Tsume looked up, squinting to force her eyes to focus on Raidou's face. The scars that melted over his cheek and nose didn't help any, fooling her gaze into sliding sideways. Finally, she managed to root it in one spot. There was more and more color coming into the world; whatever she'd done to her system, things were spiraling back quickly.

"No blood," she said, grinning even as she quirked a brief smile. "I'll have to hit harder next time."

His hands were a nice sign, though--she'd done some damage, even if it wasn't much.

The room stabilized further, and she slowly let go of the clone's shirt and stepped away, firming herself on her feet. Carefully, she paced off, shaping a circle on the mats, making sure her balance was back.

Then she slipped into a fighting stance. "Okay, sensei." Her smile was wry. "Do it again."

Both Raidous blinked in tandem.

"You--"

"--what?"

Raidou paused, and glanced at his clone. It looked back at him and shrugged. "I'm not allowed to have an opinion?"

"Not when it gives me a headache," Raidou muttered, and shaped the seals it took to get rid of the construct. A crack of smoke drifted over the matt as it vanished. He looked back at Tsume.

Tough as molded steel, never without her giant dog (except when she was), and a killer little fighter...

He grinned and squared up. "Okay, but don't come crying to me if your head falls off."

Tsume snorted and began to move, bandage-wrapped hands curled into loose claws rather than fists. "We'll try and avoid that. Make a note: if anyone ever amputates part of your chakra, get them to bind it until it heals."

She whipped around before he answered, ducking low under his guard and slashing at his crotch again. He moved to block her--she'd have been disappointed if he hadn't--and she went for his eyes as he came into reach, instead.

Crotch again?

For the flicker of a hummingbird's heartbeat, he almost thought she was that stupid--or would have thought, if thoughts had any place in the mental silence that fell during a fight, when movement and reaction ruled supreme.

He caught one set of claws on his forearm, but only instinct made him flinch from the snake-strike speed of her other hand flashing for his face; an attack he didn't have time to see. He jerked his chin down, protecting his throat, and twisted to one side. Four scratches burned over his temple--

And Tsume's side was completely open.

He locked his chakra away and punched her in the ribs.

The air rushed out of her in a whoosh, and she was pretty sure a bruise had already formed. She moved with the strike, rolling to one side, tucking her hands in before he grabbed one. Still near the floor, she whipped around, slamming her heel into his knee. It wasn't the right angle to cripple him, but it might keep him busy while she got some space between them.

She sprang up to her feet outside of his reach, her hands in a wary Inuzuka-guard; not ready to block so much as claw.

Roughly around the point Tsume's heel cracked against his kneecap, Raidou realized he had to take the fight seriously. Not only with a mind to keeping Tsume from getting badly hurt, but to stop himself from getting hammered. Civilian-chakra level was one thing, but Tsume still knew how to fight like an ANBU. And ANBU fought dirty.

He dropped his weight onto his good leg, crouching down to plant a hand against the floor and fling himself back, keeping his balance low and centred. Tsume stood higher, now, both hands held out and splayed, nails red with his blood. Behind her was a corner.

That'd help.

Really, this thing wasn't about teaching, it was mostly about putting Tsume in a place where she could figure it out for herself; she knew her own body a lot better than he ever would. He just needed to push her.

Raidou slid to his feet, settling himself back on both, and began the dance of feint and parry it would take to herd Tsume against the wall.

Even going for the soft spots wasn't enough to floor him. Even going for the soft spots with everything she had wasn't enough to floor him. With her chakra and basic jutsu, they'd been a fair match out in the forest. Without chakra or jutsu...

She slid around, ducking a strike here and another one there, relieved that some of her speed, at least, was still intact. She returned his blows in a flurry of strikes, all blocked, and backpedaled again.

Chakra spread out around a person, giving them a sixth sense of where things were. Telling you when you were going to hit a tree or run into a wall. She didn't have chakra.

Tsume jumped as her foot skimmed into the baseboards, started to flinch forward, realized she couldn't, and cursed. The wall wasn't going to let her through; she lunged at Raidou, instead, claws raking for face and chest, already aware she wasn't going to win this bout. She could go down fighting, though. Maybe she could climb the mountain-man. It was worth a shot.

She scratched for his face, twisted her arm around when he blocked, and planted a hand on his forearm, ducking into his guard in preparation to go up.

By cunningly ducking at the last second, Raidou managed to avoid the first claw swipe that wanted to tear his face off. Her second hand caught his chest, but it was on the right side and he didn't much care about that.

Then she struck again--and grabbed.

