Raidou needed a break. His arms hurt, his head ached, and if his heart took one more direct attack from Kaito's damn bloodline he was going to leap off the Hokage's monument. Possibly with the kid nailed to the ground somewhere below to use as a crash-landing pad.

He dragged his hand over his mouth and chin, and told himself to stop being melodramatic. Genma was busy teaching Kaito some of his basic seduction techniques--which was something he really didn't want to think too hard about--so Raidou had at least a few hours to himself, and the gym was calling his name. He could give his arms a break from poison-powder-coated senbon--used in lieu of blinding the kid with a kai--and hit something until it died. Maybe several somethings.

Maybe a wall.

It was almost midday when he walked into the wide subbasement room ANBU used as a gym, kit bag slung over one shoulder, and he wasn't expecting to find anyone. The indoor gym tended to be crowded at dawn and dusk, and left empty the rest of the time--abandoned in favour of the outdoor training fields. He had to be here to stay within reach of Kaito in case anything went wrong, but no one else did.

But there was Tsume, standing in the centre-mat, mid-way through tripping over her own feet.

He paused by the door, watching her slim, bandaged figure launch itself into a kick-strike-fall combo, and frowned. If she was trying for graceful, she'd missed it by a field's-length. The best anyone could say about that particular attack-pattern was at least she hadn't sprained something...

He dropped his bag. "Having some problems?"

Tsume whipped around, so lost in her own frustration that she hadn't heard him sneak up. It made her skin prickle, and her eyes shot around the room as if someone else might have crept in as well.

No one had.

She settled slightly, stalking back to where she'd dropped her things and dragging up her bottle before chugging. When she was done, she eyed Raidou. The hairs on the back of her neck lifted. He'd been standing there, watching, while she'd fought and failed badly. Not that it meant anything. He wasn't Inuzuka. Too bad she was; tension coiled in her stomach.

"Been a while since I've tried taijutsu without adequate chakra." And by 'a while' she meant 'never.' She glowered harder and dared him to say anything.

"Ouch," said Raidou blandly. "I think I just walked into a bear trap." He got the full force of a blue-diamond glare so strong it almost sizzled his eyebrows, and put up his hands. "An angry bear trap. Settle down, little boss, I'm not here to make fun."

He had been here to get rid of some of his own tension, but that plan was falling rapidly by the wayside. If taijutsu was Tsume's problem--well, he could probably think of something helpful. And if not, at least he could watch her fall over until he forgot about stress-racked teenagers and their ability to strangle heartstrings.

Besides, it was good to see her out of the hospital, even if she looked set to throw herself back in. At least the bandage around her head was smaller than it had been.

He twitched his shoulders in a shrug. "Want a living target to practice on?"

She hesitated, thinking about fighting and weaknesses, then shook herself back into sense and started to say yes. She paused. Waki would kill her if she over-exerted herself and ended up back in the hospital.

"Easy spar?" she suggested warily. "'Fraid my chakra's still not up to--" anything "--much." Her scowl grew, but this time it wasn't aimed at Raidou. "Even punching it into my muscles isn't working right."

She didn't mention that it was mostly due to her pathways being wrong, and not knowing how to form chakra that didn't stretch between her and her familiar. She'd spent her last year in school--the year learning to use chakra in the moves they'd practiced for so long--slamming it back and forth between herself and another creature. She'd never had to keep it contained within herself, and use only what she had on hand. It felt... twisted.

If he didn't know any better, he'd say Tsume looked almost nervous.

Raidou turned that thought around in his head and almost gave himself a mental slap; he hardly knew Tsume at all. One drunk night, one awful mission, and one hospital visit did not a friendship make. He knew she was a tough as molded steel, never without her giant dog (except when she was), and a killer little fighter, but beyond that...

Well, maybe he knew a little more than that--

she'd forgiven him; she needed a break from her family; she had a soft spot for kids and none at all for kid-killers; she'd ended up stuck between Tousaki and Hatake...

--but not much.

Still, there wasn't much he didn't know about taijutsu, so maybe he should stop chewing over the mystery of Inuzuka Tsume and focus on that.

"If your chakra's still healing, how about we spar without it?" he suggested.

