Title: Konoha's Tracking Hound

Author: Greygryph

Rating: R

Summary: Inuzuka Moriko was just another Konoha kunoichi. Nobody ever said that Konoha's shinobi population was normal though.

Disclaimer: I, obviously own nothing you recognize. Inuzuka Moriko, however, is mine and I would very much appreciate it if nobody tried to steal her as she's been living in the back corner of my mind for about half a year and I'm quite fond of her. Other original characters, who may or may not make appearances, are either my own or belong to my friends who are, also quite fond of them. Please don't steal or accuse me of stealing. Its just silly.

Notes: My NaNoWriMo project for the month, so obviously a work in progress and completely and utterly unedited. Based off of one of my original characters in an RPG amongst my close friends. My plan to fend off summer break boredom spawned into a monster beyond my control and I decided it was time some of the back story was written. Cannon is followed as much as possible, but this is obviously AU.

Warnings: SPOILERS and VERY AU and ADULT THEMES

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Chapter 10

It took another four days before Moriko was adjusted to her newly heightened and all around new senses enough to remain headache free after regaining consciousness. Sano had started getting her to move around and get used to her new body two days earlier and, although she was still stiff and achy, she was rapidly adjusting to the fluid movement of her canine body.

When she hesitantly mentioned that she could focus her chakra precisely enough that she felt she could possibly regain her human form, Sano told her that Tsume had asked to be present during the next transformation, as had the Sandaime Hokage, who had also asked that a Hyuuga and medic nin also be present for documentation and her safety. Moriko had hesitantly agreed, not altogether too keen of the idea of others watching while she was on the verge of passing out from pain.

Sano sent messages to the Hokage tower and to Tsume that Moriko was prepared to attempt a reverse transformation, and arrangements were made. A room at the Konoha Hospital was set aside and that afternoon, Sano and Moriko made their way across Konoha. Moriko felt her stomach tie itself in knots as she followed the veterinarian to the hospital. She moved stiffly and stayed close to the older man, feeling strange as she passed through the town not as a kunoichi, gaining smiles and greetings from the civilians and fellow nins, but as a canine.

She got a few glances and smiles from children as they passed with their parents, but otherwise she passed basically unnoticed through the town.

When they entered the hospital, she was immediately noticed by the pair of nurses at the front desk, who scowled. Moriko could practically read their thoughts as they sent silent glares to the tawny and white canine standing with the obviously Inuzuka man: 'How dare he bring that filthy animal in the hospital. We'll have allergy flare-ups and have to disinfect wherever they go.'

Still feeling awkward in her canine form she shifted a bit uneasily under the nurses' narrowed stare. She stayed close to Sano as he asked about the room reserved for her and the nurse at the counter stiffly gave him a room number.

Sano thanked the woman, voice a bit strained as he did so, then led the way down the hallways. Distractedly following Sano's chakra signature through the hospital, she took in the slowly fading, crisscrossing chakra signatures that easily outlived their owners' scent trails in the constantly cleaned and disinfected hallways.

When Sano entered her assigned hospital room Moriko hesitantly followed, quickly taking note of those already inhabiting the small, blindingly white, room.

Tsume was already there and, as far as Moriko could tell, she was much less angry than the last time they'd spoken. In fact, if Moriko could assign any sort of emotion to her aunt and clan leader, she'd choose drawn. She was obviously tired and stiff from lack of sleep, and had a scrape across one of her cheek that was new. 'Where had that come from?' she wondered as her aunt sent a nod to Sano and then turned her attention to her.

"Its good to see you on your feet, Moriko." Tsume said, even her voice sounded exhausted. Moriko lowered her head and drew her ears back, padding over to where her aunt sat in one of the small plastic chairs in the room. Tsume set a gentle hand on her head and ruffled her ears a bit, then muttered, "I'm sorry for how I acted last time. You had me scared to death."

Moriko's ears perked up a bit and her eyes turned hopeful.

Tsume snorted and crossed her arms, "Don't think this gets you out of training with me once we figure out your transformation. You've got an alternate form and you need to know how to fight in it if you need to."

Moriko sighed, "I know." She admitted and glanced around at the other occupants in the room.

The Hyuuga that had been asked to keep an eye on her chakra coils for excessive strain, and the medic nin on hand in case things went bad were conversing quietly across the room, although Moriko's sensitive ears could pick up the topic: the use of the gentle fists technique in medical treatments.

The Hyuuga looked like his clansmen, with dark hair, pale Byuukagan eyes, and perfect posture and holier-than-thou expression, although, judging from the conversation Moriko was overhearing, he appeared to be a bit more laid back than many of the other Huugas she'd met. As she looked the man over, she fixed his face with his scent and his chakra-signature, which was a bit distorted around his head for some reason. Once she was sure she'd be able to recognize him by scent and signature alone, Moriko turned her attention to the medic-nin.

