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
-
Chapter 14
Moriko easily led them to the boarder, knowing it simply because of the feel of years worth of chakra residue built up on either side of it. Kumori was close on her heels, ears and nose poised and ready as they paused at a good vantage point.
"Now," she began and pointed out over the forest. "Despite it being called grass country, there is actually quite a bit of wooded area to the country, which is why there isn't this big, obvious change from forest to grassland. The grasslands start about three miles away from here, but this is the boarder. I kinda luck out and I have a cheat sheet because I can just follow the residue of past patrols without giving it much thought. You, on the other hand, I'm sorry to say, will be memorizing the boarder from sight." Moriko was a bit impressed with Tetsu didn't pout at that, she merely nodded. She jerked her head towards the boarder proper and said, "Follow me and I'll point out the landmarks others tend to use."
Moriko lead Tetsu through their stretch of the boarder and taught her the landmarks and subtle markings years of patrols had used and left on the land. As they continued on she found herself very appreciative of the fact that Tetsu had an excellent memory for details. Moriko even stopped and showed Tetsu her personal favorite tree on the route, which had an entire conversation carved into it using shinobi symbols.
It started out with: "Beware the evil bitch", followed by "And the deadly dunce duo" and then an entire back and forth banter contest insulting the very air all the writers breathed and ended with, "And the irritated sensei who warned his students to quit leaving traces behind" followed by three "sorry"s in a row.
Tetsu snorted at the conversation and Moriko merely grinned, "Sensei wasn't too pleased at our now permanent mark on the land."
Tetsu's eyes shot to Moriko and she said, "Wait. You and your team?"
Moriko rolled her eyes, "Who else do you think the 'deadly dunce duo' would refer to?"
"That would make you 'evil bitch' then?"
"In the flesh but in the wrong skin, my dear Tetsu." Moriko said cryptically and sent the nineteen year old a wide, fanged, grin.
They completed a sweep of the boarder with Moriko taking note of the freshness of the trails of the grass nin patrols not too far away. They returned to camp and as the two chunnin men sat out to do their own random sweep, both women grinned, and saluted them.
"Hail the deadly dunce duo!" both of them crowed out. Izumo and Kotetsu facefaulted and glared at them.
"Evil bitch and…" Kotetsu trailed off and glanced over at Izumo, "we need to come up with a name for Tetsu."
Izumo and he sent the special jounin in question an evil grin that made her feel a bit nervous.
"Don't worry too much, they couldn't come up with anything better than 'evil bitch' for me. It won't be too bad." Moriko said, giving her ex-teammates a dismissing wave.
Kotetsu pouted and pointed a finger at Moriko accusingly, "Hey, it has a dual meaning!"
Moriko smiled sweetly back and said, "I have alliteration."
Kotetsu shook his fist comically and followed Izumo away from camp, "Cure you and your poetic tools of death and destruction!" Moriko waved them off sweetly and then turned to Tetsu.
"Go ahead and rest your feet for a bit," She said and sat with her back against a tree. Kumori flopped down happily next to her and she tangled her fingers in his thick fur. "So any questions yet?"
"Besides all the cryptic statements you and your teammates seem to say about your jutsu." Tetsu said, taking a seat on a log and leaning against her own tree. Moriko grinned sheepishly at Tetsu's bland tone and raised brow.
"Ma, I guess I could tell you about it, because its likely you won't see it while were out here." Moriko said and folded her fingers together and stretching her arms upwards until her back popped satisfyingly. "Well, basically, due to a stupid accident involving techniques I later found out were banned, I can turn, physically, into a dog."
Tetsu stared at her in disbelief. "Right…" she said, voice skeptical and Moriko shrugged.
"I could explain it exactly but its way too complicated and I don't exactly feel like spending three hours going into detail, so just trust me. I'd show you but it hurts and I can't change back immediately." Moriko shrugged again and glanced up at the sky. "I'm going to go get dinner started. You can relax, just keep an eye on the camp."
