| [Jun. 11th, 2009|11:58 pm] |
She huffed a quiet laugh and dragged herself to her feet. Asuma still looked relatively fresh, the flush in his skin already fading. Tsume didn't feel anywhere near that prepared. Weeks on medical leave had sorely affected her stamina, despite her recent attempts to get back into peak shape. A hundred miles plus might be just over average for most ninja--but she wasn't most ninja. She tugged experimentally on her pathways, feeling chakra respond more sluggishly than ever before. The main points were still down; she had to rely on the smaller veins to carry everything. At home, it hadn't been nearly so hard. With a frown she pulled more and more chakra, carefully and quietly feeding it into her muscles. Sparring with Raidou had taught her not to yank. The exercises Katsuko had given her had strengthened what she could use.
Both sets of knowledge and practice were taxed to the limit, in a way she hadn't expected. Half of her chakra system was stretched over most of Fire country.
She rolled her shoulders as if that would somehow help, then started toward the wharf. Halfway there, she stopped and looked at Asuma.
Big, bulky, heavily muscled, with facial scruff--he was exactly what the people here would expect. No one would mess with him, and as long as he was with her they'd leave her be, too.
With a heavy sigh, Tsume glared way up at him. "You have to stay back. I can't smell something as subtle as a lie over your cigarette smoke." Wolf, she was going to have to acclimate herself to this like she'd acclimated to Ryouma's jutsu. Great. |
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