro.” She answered nervously.

“You promised that you’d never do this again.”

“But-”

“Mum, this hospital is where I work.”

“Yes but I really do think that I’m sick this time, Kankuro.”

“Come on, Mum.” He said reaching out a hand to pull her to her feet, but at the same time another man entered the room.

“Porter? Help me lay the patient down.“ he said while fetching equipment.

Kankuro sighed before gripping his mother’s shoulder, perhaps unnecessarily hard, and pushing her down to lie.

Chiyo complained and the radiologist said, “Be gentle with the patient.”

Kankuro stepped back with a sigh, leaning slightly onto the machine.

“And move away, now, please.” The man said, having no patience left.

Kankuro had a last look at his mother before turning and exiting the room.

Having fastened the patient properly, he addressed the patient, “And in we go” as he pushed the button, and the slide started moving.

“Yes, thank you” the old lady smiled at the man.

-----

Executive consultant neurosurgeon Sarutobi checked his pocket-watch before placing the golden watch back into his breast pocket of the smock. He turned to his door as it was abruptly pushed open, revealing his consultant neurosurgeon, Orochimaru.

“Hello Orochimaru” he said with a warm voice.

“Good that you’re here,” Orochimaru said. “Something very, very serious has occurred.”

“Goodness!” Sartobi answered, as he withdrew a red lunch-box from his bag.

“Registrar Uchiha has decided on, and booked a CT-scan.” Orochimaru said gravely.

Sarutobi smiled at him, “Illness is always a sad business, but we must accept that this is a hospital, and that we are surrounded by sick patients, no matter how difficult it may be. And you know what a blessing a CT scan can be.” Completely missing what Orochimaru thought to be the core of his sentence.

“Yes, but since when did a registrar have the right to book one? That is the prerogative of the consultant neurosurgeon. I demand that there be consequences!”

“Orochimaru, relax, Uchiha may not be the most brilliant doctor, but in his own way he is rather
an asset.”

Orochimaru laughed a bit, answering; “For a registrar to the able to book a CT scan is absolutely absurd.”

“Orochimaru, you are still a bit new to our department, so the best way for you to settle in here is probably not by instigating disciplinary proceedings against fellow physicians. I am fond of Uchiha and I am sure you will be eventually, too. Sit down.” He said while smiling, and indicating his office-chair. “Now, look at this -” he found a piece of paper with a picture of a smiling sun giving thumbs up, “what do you think of this logo? I have called our new human resource project ‘Operation Morning Breeze’. We must be receptive to new ideas, regarding towards patients as well as staff. I rather feel that the sun symbolizes all that ..” trailed off, looking expectantly at the other man.

Orochimaru looked disbelievingly up at his superior.

“And ... this is ‘Operation Morning Breeze’?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, do you like it?” Sarutobi asked with a smile.

“No.”

Sarutobi completely bypassed the answer, “We should have stickers made, don’t you think?”

If not for his superb self-control, Orochimaru’s jaw might have dropped and his eyes might have popped from their sockets, “yes.. perhaps..” he answered vaguely, beginning to get up from the chair. “You’re the boss.”

And with that he left the office.

-----

Sasuke and the blond doctor left the meeting room together, walking along the halls. The blue eyes of the other man repeatedly captured Sasuke’s attention, even though there really was nothing left in his head after the long night-shift.

“You do know why Orochimaru is here, don’t you?” Sasuke asked the other as he started emptying the smock he was wearing.

Naruto frowned a bit and looked questionably at his colleague, keeping up with the other’s long strides.

“No Swedish hospital will touch the man.” He said as he removed his pens from the breast-pocket of the smock.

“Why not?” the slightly shorter man asked.

“It has something to do with some researchers at his last department who did a fantastic job and achieved some great results. He published them as his own.” Sasuke explained.

“That’s probably just a rumor” Naruto answered with a slight laugh.