Moriko hoisted herself to her feet, nodded to Kumori and the two of them slunk off into the woods, disappearing with obvious predatory grace.
That night, dinner was filled with banter as Izumo and Kotetsu tried to find a nickname to fit the new special jounin. It was quickly broken by a quick round of the common shinobi game: who's scar is the worst.
The boys each had some nasty scars across their chests from blades, which Moriko easily beat with a scar along her collarbone. She'd gotten it on the same mission her and her team had carved the conversation into a tree. It was one of the few patrols that had combat with shinobi trying to sneak across the boarder. She'd been in canine form and had been lunging for the throat of a chunnin trying to skewer Kotetsu while he had his hands full with another invading nin. The chunnin had nearly slit her throat, but Moriko had reared back at the last second, letting the slash land across her chest, a scant inch below her throat.
Moriko's blaring reminder of her near death experience, however, paled in comparison to Tetsu's own. The new jounin had lifted up the edge of her shirt and showed a not quite straight scar on her side. "I lost a kidney to the black market." She said and hadn't said anything else. Izumo and Kotetsu had each tried to get more information out of Tetsu but Moriko's glare shut them up.
Soon afterwards Moriko announced she was going to go be lookout, and slipped out of camp, finding a tall tree to perch in and letting her chakra senses stretch out to their limits.
Moriko had always found moments like this the most relaxing. She could follow the movements of various animals in the woods and feel her teammates still sitting around camp. She closed her eyes and again concentrated on the feeling of faint chakra signatures of the forest and animals.
The following week passed without issue and Moriko noticed how well Tetsu was adapting to boarder patrol. She remembered her own first time on patrol and how she'd nearly forgotten that she was posted on a potentially hostile boarder.
The morning Izumo and Kotetsu's replacements were due in, the group drew straws. Moriko drew camp guard while Tetsu ran close boarder scout. Izumo and Kotetsu fell back, to meet their replacements.
Moriko was sitting atop her favorite base camp lookout when she felt Tetsu's chakra flare on the edge of her normal senses. She extended them out further and found Tetsu's signature racing to cut off four foreign signatures.
She swore and leapt from her perch, calling out, "Kumori!" as she landed on the ground, already running. She oriented herself towards Tetsu's location and gathered chakra, sending up a distress flare jutsu as she bolted through the forest towards Tetsu. She melted into the woods as she began prepairing herself for a fight.
As she neared her senses sharpened. She picked up a second signature that felt like a second weaker Tetsu facing off with four shinobi.
Gathering chakra, she flashed through familiar hand seals and muttered, "Mugen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutus" and then flew through a few more seals. "Bunshin no jutsu." She whispered and allowed the bunshin to take her place while she slid behind her illusion and began focusing as much as she could while she continued to run and felt her body transform.
It was difficult to keep running while she changed, but she had enough experience now that she could control the transformation somewhat and timed it so that she went from leaping through the forest floor on two legs to bounding through it on four legs.
Quickly regaining any momentum that had been lost during the transformation, the now canine Moriko found Kumori racing along by her flank.
She caught sight of her teammate as Tetsu's bunshin was destroyed. Bunshin Moriko burst into the clearing as Kumori darted around canine Moriko and launched himself onto the arms of one of the nins, crushing down then releasing and dodging back, dodging a kunai and falling back beside Bunshin Moriko.
Before the injured nin, whom Moriko identified as a rock nin, could drop back with his crushed arm, Inu-Moriko slipped in behind him and snapped her jaws. The man, whom had managed to hold back a scream when Kumori had injured him, lost all composure when the hidden Inu-Moriko hamstrung him. Before the man's teammates could pinpoint her location, she leapt away and circled around. While the other nins were searching for what had hurt their downed teammate, Kumori darted in and tore the man's throat out.
As Kumori dodged away Moriko picked out her next target.
"You didn't honestly think that was all I had, did you?" Tetsu asked sweetly and her ninjaken sparked. Her opponent winced as he was shocked and Tetsu stabbed the man in the shoulder while his guard was down. "I was just holding you in this position until backup arrived." she said and released a bit of additional electricity while the blade was still in the man's shoulder. The man dropped to the ground, his heart stopped by the jolt of electricity.
