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 12

When they stopped to set up a basic camp, Moriko sent Kumori to find something for their supper while she and Kakashi fanned out and armed noisemaking traps and tripwires around their camp. Kumori returned, his tail wagging proudly as he carried a rabbit in his jaws. Moriko quickly gutted and skinned the rabbit and split it up between two spicks and a pile for Kumori and set the spicks to roasting after seasoning it with a bit of salt and herbs she'd gathered as she set up traps.

When the food was ready she passed Kakashi his spick and dug into her own.

Moriko saw a flash of movement across the fire and was shocked to find that Kakashi had already finished his food and his mask was back in place. He was still chewing but looked very surprised. When he swallowed he said, "That was very good."

Moriko shrugged, "Not much you can do in the field so its not too hard. I don't get why everyone's always surprised."

Kakashi shrugged and pulled out a small orange book, "Most shinobi seem to lack any culinary skills." He said, "Myself included."

Moriko's eyes caught the title of the book Kakashi was reading and she groaned as she tossed her skewer into the fire, "Kami-sama, you read that smut? It rots brains."

Kakashi sent her an insulted look, "how dare you! I bet you don't even read." He said voice teasing even as he turned back to his book.

Moriko raised an eyebrow and pulled her own book from her utility pouch, "Guess again, pervert. Mine even has a discernable plot and character development."

"Well mine has…" he trailed off for a second, obviously deciding against his initial word choice, "…unsurpassed description." He finally decided on.

Moriko snorted and rolled her eyes, tucking her book away, "Just so long as you don't read it aloud, or I may have to commandeer it and use it for kindling."

Kakashi clutched the book close to him and looked disgusted, "You threaten to burn literature!" his eye narrowed, "Book burner." He accused and Moriko couldn't help but giggle.

"You want first or second watch?" she finally asked once she stopped grinning.

"I'll take first watch, you go ahead and get some sleep." He said and flipped a page.

Moriko again rolled her eyes, but pulled out her bedroll, crawling inside and turning her face away from the small fire. Kumori curled himself up on top of her feet and Moriko quickly drifted off to sleep. She, like other shinobi above genin rank, had adapted the ability to sleep quickly and deeply while still being able to wake up alert at a moment's notice.

When she felt a hand on her shoulder several hours later, her eyes snapped open and her chakra senses flared, picking up nothing but Kumori and Kakashi. She nodded her thanks to Kakashi and sat up, Kumori yawning and stretching his legs out as she did so. The canine wandered away from the main camp, careful to avoid traps, to relieve his bladder. When he returned Kakashi was already asleep in his bedroll and Moriko had thrown her own over her shoulders to keep warm.

She faced away from the fire and let her chakra senses and enhanced hearing and sense of smell tell her of all the happenings in the forest.

When day dawned, Kakashi woke without needing to be roused and the two of them erased all evidence of their stay in the forest before continuing north. Keeping their speed at a good pace, they arrived at the north outpost around noon and to the last attack site about an hour later.

When they arrived Moriko and Kumori instantly went to work sorting out scents and identifying merchant from attacker until they got a good hold on both the missing nins' scents. "We've got them." She told Kakashi and let Kumori take the lead as the scent trails headed off into the forest.

Moriko had to hand it to the two nins, they were very good at hiding their trail and making it difficult to follow. They went through trees, over rocks, and leapt as far forward as they could at times to break up scent trails. About a mile from the attack site Kumori stopped suddenly and told Moriko, "Scent hiding jutsu."

Moriko heaved a sigh and glanced at Kakashi, who was looking at the pair expectantly.

"They've used a scent concealing jutsu and have taken to the trees, so there's no visible trail to follow." Moriko said and glanced around at the trees immediately surrounding them, she found one with a hallow in it and slid off her backpack, shoving the drab bag into the hole and covering following it with her jacket.

"So we're at a dead end then." Kakashi asked, eying Moriko oddly as she took off her utility pouch and kunai hostler and hid them with her bag and coat.

