The poison is identified as an insidious odourless toxin that weakens her body and sucks her chakra dry.
Rin has never encountered such an elaborate concoction before, but either she was too inattentive to notice or she is yet to determine its unscrupulous mode of transmission.
When Tobi lays her on the bed, she automatically stiffens at the contact. Her body is still anticipating the next stage of assault and she is viciously rebelling against any association.
But she is so severely incapacitated, the autonomous flinch barely constitutes a brief movement.
Tobi keeps his distance, as if he is uncertain how she may react if he stands too close. And when he stares at her bruised lower left leg, there is agitation in his gaze.
"I need to extract that poison."
He sounds hesitant, awkward even, but there is a component of solemness to his tone.
"I don't want your help," she quivers.
She is vulnerable and frightened of what he may do if he steps too close. She would let death take her if it means she does not have to deal with Tobi.
"Are you running away?"
Perhaps she is.
"But you need it," he says quietly.
"Just let me be," she retorts shrilly, "I told you not to follow me."
"I was not."
When Rin keeps quiet, he continues to speak brusquely.
"They were watching you for a long time, from when we first entered Cascades Town. I didn't realise the extent they would go to get you on their team. I guess I so happened to cross paths with them before they interrogated you, and I knew they had ulterior motives. They were watching you the whole time. I couldn't just stand there and…"
He trails off awkwardly, as if attached to that last sentence is a convoy of emotions reserved only for a boy who has a crush on a girl.
Childish as it is, Rin's hard expression softens.
From somewhere behind him, he takes out a medical kit alongside items she cannot identify. He keeps a brief watch on her, as if embarrassed about the situation.
"Please let me help you," he says.
He averts nervously to the ground.
Rin has never seen this side of Tobi before.
"No matter," she says lowly.
It is a passive invitation for him to treat her.
They remain silent as he extracts the poison. Tobi is precise with his chakra control, an element that surprises her. However, he falls short on the intricacies of deeper extractions, and when he accidentally hits his chakra against healthy cells, she lets out a soft whimper.
"Sorry."
He glances uncertainly at her.
When she does not answer, he takes it as a cue of reassurance.
"I'll still be leaving," Rin says.
Tobi hesitates, but then relaxes back into her dressings.
"You do what you need to do," he answers without looking at her.
There is a strong component of self-control evident across his dispirited features.
"You won't stop me on the way out," she says.
"No."
"Or follow me."
"No."
"Even if I am being attacked."
This time he stops mid-action, as if the unsettling comment perturbs his perfect composure of the situation.
"I cannot promise you that," he says forcibly.
"Why can't you just stay out of it, we parted ways already, we can part again!" she says incredulously.
"I won't be taking front row seats and watch you falter if that's a better explanation," he answers earnestly.
"I don't need you protecting me."
"Maybe not, but I will," he pauses with a fleeting glance in her direction, "even if it costs me my life."
The bewildered expression does not surface until seconds after. She stares at him intensively, perhaps in an attempt to fathom such a profound statement.
The silence does not shift between them, and it lingers unremittingly in the air like a dense ball of tension.
"I need to get your antidote," Tobi says eventually, "Please don't move too much."
He does not give her time to respond before disappearing for the door, as if his eagerness to leave the room is evident in his abrupt departure.
x
Rin cannot stand the feeling of uncleanliness. In this instance, it is exacerbated by her traumatic ordeal. The need to clean everything off, from the actual dirt to the horrendous smell of those men turns increasingly desperate.
Tobi has not returned after an hour, so she decides to take matters into her own hands and fall into the enrapturing warmth of a healing herbal bath.
Though the poison is mostly out her system and she is able to regain some motion, there is still an element of weakness. Whether it is the indispose feeling of returning memories or the minute traces of poison, she cannot tell.
But the water makes her feel better, and it numbs the pain of earlier events.
It is only sometime later that she hears movement from the inn room, followed by a soft tap on the bathroom door.
"Rin, I cannot give you your antidote if you are in there," Tobi's muffled voice calls.
She is not the least unsettled by her impending action.
"Well then you'll have to come in here and give it to me," she says.
There is silence, then,
"You know I cannot do that," he answers slowly.