While she turned to face the remaining opponents, Tetsu flung a kunai at one of the men and made him dodge right into Kumori's waiting jaws. The charcoal dog snarled and latched onto the man's leg and holding him still while Tetsu darted in and tapped the man smartly with the butt of her blade to the hinge of his jaws.
While Kumori helped Tetsu knock the third shinobi Moriko leapt at the final nin's exposed back and latched onto his neck from behind. As the man fell forward from the extra weight, Moriko shook her head visciously, not only snapping the man's neck, but tearing his jugular as well.
Moriko released her jaws and checked the surroundings for any hidden shinobi. She heard Tetsu call out, "Yo! Moriko!" but ignored it. Once she was sure no more earth nin were hiding in the forest she dropped her genjutsu and released her hold on her Bunshin, causing the surroundings to flicker and fade away in a slight haze of smoke.
Moriko turned to Tetsu as she asked, "Uhh, Moriko?" Unable to resist herself, she and Kumori put on their best innocent faces. Finally Moriko stepped forward and grinned, "Yo."
Tetsu gave her an odd look and Moriko remember that her voice was much deeper and more guttural.
Moriko glanced at the two men Tetsu had put down and said, "Nice work on them." She shook herself to try and rid herself of the tingling that always signified one of her more rapid transformations. "Ugh. I won't be human again any time soon. Plus I lost my clothes on the way in." She perked her ears towards Konoha proper and continued, "Someone should be here soon to help us out anyways, I sent off a flare jutsu before I came here." Her nose quivered and she caught the scent of Tetsu's blood and spotted a gash on the woman's leg. "You okay?"
"I think so," Tetsu replied, taking a closer look at the gash. She swayed on her feet and then sat down hard, muttering, "On second thought…I may have lost a bit more blood than I originally though." She swayed a bit more and swore, "Ah hell." As the adrenaline wore off and her head started throbbing. "Excuse me," she slurred, "I'm going to pass out now." Moriko swore as Tetsu's eyes rolled back into her head and she slumped back.
Kumori was behind her before she could hit her head on the ground and allowed the kunoichi's head to hit the ground much lighter than before.
Moriko sighed and muttered, "Wonderful," before glancing at the four Earth shinobi, three dead, and one unconscious. The three dead men only needed to be burned and their forehead protectors collected, but the unconscious one would be carted back to Konoha to…entertain the shinobi at the interrogation headquarters. Nodding at the unconscious nin, she told Kumori, "Watch him."
Moriko approached Tetsu's unconscious form and eyed the gash in her leg with worry. Closing her eyes she focused on molding her chakra into one of the healing jutsus she learned during the construction of her jutsu. She placed her forepaws on either side of the gash and pushed the green chakra she gathered into the wound, making sure to stop the bleeding first before she began knitting the worst of the wound back together.
When Moriko was sure Tetsu was out of danger she canceled the jutsu and nosed out a role of bandages from Tetsu's utility pouch. Using her paws and her teeth she bandaged the much shallower wound as best she could and then jerked her head up as she felt a pair of chakra signatures dash into her sensory range, one after the other.
She ran straight up the nearest tree directly in the path of the approaching signatures.
Once she was sure they were within earshot, Moriko barked out, "This is Konoha boarder patrol. Identify yourselves!"
The two figures came to a hault within her sight and one called out, "Konoha ANBU Hunter-nins, we saw an alarm flare jutsu." Moriko concentrated on their signatures and picked up the familiar 'tag' of a Konoha nin. Their scents also seemed familiar, so Moriko stepped out from where she was hiding in the thick branches of her tree.
"Good, I've got one unconscious stone-nin and three more dead ones. The second half of our patrol hasn't shown up yet and my partner's injured." Moriko said and jumped down the tree, leading the two masked hunter nins to where Kumori was standing guard over the unconscious rock nin.
