Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
When Kumo returned from her shower, she saw Shino drooping in his chair. He doesn't look so hot either.
She slipped back in the bed, and both of them drifted off to a deep, restful sleep.
When Kumo awoke again, Shino was still slumped in his chair, and she decided not to wake him, but she wanted to test out her chakra control now.
When Shino finally awoke, it was to see a large spider with only two eyes instead of eight. One eye was brown, the other dark grey. "You can do three partial transformations now?"
Kumo's eyes shifted to hazel and the spider's head became human just long enough to say "Only when none of the three is human. Human and animal is tough…" Her voice trailed off as she lost control of her human head and it once again became a spider's.
"If you want to try out other jutsu, we can go outside so you won't destroy the house if you lose control."
The spider nodded and followed him out of the room.
Through experimentation, Kumo and Shino figured out that she could now perform other jutsu though they were difficult. Transformations were still second nature and her ability to combine transformations had increased. She could also breathe chakra-fire like she used to do to end her episodes in any of her forms.
"Your abilities have improved with the healing of your chakra network. The last time you had an episode it was set off by a simple clone, and you have done a lot more today without inciting an episode, so it seems fairly safe to assume that your episodes are to be a thing of the past."
"Can't you talk like a normal person?" Kumo demanded, tired, aching and grumpy. "Who uses the word 'inciting' anyways?"
"'Inciting' was the most precise word for the situation."
She glared at him and spat a small stream of fire, making him dodge.
"You should rest. Your chakra is getting low again."
"I've spent too much time in that room. I'll stay outside tonight." She shifted to a hawk, repressed her chakra signature, and sped off into the sky. When she was out of range of his kikaichu, she shifted to a wolf, still repressing her chakra signature. He'll never find me. She thought smugly, settling down on the soft carpet of moss.
She awoke to sense two other presences approaching. Her wolf nostrils flared, and she could smell human and dog. They entered the clearing where she had been sleeping and she examined them. The human had brown hair and red triangles painted on his cheeks and the dog was enormous: about as large as she was in her current form. She watched them warily and they watched her. The boy finally spoke. "You don't smell like a wolf." He stated. "Who are you?"
Kumo didn't respond beyond a slight raising of her lip to expose the tip of one fang. She didn't like his tone.
"Show your true form. You smell human." He demanded.
I would be naked if I was human. Yeah, not gonna happen.
When she didn't heed his orders he growled. "You leave me no choice. Akamaru, man-beast clone." The dog transformed, and the boy called "Fang-over-fang!"
Kumo leapt to the air, fur shifting to feathers and paws to talons. Her eagle form shrieked in fury and swooped at the pair who had reappeared in a giant gouge they had made in the ground. They scrambled backwards, and her talons missed their faces by a narrow margin. As she swooped upwards again, the boy threw a blanket of kunai, forcing her do dodge downwards, and the dog caught her leg in its mouth.
Nice try. That ain't gonna work with me. Her leg swelled as she shifted to an elephant, and the dog had to release her leg or have his jaw ripped off as her leg grew.
With a trumpet, she began to charge, only to be halted by a wall of kikaichu between her and her opponent. "That will be quite enough." Shino's calm voice demanded.
"Shino?" The dog boy asked, incredulous.
The kikaichu retreated and the elephant and dog user faced each other. "Kiba, this is Kumo, Kumo, this is Kiba, my teammate."
Oops.
Shino removed his jacket and handed it to the elephant, who picked it up with her trunk. She disappeared behind a tree to regain her human form and put on Shino's jacket while the boy he had called Kiba demanded "Who is she?"
"She is Kumo. She was rescued from Iwagakure and has spent the last two weeks being healed at the Aburame compound."
"Is that why no one's seen you for two weeks?"
"Yes."
"Why did she need to heal at the Aburame compound, not the hospital?"
"Her condition could only be treated by the constant draining of chakra by our kikaichu."
Kumo stepped out from behind the tree, and Kiba could see her 'true' form: a girl about their age with short reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes, naked except for Shino's over-large coat and liberally sprinkled with scars.
"How did you find me?" She demanded of Shino, ignoring Kiba.
"You lost your suppression of your chakra signature in your battle." He turned to face Kiba as well. "You are both lucky I was able to locate you. Kiba is a trained ninja, a chunin, and Kumo, though not technically a ninja has a talent for transformation that surpasses any I have ever heard of. One or both of you would probably have gotten seriously hurt."
They both looked dubious at this announcement. "Kumo, if you wish to train as a ninja, I will talk to the Hokage and see what can be arranged." Kumo nodded jerkily, still annoyed. She had wanted to fight. After two weeks of barely being able to sit up, she would have loved to kick his ass. "Very well. Kumo, I suggest not picking fights when your chakra is low in the future. And Kiba, I suggest not acting up because a strange wolf is in your territory." With one last grudging look between the shape shifter and the dog boy, Kumo followed Shino to the Hokage's tower.
"Kumo, you wish to train as a ninja of Konoha?"
"Yes."
"And you renounce any allegiance to Iwa?"
She gave a feral smile, her canines unconsciously lengthening. "With pleasure."
"I don't think you would fit in with the Academy children, and you already know some jutsus, so your training will be split between Kakashi, Gai and Kurenai, depending on who is in the village. You will be given temporary lodgings, and a messenger will be sent there to inform you of when to meet your sensei." She handed the girl a slip of paper with an address written on it. "Dismissed."