"That's not my problem then."
She is taunting him and perhaps without realising, but she is so incredibly numb, she does not have the will to submit to any orders.
There is a long sigh of resignation followed by the sound of an open door.
Rin is lying almost flat on her back, save her head, which is hovering ever so delicately atop the soapy waters. And it may be this that Tobi is looking relieved.
He removes the antidote and attaches the vial to a thin needle. Then, he is kneeling before the bath tub with a look of concern flickering his gaze.
"I'll need your leg," he says bluntly.
He raises the antidote as an indicator of his imminent action. But Rin does not immediately comply.
"Take it," she says airily.
"It's in the water," he replies with rising displeasure.
She sticks out the lower half of one leg and carelessly flicks a tidal wave of water at him as she rests it on the tub's edge.
It takes only two seconds to administer the medication, but she continues to make things difficult. Her leg slides back and forth into the water when the needle is close to her skin, and Tobi lets out a small frustrated groan every time.
"Quit that won't you?" he says exasperatedly.
She stifles a laugh. The amused look on her face earns a disapproving frown from him.
Eventually, she complies and Tobi is looking slightly mollified.
When he stands back from her, the speculative gaze she gives is wistful. His hair and face is now partially wet from the ensuing battle with her uncooperativeness. And she finds the sight enticing. There is the undying urge to run her fingers through his hair and unstick the wet strands from his forehead.
"Have you ever seen a naked woman before?" Rin asks curiously.
Her arms push back and forth against the resistance of water. She enjoys the distraction, and her question is rather inappropriate for the situation. But her mind is delirious and she does not seem to make sense of her own thoughts.
"I don't see how that matters," Tobi says dubiously.
"Why were you hesitant walking in here and giving me the antidote?"
Tobi gives her a reticent look before repacking the medication.
"That would be quite disrespectful of me to deliberately walk in on a woman taking a bath," he answers.
"I give you permission," she says lightly.
He frowns.
"I don't know what you are saying."
She sits up just as he briskly turns away.
"Not sure if you are being deliberate with those words," Rin says.
"I'll leave you to it."
He refuses to look in her direction.
So she takes the towel and disappears for the bedroom door.
x
Moments later, he leaves Rin to her solitude. He states his intention to return with a missing item, then swiftly departs.
She is uncertain of Tobi's impending actions, but she briefly welcomes the isolation. Though her thoughts remain obscured by a physical numbness, there is a sensation of unease that settles somewhere in her chest.
The injuries she sustained from the assault transpires into a dull pulsating ache. She is sure they will surface in the form of raw red and a multitude of blue and purple.
Her chakra is incredibly low, a factor that fuels the frustration that she cannot tend to herself and is forced to be reliant on Tobi.
But her irateness is only what the outside world perceives. Deep down in the very depths of her soul, she relishes in his presence. Every part of her longs for his kisses, his alluring touch and that mysterious security he gives when he is near.
But she will never admit to this. It leaves her vulnerable and frightened, yet safe and reassured. Heaven help her with such contradictions.
In the next hour, Rin has taken refuge beneath the warmth of sheets. It is oddly sterile, as if Tobi has not once touched a thread on this bed.
She lays down and forces her mind from Tobi, but then the horrific events of today crawls through and so thinking of him is the only way she finds relief.
She hates the minuscule options, as if she has no pride, and is forced to succumb to the weakness like a poor defenceless woman.
Beneath the quietude, there is a knotting sensation from somewhere in her stomach. It rises gradually in the form of a repulsive nausea, then makes her fingers numb and her heart erratic.
And as if her mind is confused, she cannot pull these strange bodily sensations to a standstill. The apprehension rises, and it is only in that moment that she understands.
It is nothing malicious in the form of poisons or the indispose feelings of returning memories, but a set of more cruel emotions - anxiety.
She tries to make sense of its occurrence, but the uncertainty and the claustrophobic options stall her thought processes.
No, it is not.
That is the anxiety. The helplessness, the defenceless feelings of limited freedom, the assault, the emotional turmoil and the anger, they all intertwine and lock her in position until she dies in her own pool of fear.
"I'm so afraid," she whispers into the stillness.
And alone.