“Hell if it is. Sarutobi had read his article in The Lancet, and then he wanted him here.” They turned a corner. “I don’t think he even wrote the article himself.”

Naruto couldn’t help but smile at the others vehemence and chuckled a bit as they came to a stop in front of the elevators. Sasuke pulled off his now empty smock and threw it in the laundry-bin placed there for that exact purpose.

“I like that smock of yours” he said with a twitch of the mouth to the blond.

“Yeah? It’s just like yours” Naruto mocked in fun.

“It might be that it looks better on you,” the dark-haired man said. “Are you busy tonight?”

“I’ve got some things I have to study up on, I have to read it.” Naruto said with a sigh.

“All that research can’t possibly be good for you. Or maybe it’s personal? Hm?” he stepped in front of the blond. “Do I offend you? You’re always busy when I ask that question.”

Naruto smiled apolitically, and they turned as the lift dinged and signaled its arrival. When the doors slid apart Sasuke was stopped in his tracks by a pair of cold yellow eyes. Orochimaru smirked as he advanced on the younger doctor.

“And where does the junior registrar think that he is going?”

Sasuke glanced at Naruto and back at Orochimaru, “I actually thought that I would head home to my bed, I’ve been on duty for 12 hours.”

Orochimaru’s smirk widened, “If your boots are big enough for you to book a CT-scan -” he gripped the elbows of the two younger men and dragged them with him away from the lift, “then they are bloody big enough for you to attend the X-ray conference!”

-----

It was almost pitch-black in the room. A click sounded as Chiyo turned the lamp on, though the light was faint as it was covered with a dish-rag. It lit up the old women, sitting in a circle in the darkened patient-room. They held hands. Chiyo focused and kept her breath steady. It was completely silent for a few minutes.

“We will now purify this room, and all of us in here, from the commotion of the living.” She said quietly.

It was hushed for a few minutes again.

“Are there any spirits present?” she asked into the emptiness of the room around them. “If there are any spirits here, then announce your presence!”

-----

The pale face was lit up by the light from the screens used to put x-rays on. He was looking intently at the scans, not sparing the young doctors around him a look, even though he himself had dragged them in here.

“Yes ..” he said as he looked thoughtfully at the pictures of the patient’s brain. “Yes ..”

The door opened and the radiologist entered, holding some new scan-pictures in his hand.

“Do we have time for the acute scan of Mrs. Chiyo?” he asked.

Orochimaru’s smiled became slightly sadistic. “Forgive this slightly ignorant man, but before we proceed; how much does a CT-scan actually cost? I suppose it is quite cheap, no?”

“It’s quite expensive, actually.” The radiologist answered with a surprised tone.

“Indeed? Quite expensive? But, how much?”

“10,000”

“10,000? My dear, what a price! Especially since we’re living in a state of financial crisis.” He smiled at Uchiha, the sadistic level of his smile rising. “Oh well, let’s see if we caught anything in our expensive net.”

He turned smilingly back to the screens where the radiologist was putting up the pictures from the scan.

Both Orochimaru and Sasuke focused intently on the scans, searching for the even the smallest sign of anything atypical.

Orochimaru turned again, “No, it is as I would have expected; not even a fly’s crap is on here.”

He took the scan down and turned to the registrar, handing it to him. “Now, my dear junior registrar, this is an illustration of the brain of a malingerer,” he chuckled, “to stick into your wee scrap book.” He walked out of the room, laughing to himself.

Sasuke sighed and rubbed his face.

-----

Chiyo was breathing in deeply through her nose. She started making strange noises.

“There is somebody … there is someone …” she said slowly. “He seeks one of the people in this circle..”

-----

Orochimaru was walking fast down the hall dropping off all of the scan-reports, save for one, on the way past the desk. He kept Chiyo’s file and showed it to the nurse while passing.

“Where is her room?”

The nurse hurried to follow.

“Eh?” he pushed.