Some things in life you really don't expect, and a pint-sized ninja launching up from the depths is one of them. Raidou blinked, but his instincts were already countering long before his brain got any say-so in the matter. Tsume was well inside his guard, one foot braced back against the wall as she threw herself up--

Which meant it wasn't much of an effort to shove the forearm she was grabbing cross-ways against her torso and pin her against the wall. She squirmed, claws digging in, but her feet were off the floor and he still had a hand free to catch one of hers...

Okay, so it hadn't worked. Hadn't worked at all, really. The wall was hard at her back, his arm over her chest keeping her off the ground. She yanked at her chakra to lend power to her kick--

Energy lurched unnaturally, and the world scaled to gray again. He was a shadow over her suddenly, a faceless form as her chakra rattled around in her system, so much less than it should be, less than was useful--

--draining out as he groaned and leaned in, hot breath against her face and heavy muscle pinning her there and she kicked and scratched and went for his eyes and it didn't seem to matter because she had no power, he drank her chakra, and she couldn't fight him couldn't fight he was too big and she had nothing--

Again with aiming for the face. Raidou blocked as Tsume's claws raked for his cheek, and managed to catch them on his forearm again. Three bloody lines tracked down to his elbow, but he was already concentrating on ducking the next hit. He could only grab one hand, which left her one free to attack with; it was easier just to leave both free and block the claws as they came. Her feet cracked against his legs, hitting thigh and knee, but she didn't have the angle to do any real damage.

And now what? He had her pinned to a wall, which in most circumstances suggested you'd won the fight. But she wasn't giving up, and he didn't want her to give up...

Claws went for his face again, this time both hands at once. He jerked back and managed to catch one wrist--then the other. Her wrists were small enough that he could wrap his fingers around both and pin them together. Without chakra, she didn't have the strength to wrench them apart.

Raidou blew out a breath. "Round one to me, little boss. Wanna quit kicking so I can let you down?" He hesitated. "Tsume?"

She yanked at her hands, dragged at them because she knew--she knew--that next there would be stone pinning them, and after that hands on her legs and rock at her ankles and pain--

She kept kicking. It was the only way to keep her feet free, and even if she could only buy a moment more, it was a moment that he wouldn't be touching her--

don't pull on her chakra don't use it don't use it he'd eat it and it aroused him don'tpullonherchakra!

It settled in her pathways, low and ebbing, but there, it was there, not getting drained maybe he was done just maybe he was--

She smelled Raidou.

And no arousal.

She choked a breath in, wrenched at her wrists furiously, shaking with--with--

What had that been?

She was trembling and hanging now, against the wall (not flat on her back) with Raidou starting to smell worried and no scent of a rock ninja or sex or musk. Nothing, even of rooftops or alcohol. Just Raidou. She inhaled deeply, catching forest and trees and lakewater sparkling in sunlight all wrapped up in salty sweat and hard work and flesh.

It took effort to form words. She only managed two, but they were important ones. "Tag - out."

Given that Tsume had gone from attacking with a fair amount of precision to thrashing like an animal in a trap, Raidou had figured that bit out already. He just hadn't let her go. Nothing was more dangerous than an ANBU without a hold on themselves, for whatever reason, and even one without chakra could kill herself, even if she couldn't touch anyone else.

Then Tsume inhaled like a wave, pupils narrowing from wide circles of black to thin lines of actual focus, and Raidou got ready to put her down or knock her out--whichever seemed right.

A tag out was not what he expected.

"Welcome back," he said after a beat, and released her wrists. Her hands jerked back like he'd burnt her. Carefully, he changed his grip on her torso from a pin to a hold, and lowered her down from the wall. Her legs collapsed beneath her--he pressed his lips together and settled her on the floor.

Which left Tsume huddled against the wall, and Raidou crouching over her like a waiting predator. Given she'd just had some sort of--something, he pulled himself quickly to one side and put his back against the wall next to her, sitting down.

Flashback to her mission? Nasty side effect from low chakra? Moment of temporary insanity? Or had he just caught her on an old injury?

Whatever it was, it had left her parchment white and definitely on the trembly side of shaken.

"Better stick your head between your knees," he said finally. "Unless you're going to throw up. Because then you should probably look that way." He nodded at the opposite wall--the one not facing him.

She followed his advice and stuck her head between her knees, wondering how bad she actually looked. "'m fine," she mumbled, still breathing deeply through her nose. Musty old mats, the hint of mildew from a basket of damp towels, sweat, Raidou, the dusty metal of weights. "I'm fine," she repeated, and was relieved to hear her voice was stronger.