"We'll take care of the stone nins…it's Inuzuka-san, right? Inuzuka Moriko?" One of the ANBU asked and Moriko nodded, ""Do you need help getting your partner back to your camp?"
Moriko shook her head, "Just help me get her on my back and I'll be fine. Send my regards to Ibiki-san and the other interrogators, and if you spot the replacement patrol group on your way back, tell them to hurry the hell up."
The ANBU who'd identified her helped to load Tetsu on Moriko's back and she nodded to the two masked men. Kumori pressed himself against Moriko to help her keep Tetsu balanced on her back and the two canines slowly made their way back to camp. On the way, Kumori picked up Moriko's scattered clothes. As she eyed the clothes in
Kumori's mouth and sighed, hopefully she'd be able to change back in the morning.
When she reached the camp Kumori helped her get Tetsu into her bedroll and then Moriko took up her post above the camp and soon found two new signatures approaching. These she instantly recognized the two signatures as they drew nearer.
"Oi! Genma-san! I didn't know you were still on the roster for boarder patrol!" she called as the shinobi drew within earshot.
"Hey, Moriko-san. Yeah, I don't head out too often though, I signed on to come check on my old student. Iruka and I ran into Hunter nins on our way in here. They said you and Tetsu ran into trouble."
Moriko snorted and jumped down to meet him and his partner for the mission, whom Moriko recognized almost instantly as her youngest cousin's academy teacher. "A squad of Iwa nin tried to get across the boarder when Izumo and Kotetsu went to find you two. Tetsu ended up loosing enough blood to pass out, but I was able to patch up the wound some. I'm kinda limited on jutsus when I can't make hand signs."
Genma had already known about Moriko's jutsu and its limitations and nodded his head in understanding. Iruka looked somewhat confused though so Moriko sent him a sheepish canine grin, and led them the short distance to the base camp where Kumori was still guarding Tetsu's unconscious form. Genma headed over to check on his old student and Moriko turned to Iruka.
"Sorry, I'm Inuzuka Moriko." She said and bobbed her head in a imitation of a bow.
Iruka bowed back and said, "Umino Iruka. You're Kiba-kun's cousin, right?" he asked.
Moriko rolled her eyes fondly, "Yeah, I grew up babysitting Kiba and his sister, Hana. Luckily Hana's only slightly less of a handful than Kiba is or I wouldn't have survived the experience. You're his academy teacher right?"
Iruka nodded and sagged a bit, "I feel bad saying it, but I'm very glad its break."
Moriko barked out a laugh, "Its understandable, I don't know how well I'd be able to keep up with a class of shinobi-in-training for most of the year."
Iruka smiled, "It's difficult at times, but well worth it." He watched Moriko for a moment and asked, "So, is this a genjutsu or Inuzuka technique I've never heard of?"
Moriko sighed a bit, "Ah, no. This is real, and I'm the only Inuzuka who can do this."
Iruka looked intrigued, "Is it a Limit to your Bloodline?"
Moriko cocked her head, considering the idea then said, "I don't think so, because I had to screw up creating a jutsu to end up like this. It could end up being something like a Bloodline limit, but I'm not sure if its passed on genetically or anything, and I sure as hell don't want to put anyone else through the hell of performing it." At Iruka's confused look she clearified, "I literally augmented myself on a cellular level. It hurts like hell, and I've joined a lovely statistic of people who've survived having that done, bringing the count up to two."
Iruka winced and Moriko glanced out towards the boarder. "I'm going to make another sweep of the boarder and make sure nobody else has tried to sneak in while we were busy." She said, making sure both Iruka and Genma had heard it before slipping away from camp and ghosting through the forest floor, searching for fresh chakra signatures.
That evening Tetsu stirred, and groaned as she woke. Informing Genma, who'd just come back from his patrol of the boarder, and Moriko that she was in pain. What sort of pain became evident when she sat up and, without opening her eyes, massaging her temples.