“Room 26”

-----

“… He is getting closer … He is tall .. hairy … primitive … ”

-----

“What is this?!” he said as he caught sight of the door with number 26 next to it. On the door was a sign which read: ‘Please do not disturb. On behalf of the spirits, thank you. -’

-----

“… A disgusting man… Oh… oohh..”

Suddenly the door burst open and light flooded the half of the room from the door.

Every single old lady in the darkness jumped and exclaimed sounds of surprise.

The tall pale man pressed the light-switch on his way in, and observed how the elderly women blinked to reacquaint their eyes with the light. He walked further into the room, Sasuke, Naruto and the two interns following.

“Excuse me, ladies!”

“The blame and responsibility rests solely on my shoulders” Chiyo said, in an out-of-breath, shaky voice.

“Nurse. Who is that? Is that Mrs. Chiyo?” he asked the nurse who had shown him the room.

“Yes,” she nodded.

He held up the CT-scans of Mrs. Chiyo, angling it so that the lamp in the ceiling lit through it.

“Here is a picture of this lady’s nut.” He threw a look at the old woman. “There is some grey matter slopping around inside it, known to the more ignorant people as her brain” He turned and looked evilly at the young Uchiha who had followed into the room. He turned back, “I understand that she is some kind of spiritual leader for these more or less terminal ladies?” he looked around, stopping at Mrs. Chiyo who tried to smile at him. “A status she does not deserve. It’s all a bluff on the part of this poor numskull, like the illness she feigns to gain a bit of attention.” He held her medical file up, “Admitted 25 times, 25 times at this hospital alone. A malingere.” He shook his head. “A damn malingerer!” his voice rose a bit.

Chiyo nodded her head a bit. “It is true, I have been to the hospital quite a lot. But I am very ill.”

“Ill? Are you ill?”

“Yes.”

“You are ill.” He opened the file for her most recent admittance. “’The patient says her arm is weak and tingling’. That is a quote, from A General Textbook in Neurology. Available at any public library, any damn kindergarten.” He withdrew a copy of said book and flipped through it until he found the page he was looking for. “Here we are.. Look; ‘The arm feels weak and tingling -’ Et cetera!” His voice rose again, “Next time you want to malinger your way into my ward, I’d be bloody grateful if you would refrain from quoting directly from A General Textbook in Neurology! Nurse! Discharge this patient immediately!”

He looked evilly at the old woman before turning and walking towards the door. He stopped in front of the Uchiha and narrowed his eyes at him.

“Idiot.”

And with that last word he left the room.

Seconds later, Sasuke felt and heard his beeper go off and left with Naruto at his heels.

The brown-haired intern, Konohamaru, smiled a bit at the show that had been put on, before a strange sound could be heard and he checked his beeper before leaving the room as well. He walked down the hall as he put his hand in under his smock and withdrew a plastic-toys-space-gun with a grin. He stopped on his way through the halls to point it at a nurse and press the tricker, and she smiled a bit at the young man as the strange sound could be heard again and the toy blinked red. He looked over his shoulder and quickly put it away under his smock and sped up his pace down the hall. In his empty spot in front of the nurse, Orochimaru walked up and addressed the nurse.

“Who the hell was that?”

“That is Professor Sarutobi’s grandson. He’s a medical student. The Professors wishes that he experiences more of the department, he expects great things of him.”

“Indeed” Orochimaru said darkly and sighed, as he stared after the young man with a menacing gaze.

-----

Konohamaru opened the door marked ‘Staff only’ slowly, looking inside and then behind him, before continuing in. He continued into the dark room, stopping in front of the bed, in which a deceased patient rested in peace, with a red rose on the bed-sheets that covered the body. He picked up the rose and left the room, heading straight for the sleep laboratory. He walked past the monitors showing different beds with patients and stopped a few meters away from the pink-haired woman. She was currently tying one of her shoes, a foot up on a chair, making her nurse-uniform ride up a bit and show off more of her slim legs. She straightened up and fixed her uniform and then continued to her desk. Konohamaru followed, and watched as she sat down and put her feet up on the desk and opened a sparkly magazine. She had just started flipping through it when he properly entered the room and greeted her with the rose visible in his hand.

