New kid on the Block

Osu sighed and shook his head. “It isn’t just a written test, it is a full day of testing without rest or breaks, at least for the hospital division, the field division has different areas of focus and tests. As confident as you appear to be, your predecessors are still a large issue whether you choose to recognize it or not. This village has stood for a millennia and the medical branch has existed in some form or another for most of those years. At the beginning of those year we were like everyone else at the time, fumbling around with herbs and doing the best we could with the jutsu of the time. But we grew. In those first centuries we tried every method we came across in our studies and experimentations as well as the methods we discovered as we sent out expeditions into foreign lands: alchemy, folk medicine, rituals, demonology, trying out ridiculous combinations of materials and such and practicing them over and over with adjustments in our methods, drawing out every bit of truth we could find in them, and recording those and the faults for our descendants to learn from. We grew cleaner in our methods over time, at some point centuries ago falling into a proper scientific method. Still we continued to gather resources and knowledge from outside, testing them continuously to boil them down to their truths, and adjusting our understanding as we went along. Not just one or two talented people, but dozens to hundreds of talented researchers with each generation. These individuals realized fairly early on that no one person could truly grasp everything, particularly as our knowledge of medicine expanded. So they began to specialize, and these specialists would take the basics of their fields and dilute the most essential knowledge of their fields and compile those with the essentials of other fields for the next generation to learn, before drawing new specialists out of that group. Each generation learning all that the previous held and picking out the mistakes, finding new truths, and passing those on to their students. Specialties grew in knowledge over time and had to be broken down into even more specific sub specialties, who of course pulled out the necessities of their knowledge for the regular specialists to learn and digest as a group before dedicating to sub specialties themselves. This wasn’t always free to choose as the most accomplished researchers were assigned to study the fields that were most lacking or most dire at their times, while more students would be attached to broader fields to ensure the knowledge of previous generations were sufficiently challenged and recorded. We are oddly blessed in a sense to live in a country that has always been severely lacking in chakra users, as the leadership of not only the village, but the Shoguns and various Daimyo of the past saw it fit to provide us plenty of resources and funding for our research. These days direct funding from outside the village is basically gone due to the attitudes of the people and government towards chakra sensitives, but we are still the number one provider of medicine and vaccines in this and the neighboring countries of Bear and Marsh, in spite of the efforts of the Lightning Navy Academy and Research Division, so despite being the smallest branch we are very profitable, though most of that goes into village operations and the rest almost all sunk straight back into research. Our knowledge, teaching methods, research methods and such are tested continuously with each generation to the point where if a doctor from even five generations past would likely be shocked at what we have the MiT learning these days as well as likely be shamed by how their theories and research have been picked apart. But we honor them because it is the efforts of the countless generations before us that have provided us with the environment and resources we have today.

I don’t doubt your talents and efforts in Leaf, but you just admitted your medical branch is an afterthought, so I doubt it has the funding it truly needs. I doubt the accumulation and wealth of knowledge you have been able to build up in a few short years, I doubt your ability to research, test and sort through that knowledge with only a few individuals in such a short span of time, I doubt your village’s obviously non uniform education that has its students sorely lacking or left behind in places, I doubt the environment to grow where you so casually mention that treason seems a reasonable thought to you, I doubt anyone whose pride in their abilities appears to outweigh their need to know for sure they are doing what is truly best for their patients… but I don’t know with absolute certainty that you aren’t suitable so I am willing to test you,” Osu had grown increasingly stern in his speech until this last statement where his expression became rather warm and motherly with a small laugh.

“I did just explain that the essence around here is to doubt, in a logical fashion, and to attempt to disprove things that we are actually confident in. That is he path to progress after all. I’m not trying to cause you to doubt yourself or your teacher really, just for you to understand my concerns about your background and the risk it presents to our patients, as well as to make sure you aren’t in a ‘frog in the well’ sort of situation when it comes to your education. It is a wide world out there and we can’t be content with what we have in front of us, it is why we send out people across the lands still to try and find new techniques and technologies to test, no matter how… iffy they can appear to be. We actually even have a number of books rescued from your country from the civil war crisis with the samurai those years back that caused your country to regress somewhat. Rather our medical branch also hosts general researchers in most fields though everyone is required to learn some of medicine at the very beginning… as you might have seen some of them focus more on advancement than safety but that is part of my job around here. Not only as the second in command of the Medical Branch, our Sennin has allowed me to assume control of operations of the hospital division, while she focuses on the field division. These are the two major groups that all med branch members fall under and have rather different focused and specialties.