He was middle aged and had a set of square glasses sitting on his nose, although they appeared to be more reading glasses than anything else, as he was glancing over them as he alternated between talked with the unnamed Hyuuga and glancing over a medical chart in his hands. He'd sent Sano a smile and a nod when he'd entered and also looked at Moriko curiously when she'd followed him in.

She sat and let her front legs slide out from beneath her and slid down to the floor, setting her head on her paws and focusing her attention on anything but the knots her guts were making.

She felt a familiar signature approaching down the hall and her ears perked up just as the faintest sound of footsteps was heard down the hallway.

The Sandaime Hokage entered the room and the shinobi in the room, including Moriko, all nodded their heads towards him, respectfully acknowledging his presence.

He exchanged greetings with the Hyuuga—whom Moriko learned was named Hachiro—and the medic nin, named Nakamura Masaru, then turned to the trio of Inuzuka. He smiled and greeted Sano and Tsume before turning his attention to Moriko.

"I see you're doing a lot better than the last time I saw you. Getting used to walking on four limbs?" the Hokage asked.

Moriko shrugged a bit, "Walking isn't too hard. I already knew how to do it instinctually. Its more not being human around other people that's difficult to adjust too."

Sandaime nodded his head, understanding lighting in his eyes before he asked, "Are you ready?"

Moriko swallowed the lump that had almost instantaneously appeared in her throat and nodded her head. The Hokage moved out of the way and glanced over at the medic nin, Nakamura-san, and indicated that he should take over.

The man removed his reading glasses from his nose and tucked them into the front pocket of his white lab coat, "Right," he said and turned his attention to Moriko, "So, based off of what I've been told about your initial transformation, we're expecting this one to be painful as well. Although, Sano-san and I both believe that it will be easier for your body to return to human form, as it is already intimately familiar with it. If this is true, and you do wish to transform into canine form again, we speculate that it will not be as painful as the initial transformation because of cellular memory of how everything changes correctly to become a dog."

Moriko nodded her head in understanding, she hoped dearly that the vet's and medic-nins' theory was correct. She was already feeling the advantages of her canine form, including the enhanced senses and anonymity. She also got the impression that covering long distances would be easier on her in the canine form, given the whining pleas from Inu-Moriko the past few days to go for a run, despite the aches in her limbs.

"When you're prepared to start, could you come to the center of the room so that it's easier for us to maneuver around you if there is any need for us?" the medic nin asked, although Moriko was familiar enough with the warrior healers to tell that it wasn't an actual question, but rather a veiled demand. Moriko complied wordlessly and stood in the center of the room.

She glanced around the room one more time before she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, falling into a quick meditative state and gathering her chakra into tiny strands like she'd done before. This time however, she noticed something as soon as she pushed her focus into a single cell. There was a new feature to the nucleus that made her pause, before she realized what it was.

Her body had synthesized a sort of switch to trigger the transformation.

Moriko hesitated a moment before she slowly 'flipped' the switch in her cells. Moriko could feel the transformation begin and let out a relived sigh when the pain was nowhere near the level of the first transformation. It still felt like her body was being stabbed with needles all over, but the burning feeling she remembered so well was more of a quick twinge of pain.

The twinge and all over needles feeling was slowly beginning to subside and Moriko felt herself slump a bit in relief. Then her spine stiffened and her teeth grit as her head exploded into agony and her world went blissfully white.

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Tsume had been watching her niece's transformation with a mixture of fascination and horror. When the last bit of fur disappeared and Moriko was once more fully human, albeit this time without clothes on, she let out a sigh of relief. That sigh was cut off partway when Moriko suddenly stiffened and her jaw clenched tightly before she simply went slack and passed out. Tsume caught her before she hit the ground and as soon as she did, Nakamura Masaru was beside her, hands glowing green with a diagnostic jutsu.

While he was reading what his chakra told him of Moriko's condition, Sano brought over a blanket to wrap the naked teen up in.

A few moments later the medic nin frowned and announced, "Her sinuses are…augmenting themselves." He said and glanced over at the Hyuuga, who'd had his Byuukagan activated the whole time.

"Her chakra pathways around them are changing as well…they're thickening." He told them with a frown.

Tsume frowned and looked down at her niece, putting together the pieces of the puzzle and thinking about what she'd learned from her nieces notes on her jutsu. Sano appeared to be thinking about the same thing because he glanced up at Masaru and asked, "How human do her cells look to medical jutsus?"

Masaru frowned and his hands glowed green again and his eyes widened in surprise, "They're…partially canine according to diagnostics. More so than most Inuzukas too."

Sano and Tsume exchanged glances and then grimaced as the same thought occurred to both of them.

"What?" The Hokage asked from where he stood just behind the group crouched on the floor.