“Hello, Sakura.”

She stopped and looked at him, then put down her magazine and got to her feet. She walked to him and he held out the rose.

“Thank you, Konohamaru. A rose.” She said blandly and accepted the flower. She then walked to the closet where numerous vases containing all kinds of flowers could be seen, and stuffed the rose into one of them.

“You shouldn’t waste all your money on flowers for me” she said sternly.

“Did you think about, what you promised to think about?” he asked quickly.

She sighed internally and felt like she was repeating herself for the millionth’ time, “I’m too old for you, you would have no problem finding a fellow student”

“But you’re the one I love; I’ve planned that we should be together.”

“I’m not going to run around with some medical student.”

“You don’t know us Sarutobi’s, we never give up on a plan.”

“Well, this one you will have to.”

“Do you realize that you cause me pain, when you say that?” he said.

“Do I?” she asked with a skeptical look.

“Yes. I may even do something rash.”

“Such as?”

“Kill myself, you’ve heard stories like that.”

She laughed a bit before answering, “Oh, I wonder.”

“Am I to take those as your last words?”

She smiled a bit before beckoning him closer. He hurried to move and stopped in front of her. She took his face in her hands and turned his head, and raised herself up on her toes and pecked him on the cheek, an almost sisterly look on her face.

“Run along now, I’ve got work to do.”

He had been backed out of the inner office without even realizing it, and now she went back inside and closed the door in his face.

-----

Tsunade was sitting at a desk, reading a book when the door to the office opened and Orochimaru entered.

She turned and smiled at him as he closed the door before getting up and going to him.

“Orochimaru” she smiled, placing her arms around him as he returned the gesture. “You can be a bit brusque, you know.” She kissed his cheek. “But do you know why I love you?” she paused as he shook his head with a silent ‘no’. “Would you like to know?”

He shook his head again.

“I love you because you are a great man”

He nodded.

“All the others are so tiny ..” she looked fondly at him, and then kissed him again. “When are you going to move your things into my place?”

“I have to get settled in first” he explained with a small smile, and she combed her fingers through his hair in a loving manner. He took her hands in his own and looked at her. “You know I don’t like you touching my hair.”

“Yes, yes, yes .. ” she said in a placating manner and then took a breath to continue, “We need a holiday, Orochimaru. Haiti, I want to go there so much!”

“Book a table, then” he said, but stopped in his tracks when she just looked at him. “Ha- .. Haiti?! Down there among the … what the hell would we do there?”

“History, voodoo, naturopathy -”

“Pardon, excuse me, what did you just say?” he cut her off.

She sighed and shook her head, “No, nothing.”

“Yes you did, I heard you. Say it! Say it, say it, say it!”

“.. Naturopathy.”

“I don’t ask you to respect a great deal of things when you are in my company, but there are some words that I’d ask you to avoid.” The yellow eyes narrowed. “Maybe my company doesn’t mean that much to you ..-”

“I only meant, Jesus, Orochimaru-” she hurriedly tried to diffuse the situation.

“Naturopathy!” he shook his head, and his voice started rising again. “You are a doctor! A scientist! Go and wash your mouth with soap!”

She rose to meet him, “You are such a hot-headed old fuss, sometimes! This book -” she picked up the book from her desk. “Read this book, it will give a better, more in depth idea of Haiti.”

“There will be no reading done here! Spirits! To hell with them!” He said angrily before leaving the room and slamming the door shut behind him.

-----

Chiyo was packing her bag, preparing to leave the hospital. She was in the process of putting her copy of A General Textbook in Neurology into her bag when she mused out loud to herself;

“Maybe the consultant neurosurgeon is right.. Maybe I am just an old fool..” she turned and looked to her son. “Tell me, Kankuro, am I a failure as a mother?”