"No, it just means I need to use alternate tactics I was hoping I wouldn't have to use." She said and slipped out of her combat sandals and hid them with the rest of her supplies. "Stay put for five minutes, I'll be right back." Moriko ignored Kakashi's quiet protests and slipped out of sight.

An irritated Kakashi sighed and glanced at Kumori, "You have any idea what she's doing?"

Kumori nodded his head and gave his tail a slight wag before turning his head expectantly towards where Moriko had vanished.

A little under five minutes later, Kumori's ears perked and his tail wagged harder. Kakashi glanced into the woods and saw a tawny and white hybrid, about the same size as Kumori but obviously built for speed more than muscle, trotting over to them, a green-brown bundle in its mouth.

Kakshi was tense as the new animal boldly approached him and Kumori, it looked Kakashi in the eye and rolled its own before passing by him and dropping the bundle outside of where Moriko had just hid her clothes before nudging them in the hollow and covering them with a few leaves. It was then Kakashi noticed the Konoha forehead protector tied around the canine's neck.

"Moriko?" He asked hesitantly, visible eye narrowed in confusion.

The dog turned and gave a wry grin, "Yeah." She said simply and padded over to where Kumori stood by the end of the scent trail.

"How…?" Kakashi began then shook his head, "later. How is…this going to help us out any?"

Moriko's eyes were fixed on a spot on the ground but she replied in a matter-of-fact way: "I can see chakra trails. Scent concealing jutsus simply strengthen the trail of chakra residue." She trailed off then grinned widely, "Got 'em. Time to go!" she said and leapt forward, using a log as a launching point to get herself up into the trees. Kakashi and Kumori followed, Kakashi wondering why he always ended up with such strange people on missions.

Moriko led them for an additional two miles before she came to an abrupt stop and waited for Kakashi and Kumori to join her before she said softly, "their camp's about one hundred yards up there. There's only the two of them. What's the plan of attack?"

Kakashi paused for a moment and then asked, "Can you still use jutsus like this?"

Moriko nodded, "More basic ones, but yeah."

"Cover yourself and Kumori in one and get as close as you can, I need you to make sure neither of them escape when I go at them." The silver-haired teen said, and Moriko noticed then just how much the slightly older teen's personality had changed as soon as they started in on the mission proper.

Moriko nodded and focused for a moment and Kakashi felt a slight flare in chakra before it and the two canines vanished and he heard the slightest rustling of the two large dogs making their way down to the ground.

Moriko and Kumori stalked forward, working seamlessly despite not being able to see one another. Instead they both focused on the slight sound of the others' movement and at times their breathing and heartbeat. They found the nuke-nins' traps set up along the preimiter of their camp site and easily avoided them along with any dry brush and potential noise making objects.

They maneuvered themselves to the perimeter of the camp site, opposite to where Moriko felt Kakashi's chakra signature in the trees. They readied themselves for an ambush and waited for Kakashi to make his move.

Moriko waited patiently, watching the two missing nin and keeping her chakra sense honed on Kakashi. When she felt his chakra flare minutely she tensed and prepaired to cut off escape routes.

Kakashi slammed a kunai into one of the nin's unprotected side then leapt back as the injured nin slashed at him with his own knife. The other nin made to bolt from the scene while Kakashi was busy finishing off his partner. As he kicked off the ground for the trees he was jerked back as two sets of invisible jaws latched onto his legs.

He yelled in surprise and tried to ward off his invisible attackers, kicking out and knocking his damaged legs free. There was a slight yelp and both jaws released. The nin brought his hands up to cancel the genjutsu hiding the canine attackers but never had the opportunity too before a knife slashed across his throat.

Moriko let her genjutsu fade as the man bled out rapidly. Kakashi watched the dying man with cold eyes and bent to retrieve his forehead protector before glancing at the two canines who were splattered with a bit of blood.

"You two okay?" Kakashi asked and Moriko nodded.

"I'll have a bruise, but nothing serious." The kunoichi-turned-canine said and looked between the two dead nins. "You know a katon jutsu?"

