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 11
Moriko had been right. She did receive another lecture from her sensei, with her two teammates chiming in every once in a while.
She'd woken up the next day, feeling ridiculously calm and confused until she realized she was on some sort of sedative to help with the pain in her head. It didn't ease the pain at all, but it made her not give a damn about it.
When her teammates and sensei poked their heads in she merely blinked at them. Izumo and Kotetsu had figured out what was wrong much too quickly for Moriko's taste and had matching evil grins as they exclaimed, "Moriko's completely drugged up!"
Moriko couldn't muster the energy to even roll her eyes at her teammates. Instead she gave a slight sigh and turned her attention to her sensei, who's face was marred with disappointment. Here Moriko could muster up the energy to look apologetic and to look away from her sensei's eyes, at least until he barked at her to look at him.
Moriko'd complied and had received a very thorough lecture on her irresponsibility and ill planned out jutsus. Her teammates hadn't sent any teasing comments to her when they added something to the lecture, but instead expressed a great deal of worry and concern for her. When they'd finished Moriko was shaking a bit, despite the sedatives, and she whispered her apologies and proclaimed her stupidity and rashness.
Her teammates forgave her readily and each gave her a hug before they left Raidou-sensei with her for a few minutes, claiming the need to find something to drink.
When they returned they found Moriko and Raidou in much better spirits. Moriko had a small smile on her face and Raidou was reciting stories of what her teammates had been up to the past week and a half she'd been gone. They'd alternated between protesting loudly the accuracy of the tales and augmenting them to make the other chunin boy the butt of the joke.
"So," Kotetsu said as he held Izumo in a headlock for informing Moriko for his unfortunate accident involving a fall from a tree and a not so graceful landing in a blackberry bush. "What was it like being a dog?"
Moriko tilted her head to the side in contemplation, "Its hard to describe. The world is loud and smells way too much, everything's black and white, and I could see chakra. I can still sense it now, but not see it."
Raidou looked very interested and asked, "Just someone's aura?"
Moriko shook her head, "I could see their aura, and chakra being used in jutsus, and residue left over from everything."
"Have you considered what that sort of a skill might be useful in?" he asked and Moriko nodded, giving a grin.
"Scent concealing jutsus and the 'chameleon skin' camouflage won't work anymore. I can still feel them even if I can't see or smell them, plus I'll be able to track them by chakra trail alone if I change into canine form."
"So you ended up getting your wish after all." Raidou mused aloud, "Was it worth it, though?"
Moriko gave a small shrug, "I've no idea at this point in time, but I'll be making the most of my new senses and my new alternate form." She gave a small wince here, "Even if it means completing the combat training my aunt is planning for me in dog form."
Her two teammates winced and patted her arm, "We'll pray for you, Moriko-chan." Izumo said while Kotetsu nodded his head in agreement.
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Moriko was released from the hospital a five days later, and was informed by her waiting aunt that she'd requested a months time to train her to fight and use her canine body to its highest potential.
During that one month she practiced the transformation and learned its limitations. She could adjust the speed in which she transformed, but the faster she went, the more painful it was, and while it was bearable in comparison to the first change, it was by no means comfortable. The speed of her transformation also changed how long her body needed to rest before she could change back. She'd been informed by both Nakamura-san and Sano that if she did too many changes too rapidly, it was likely that she could damage herself and her cells severely.
On average she found that a relaxed transformation took about five minutes and it took about twelve hours before she was able to change back without extreme risk of cellular damage. A rapid transformation kept her in alternate form for around 24 hours and could be completed in around two minutes. The rapid transformation often left her aching afterwards and in a rather foul mood, so she tried to avoid such speeds as much as she could.
When her aunt finally released her back to her team she'd began making a mental catalogue of Konohagakure's residents, both civilian and shinobi. She could recognize nearly a quarter of the village's population as 'from Konoha' by chakra signature in human form, and chakra trails if she was in canine form. It came in quite handy when her team needed to find someone or to pick out foreigners from crowds.
Moriko was also beginning to receive recognition as a tracking specialist in the village and had been, on occasion considered to help out hunter nins and groups of jounin to track down missing-nin spotted around fire country. It was only due to her sensei's protests that kept her off those dangerous missions until it was finally decided to split up team Raidou.
Izumo and Kotetsu were paired off together and given patrols and odd missions together and with others. Their seamless teamwork and silent communication became an asset for the duo as they could not be fooled by impersonators, even when Moriko herself tried to trick the two with a genjutsu.
Raidou was back to running A and B ranked missions serving as a bodyguard for wealthy feudal lords and the fire daimo's family. He missed his team, but there was no denying the bit of relief that came with being back in his normal occupation.
Moriko, now without anyone other than herself to protest high danger tracking missions, was often drafted to do just that. She found herself quickly adapting her chakra senses from tracking to detection and back again. She became a common choice for boarder patrols as well as on tracking missions. Because of this, Moriko found herself in and out of Konoha sporadically, and in the breaks between her out of town missions, Moriko was placed on wall patrol or wherever they needed an extra person throughout the village.
She'd just finished a week of wall patrols and in town missions when she got a quick message, delivered by a group of new genins and their sensei that she was being called in for a tracking mission. Moriko packed up a few spare changes of clothing and supplies for a standard tracking mission, set the bag aside to pick up later, and then she and Kumori headed off towards the Hokage tower for her mission briefing.
The charcoal dog was fully grown now, although he rarely acted like the adult he was supposed to be. His tail wagged happily as he and Moriko made their way to the tower at the center of town. Moriko's hands were stuck in the pockets of her sturdy murky brown Capri's and she navigated through the streets with her eyes closed against the bright sunlight blaring down at her.
