| [Jun. 29th, 2008|11:54 pm] |
"Just try it," Kuromaru growled before Tsume could silence him. She gave both men completely exasperated looks, then glanced at the cubs.
With a breath to steady herself, she carefully went through the seals of a sound suppression jutsu. When the cloak had come down around them, invisible and heavy, she went through the seals for a henge. The cubs would see an approximation of the truth: Kuromaru changing into a human in a process far less visceral than reality. The henge turned to them and smiled, speaking in Tsume's voice. "This is neat. You'll like it." It set them up to be excited about what was going to happen; normal children often feared this sort of jutsu, and they didn't have time to reassure them. She didn't bother to hide the flare of chakra that would come; the cubs wouldn't feel it.
Then she made the seals for juunjin bunshin. Kuromaru warped. Bones cracked, tendons popped. His spine ground against itself, bone dragging across bone as his body twisted around the injury. His howl turned into a scream, the arch of a powerful wolfen body changing into the shuddering of a small man, blunt paws splaying into the dirt shivering out into fingers that clutched at air. Dilated canine pupils became dilated human pupils, stress panting became a cold sweat and wet eyes, rows of bared fangs now rows of dull teeth with two extra points. Muscles that had tensed and tendons that had stood under a blanket of fur were suddenly exposed by an ANBU turtleneck that left his arms naked as sinew bunched and strained against scarred flesh.
Then it was over and she looked down at her male doppleganger, keeping the henge up while she pulled Kuromaru's head around to see her, checking his pulse with a finger and his eyes with her gaze. "You all right?"
A face only a little more angular than hers looked back, eyes black above blood-red tattoos. He nodded shakily, blinking as his pupils began to contract back to slits. When she was sure he really was all right--in pain but stable--she dropped the henge and noise suppression. Her smile to the children was a little brittle, but they didn't notice, too busy staring at the wolf-turned-human. She gave the same smile to Raidou and tapped out, Be careful with him. |
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