She took half a step back and peered at him, tipping her head to look up without baring her throat. He was tall--though he seemed to get smaller every time she saw him--and heavily muscled. Broad shoulders, broad hands, long reach.

"You spar without chakra?" she asked finally, a little dubious. Sparring without chakra didn't make much sense--unless, of course, you were giant-sized. Tsume wasn't giant-sized. But still, if he didn't use his, either...

Her gaze traveled down him and back up again. Maybe it'd work. She wasn't sure she liked the thought of fighting someone who weighed near twice what she did all in solid muscle, but it wasn't like they couldn't tap out. It wasn't like they were alone in the middle of a forest.

"If you think it's possible," she said at last, still uncertain.

"I've yet to meet anyone who found it impossible," he answered, and pulled his sweater off, dropping it on his kit bag. He glanced at her briefly as he did so. Definitely nervous--which made a kind of sense if she never went without chakra, and now they'd cut a chunk of it off, but it was Tsume...

Well, she was human. She had to get nervous about something.

He shucked his sandals off and padded out to the centre-mat, rolling his shoulders to loosen up. "So, no weapons, no bone-breaking, and no going for my eyes with those claws," he said, turning to flash a quick smile at her. "And no biting. I think I still have marks from the last time."

He settled into a stance, hands held up in a loose guard, and nodded. "Hit me."

One thing about being short was that you could always make yourself shorter. She'd long since learned to keep her stance low and her center of gravity lower. "Right," she drawled, carefully sliding into a place out of his stupidly long reach. "No twisting or spraining anything, either. I end up back in the hospital and I'm sacrificing you to Waki."

He'd met Waki. It was a serious threat.

She was still quick, without much body to swing into place. She whipped around, trying to connect heel to his torso--not the knee-shot that would be more likely to do damage, but hopefully it'd make it clear enough how non-damaging she wanted this to be.

He moved, catching her leg on his forearm.

There wasn't nearly the reaction she was used to getting. A quick hop back kept her from getting caught, and she ducked in to jab at his stomach.

No wonder she was nervous. Without chakra to strengthen her blows, Tsume had enough force to maybe wind a chuunin--if they were a bad chuunin. Raidou took the strike on his solar-plexus with a quiet grunt, letting tensed muscle absorb the damage, and decided this really wasn't going to work. Tsume knew how to kill with chakra, but she'd apparently never learned to do without.

Well, never too late to pick up a new lesson.

He caught her next kick against the palm of his hand, and wrapped his fingers around the arch of her foot. One careful tug was enough to pull her off balance; his other hand blocked her instinctive return punch, and trapped her wrist.

"I'm thinking," said Raidou, "that a spar might not be what you need. Do you know when they're putting you back on missions?"

Tsume stood with one foot in one over-large hand and her wrist caught, and was mildly grateful he at least hadn't released her to fall on her rear.

She shifted her balance on her remaining leg, realized he really wasn't going to drop her, and put enough weight on her trapped foot to lever herself into a better position. "Not until my chakra's back," she said with a frustrated twist of her mouth. She had to stop, to think, and muttered unhappily, "Weeks, I'm guessing." Which was how long they expected it to take for Kuromaru to heal--including the hopeful reattachment of their pathways.

"Why?" She tugged at her foot in the hopes he'd let go, but didn't bother pressing. It was a little unnerving to be so thoroughly taken down. She didn't really want to push and see how more thoroughly he could do it.

Until she got it back--which mean she would get it back. Well thank Genma's Buddha for that. Raidou let Tsume's foot drop when she tugged, releasing her wrist along with it, and settled back on his heels, thinking.

"Just wanted to know," he answered. "I'd hate to see you end up flattened your first mission out." Which she would if she took that level of talent out on the field.

But Intel weren't notorious for giving their agents all the time they needed to recover; if Tsume could walk and talk, they'd consider her pretty much healed. And Raidou wouldn't care to wager on her actually getting the weeks she needed to get properly back into shape...

Too many missions, and never enough agents. That was ANBU's problem.

He scratched the back of his head. "So," he said, without preamble, "want how to learn to fight without chakra? Because right now you suck."

Tsume frowned, rocking back on her own heels, out of reach, and wiping sweat from her eyes. She wanted to argue that she was just tired, but it wasn't true. At least, not true enough.