“No, no ..” he hesitated, seeming to be looking for the right words, “you can do so many things .. A bit of a nutter every now and then, but I’m very fond of you”

She smiled and placed her hands on his cheeks, “You are a good boy, Kankuro.”

“I will drive you home, mom.”

“No need, I’ll take bus 10. It was sweet of you to offer, though, my boy.” She gathered her things and left the room.

Kankuro suddenly looked down his arms and noticed the chairs that he was holding, they were the ones Chiyo had been using for her séance.

“Mom? Where did you get the chairs from? Mom! Mummy, the chairs – MOM!”

-----

Chiyo was standing in the elevator, feeling strange again. She looked up and realized that it was the exactly same lift; she recognized the loose tile in the ceiling, which had a loose corner, letting the occupant look up into the black nothingness of the elevator-shaft. She went to the control-panel and pressed the button marked ‘STOP’ and heard the wheels screechingly come to a halt and bite firmly onto the steel-wire that lifted the elevator. She looked up to the tile and focused. There! She heard it again, the cry of a little girl. She could hear the sound of a little girl, continuously crying, up from the elevator-shaft!

“Hello?” she tried carefully, focusing on the loose ceiling-piece. “Hello.”

The corner jerked downwards.

-----

“Hello?” could be heard, resonating up through the shaft, repeating itself in an echo. “Hello.”

-----

“This is the engineer, is anything the matter?”

The voice from the communication-panel startled the old woman and she stopped calling as she turned to the panel of buttons.

“Oh, no, I think I pressed a button by mistake, and then the lift stopped.” She said, sounding all the part of a confused old lady.

“Press the button of the floor that you are getting off at, then it will start again.” The voice said.

“Thank you”

-----

When Chiyo left the elevator at ground level, she didn’t head for the exit, but went to the reception of the ER, being careful to carry her bag and coat in one hand and have the other stretched out in front of her. She pushed the door open and went to the desk. Behind it the same young porter with the wild brown her, like her own Kankuro, and red triangle tattoos’, unlike her Kankuro, was standing. He looked up at her.

“Hello, I’m afraid I’m feeling ill again.”

-----

The students were making a lot of noise as they moved to their seats, the basement walls only amplifying the sounds.

The long-haired man was sitting with closed eyes at the front of the room, in front of a black-board. He was holding his chin in one hand and apparently deep in thought. When the students started to quiet down and settle down, his eyes opened to reveal pearlescent, pale, almost pupil-less eyes. He slowly rose from his chair and went forward to the metal table in the middle of the room, where a body was covered by a white cloth. He looked at his students, noting Professor Sarutobi’s grandson and the boy he was currently talking with, an apparently permanently snotty kid, and how a girl with orange-ish hair kept looking longingly and covertly at the loudly talking Konohamaru. He took hold of one end of the white cloth and slowly moved it down, uncovering the deathly-pale head and shoulders of the deceased on the table. When the body came into view, the orange-haired girl held a hand in front of her mouth, looking vaguely ill, before getting up and moving her way out of the row of seats and out of the room. He sighed internally.

He observed the rest of the class in silence until he had made up his mind.

“You” he said, pointing at Konohamaru, who was sitting furthest out to the right. The young man’s head dropped to his chest with a sigh before getting up and moving to the front of the class as Neji moved down and sat in his place. Konohamaru slowly moved closer to the table with the corpse until he was about a meter away, then he stopped and showed his hands into his pockets.

“Are you afraid?” the Hyuuga asked calmly before crossing his arms over his chest.

“No” Konohamaru answered.

“Would you mind if I touched you, for example touched your face?” Neji continued.

“Ah, no thanks” the student said with a slightly crooked smile.

Getting up, Neji pointed to a new random student, “You” he said and waved him up as well.

“Stand closely next to him.” The fellow student stood a couple of inches away from Konohamaru’s side. “Closer!” he lightly pushed the young man nearer to the other. “Closer, closer closer..” until the second young man finally responded.

