| [Jun. 10th, 2013|04:49 am] |
“I’m giving you an antitoxin now,” Genma told him, injecting the drug directly into Tousaki’s jugular. The effect was immediate and gratifying: a deeply drawn breath, and a twitch of Tousaki’s head.
“Don’t move, I’ve still got a needle in you,” Genma said. “I need to inject this slowly. Can you open your eyes?”
Tousaki didn’t respond at first, but then his lashes fluttered as if he were working the lids against a tremendous weight. As the last of the antitoxin flowed into his vein, he managed to slit his eyes open.
“Good,” Genma told him. He checked Tousaki’s pulse and found it steadier. “You’re going to be okay. Keep looking at me, okay? You got hit with imori poison. I’ve given you a big dose of antitoxin, so you might feel a little shaky, but you’re going to be fine. Can you take a deep breath?”
Tousaki’s eyes opened a little wider, and his chest heaved as he inhaled. Even through the mask of immobility the paralytic poison had stamped on his face, he looked frightened. His eyes twitched towards his cut wrist.
“Your hand’s fine. Still attached,” Genma told him. He’d seen that fear on faces during the war, when his answer had been a much scarier one. “Can you make a fist for me?”
Tousaki’s hand twitched, and the index and little fingers curled in, but the two middle fingers merely flexed. That wasn’t what Genma’d been hoping to see.
“Good,” he said. “Relax your hand now. Can you talk yet?” He wanted to take his mask off and give Tousaki a reassuring human face to focus on, not the impassive red and white Tanuki mask, but protocol forbade it. And Tousaki wasn’t dying, thanks be to the merciful Amida; Genma couldn’t justify the breach.
Tousaki scowled slightly as he took another breath in. "Thanks." His voice was slurred, but intelligible. "Sorr' I hit boar mask, now. F'this's what he felt like." He tried to close his hand again, doing a better job with the working two, and not at all with the others. "Can't feel m'fingers," he said quietly. The fear was still there, hitching his breath and drawing his gaze back towards his hand.
“You might have a little bit of nerve injury,” Genma said. “A little tendon damage. I can stabilize it, and we’ll get you back to Konoha if you need surgery. I don’t think the tendons are severed.” The nerves were another story, and potentially a worse one, but if the tendons and at least some of the nerves were mostly intact, the damage could probably be repaired. “Relax your hand?”
After a moment of hesitation, Tousaki did.
“I’m going to test your sensation now,” Genma told him. “Let me know if you can feel this.” He plucked a senbon from the holster at his hip and lightly tapped the end of Tousaki’s thumb. The reaction was instant, an instinctive twitch away from the prick of the needle. “Good. Good job. Your thumb is fine, that’s the most important one.”
Index finger got him a sluggish reaction, and pinky was fine. But the two middle fingers didn’t move. “Do you feel this at all?” he asked, pressing hard enough to draw tiny beads of blood.
The furrow between Tousaki’s eyebrows deepened, then his breath released in a gush as he dropped his head back. “Jus’ a bit. They’re still there?” His voice cracked with relief.
“They’re still there,” Genma said, mirroring Tousaki’s relief with his own. “I’m going to stabilize everything in there now, so nothing gets misaligned while we transport you to the medics for treatment.” He flicked through handseals, bringing the healing chakra back into his palms, and pressed them around Tousaki’s wrist.
“Moon, how’s Hatake?” he asked. “Tell base we’ve got at least one stable who needs further medical.” |
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