| [Apr. 27th, 2009|07:43 pm] |
Tsume was not the fastest ninjutsu student ever--at all--remotely--even close. But she'd learned years ago that Kuromaru was pretty good, and he'd been watching with a single gleaming eye. After he'd calmed down.
Tsume did her best to follow through Katsuko's instructions, adapting them for a dual pathway system the other kunoichi had no knowledge of. Even as exhaustion started to gnaw at her eyes and burn along her muscles, she kept going, feeling the chakra flow faster and smoother through the limited coils she and Kuromaru currently shared. She could pretend like she wasn't about to fall dead from fatigue. And as long as Katsuko was standing there, she would.
When she dropped the last seal she dropped her hands as well, anchoring them on her hips to hide the trembling. Her pathways felt raw and over-used, but the energy that was so vital to a ninja was moving better. "Every day. I can manage that."
"Me, too," Kuromaru added, scratching again at the empty socket where one eye should have gone.
Tsume stepped sideways and bumped him, frowning. "You're gonna rip things open and it'll be disgusting." It wasn't the first time she'd stopped him scratching, and she knew that as things healed they itched, but he seemed to be getting worse about it.
Kuromaru whined and gave her a mournful look. He'd never been as good at those looks as he could have been--he was just too big, with teeth too large--but missing bits of his face it was even worse. Or maybe better. She wasn't sure.
"It tingles," he mumbled, bending his head to rub the ruin of his missing ear against a foreleg. Then he looked back up, sulking at Katsuko. "You didn't say it'd tingle."
Tsume stared at him for a long moment. "You didn't do the handsigns," she said at last, and glanced at Katsuko. "Just moving chakra, without handsigns, that would make it tingle. Right?" Because otherwise--
Otherwise, it wasn't worth thinking about. |
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