Kuromaru pulled back hesitantly, then crept forward again and lifted his muzzle to nose at loosely curled fingers. Female and soap and girl-dog-spayed. He turned his head, whuffling between fingers to the palm, callused but not like Tsume's. His tail swayed briefly behind him, tongue flicking out over skin in a hesitant offer of friendship. His single eye lifted to the man, head tipping in exaggeration as he tried to compensate for his altered vision. "Kuromaru-san," he rumbled, deciding that maybe this man was all right, since he'd remembered the -san suffix. Most people didn't.

Except... he still smelled... familiar. "I don't know you." It was somewhere between his usual growl and a confused whine, and his whole head swiveled between Tsume and the medic.

"Hyuuga-san came and got us," Tsume told him.

He stepped forward slowly again, giving the man a thorough sniff-over, starting with the feet and working up, straightening slowly as he shoved the coat out of his way, inching around to the man's front rather than side. If Kuromaru stretched, with all four feet on the ground, he could just about reach Tsume's collarbones. He could only make it to mid-chest with the Hyuuga, but it was high enough to get a quick whiff of breath--some sort of roughage and underlying toothpaste--and much more than he normally needed.

It didn't, quite, trigger any memories. Pain, he thought, and the smell of blood... He checked the medic's hands again, but no, no blood there. Just in his head.

Kuromaru plopped his butt on the ground and twisted his face sideways to peer at the man. "You're gonna fix us?" His single ear rose, peaking, and the bandages across the hole that was his other ear shifted over fur. "'Cause it's a lot harder to open doors with my chakra funny. And get in and out the window. And hear people coming. Or see them coming." His wide brow furrowed. "Or get food from the cafeteria when I can't take human-shape..." Then his ear flicked back, gaze dropping as he continued in an unhappy mutter, "And I don't think Hoshika will like me all bandaged up like this, or with a bunch of holes in my face." They'd been playing the bandages/no-bandages game for days, now, putting them on or taking them off depending on how self-conscious Kuromaru was feeling.

Behind him, Tsume had relaxed and leaned against the now-closed door, arms folded across her chest, watching her familiar. It was easier than watching the Hyuuga, after all.