Genma dug into his utility pouch and pulled out the small plastic bottle that no shinobi ever went without: a bottle of aspirin. He pulled the cotton ball out that kept the pills from making noise in their plastic home and shook a pair into his hand and offering them to the still grumbling kunoichi, who was probably completely unaware of their presence. "Here, have a couple of aspirin." He said and the kunoichi took them without question.
A muttered, "Thanks, Genma-sensei," was heard before Tetsu's eyes snapped open and focused on the jounin crouching next to her, "Genma-sensei! What are you doing here?"
Genma adopted a slight smirk and said, "Just checking up on my favorite new tokubetsu jounin." How he managed to speak around the senbon needle in his mouth had always been beyond Moriko, but the kunoichi in canine form barked out laughter when the older man patted Tetsu on the head.
Tetsu scowled at the man and then over at the still grinning Moriko and said, in her best haughty holier-than-thou voice, "I'm doing fine, thank you very much!" while turning up her nose at the two for a moment.
Genma didn't say anything, but raised an eyebrow and gave Tetsu's bandaged leg a pointed look.
Tetsu adopted an embarrassed, sheepish look and scratched the back of her head, "Uhh…you should see the other guys?" her tone was unsure and carried a hint of the woman's embarrassment.
It also managed to coax a small smile onto Genma's face, which had gone stern when he'd turned his old student's attention to her injuries.
"Way to use one of the biggest clichés in the world." Moriko said teasingly and Tetsu stuck out her tongue childishly at her.
"Well I can never used the 'Knife fight' explanation for any of my scars because it's always true, and it doesn't work!" Tetsu said with a pout and Moriko cocked her head a moment.
"Touche." The dog said.
Tetsu was silent a moment and then spoke up, "Ano, Moriko? What happened to those four stone-nin?"
Moriko sent the woman an amused look that could be roughly translated to, 'And you're just now remembering about those four possible threats?' Aloud she said, "Three were dead, and you knocked the last one out. Hunter nin came and took care of all of them."
"Ahh," Tetsu said with a slow nod, then turned back to her old sensei, "So, you're on duty with us for the next week, Genma-sensei?"
"Me and Iruka," Genma said with a nod, "He's out on scout duty right now though, and you were obviously still out when we got here. You'll get to say 'hello' to him when he gets back."
Tetsu nodded and took a moment to gently unwrap her wound and examine the healing gash. She winced when she pulled off a gauze pad that had been stuck to the skin by an antibiotic ointment Genma had applied to the wound the night before. Tetsu gave a low impressed whistle, "Wow, who used the healing jutsu?"
"Guilty." Moriko said, "Sorry I couldn't finish the job up, it's a bit hard to do without handseals, or hands for that matter." Moriko stood up and cast a glance over at Kumori, who was still sprawled on Moriko's unrolled, but unused bedroll, "I'm going to go run a sweep, I'll tell Iruka you're up when I see him." Moriko said and she and Kumori set out from camp.
They found Iruka easily enough and informed him that she was heading a bit closer to the boarder than they'd been going recently, because of their injured member. Moriko wanted to check to see if any fresh chakra trails were there from foreign shinobi trying to gather information on patrols.
Iruka frowned a bit and Moriko felt something shift in her stomach strangely, "Be careful, okay?" he said, obviously worried about the risk she was putting herself in.
Moriko gave him a reassuring smile, "I'll be careful and I'll know if anyone's coming long before they know I'm there." She and Kumori slipped once more into the forest, once again avoiding the treetops where they would be much easier to spot, flitting from branch to branch.
She didn't feel or see any chakra signatures at all, save for the slowly fading ones of the four Iwa nin who'd tried to cross the day before. When she extended her chakra senses she couldn't even sense anyone other than her team and some animals. 'Good' she thought trotting along their stretch of boarder once more to be sure before heading back to camp. 'I really don't want to deal with another fight so soon.'
-
End Note: Some combat for the girls and more characters to play with. Huzzah Iruka and his overprotective nature. Mmkay, not much else to add here…
Word Count: 41,374 / 50,000
-Greygryph