For his very small size Osuteno was rather quick, both in body and in mind. So much so in fact that his nicknames that referred to his more rabbit like nature were becoming more popular. It was one reason his was a favorite in a "slow day at the hospital so we are going to race"... race. After a moderate amount of peer pressure and the convincing argument of it being training, Osu agreed to participate. Each contestant was given a healing dummy and a wheelchair. The object of the race was to push the wheelchair as fast as they could with their healing dummy passenger to various checkpoints around the hospital. Upon reaching the final checkpoint they would draw an illness out of a box at random and fill out the paperwork properly to "admit their patient" and the first to charge their healing dummy to full health would win. The entire course going back and forth through the checkpoints and would involve stairs, elevators, and a good number of obstacles... Including senior staff who might disapprove of this little activity... And the janitorial staff, but that was a whole different story.
At the starting line were seven people. A couple nurses, an orderly who wanted to try his luck, a few mednin including Osu, and old man Jienkenzu who apparently had been a patient so long that he picked up some medical jutsu. They all waited patiently while the nurse with the "flag" was speaking on their headset with a security guard. "Alright. Kahako-Sama has just left the hospital to check on her kid. Shinrya-Sensei just went down to her lab with Hisako. All other senior staff are in appointments, their offices or absent. Avoid halls 3E, 4A, 4J, and 6H. Bets are now closing. On your marks!" The racers and the small audience tensed.
"Get Set!........" The nurse tapped the shoulder of the old man who was sleeping in the wheelchair she had. He woke with a start.
"Huuuh? What? Where is my pudding?"
At the word pudding the racers moved forward and the competition was on. Old man Jienkenzu was pulling ahead into first despite his age, a mednin who worked over in pediatrics behind him, with Osu pulling up third. Osu wasn't able to turn his head to see the order of the people behind him nor was it wise to. They were given no routes or rules aside from the order in which they needed to reach the checkpoints, do no harm, keep their dummies from losing their initial 3 percent health, and most importantly don't get caught. It was a good thing that he kept looking ahead too as old man Jienkenzu dropped a tapioca pudding cup. Osu and the pediatrician avoided it but the nurse who was right behind Osu ran straight over it squeezing out the contents she slipped and took a mednin from over in dermatology and the orderly down with her with the last nurse slowed down going around them, all three of their dummies making a beeping sound that signaled they were 'dead'. It was so early in the race yet the tricks were already coming out and coming out strong. This was also the reason why old man Jienkenzu was the fan favorite to win.
The three of them were sticking close to one another with the nurse trialing a good distance behind them but was beginning to catch up as they passed the radiology department, the first checkpoint. As they turned down a hallway that had the elevator at the end to head down to the basement levels it was clear to see that the nearest elevator was two floors up. Old man Jienkenzu decided to make a quick 180 to take the stairs, a risky move should he go too quickly and drop the dummy, while the other three stayed on course. The pediatrician pulled a sucker from his coat and threw it as he would a kunai, hitting the down button with precise aim as they continued to run towards it the doors opened just as he arrived and Osu made it in as well. He was pressing the close door button at rapid speed as the nurse ran towards them, begging that they hold it for her as it slowly shut. The sound of her dummy hitting the door and losing its health sounded as they started heading down.
It was a mostly quiet trip down the few floors to the bottom basement level. The pediatrician and Osu exchanged giddy grins from how exciting that last little stunt was, the pediatrician commented on the bags under Osu's eyes and how skinny he was, and Osu agreed to stop by his office later to talk about his diet. When the doors opened though it was back to business. The two of them rolled out to find old man Jienkenzu not to far behind them and with a lot more momentum going for him as he pulled back up into second with Osu in third. Honestly all that had really been accomplished was knocking the nurse out of the race. As they rolled through past morgues and labs a thought occurred to Osu, it was Hisako's general maintenance day. Osu made a sharp turn down a longer hallway, that the old man noticed and decided it might be best to lose some ground and follow Osu, while the pediatrician rolled on ahead. In all likelihood Kitsune Sensei was leaving her lab down that very hallway after giving Hisako a quick diagnostics scan and asking her a few questions, a much faster visit than normal. It would at least dramatically slow the pediatrician down to come up with a decent explanation as to why he was running down that hallway with a healing dummy to lose whatever lead he might currently possess. Most likely it would put him out of the race entirely. It was just Osu and old man Jienkenzu now.