Kakashi nodded and dragged the second nin over to his partner before stepping back and setting them alight to destroy their bodies. The jounin and two canines watched them flames until both bodies were nothing but ash and then left the camp site.

Moriko steered them towards where she'd left her supplies and asked, "You still want an explanation?"

Kakashi shrugged and pulled out his perverted orange book, "I figure it's probably mostly classified because I've never heard anything about it, but feel free to share whatever you can."

Moriko rolled her eyes, "It's a true transformation, not an illusion or anything like that and it doesn't require chakra to maintain so I can stay in this form indefinitely. It does however put stress on my body so I can't change back immediately."

"How long do you need to wait now?" he asked

"a few hours, I'll be human again by night." Moriko said and noticed Kakashi slump a bit more than normal, "What?" Moriko asked.

"You won't be able to make dinner." Kakashi grumbled and Moriko snorted.

-

When they made it back to Konoha, the two handed in their mission reports and headed their separate ways. It was a few months later when Moriko spotted the jounin as she exited a grocery store with her purchases. He looked exhausted and was heading away from the Hokage tower fiddling with a cut in the sleeve of his uniform.

"Oi, Kakashi!" she called after him and the jounin paused, glancing over at her and giving a small wave in greeting.

"Hey, Moriko." He said and shoved his hands in his pockets

"How've you been holding up?" Moriko asked, eyeing the man's ill fitting uniform with a frown.

"Okay." He said with a shrug, "I've been running a lot of missions. I just got home and needed to get some food for my pantries." He lifted up his own bag of groceries and Moriko noticed it was filled with cheap microwave meals.

She narrowed her eyes at the jounin, "Is that what you're living off of?" she asked, voice giving away some of her irritation.

Kakashi shrugged, "Haven't gotten my last paycheck yet and I can't cook much anyways—hey!" he exclaimed as Moriko grabbed one of his arms and began pulling him down the street.

"Those do not constitute as food, Kakashi. You're coming over for dinner."

Kakashi blinked at the statement of fact and said, "I don't—" he began to protest when Moriko cut him off.

"Argue with me and I'm burning your perverted book." She told him with a slight glare.

Kakashi snapped his mouth shut and allowed himself to be led through the streets of Konoha even after Moriko let go of his arm. He began glancing around at the houses and noting that they weren't headed to the Inuzuka compound, but somewhere else nearby.

Moriko finally paused at a front gate and unlatched it before heading up the front walkway with Kakashi following. Moriko opened the front door without unlocking it and called in, "You'd better not have been raiding my fridge, boys!"

"We weren't!" a male voice called back from further in the house as Moriko shut the door after Kakashi.

"Kumori wouldn't let us anywhere near it anyways! We just set the kettle on for tea." A second male voice added and Kakashi followed Moriko into the kitchen where two other teens sat at a large butcher block table. Kakashi recognized them as the two gate keepers from his mission with Moriko and reminded himself they were her ex-teammates.

Moriko set her grocery bags on the counter and looked to Kumori who was sprawled in front of the refrigerator, "Good work, Kumori." The charcoal dog wagged his tail happily. Moriko turned to her teammates and glanced at Kakashi, "Boys, this is Hatake Kakashi, I ran a mission with him a while back and—"

"and you decided he wasn't eating properly and forced him to come eat a real dinner." One of her old teammates said with a wide grin.

"Welcome to Moriko's group of adopted mal-fed shinobi." The other told Kakashi and Moriko snorted.

"Kakashi, these two idiots are my ex-teammates, Hagane Kotetsu," she indicated the teen with spiky hair spilling over the top of his forehead protector, "and Kamizuki Izumo." She pointed to the teen who had his forehead protector covering his head like a skullcap. "And if either of you want to complain about eating here—"

"No! No complaints!" The two younger shinobi exclaimed and Moriko snorted.

"Go ahead and have a seat, tea'll be up as soon as the water heats up." Moriko said and unpacked her groceries, pulling out knives and chopping boards as she did so to begin cooking.