She arrived at the tower and pulled her summons out from her jacket pocket as she climbed the stairs to the Hokage's office. After checking in with the secretary and studiously ignoring the hidden guards' signatures outside the office, Moriko entered the Hokage's office and found the village leader to be working his way through paperwork as it seemed he always was.
The Sandaime Hokage glanced up when Moriko entered and smiled, "Ah, Moriko, glad to see you. I'm afraid your partner for this mission will be here in a little bit, take a seat." He motioned to one of the comfortable chairs before his desk and Moriko complied
"I trust you're adjusting to working away from your teammates?" Sarutobi asked and set aside his pen.
Moriko nodded, "Yes, it's been a bit interesting but we still try to get together every once in a while."
"That's good, I always hate when teams get split up, but we're stretched a bit thin as it is and we needed each of the components of your team separately to run specialized missions."
"I understand." Moriko said, then cocked her head as she felt a signature appear outside the Hokage open window. A tall, lanky figure slipped inside and said, "Sorry I'm late. I needed to help a vendor clean up his spilt cart."
Moriko's bullshit detectors, honed from years of babysitting her young cousins and dealing with her teammates, went off and she rolled her eyes.
"Not to worry. Kakashi, this is Inuzuka Moriko. Moriko, this is Hatake Kakashi" The Hokage said and pulled out a scroll while Moriko and Kakashi exchanged quick greetings. The Sandaime Hokage tossed the scroll to Kakashi, and said "Two B-ranked missing nin were spotted not too far outside one of our northern outposts, you two," he glanced between Kakashi and Moriko, "Are to eliminate them. They've been preying on trading caravans for the last two weeks." Moriko nodded and turned to the other shinobi.
The name Kakashi was a familiar one to Moriko, although she'd never worked with him on any of her prior missions. The young jounin was lanky and slouched a bit as he stood. His hair was a shocking mop of silver, which drooped to one side of his head. The lower half of his face was covered with a skin tight black mask and his left eye was covered up by his forehead protector. Moriko subconsciously memorized his face, scent, and chakra signature as the jounin finished glancing over the mission.
He looked up at Moriko, his uncovered eyes bored, and said, "Well, let's meet at the west gate in half an hour. There's not much beyond was Hokage-sama just said and I can brief you as we head north."
Moriko nodded and headed for the door as Kakashi poofed out of the office with a flash of smoke and a flutter of leaves: the standard Konoha teleportation jutsu.
Moriko and Kumori headed by the Inuzuka compound on their way to their house to warn Tsume of her out of town mission. While she was there, her young cousin Kiba trotted over to her as quickly as his young legs would let him. Moriko grinned at him and scooped him up into a quick hug.
"Play with me?" the young boy asked, holding out his plushie wolf.
Moriko smiled and said, "Sorry, Kiba-chan, I've got a mission I need to go to."
"Go beat up bad guys?" Kiba asked visually perking up at the thought.
"More like go find bad guys, but yeah, in a round about way." Moriko said, but Kiba only frowned in confusion so Moriko said, "Yes, I'm going to go beat up bad guys."
Kiba cheered and Moriko set the boy back down and watched in amusement as he ran off down the hallway to play with his plushie in the living room.
Moriko giggled a bit and bid goodbye to her aunt before heading home to pick up her pre-packed backpack and heading off to the west gate.
When she arrived Kakashi was nowhere in sight and a familiar voice called out from the gate desk, "Please say you're here to relieve us, Moriko-chan."
Moriko grinned and headed over to the desk where her two ex-teammates were sitting in chairs bored out of their minds. Moriko caught sight of several kunai stuck in the ceiling, making the Konoha symbol and snorted. "Sorry, boys, but I'm not. Its only around ten, too. How can you be that bored already?"
Izumo and Kotetsu gave Moriko incredulous looks and replied in stereo, "We're log keepers for the gate."
Moriko snorted but didn't argue against their reasoning. She leaned against the desk and glanced at the log book. Almost nobody had passed through the gate that morning.
A poof and the sudden appearance of a now identifiable chakra signature warned Moriko of her partners' arrival even before he called out, "Yo. Ready to go?"
Moriko nodded and hoisted her bag onto her shoulder from where she'd dropped it next to the desk and hastily wrote her name on the appropriate log for her teammates before handing it over to Kakashi to sign himself out as well.
Then Moriko and Kumori sent a wave to her two ex-teammates and headed out the gate after Kakashi.
"Old classmates?" Kakashi asked Moriko as they headed towards the road that headed north from the village.
"Old teammates. We got split up last year." Moriko replied, then asked, "So mission plan?"
Kakashi nodded and began outlining a basic plan. "The nins were after aren't too dangerous, but they're good at disappearing and ambushing. We've got the location of their last merchant raid and hopefully we can get a trail from there. If not we'll have to start searching the area nearby. How are you at combat?"
Moriko shrugged, "I can hold my own, but I'm more of an ambush type. I'm good at genjutsus and misdirection so I can take opponents out quickly, but I don't have brute strength on my side." She said and Kakashi nodded.
"Then we can try and take them out with an ambush, but if that fails I can handle them head on." He said and glanced up at the sun, "lets pick up the pace a bit so we can get there before tomorrow night." Moriko nodded and followed Kakashi into the trees and kept pace as they leapt through the branches, Kumori following with ease.
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End Note: Okay, I'm mostly caught up on writing so I can finally post some of this. Huzzah for time skipping and the introduction of everyone's favorite silver-haired pervert! Plus young Kiba! Huzzah cute cuddly Inuzukas! Be prepaired for some extreme timeskipping next chapter!
Word Count: 29,561/50,000
-Greygryph