Her gaze rested on Raidou's scarred face for a long while, remembering what she'd read in his dossier, over a month ago now. Taijutsu expert. But he was a lot bigger than she was. She eyed him consideringly. Somehow, she didn't doubt he could fight without chakra. It seemed like the sort of thing an expert would learn.

But he was still a lot bigger than she was. She slanted a doubting look up at him. "Sure. You positive you can teach me that?" Not that he was a bad teacher. Just that he was... big. And she... wasn't.

Raidou thought over his past week and felt his mouth twist slightly, stuck between a smile and a scowl. "According to Intel, I'm a teacher in the making. Besides, what have you got to lose?"

He left her to think for a second while he went back to his kit and dug out a roll of bandages. He tossed it at Tsume. "For your hands. If you've got no chakra to shield your skin, you need to put something in its place. Gloves'd work, too, but I didn't bring any." He shrugged and took up his place again.

"There's a lot I can tell you," he said, with the short smile of one who knew exactly how he sounded, but planned to keep talking anyway. "But I figure we start with the basics first. One--you can kick harder than you can punch, and your legs are a lot longer than your arms; I'll let you do the math. And two--fight dirty. Bite, scratch, kick me on the shins--whatever. Just go for where it really hurts." He grinned properly this time, dropping back into a ready-to-move stance. "Finish the fight before it starts."

Tsume unrolled the bandages and wrapped them around her hands, her knuckles, over and over until she had enough of a cushion that she wasn't worried about bone breaking skin. Then she slipped back into her crouch, still out of range, watching Raidou thoughtfully the whole time.

"Thought you didn't want me scratching," she said with a quirked grin, feeling hopeful for the first time in too long. She knew she wasn't moving right, didn't have any strength behind her blows anymore. It was good to know there might be some hope--though she didn't believe for a moment that she could beat even an upper level chuunin without chakra.

"Hey, girls aren't the only ones who can change their minds," he returned, dropping his gaze to focus on her middle-torso. Even with that loose white t-shirt fluttering around her ribs, he might be able to catch a glimpse of any incoming moves telegraphed from her core muscles. "Besides, maybe I'm just feeling kinky."

Or stressed. A decent scratch or two would get his head back together--even if it was a little extreme as a coping mechanism. It was better than beating his knuckles bloody against a punching bag. Just as long as she didn't go for his face.

Tsume still wasn't attacking, which meant she hadn't picked up his unsubtle clue about finishing the fight first. Raidou shifted one foot, saw her eyes track him with a flicker, and threw himself forward with a mental shrug. Let her dodge instead.

He cut in with a high punch designed to break a collarbone--if he'd put any force behind it.

Tsume moved quickly, flinging herself backward. She nearly stumbled when the chakra she tried instinctively to shove into her muscles didn't do as she'd asked, but just lurched unhappily through her pathways.

"Bloody testes," she yelped, whipping sideways to avoid the blow he'd tried to pull, and she'd halfway stumbled into.

Moving with the drop, she went down on her back and took his advice: used her legs, shoving both heels hard at his groin.

If he'd been a truly committed teacher, Raidou might have taken that hit to reinforce his lesson--but after Tsume's curse, his own testes had vastly different plans. He planted his leading foot, arresting his charge, and twisted quickly enough to catch both heels on one thigh.

This time, the strike hurt.

"Better!" he said brightly, wondering if she'd bruised the bone, and grabbed her ankles with both hands, hauling up. "But now what?"

Tsume didn't bother flailing, tempting as it was. She coiled instead, ignoring her shirt as it tried to tangle around her face. She didn't need eyes; she knew where Raidou was.

This landing was going to hurt. She wasn't sure she cared. Claws flashed for the hands gripping her ankles. They weren't long, not without a jutsu to lengthen them, but her nails were still sharp.

Now, she proved herself a decent student, and did just what Raidou said: Scratched.

A decent scratch or two was one thing, ten at once was something else entirely. Raidou only managed to choke off half his yelp when Tsume's claws sank into the backs of his hands and ripped off furrows of skin from wrists to knuckles--but he didn't let her go.

Until she did it again.

A shimmer of chakra beneath his skin stopped her from damaging something vital, but damn that still hurt. He released her--oddly gratified that she managed to catch herself with a slap of palms against the mat--and leapt away before her legs scythed around and cut him in half at the knees.

