| [Mar. 2nd, 2011|11:20 pm] |
“Yeah. I think so,” Ibiki answered between breaths. His sides were still heaving, his heart still slowing from its adrenaline-fueled race. He blinked at Hana, who continued sobbing, and Tsume who cradled her with the fear only now ebbing from her tense face.
“Do Inuzuka who aren’t bonded to a dog yet have some kind of ability to drain your chakra or something?” He shifted onto one hip and stretched his leg out, eying the skinned bruise that was already blooming on his shin. “She sucked mine out like.. like.. I don’t even know. I’ve never felt anything like that before.”
Tsume froze, then shifted Hana closer, wrapping her arms around her child as if protecting her from a threat. She looked away from Ibiki’s face as her expression flickered through something as defiantly guilty as any Ibiki had ever seen on a subject in an interrogation. "She's bonded,” Tsume said. “It's — it's a clan thing. Funny chakra tricks. You know."
That wasn’t just a lie, that was a lie with some serious stakes behind it.
Should he press the issue? Clearly Tsume didn’t want him to, but on the other hand Hana could be downright dangerous, and evidently without any conscious control. If she did that to a classmate, another child, someone with a smaller chakra reserve than Ibiki had...
“I don’t think that’s the case,” he said slowly, in a tone to make it clear he knew Tsume was lying. “I’ve worked with Inuzuka before. She manipulated my chakra and practically drowned us both. I bet if we went in to the hospital and hooked up a monitor, I’d look like I was way overdrawn. If that were part of an Inuzuka bloodline limit, it wouldn’t be a secret.” |
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