As they passed the next checkpoint and took the elevator up to the top floor the old man looked down at Osu, "It seems following you was indeed the right course of action little missy." He was a boy dangitall. "Looks like it is just the two of us left in this race. You know back in my day I was a messenger shinobi, always running from one place to another. Even beat a Seikon in a footrace once in my prime. True story. That was a long time ago though. A lot more shinobi around back then, much more dangerous times too though so I guess that is the tradeoff. Anyway good luck, we just got two more checkpoints to go and I don't plan to go easy on yah just cause you remind me of my granddaughters." Old people did always seem to talk a lot, but instead of saying for the thousandth time that he was a boy Osu simply nodded. When the door opened though it was only the old man who was running out the door. Osu found that his wheelchair wouldn't move.
"By the way!" The old man yelled back waving a number of extra hands goodbye to Osu. "I beat that Seikon because he never managed to leave the starting line! No hard feelings kid!" Osu looked down at his wheels to see a thick coat of sticky web had him caught. The elevator door began to close when he removed one of the wheelchair feet and put it down to keep the elevator open while he made a knife of blood and tried sawing at the substance. A good minute later, just as Osu was giving up hope, the elevator next door dinged and a couple janitors stepped out to find Osu in the other. The one just looked down at the object blocking the door, then at Osu, then at the web on the wheel.
"You lot are doing that race thing of yours again aren't you? With that damn old man who leaves a mess everywhere he goes." He pointed to the web. "That won't do it, trust me, I have had to clean it up enough." He waved the other janitor to get something off of the cart and he brought back a rather unsettling looking liquid. Couple weeks ago there was another Hachiashi in the hospital and I had them mix this up for me after explaining about all the tiles I have had to replace. It takes a minute to burn through and smells something awful but it'll get the job done. He took a glove and a paintbrush and gave the web a quick coat with the liquid. It really did smell foul. "So how far behind are you?"
"About two minutes." Osu replied. There was no coming back from that, but the janitor simply nodded.
"And where are you supposed to be running to?"
The fact he said it like being two minutes behind wasn't a problem surprised Osu but he answered anyway, "Next is the end of the rooftop garden on the other side and after that we need to head over to where we do the late night check-ins, down on the first floor."
"Then here in a minute that man will be coming to an out of order elevator and have to take the stairs down. Though that still puts you quite a bit behind. It will take him probably... let's say about 9 minutes to go through all those hallways and make that last checkpoint." He turned to his partner. "Hey tell them to shut down the elevators on the other side for maintenance."
Surprised Osu began, "Uhh thank you but..." The janitor cut him off.
"I am not helping you, I am hindering that old bastard who keeps doing this to my floors," he said while bending down to start scraping up the webbing. "Tell me... kid, aren't you medics supposed to be taking the quickest route to help people?"
"Yes?"
"Then why are you taking hallways and elevators in this little race when the shortest distance between two points is a straight line? If I were injured and dying or something, personally I would really appreciate it if your lot didn't stick to the streets and plain went over or even busted through buildings to make that straight line. You know what they say, a medic at a dead run outranks everyone." The janitor finished removing the web from the wheels and made a quick seatbelt for the dummy with some tape. "Just a thought. Oh and avoid the windows if you can."
With that Osu was running again for the opposite side of the roof. Aside from the distance it was a pretty quick path as it was already pretty much a straight line and as he reached the person who marked the checkpoint, rather than using the elevator or going down the stairs Osu spun towards the side of the building, lifted the wheelchair over his head, and ran along the side of the building in as much of a straight line to the last checkpoint that he could manage.
The old man was very much surprised to see Osu a good 50 feet ahead of him coming in through the side entrance and already filling out the paperwork. Before old man Jienkenzu managed to get to the checkpoint Osu's completed clipboard clacked on the counter and moved to the empty room where a good number of nurses and doctors were already waiting, some excited and even more of them nervous as they obviously didn't bet on Osu. By the time the old man entered the room Osu's dummy released a loud beep that signaled it was at full charge.
The celebration and exchange of bets died down suddenly though and Osu turned to see what everyone was staring at. There in the doorway holding the arm from the pediatrician from earlier was Kitsune ”You guys do realize that I know everything about this, right? Why do you think our dear Sennin doesn’t know about it yet?” she said with a sly smirk. ”Could it be because I find it to be… Fun? Maybe, possibly… Educational?” she asked no one in particular, likely rhetorically too. ”As long as you don’t ruin my equipment, I won’t tell on you, just be careful~”
And with that she warped out like she do. There was a continued silence for a bit before everyone figured it was about time to get back to work.