"What triggered the transformation was activating latent canine DNA, it may be impossible to fully deactivate it all again." Sano said as Tsume easily lifted up the petit girl wrapped in the blanket and moved her to the bed. "She can't turn as completely human as she was before and her body is changing to incorporate what DNA cannot be deactivated. If the change is centered around her sinuses—" he glanced at Masaru

"Mostly, although there are other small changes all over, none that you'll be able to see, but her brain stem is changing a bit as are her thyroids and, obviously her sinuses, and most of her nervous system as well." The medic nin said as he began scribbling notes down on the chart he'd abandoned earlier to run diagnostics.

"—Well, it looks as though her senses are changing…again." He sighed, "She'll probably be out for several days and when she does wake up she'll have migraines while her body finished augmenting and she adapts to the changes."

Sano's prediction was correct, and when Moriko stirred a few days later she grimaced as a sharp ache immediately began thrumming behind her eyes. She knew better at this point than to open her eyes and instead found herself moving her arm. She was pleased to note that it was human again, as far as she could tell from only flexing it.

She could feel someone approaching down the hallway and froze. She'd felt them, their chakra signatures. The new chakra sense was still there. She cracked an eye open and was met with the sight of the same blindingly white hospital room that she'd been in when she'd changed back. There were no fading chakra signatures on the floor to her eyes, but the sudden use of the optical organs had caused a shooting pain through her brain and she let them slide closed again.

She turned her attention back to the feeling of the chakra signatures and found that it wasn't just the single signature coming down the hall she could feel. There were dots of different chakra signatures all around her, but the further they were away from her, the 'fuzzier' they seemed to become.

She tried to pick out a single signature from the fuzzy region of her sensory range but couldn't get it to sharpen. She gave up on the distant signatures and turned her attention to one of the closer ones, feeling the tiny fluctuations that it gave and slowly getting a sense of the owner. When the signature stopped outside her door her ears picked up the sounds of speaking although she didn't put enough effort into her ears to hear what was being spoken about.

When the door opened, Moriko squinted an eye open and caught sight of a woman in scrubs checking in on her. When she noticed the squinted eye she looked surprised, "Oh, you're awake?"

Head throbbing, Moriko wasn't in the best of moods, 'No,' she snarked inwardly, 'I'm sleeping with an eye cracked and a higher heart rate than normal.' Outwardly she nodded her head very slightly.

"Are you feeling okay?" the nurse asked, oblivious to the clenched jaw and balled fists of the young Inuzuka.

"Head hurts." She croaked out through clenched teeth.

"Well, I'll go inform Masaru-san and get you something for your headache." She said cheerfully and vanished from the door.

As Moriko followed the oblivious bubbly nurse's signature down the hall she let her eye close again. 'It had better be something strong, because I don't think asprin is going to do anything for this.' She inhaled deeply and winced as her nose informed her of the recent cleaning of the hallway and all of her visitors in the past few days in disturbing detail. 'Sweet Kami-sama! Not again!'

A familiar signature was making its way down the hall towards her and soon Nakamura Masaru was opening the door to her room and approaching the bed.

"How are you feeling Inuzuka-san?" He asked, voice sounding quite loud to her despite the hushed tone he tried to give it.

"Like absolute crap." Moriko muttered, cracking an eye, "Waking up with a migraine isn't an experience I want to experience again any time soon."

Nakamura-san nodded and said, "Well, you managed to turn mostly human again, so that's an improvement from the last time, I assume."

"'Mostly human'?" Moriko asked, dreading the answer she was about to get.

"Hai, not all of the chromosomes you activated could be deactivated, so your body needed to augment itself to incorporate what the DNA was telling it." The medic nin said.

Moriko sighed and grumbled, "How in the hell is my body surviving all this without completely breaking down and rejecting everything?"

Masaru shrugged his shoulders, "I'm at a loss as well, but your immune system's evolved and from blood tests it looks like you're immune to some diseases now because you're more canine than before. We're unsure what will happen if we try and give you pure human blood though, so we're running tests on it right now along with its reactions to Inuzuka blood."

Moriko groaned, "Great. I may get immunity from disease, but its more likely for me to die from injury instead because I may be incompatable with donated blood." She grumbled and winced as her head gave a particularly sharp throb. "Any chance you've got something on you to stop my migraine?"

Masaru gave her a smile and pulled out a filled syringe from his labcoat, "Yeah, It'll probably knock you out too, so before I give it to you, is there anything else you want to know before hand?"

"How long was I out?" Moriko asked, teeth still clenched against the pain.

"It's been almost three days. I'll be sending word to your aunt that you've regained consciousness but are asleep, I know she's been in touch with your jounin sensei—Raido-san's stopped by a few times with your teammates."

Moriko winced, 'Damn. I really don't want to explain to those three about this, and I know I've got another lecture coming.' Then she felt a coolness and fatigue spread through her body gradually and she slowly drifted back off to sleep.

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End Notes: Huzzah! Moriko's human again! Look forward to visits from teammates next chapter as well as a time skip forward a few months. I'm almost caught up in writing, ALMOST!

Word Count: 27,218/50,000

-Greygryph