All Tsume heard was the rush of blood in her head as she released the hold on her chakra. Her heart raced in her chest, breath coming too hard, too fast for a long moment. Then it began to clear, leaving her weak but not broken.

The room meant she could see see the pathway she and Kuromaru shared; human and canine melded until they were one system. Tiny threads of light, soft as moonbeams, stretched between her and her familiar. Tsume and Kuromaru each had bright spots down the centers of their bodies--the main chakra points--still unconnected. She tested, felt chakra come. It came in significantly less amounts than she'd expected, but it came.

Kuromaru leaped to his feet with a bark, dashing out of the circle he'd been put in. He paused on his way to Tsume, licking the curled form of the little Hyuuga before running to her and jumping.

She caught his front paws on her chest, staggering back into the wall and laughing as he licked her face. They were back! Whole again, if still weak. She sank her hands into his ruff, feeling his coat soft between her fingers, still with a residue of grime. He hadn't had a bath since before the mission went so wrong, but she didn't care. Fur fluffed out around them, and where he'd been lying there was a little mess of it. Stress and warming weather added to his shedding. She just laughed at that, too, and slipped his paws from her shoulders to the wall behind her, stepping close against his chest and wrapping her arms around his torso.

His tail flagged behind him, his tongue scraping through her hair, across her ear, her temple, anywhere he could get to. She pulled on the chakra and felt his respond, felt it slide and slip between them as it should have. It made her stronger, if still not as strong as she had been. Soon. Soon.

"Kuromaru--wait--" she laughed. Ducking under him she peered around to see Haruichi still curled on the floor, his face in finely trembling hands. Behind her, her familiar slid to the ground and padded closer to the medic, sniffing his shins delicately.

"Sensei?" Tsume asked cautiously, kneeling beside Haruichi and reaching out, but stopping just shy of touching his shoulder. "Are you all right?"