She lifted her head, blowing out strain and anxiety and trying to banish the memories. They were already fading, defeated by scent. Shakily, she pushed to her feet and checked the layout of the room, setting herself against the wall once more. Then she steeled herself and looked down at Raidou, falling into a fighting stance. "Do it again."

Temporary insanity, then.

Raidou felt the back of his head thump against the wall as he looked up to stare at her. She looked like Tsume, albeit paler and thinner and more bandaged than the time he'd faced her in the forest. But there was the same stance and the solid determination...

Except she was apparently a crazy person.

He leaned his forearms on his knees, ignoring the sting from one of several scratches, and gave her a look. "As fun as it is watching you freak, I've just spent the last week hovering over a teenager who does exactly that twenty-four seven, so you're going to have to explain what the hell just happened before I throw you into anymore walls, because I am not babysitting you too."

Tsume frowned at the mention of a teenager--hadn't he said he had brothers? Maybe that was it--and fell out of her stance.

Explain. She wasn't explaining. Her frown deepened. But--she could explain part of it. Enough of it, maybe. She licked her lips and swallowed, not quite realizing it when her weight rocked up onto the balls of her feet in preparation to fight or flee.

"I--" No, wait, she couldn't explain this. How could she even start? She shook her head quickly, rattling the thought loose. "I can't exactly go bear-stung dizzy out on a mission, can I? So, unless you have some fancy new move I can practice to get out if I get cornered, you're going to have to do it again. Until I can at least keep from--from--" She couldn't admit to panic. "That."

If that was an actual explanation, Raidou would eat his own head. She'd said why she wanted to keep practicing, sure, but not what the hell her--fit had been about.

He set a hand back against the wall and got to his feet, leaning back to put his shoulders against brick. Tsume looked a hair-trigger away from running--or biting--and he didn't want to startle her by getting too close.

"Bear-stung dizzy, huh?" he echoed slowly. "So what, you want me to pin you until you stop..." he waved a hand that tried to put freaking out in a gesture. "Because if you're looking for healthy, I don't think that's it."

She planted her hands on her hips and glared. "Do you have a better idea for not being bear-stung dizzy--" emphasizing the words as if it would make him accept them, "--on a mission? Because so far, this has worked for me."

Except in one very particular way. But she wasn't asking him to have sex, anyway. She fell back into a fighting stance. "Now, channel some chakra into your skin or something, and let's do this."

Healthy. It was healthy enough. She'd certainly fought her way to the top time and time before. She'd just have to do it again.

Raidou felt his eyebrows lift. "Yes, ma'am," he said softly. "Would you like me to break something, too? That's a fear you should probably overcome. I could dislocate a shoulder while we're at it. Or put your knees out of joint."

He pulled himself away from the wall and walked into the middle of the mat, but didn't take up any kind of stance. Tsume wasn't weak, not by a long shot, but there was a difference between working against your own fears and asking someone to kick you where it hurts. Not much of one, maybe, but he'd seen her freak out once, dammit, and he wasn't sure he wanted to make it happen again.

He definitely wasn't sure he liked her trying to alpha-dog him into it.

He was just standing there. Her eyes narrowed, and she fell out of her position. "What?" she snapped. "What? This isn't yanking a shoulder out of joint! It's getting past--" She stumbled over the words, gaze flicking elsewhere.

"I had a run-in with a chakra-eating jutsu. This just startled me. Now, if I have another run-in with a chakra-eating jutsu then--" Her mind stalled.

Another run-in? She wouldn't see him again. Not ever. The likelihood of that happening--

She struggled to take a breath. "Then--"

Then what? There wasn't anything she could do against him without chakra that was effective enough to stop him. She rubbed her chest and swallowed.

"It's not safe to lose yourself in your head. You just learn to get out of it. But you can't learn if it doesn't happen. So we have to make it happen." And stop talking about it! She fell into a stance and glared at Raidou in the hopes that he'd attack, already.

His mouth twisted. "I may not be able to do your scent thing, but I'm not stupid, Tsume. I can tell when you're lying." The fact that she wouldn't look at him except to glare was a big clue. He fell back onto his heels. "If you don't want to tell me whatever's making you twitch, you don't have to. It's not like I'm your dad. But don't treat me like a damn idiot."

Not safe to lose yourself in your head.

Deliberately, he hooked his hands into his waistband, forbidding them to stray near his face. That he knew well enough, but he didn't exactly go around asking people to claw him open from cheek to chin. Or shoulder to ribs.