“I don’t like it” he said quietly.

Neji huffed a bit before turning to the metal table. “Like it!” he said to himself. “Do you think that the people on these tables are comfortable, do you think they like to lie there?” he said out loud to the class. He turned to the two students up front. “Do you think that they will like it when we begin to cut them open in a few minutes?”

“I don’t know” the second student answered softly.

Neji sent them back to their seats.

He walked towards the black board. “I say that the fear of being touched, the fear of getting too close to each other is the fear of dying!” He turned to his class. “Why is that? Because it is fear of the Fellowship.” He wrote ‘fellowship’ on the black board with a nice cursive, neat handwriting. Neji pointed to the young students in front of him. “The Fellowship. Every time you move a bit further in the seat on the bus to avoid touching the person next to you, every time you avoid delving your fingers into whatever illness a patient presents with, then it is fear of-” his fisted hand hit the black board just beneath the word written, “the Fellowship.” He looked at his class with knowing pale eyes. “The greater Fellowship..”

He walked forward, leaning with his hands onto the edge of the cold table. “Everyone we work on down here has accepted his or her place in the fellowship. A corpse makes no demands. A corpse grants us with its sublime generosity its body to the science which belongs to all of us.” He shifted gears a bit. “New legislation requires us to obtain the relatives’ consent if we want to dissect a body, as opposed to earlier. This may make our work more difficult, but if we ask in an open and reasonable way then nobody can argue against the logical and sensible purpose of a dissection.“ He lifted a scalpel which he had withdrawn from his robes, and lifted it slightly in the air as he continued. “The law of the living requires us to ask first. The law of the dead is to give. That invokes respect.” He darkly stressed the last word as he looked around the faces of the students.

And then, as if there hadn’t just been a dark mood in the room, he lifted the white cloth further away from the torso and placed the scalpel against the skin and said in a lighter voice, “Right, the first incision.”

-----

Naruto led the young intern, Moegi was her name, down the hall with a smile before turning and entering the ER-examination-room, Moegi right at his heels.

He addressed the two people in the opposite doorway, “Hello, we’re from neurosurgery.”

“I think the patient is still in the bathroom.” the doctor answered, before he asked the nurse next to him, “is she still in there?”

“I will go check” the nurse said, before making her way to the toilet of the examination-room.

-----

The cold water was running down her hand, and had been for quite some time, but Chiyo knew that she needed to feel even number for this to work. Suddenly a voice could be heard through the door.

“Mrs. Chiyo? Are you having any problems?” it was the voice of the young sweet nurse.

“Ah, no, no,” Chiyo answered. “There’s just something weird about my urination, that’s all.”

She held her hand a bit longer under the icy water before meticulously drying her hands.

-----

The nurse led the old lady to the examination-seat in the middle of the room. Chiyo was still holding her hand funny. Naruto smiled at the sweet-looking old lady and presented himself.

“My name is Naruto, I’m from Neurosurgery.” The old lady smiled back. “Let’s have you sit down Mrs. Chiyo, and then we will take a look at your hand.”

“Thank you,” Chiyo said, “When I tried to use my bus-card on the way home, I couldn’t feel my hand at all.” She sat down. “Maybe there really is something wrong?”

“Well, I will have to do some tests on you with some needles.” Naruto smiled in order to keep the patient calm, “Please look the other way.”

At the mention of needles Moegi started a bit, and paled. When Naruto started stimulating different nerve-endings with the needle to determine which were the problem, Moegi started paling even further and couldn’t suppress a slight gasp and whine as she watched the needle penetrate the old woman’s hand multiple times. She went to the other chair in the room and sat down, putting her head between he knees as she held it in her hands and tried to breathe calmly.

“Does this hurt?”

“No”

“Can you feel this?”

“No.”

Naruto sighed a bit at the apparent shape of the old woman. He felt the hand a bit, and could feel the stark contrast between his own warm hands and the old lady’s.