A quarter-second to regroup, and he was back as Tsume popped up to her feet--just in time to wrap an arm around her throat.

Tsume tried to duck her chin, not quite managing it in time before his forearm was cutting into her windpipe. She could never decide if she appreciated being short at times like these--it meant people had to bend to put her in a headlock, which made the headlock less effective--or hated it--because when they bent it took their stomach out of reach of her elbows.

Raidou was good at it, and hooked his arm upward, catching both neck and jaw and making it a true lock, arcing her skull against his chest. No bending. She braced one fist in her other hand, and with the power of both arms shoved her elbow back into his torso.

He grunted and didn't let go.

She was pretty sure that the feeling of oxygen deprivation was mostly in her mind. Pretty sure.

She could always claw his hands again, already scratched, but she wasn't sure he'd let go fast enough. There was another good thing about being short. Fingers hooked, she grabbed for his balls--well within reach.

That was it, the next time he sparred with Tsume he was wearing a cup. Her arm moved, heading down, and certain male instincts kicked in way before Raidou's brain caught up. He jerked to one side, pulling his hips back, and felt her claws snatch at cloth before digging into the join where leg met hip--which, fortunately, meant they weren't catching anything more sensitive, but ow.

It also meant he was now bending forward--a fact he could really appreciate when Tsume slammed her head back and made a decent attempt at flattening his nose.

Between possible infertility and definite nasal-bone issues, Raidou picked the chance of one day being able to hear the patter of tiny Namiashi feet; he kept his hips back and took a skull-shot to the face. Chakra sparked just enough to stop anything from going crunch.

"Ow," he muttered around a faceful of hair.

Her hand moved again, jerking left--

Raidou heaved her up and threw her across the matt--and remembered she had no chakra to land with. "Oh shi--"

He slapped his hands together, yanked on his chakra, and summoned a clone to break her fall.

She yanked on her chakra as she whipped through the air, instincts and years of training taking over.

Her chakra lurched sickeningly and the world spun, graying out around the edges. She went limp, vaguely aware of slamming up against a hard chest, feeling arms wrap around her like steel bands. She tried to pull herself together, and only managed to make it worse as chakra couldn't go down the non-existent pathways she tried to push it toward.

The world was mostly confusion, her system too shot to even give her a bearing on location. She was aware of being held, rapidly shifted into a slightly less awkward position, and guessed it had to be Raidou--or a clone; the scent was ever so mildly less. Either way, now would be a bad time to get pounded. She lifted a hand and slapped it twice against the first skin she found that wasn't hers.

Raidou pinched the bridge of his nose, and felt blood slide down his wrist. "So--when I said I was a good teacher..." He headed over to make sure Tsume wasn't dead.

His clone had managed to catch her in a rough cradle-carry, holding her carefully now with one arm beneath her knees and the other beneath thin shoulders. She was slapping a shaking hand against its chest. Done.

"Steady," he said, and leaned over to check her eyes; dizzy and a little unfocused, but yanking on chakra you didn't have would do that. He held up a hand. "How many fingers?"

She blinked hard as the world spun back up into color and slowly came into focus. "Twelve," she said grumpily, struggling to get herself out of the arms holding her. "I'm fine. I just need a minute." The clone wasn't putting her down. She squirmed. "The floor, flea-nuts! I'm fine! I just need a second..."

She just didn't have the chakra she expected. And, worse, it didn't go where she expected it to. And if that made her a little queasy and bizarre for a moment, she just needed to let her chakra settle.

And not get treated like a pus-infected cub.

"Fine people can count," Raidou pointed out, perfectly happy to ignore her sarcasm. "And should also know when to stop kicking after they've tied their insides in knots."

The clone gave him a long-suffering look as Tsume's heels whacked against its ribs. Raidou rolled his eyes. "Sure, go ahead."

Tsume's feet hit the ground first as the construct released her gratefully, keeping a hand on one shoulder when she teetered. She reached back and grabbed ahold of its shirt, digging her claws into cloth as she tried to keep her balance.

Raidou held up both hands, palms facing himself, and lifted his eyebrows. Blood dripped gently onto the floor. "Considering you can't see straight, you didn't do half bad. Is my nose bleeding?"