"The boy you brought in, he's your cousin correct?"
"Yes, his father was my father's younger brother."
"He's from the Branch Family and you're from the Main Family right?" again, Hinata answered in the affirmative. "He is still in a bad condition. He'll live, almost defiantly and his brain appears to be mostly intact but the good news ends there." Hinata made as if to move her hands together but stopped.
"It scares him." She said in response to the doctor's quizzical gaze.
"That's what I mean." He responded grimly. Hinata's eyes were puzzled. He continued. "I don't know the amount of physiological damage to him. I moved my hands together while I was examining his head injury, which is nothing serious by the way, and he panicked. Cringed back like a beaten dog." She looked worried still.
"What do you mean by physiological damage? Is it bad?"
He looked unsure of how to put it. "Physiological damage is damage to his mind but not in ways we can heal in a hospital. If you are bitten severely by a dog you might be permanently terrified of dogs. If you have that seal activated then maybe he will be terrified of hand signs his entire life. Not to mention that man and anyone else who might activate it. He might be frightened of all Main Family members for the rest of his life. The next few weeks will determine that. It might fade and leave just a little behind. Perhaps a phobia of Main Family members making hand signs… we can't tell." She looked shocked.
"A phobia of all hand signs? Just how bad is it being activated?" the doctor looked grimly amused.
"It's like nothing else. It is the most painful thing you've ever experienced in your life magnified by a hundred. I've heard it feels like a burning coal has been applied to your forehead. Every moment it spreads a little until your whole body is consumed by a fire that makes you wish for death. And the pain goes on and on with out fading. In fact, it gets worse each second. That is what that man did to your cousin. Now he is terrified of everything, jumping like a nervous hare. We need to get him to a more comfortable place where he can heal with out stress and fear. The terror alone that he's experiencing could be extremely brutal." Hinata realized what he meant immediately.
"Should I take care of him? I think I owe it to him, I mean, its all my fault…" the doctor bit his lip.
"Hmmm, that might be advisable. He knows you and if you're sincere then after some time he'll trust you. I would be careful about new people though. That includes people he already knows. From now until the emotional wounds have healed imagine everything through his angle, that all acquaintances could activate it, whether or not they actually could, and make him experience that torture again. For him that has poisoned all his confidence and shattered his normal self." They walked back into the room where Neji lay. The moment he heard them he jerked his head around and looked at them through a haze of terror. He relaxed when he recognized who they were. The doctor went straight to the point.
"We thought you might be more comfortable in your own room. Also we might need these rooms for other patients in need such as you were. We are going to bring in the stretcher carriers. We'll put you on one and bring you to your own regular surroundings. Another thing, your cousin has volunteered to nurse you until you are better so she will be going with you. Please, stay still!" Neji had moved as if to sit up in protest. "What's the matter?" the boy turned to look at Hinata with eyes filled with a mixture of panic and resentment. "Is it that she will be taking care of you?" he nodded and winced slightly. "I believe that you will be far more comfortable with her than with a nurse. And whatever you say you do need someone to watch you until you get better. I will take no objections at all. The stretcher bearers will be here in minutes. Please lie still until they get here."
The few minutes until the carriers arrived were tense and awkward. Hinata had moved to the side of his bed and bit her lip as she looked at him. The moment when he had lifted his head to look beggingly at her flashed before her eyes. The way he looked, bleeding and despairing. Like something had broken inside of him. When they entered it was a relief for everyone. They expertly lifted Neji and placed him comfortably. The procession wound its way to the Branch Family quarters where Neji lived. They moved up stairs to the top rooms. The door that they had been directed to was the last one. Hinata moved slightly ahead of the others to open it. She paused in the doorway, she had never been in there and it was nothing like what she had expected.