“Yes.. Your hand is a bit cold too..”

-----

The students were gathered around the cold metal-table, cutting into the corpse lying there. It seemed Neji had left them to their own devices for a short period of time.

Udon looked at Konohamaru who was standing on the other side of the table and send him a crooked smile.

“Did you notice how much he looked like you?” he asked, referring to the dead man on the table.

“You think so?” Konohamaru grinned at the corpse.

“To a T”

Konohamaru looked at corpse and could see some points of likeness between them. With a slight laugh he took off his goggles and put them on the deceased, which made the other’s chuckle as they saw just how much the two looked alike.

“You’re right” Konohamaru said with a slight laugh, before he noticed a presence behind him.

Neji had been walking into the room when he noticed the commotion around the body and heard the two young people talk. The young Sarutobi quickly removed his goggles from the dead man and put them back on with a slight clearing of his throat as Neji came to stand next to him with a closed off expression on his face.

“Haven’t you understood anything, boy?” he said with an angry voice.

“The dead don’t mind giving us a bit of light entertainment, Professor Hyuuga.”

The pale eyes gazed harshly at the young man in front of him before he grabbed the white sheet and once more covered the entire body from sight.

“He who cannot take pathology seriously cannot take life seriously” he said sternly and shook his head before leaving the class once again.

Konohamaru had been standing there with an appropriately shameful facial expression all through the deal, but now he cracked into a smile at his friend, shaking his head at the teacher’s words.

-----

The young man with Downs Syndrome sprayed the tray of plates before him. He stopped and looked at the girl beside him, smiling as he observed her pushing the new tray towards him with her tongue out of her mouth, concentrating on the job at hand. She let go and looked back at him.

“Evening is coming.” The man said, “And the girl is in the lift again.”

“Now she is there, and now she is not.” The girl said in a low voice

“Yes, events keep repeating themselves,” he said as he hooked the sprayer up in its handle, and then he turned to smile at the girl, “All the time.”

“It is spooky.” The girl said as the sound of more spraying water could be heard.

“Yes it is,” he repeated her words, “It is spooky.”

They turned back to the trays, which were now filled with glasses and cups.

-----

The lift-door opened with a ding and the bed was pushed inside, the joints making noises of complaint from too many years of use.

“I can take the lift up by myself” Chiyo said to the person in the whites, and he pushed the button and left the elevator.

As the lift started moving with a start, Chiyo snapped open her eyes and looked to the crooked ceiling-tile right above her. She breathed slowly for a short while and then lifted her upper body up on the elbows as she leant upwards, looking even closer at the ceiling. After considering she got up from the bed and pressed the switch labeled 'STOP'. The machinery of the lift-cords stopped. She got up into the bed again, looking intently at the tile, and the hole it left.

She could clearly hear the cries of the little girl. Her hands fisted the bed-sheets and with determination she started to get up, standing to reach the lifts’ ceiling with her old hands. She got hold of the edge of the hole to stabilize herself and then, when she felt safe in her balance, started shakily to push the tile onto the outer roof of the lift, huffing with the effort it took. She kept her hands on the out side of the lift as she looked up and into the darkness around her.

“There, there, my dear ...” she said, the words echoing in the shaft. “Poor small child.” More echoes. “I’m with you again. I’ve come to help you.” She looked upwards and could see the small lights on the side of the shaft, leading up, up, up.

“Just what is going on here?” she wondered out loud into the emptiness of the lift-shaft. “There, there, my poor child.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sooo .... What do you think? :D

Yeah, this story has been up and down a couple of times, and I can't really explain it, becuase I don't fully understand it either, all I can say is that I am immensely tired of writing codes for cursive, bold and so on .... But now it's here, and thank god for that! :D

But I'd really appreciate some reviews, because this is a very diffirent kind of way for me to write, and I'd love some feedback. Was it scary at all?

Love Mulle.