Tsume grinned, willing to go along with whatever kept him moving. "My best shot would floor you, shinobi. Now -- the seals are fairly simple. Start with dog--" and oh, the jokes she'd heard about that growing up, "--then tiger, serpent and -- when you're ready -- horse." It was the most basic of patterns. A guide to ninja learning the jutsu, though the goal was always to learn how to do it without the seals.

An Inuzuka trapped into canine form by a broken bone didn't have fingers. What they did have was a familiar's worth of chakra to expend, making up for what the seals couldn't do. Asuma didn't have that, but luckily, he had fingers.

She watched him go through the pattern three times, watched it flow smoother with each repetition. Finally, she nodded. "When you add chakra, boost it through serpent. Focus the chakra on your skull and creating bone. This is when it'll hurt -- and when you have to stay aware." She slowed her words, enunciating. This was important. "When you release serpent into horse, it'll lock the jutsu in place and help it complete. It's almost impossible to gather too much chakra for this jutsu -- the more there is, the faster the bone heals. If you don't gather enough it ranges from simply not happening, to dragging what it needs from your system. If you feel that, help yourself by not fighting it." Tsume smiled wryly. "And then you can pass out."

And hopefully, if there wasn't brain swelling that they pressed on or bleeding they didn't know about, he'd even wake up.

"Now, pay attention." She went through the seals again, scraping up chakra and sliding it down her pathways. Making it imitate how it should look in him was a trick; she didn't have a normal system. "Just do it like that for a minute. Let me make sure..." Make sure she hadn't screwed up, somehow. She didn't want a growth sprouting out the back of his head.