Dinner at Moriko's, Kakashi decided, was a very enjoyable way to relax after a hard day's work. There was good food and entertaining conversation. After Izumo and Kotetsu left to head back to their own shared apartment, Kakashi lingered to help Moriko finish cleaning the kitchen.

"You don't need to help clean up." Moriko said as Kakashi helped scrub and dry dishes.

Kakashi shrugged, "You fed me. It seems like a good way to say thanks."

Moriko snorted, "No thanks are necessary, Izumo and Kotetsu already skived off." She said then paused, "You're always invited, you know. I always make extra food because my teammates—ex-teammates—tend to show up out of the blue. I know you run a lot of out of town missions in ANBU—and yes I know, Ookami-san, your chakra signature doesn't lie—but you can always drop by when you're in town if you want food that you don't need to zap in the microwave."

Kakashi had frozen when Moriko meantioned she knew he was a part of the special black ops team, but slowly relaxed again afterwards and gave a slight nod, "I may end up taking you up on that offer." He said.

"Good, I won't have to resort to force feeding you to satisfy my feeding-people-gene." Moriko said and rinsed off the last plate, "Go get some sleep, you need it." She told him and Kakashi shook his head.

"It feels strange to be mothered by someone younger than me." He said and grabbed his bag of microwave dinners from where he'd stashed them in Moriko's freezer.

"Well, somebody has to do it." Moriko retorted as Kakashi left out the kitchen door, tossing a wave back at Moriko as he left.

Cooking extra food became second nature to Moriko, and her 'Moochers' as she dubbed them, became a nightly addition to her dinner table along with the occasional visit from her cousin Mai.

It was early in July, three years after the Kyuubi attack, that Moriko received a promotion to special jounin for her tracking at detection abilities. With the elevated ranking she began to run higher ranking missions more and more often. Whenever she was back in town, she was always joined by her comrades for dinner.

When Mai graduated from the academy two years later she threw a party to celebrate the occasion. She continued to keep an eye out for her cousin even as she trained with her new team and sensei.

She was swapped around from team to team running random C and D ranked missions, with the occasional A rank mixed in. She became one of the top choices for 'breaking in' new jounins and special jounins on boarder patrol as per Konoha tradition.

She wasn't sure when and where the tradition first started, but every jounin she ever worked with had had one of their first missions running a boarder patrol, except for those who'd been promoted during the war with Iwa. Her first mission after her promotion had been a patrol of the north-western border of Fire country.

It was the autumn after her twenty second birthday when she got a note informing her that she was being sent out on boarder patrol with a newly promoted special jounin. Any more details were reserved for the actual mission scroll

So Moriko packed her bag and set it by the door, all ready for the next day, then whistled for Kumori and slipped out the front door of her house, determined to get home before it got too late.

Moriko headed to the Inuzuka compound to warn her aunt that she'd be missing the next clan meeting, which was only a few days away. While she was there she found Hana helping her little brother Kiba with some of his academy homework. She made sure to stop by and say 'hello' to the fourteen year old Hana and nine year old Kiba.

When she did so, Kiba's new puppy Akamaru yapped happily from his perch on Kiba's head, warning Kiba and Hana of Moriko's presence in the doorway.

"Hey, Moriko!" Hana called happily "Are you going to be over for dinner Sunday night?"

Moriko shook her head, "No, sorry, Hana-chan, I'm headed out to boarder patrol. You'll have to wait until next time to get my cookies."

Hana and Kiba both pouted a bit, before Kiba suddenly perked up, "When you get back will you help me with my taijutsu? Iruka-sensei says I rely too much on offence and my defense needs some work, and mom's always busy and Hana's always too tired when she gets home." He stuck his tongue out at his sister who rolled her eyes in reply.

"Well, she just made chunnin, and they keep the chunnin working pretty hard. I'll try, I should be running in town missions for a week or so after I get back. I need to get going though, I need to stop by and warn Mai I won't be home for a while…and my moochers." Moriko shook her head and continued, "I'm distracting you from your homework anyways, Kiba-kun, if your sensei's anything like mine was, unfinished homework is not accepted. I'll see you when I get back!" she called over her shoulder as she left, Kumori bounding after her after saying his own goodbyes to the other ninken in the house.