Most of what I have described so far fits the hospital division more these days, whereas instead of research focus and broader education, the field division is more combat trained and focused more on using jutsu and field medicine to assist their fellow shinobi out of immediate danger in combat situations and those times in the wilderness and behind enemy lines where more complete care is out of reach. Mostly they focus on keeping people alive until they can be brought back to the village or one of our disguised medical facilities in many major cities in Lightning… and a couple in other territories…

Anyway I am not unreasonable, I won’t force you to take an exam this moment to defend your statement or defend your teacher or such. I will definitely give you time to review and study if you are willing to take the opportunity, but if you want to take the test this moment, which leans more towards the hospital division mind, know it is a very involved process for everyone involve. I would require you to answer three essay questions right here and now verbally or on paper, whichever suits you better, to at least see if it is worth pulling people from their work, breaks, or day off to give you the tests. But if you are willing to take some time as a MiT to be taught and be given plenty of study materials, resources, classes, and such we will go out of our way to make sure you are ready for the tests and to help people as effectively as possible. Or if the field division exam seems more your pace, we can do that as well but I would need time to call for suitable proctors. Honestly one of the main advantages of being a MiT is the opportunity to explore the different roles more freely, if more restricted clearance wise, and see what best suits you.

But if your confidence in your path and knowledge are sufficient we can try them, though there will be a penalty of sorts if we go through the effort to give you the exams and you don’t pass. That isn’t just for you, it is mostly to discourage people from simply trying to take it over and over until they pass and to actually be prepared for the tests.”

Osu thought for a moment before saying, “By the way I asked for your ‘official story’ earlier, and just making sure, but are we simply going to regard you openly as a Leaf refugee or did Ayumu-Sama make different arrangements for a cover story? I will confirm with him later, but it does affect how we do the paperwork, so it would be helpful if you give me the details if you have one.”
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"A real man emanates an aura of manliness that cannot be hidden, no matter what clothes he may wear." -Kusunoki Yukimura

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Maikeru stared at the man for a moment, his coal black eyes trying to look into the one man's, trying to get even the simplest of reads on him. It was not an easy thing, and there wasn't a whole lot he could read from the simple stare between the two shinobi. The man was intelligent and experienced, that much was obvious from the way he spoke, the mannerisms that he portrayed as he sat in that chair simultaneously chastising and questioning the young medic. Beyond that, however... there wasn't anything that Maikeru could read from this shinobi. He was an enigma, that much was certain at least.

The man continued to talk, his words slowly driving knives into the Uchiha pride that burned brightly inside of every fiber of Maikeru's being. His teeth subtly clenched against each other as he bit back the retorts and disrespect he wanted to show towards the man. He had spent enough time in leaf, and he had intelligence of his own, there was nothing to be gained from it. He simply let the man continue to speak, continue to explain exactly what he wanted.

He wasn't making bad points, and most of what he said was true. Maikeru had been forced into a position he wasn't ready for because there was no one else to do the job that needed to be done. It was mainly the implication that he had not thought about his patients that were irking the Uchiha. But, still, nothing to be gained from correcting him. If the man was going to see Maikeru's skill and bedside manner as it were, it would have to be through his actions, not his words.

"There was no official story that Lord Raikage came up with, no. However, I have taken to going under the name of Akira. I figured a late bloomer of a shinobi would be taken more hospitable than a refugee from a foreign village. It's also tiring continuing to explain why I had left my home." Maikeru said, before letting out a small sigh. "In leaf, I lived inside a hospital, and I loved it. Helping people, caring for them, it made me feel better about all the awful things we are forced to do on the battlefield. For every life I took, at least I could save one or two. I'm sure you can relate to that too, Osu-sensei."

There was a pause in Maikeru's speech, a beat in order to gather his thoughts and think about his options. He had just spent months on the road, and sleep came hard inside of a new place. The anxiety that one day Cloud ANBU would burst down their door, take Reicheru or Danni in the middle of the night... it kept him up most nights. Taking the test today would not be the best, at least in his mind.

"I don't think I want to do that again, though." He finally said, shrugging his shoulders. "I've always been more comfortable in the thick of things, in the middle of combat. I guess it's the Uchiha blood in me. With your permission, I would like to be transferred to the combat medic division, if that is okay with you and the medical Sennin. A.. Shinrya-sama, I believe."