Without meaning to, he found himself stuck back on their first mission together--a jutsu had flayed them all open right along the lines of fear. Tsume had run. Genma had curled over his hands. And Raidou...

Hell, maybe he should ask.

He scowled, gaze twitching sideways to focus on the floor. Then he straightened and lifted his hands. "Fine, but if you break apart--you better know a way to put yourself back together."

She nodded, both relieved and anxious, and fell back into a prepared stance. She was shaking, knowing what she was about to do to herself. As if it might help, she braced one foot harder on the floor.

Scents. Focus on the scents.

He moved forward, big and fast and strong. She fought, but she'd already set herself knowingly at a disadvantage. The wall came up too fast. She raked claws at his jugular and he blocked, catching one wrist. She snapped her face forward to headbutt him, missed, yanked on chakra--

The world grayed and came up in shades of panic, and he was there and over her and the next thing would be stone around her ankles so she kicked, trying to keep her legs free, trying not to let him pin her, Wolf there was too much blood no more--

--but it didn't smell like stone or blood--not hers--

--musty mats and oak under sunshine and anger--not hers--

--focus focus focus--she knew what was happening and couldn't stop seeing him even as she remembered that it wasn't real. Focus! She'd practiced pulling back from the memories time after time, she'd learned how, gotten good at it, just had to do it again. Worse situation, but that was all right, grab her chakra and shape it--

--No, not that. She let it go, felt it settle in her pathways, remembered Raidou holding her and sparring and mildewed towels--

She twisted her wrist so the edge was at the weakest part of his grip and yanked, breaking free more out of sheer surprise than anything. She didn't fight, didn't attack. Couldn't, couldn't see well enough to do so, kept seeing--

--pressing down on her and hot breath in her face--

--but she could run. She dropped straight down the wall and shoved sideways, using her slight stature to slip between his leg and the brick and flee. Two feet, five, scrabbling back and turning to look--

She was shaking like a leaf, and she thought she might vomit, but all she saw was Raidou. It was doubtful that move would work on an enemy ninja. But she'd been thinking, to come up with it. Tsume pressed the back of her wrist to her mouth, still sitting on her butt and one hand, just half a dozen feet away from her sparring partner, and looked at Raidou. "I think I need a break." Just to catch her breath. That was all.

Raidou eyed the wall where Tsume's head had been, just a moment before, and debated cracking his skull against it. Then he pushed himself away. He hadn't pulled his punches; he'd driven her like she'd asked, forced her back to the wall. Hadn't let go when she'd squirmed. He'd been mad at her, furious at her for making him do this, but he'd done the thing properly.

Which just meant he'd probably have to do it again.

He shook himself and glanced sideways. Tsume was sitting on the floor, pale as a corpse and probably half a second away from some spectacular stomach pyrotechnics, but she was still there. Focused and clear, and if this whole thing was over some twitch about chakra-eating jutsu than Raidou was the holy Buddha.

He crouched down a few careful feet away, and fingered the scratches over his arms. Between senbon for Kaito, and claws from Tsume, he was starting to look like a teenager with serious issues. But at least he was earning his damn break.

"So," he said, and couldn't make his voice anything other than quiet, "If we want to do this thing properly, you should give it a shot with weapons."

Tsume looked up, aghast. "You're kidding, right? You want weapons? You're already winning!" Even if any opponents would have weapons in a real fight, it still seemed... Wolf's teeth, she was barely holding it together and he wanted blades?

The man was insane.

Maybe he was just really mad. He had certainly been glaring a moment before.

Raidou studied the ceiling until the insane urge to laugh had gone away. "Weapons for you," he said finally, making sure to enunciate each word carefully. "Unless you go out on all your missions unarmed."

He cracked his knuckles, making no expression as the scratches on the backs of his hands flared a dull protest. Giving Tsume the ways and means to do more damage was probably a special kind of stupid, but that could almost be ANBU's motto. Besides, if she really wanted to train for the real thing, then there was no point doing it in half measures.

And ducking a sword would feel a whole lot better than trapping a scratching, terrified woman half his size in a corner.

She gave him a doubtful look, and held up one hand, palm facing away from him. Fingers up, she waggled them, drawing attention to the claw on each tip.

She was never without weapons.

But those weren't the ones he was talking about. She always carried kunai, shuriken, senbon. The same basic pack any ninja did, really. She'd never really trained in anything else, except for knowing which way to poke the pointy end. She was a little leery of fighting with weapons when she wasn't conscious of what she was doing--but it wasn't like she'd be able to hit him.

"I suppose I have kunai," she said slowly, a little unsure, still. It seemed... alien.