Moriko swung by Mai's house on her way off the compound and found the young, and newly promoted chunnin, sitting on the roof and Moriko jumped up to join her. As she sat down, she ruffled Mai's canine partner, Amaya's, ears, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Mai sighed and glanced at Moriko from the corner of her eye, tucking some loose strands of hair that had escaped her twin braids behind her ears, "Mom's being really pissy and I'd rather avoid her right now than anything else."

Moriko was silent for a minute and said, "I've got patrol, I'll be gone for two weeks." She frowned when she felt Mai droop a bit beside her, "I'll tell you what, I'm going to get a spare key made for my house—yes I know you can pick locks, but it's the symbol of the thing, plus it keeps you from getting arrested if you ever get sloppy and let my neighbors see you." Mai gave a snort.

"I'm never sloppy." The fourteen year old protested

"You say that now, but some day you'll be too tired or distracted…anyways I'll drop off the key tomorrow before I leave, okay?" Moriko watched Mai closely.

Mai turned and gave Moriko a smile, "Thanks, Moriko-neesan." She said and Moriko blinked.

"You haven't called me that since you graduated from the academy." She commented and Mai didn't say anything else. "If you don't want to stay here tonight write a quick note to your mom and come on, I've still got to warn my moochers they're on their own for a while…" Moriko paused and corrected herself, "Well, the boys are out on border patrol too, so we just have one more stop to make before we head back."

Mai gave a relieved sigh and leaned over Amaya to give Moriko an awkward hug, "Thank you so much! I'll be right back." Mai and Amaya disappeared down the side of their house and Moriko followed their chakra signatures through the house while she visited her room for what she'd need for an overnight and wrote a quick note to her mother. Said woman was in the living room and had apparently not noticed her daughter leave the note in the kitchen. Moriko frowned at that and muttered to Kumori, "Kunoichi she may not be, but she's still an Inuzuka and should have heard her or something." She shook her head and cleared it of the disappointed thoughts when Mai reappeared with a backpack slung on her shoulder.

She gave a wide excited grin, "Let's go bug Kakashi-san now!"

Moriko rolled her eyes, "If he's even home right now." She said and lead the way across rooftops to Kakashi's flat.

Kakashi was indeed home and it only took the two Inuzuka's landing on the windowsill outside a window to get him to open it up for them.

"What are you two doing here?" he asked as Moriko stepping down inside the flat and gave the ex-ANBU captain a small smile.

"Sorry for dropping by so late, I'm on border patrol staring tomorrow, so you'll have to fend for yourself for two weeks." Moriko said and Kakashi slumped a bit before straightening.

"I've got plenty of money saved up, I can live on takeout for two weeks." Moriko glared at that, "And I'll be sure to eat healthily too." He promised, rolling his eyes at the tiny Inuzuka.

"Make sure you do." Moriko said and glanced back at Mai before continuing, "and make sure Mai-chan isn't getting into trouble too."

"Hey! I can look out for myself!" Mai protested and Moriko gave her a bland look. Mai pouted and muttered, "Most of the time."

Rolling his eyes at the cousins he said, "I'll try, but my in town week is almost up before I get sent out again."

Moriko nodded and glanced out the window at the sky, "That's all I can ask, we need to get going. I need to get some sleep. Ja." She said and climbed back out the open window, heading off across rooftops with Mai close behind after she said her own goodbyes to the silver-haired man.

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End Note: Huzzah Kakashi! He's very fun to write. This is the first chapter of a massive "finish posting my NaNoWriMo project so my roommate can read it" post. My e-mail won't send the story without a long string of complaints, which is VERY understandable, given the size of this. A quick warning about these end notes too: they may not be completely coherent (and I may be skipping over chapter notes entirely) because I'm lazy and on some strong pain killers which make me only a bit loopy. 

Word Count: 33,592/50,000

-Greygryph