"Yeah," Asuma said, dry as desert sand. "Because life always gives us the easy options." He looked anyway, eyes flickering back over the seals, trying to find the key to a much harder lock. The more he stared at the coiling, elegant patterns, the more familiar they seemed, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it...

Struck by a thought, he reached down and took one of Tsume's hands. It was small--much smaller than his own--and fine-boned, but heavily calloused by weapons and hard training. He splayed her fingers out, eying the lethally sharp claws with a thoughtful glint in dark eyes.

"Feel up to having a scratchpost session?" he said, resting his chin on top of her wild hair. "I don't think those seals were designed to work with pieces missing."